Just another corner. In times past, The Carlton was a guest house for a traditional sea-side holiday, in Newcastle East, not far from the beach and the city centre. It was turned into apartments and balconies were added.

Sometimes the banks are talked-up thus  'how fortunate we are to have a safe, well regulated banking sector unlike other troubled economies'.  Others indulge in bank-bashing.  Profit takers, gross salaried CEOs.
The ease of banking services cannot be denied but banks have access to our entire financial activities and have opportunities to charge fees for all of this "service".
Whilst our funds come and go from our accounts mainly 'on paper' alone, at arms length,  it means less likelihood of carefully managing our savings or our spending, and is a situation that really suits the banks and the consumer society.
When it comes to fees where are the economies of scale that could be enjoyed by customers?
Surely computers aid economies of scale. Not this time.
The National Australia Bank (NAB) has a serious computer malfunction and has failed to transfer salaries into customer accounts these past several days.
Is it a virus? a hacker? a competitor? At least no one has suggested the bank has run out of funds.

Santas about to join a walk for charity.

Mining can be a dangerous occupation and we think of those who have lost their life.

Some time ago an old mining poppet head was moved and displayed in the city.  This year it was dismantled and removed.

 The tower was cut in half and lowered.

The crane on the right works inbetween the left crane and the left crane's load.                                       

Just after nine. Lonely Planet correspondents must be in the grips of postmodernism. They have selected a controversial list of top ten cities to visit and include Newcastle as ninth overall.
Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, is one of those good destinations on the list.
Trivia. Wellington and Newcastle both have a somwhat similar prominant circular bee hive building, both have Lambton as a place name and both have experienced an earthquake.
 
On another tangent: often I don't understand what's written here either! Clues: notice the context, paradigmatically and syntagmatically and allow for synecdoche and metonymy!.

 

Almost nine. Thanksgiving is 'right and fitting'! 

Newcastle's on a roll'....in the top ten cities...Beckham and co due any minute...

Bring back the annual pub crawl in Santa hats - responsibly, of course. So infra dig!  

Picture is actually Saint Marys in Maitland.

 

Again we see nine  

Newcastle along with New York Tangier Tel Aviv Wellington Valencia Iquitos Ghent Delhi Chiang Mai are Lonely Planet's top ten cities to visit in 2011.

Meta-analysis tell us that the cities have a Spanish connection.Valencia is in Spain - doh!. Iquitos is in Peru, which was the centrepiece of the Spanish empire in the times of the conquistadors.

New York is home to over two million Hispanics (and 12.2% of North Americans are Spanish speakers). Tangier and Morocco have had Spanish involvement in their territories.

But only 225 people in Newcastle use Spanish in their home. 

Iquitos on the Amazon in Peru is some destination reached by air or riverboat. It has no outside road links or so I read. The region was exploited and exported vast wealth back to Spain. Then a rubber boom was followed by an oil boom. Interestingly, old mansions constructed by the rubber barons can be seen faced in glazed tiles. Tiles and ceramics: a splendid museum in Valencia houses a ceramics collection.   

(Some data is from a 'prototype' edition of Lonely Planet when the prospect of visiting South America was on my radar before more conventional options took over. South America on a Shoestring)