I've been looking forward to turning 30 for sooo long!!! To see a short video of my coolest present click here:
http://video.fotki.com/Pedro23/15297/

Hey all you globetrotters, check this out and make one of your own. Mine's only a teeny one. Some fotkins like Gary will have massive ones - he's visited 22% of the planet!! If you want to participate, follow the link here:

http://journals.fotki.com/Pedro23/travel-map/

Make your own map, then drop the url from the map site into my guest book & we're away. The url I need will look something like this:

http://www.travbuddy.com/widget_map_display.php?id=1341002

I've also geotagged what I think is the hometown of each fotkin so you can fly there with google earth, a free killer app from Google. Get it here:

http://download-earth.com/

If you don't have broadband google earth will be too slow so you can see some of the fotkin's google earth maps here:

http://public.fotki.com/Pedro23/fotki/google_earth_maps/

STEVE Irwin spent every day working with all manner of dangerous creatures - giant crocodiles, poisonous snakes, komodo dragons - but it was a less obvious hazard that claimed his life.

Irwin had taken calculated risks with all sorts of wildlife for decades, relying on his knowledge of animal behaviour and personal experience to beat the odds.

For someone who spent so much time around killer animals, Irwin seemed to leave a charmed life.

So his demise was all the more shocking because it involved a stingray, an animal regarded as dangerous but not as a killer.

Irwin was swimming off the Low Isles off Port Douglas filming a documentary, something he had done on countless occasions.

Irwin, so careful around danger, was taken unawares when the stingray he was filming apparently struck out with its tail, the venomous barbs fatally embedding in his chest.

The death brought to an end a career that began with his father's Sunshine Coast theme park and developed into an international empire in which Irwin was a globally recognised brand.

The first photos are from the Footy Show.

In times of drought farmers have to send their stock on to the long paddock which is the travelling stock routes along the highways in the outback. They drove them on horseback or truck them to the stock routes where there is some feed, by truck. This is what's happening in this album.

I was diagnosed with severe obstructive sleep apnoea in August 2006. Getting it treated has changed my life.

Initial Sleep Study 21/8/06 at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney.
Dx: RDI = 32 Min Oxygen saturation = 71% Sleep Efficiency 68%

Second Sleep Study 22/11/06 RPA Sydney.
Rx: CPAP @ 14 cm

Current treatment: Resmed S8 Autoset Spirit, HumidAire 3i & Swift 2 Mask Autoscan 5.7 software

Interesting buildings

A large sculpture made of welded scrap metal, rocks, mosaic and other media. This community sculpture is situated at Wellington New Sotuh Wales, Australia near the caves. A wind chime hangs from the central structure. The mosaics
are part of a large sculpture made by the local community. This features mosaics set into rocks that form an arch.

In memory of Steve Irwin, a great Australian, conservationist & father. He was killed today (040906) in in a freak accident after being stung by a stingray. He was a great role model for young people, a fearless ambassador for reptiles and other wildlife and a great family man.

Shells etc I've found while beach combing mainly on Stockton Beach near Newcastle NSW

Various pics of snow, in Oberon mainly

Skyways Observatory in the Warrumbungle Mountains Coonabarabran had this cool little electric ball.

These are our Kiwi friends Fyfe & Ann, Jose, Rose, Abe, Shari, Lostris, Rebeccah and Boaz

Put the scales away girls!

Learning how to take macro photos. All advice gratefully received.

Home of the Anglo Australian Telescope. Photographs of the stars taken from an astronomy video playing in the Exploratory Visitor's Centre - well worth the money.

NASA pics

NASA images

Hubble Telescope Photos

In Early January 2004, two missions to Mars started sending back images of the planet's surface. The European Space Agency (ESA) lost its surface craft, Beagle 2, but is sending detailed images from the orbiting satellite, Mars Express.

NASA has been more fortunate with the successful landing of the Mars Rover vehicles (Spirit and Opportunity).

This collection of images are from the early stages of both missions and are supplied courtesy of NASA (Mars Rover) and the ESA (Mars Express) .