Tag Archive for ‘work’ at me, my camera and my life.

Tag Archive for 'work'

a mish mosh life

Published

on May 31, 2008

in family, friends, photography and random life

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My life is in a bit of a weird place at the moment. The internet is still not connected at our flat yet so to use my computer/the net I have to come home and when I do come home I don’t really like using the computer - sort of feels like I am in a Net Cafe with my 30mins of allocated time ticking away. To check my emails - which I can do via the web but I just don’t have the time at work to do so that often, Mum reads me the senders out over the phone. So funny, what an interesting way to check emails. Then I know what is waiting for me to find time to check at work or come home and read.

Last night Andrea and I (and later on a friend of Andrea’s) went down to one of “our (new) locals”, to grab a Pub meal and to enjoy a night of fReTfEST featuring amongst others Rob Longstaff (his website seems to be down at the moment) and Georgia Potter, a post with pictures is coming shortly.

Mum and I went to Chermie this morning and I managed to find not only a cardigan which I was looking for but a jacket and a new work shirt as well. I have been very lacking in the cooler weather gear department of items which have more office style than Polartecs. The jacket and the cardigan are both Australian Merino which is pretty nice. I also picked up a recipe book, to start copying recipes from Mum’s handwritten recipe book to my own.

The 2nd Mountain Goats session is finally up on Daytrotter and oh sigh what a fantastic collection of four recordings it is. San Bernardino is such a delicate recording compared to the version on Heretic Pride. I had forgotten how much I loved There Will Be No Divorce and 02-75, what a sweet song that is and well Raja Vocative is Raja Vocative.

Tonight I am going on a boat cruise of the lovely Brisbane River with a large collection of people from work. Thankfully the sky has cleared and the wind has eased a bit! Yesterday, not many of us was looking forward to today!

And because we always need photos here some photos from the last week or so.

slightly bigger impact

Published

Helen

on March 10, 2008

in Music, photography and random life

. 1 Comment

I was walking home from the bus stop today for the first time in weeks (I have been getting picked up since I did my ankle), as I was walking past one house I looked up over the tiled roof to the blue sky and though to myself it really is a prefect day. I am walking home from the bus stop, the cake box under my arm is empty, my hair is down, I walked out of work at 4pm and my desk was clear, the sky is blue after it was washed this morning and the temperature is just right. Oh and I was also listening/singing along to This Year. That last bit might have had a slightly bigger impact on me realising that today is a perfect day than say the empty cake box.

It also wasn’t just any This Year that I was listening to either it was from the show at Bottom of the Hill in San Fran last week. One thing I have noticed from listening to the recent shows on archive.org and reading blog reviews is that the shows are becoming more and more a big singalong. Am I complaining? No. Incidentally the Mountain Goats are one of two artists who I have never felt uncomfortable singing along to at gigs, the other is Peter Combe, he is/was a children’s artist, that is expected. A ‘Goats show is really just one big family reunion or perhaps it is the growth of a cult, we all look at this man on stage (JD) and his disciples and we say those words along with them. Saying those words from the bottom of our heart. Where it is ok to say those words, not those gigs where people around you look at you and start “bumping” into you if you start singing along at any level above a whisper. Saying those words like they are going to deliver you from salvation. mmmm perhaps I should just put The Mountain Goats in the religion box on facebook.

Which leads me to the The ‘Goats and their upcoming tour. In just about a month exactly I am going to flex off early from work on Friday and fly down to Newcastle see them play and then go to Sydney for the Saturday night show before coming back to Brisbane on Sunday, catching their Tuesday show at the Zoo before going up to the Sunny Coast on Thursday for the last show. Crazy perhaps but as Mum tells me I am footloose, fancy free and working the 8-4. I haven’t bought my plane tickets or show tickets yet but I will be doing that in the next few days.

This is a photo I took on the way home today. A little lost shoe.

And two from the farm yesterday.

yesterday was yesterday, today will be yesterday, tomorrow will be today.

Published

Helen

on February 25, 2008

in friends and random life

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Yesterday, I went to Campos and didn’t get a coffee. I got a iced chocolate instead. It was a spur of the moment trip. One girl, five guys (they all had coffee). Where are all the girls with cameras?

I went to Rics, for a Sunday arvo session. It was quite comfortably filled, and every single person had this smile on their face.

I sat round the dimly lit Troubie whilst it was bright sunshine outside. That was weird. Waiting for people to turn up.

I watched a group of people turn the Troubie into a lounge room and listened to a few songs.

I shook my head at boy who has hair like an Icelandic sheep and smirked with a girl who I should always be sitting down when talking to.

Today though.
I set the alarm for an extra 15 minutes.

My lunch was two matching containers of tupperware, one with a chopped up mango (honey gold thank you) and the other with grapes (green please).

I am reading Kabul in Winter. Which must be the fifth, I think, book on Afghanistan post 2001 that I have read in the past few weeks. It is really good to see how a lot of the main people and history are written in the different books.

I have numerous photos that I could illustrate this post with but strangely I have no desire to put photos with these words.

I watched the last episode of Alias season 1. I had forgotten there were only five seasons, I kept on thinking there were seven and I had the timeline stretched out a lot longer in my mind.

I just found out that one of the girls from high school who I have probably kept the most contact with works in a building across the street from where I work. We catch the bus from the same stop each afternoon. weird.

I haven’t taken my photo for today yet.

Tomorrow.
I have a bunch of kids enlisting. That means I get to wrap med docs in brown paper (it was that, not the view that cinched me taking the job). Every week or so it is like Christmas. Wrapping all those “presents”.

I will make biscuits when I get home.

I will wake up at 6am and get out of bed at 6:03am.

I will watch an hour of something trashy on TV and shake my head the entire time at myself for watching it.

I well who knows what else I will do because tomorrow is tomorrow.

days.

Published

Helen

on February 24, 2008

in food, photography and random life

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It has been a very busy last few days at work. One of the girls has been off this past week extremely sick and then the other girl has been off after having her wisdom teeth out. Which has left myself, the other new girl, our boss and our part timer trying to catch up. It has been keeping us very busy. Thursday though I had to get out of the office and have lunch in the square which is where a few of these photos are from. Friday though I finished at 4pm, ever growing stack of files could wait till Monday. I caught the bus into The Valley and went to the Thai grocery/DVD store to get a few things I was after from the cooking class with Leanne the other week. Friday night Mum had a slideshow with the three other ladies that she went walking in NZ with. That was quite nice. So many nice places in the the Fiordland area.

Saturday, yesterday, I didn’t do much, it was a stinker of a day. We turned the air con and I watched some more Alias before making some pasta for lunch. Then I watched some more Alias. Then I went to Taste in the Valley for a Moghul cooking demo with Gaynor Long. Then I watched some more Alias, cooked tea (Harissa grilled steak with cous cous and a pea/capsicum/sundried tomato mixture. I then crashed to the sounds of classics on 4MBS.

I woke up at 6 this morning. I couldn’t sleep. I had breakfast, made some not so melting moments (the still taste ok but just not like melting moments) and then went back to sleep for a little while longer. Just taking it easy, I’m going to go out later for some music and assorted fun. As I type this now though, I am listening to a piano CD I have from ABC Classics, the current “song” is Adagio from Beethoven’s Moonlight sonata. I have my desk cleaned off and actually creating for the first time in ages, I had forgotten how it feels to write with a pen on cardstock. To look at photos, thumb through papers.

the past week.

Published

Helen

on February 17, 2008

in TV and Movies, photography and random life

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Monday.

I went to my doctor on Monday arvo to see what he said about my ankle. He said that I sure did a good job of it, re-tearing the ligaments that I tore playing silly buggers about ten years ago. All that I can do is rest it, keep it supported and wait. He said that it should take no longer than six weeks post injury and I have to be very careful in that time not to injure it again.

I took this photo as I lay in the recliner watching something on TV

Tuesday.

This photo has the same tale as the one above. Laying in the recliner, watching something, seeing what photos I can take and only been slightly happy with this one.

Wednesday. Sorry day.

We today take this first step by acknowledging the past and laying claim to a future that embraces all Australians.

Hopefully now we will only take steps forward and the gap will close.

One of the things I most enjoy about working on the twelfth floor is the chance to observe what is happening below me, watching people on the roof of a building having a smoke, the window cleaners, the witch’s hats on the roof a building that move round with the rain. Perhaps what I enjoy most is watching the going-ons of St John’s Cathedral directly across the street from me. I have seen the spires grow a little bit each day, watched the workers sitting on the scaffolding as they eat their lunch, observed the washing on the washing line of the residence and what strangely delights me the most is watching the portaloo move between spires as they work on different spires each day. Watching a crane lift a portaloo up and move it through the air is a strange sight to see. As in the above picture, it also sometimes has to get taken down to the ground to be emptied. The picture is not the best due to the windows we have, they are double glazed with blinds in the middle.

Thursday.

One of the things I most enjoy about catching the bus to work is that it gives me a chance to read a lot more. I have also been reading even more this past few weeks as I lay in bed with my foot up. One of the other things I have been doing is quizzing myself on trivia questions.

Friday.

I catch the bus from outside the Hotel Orient, a hotel I grew up hearing stories of as it was the resident hangout of my older brother when he lived in Brisbane, back when it was one of the icons of the local music scene. Now it the local pub for work and where I catch the bus from outside of in the afternoon.

I spent part of the bus trip home talking to Sam, and the job she is just about to start as the Indo (Indonesian) teacher at Townsville Grammer and the trip she will have to make to get there. Sam is from Emerald a town that has had some pretty bad floods this past month. The trip north to Townsville normally takes about seven hours. However, at the moment the whole area from the coast out west to Emerald area is in flood and it is not looking to improve any time soon, the only option she has to drive there is a sixteen hour drive the long way. At the moment she is just waiting in Emerald hoping the waters start to recede.

Friday night, Mum and I went to see 27 Dresses and oh what a laugh it was, a whole lot better than I had expected from the previews. Then I came home and watched Pride and Prejudice.

Saturday.
I woke up to see a message from Karl on Sykpe after messaging for a little while, I picked up the headset and pressed dial. We spoke for a while and then Mum and Pabbi came in chatted as well. Then they went shopping and we kept on talking, nearly two hours later we hung up. I went to have breakfast, Karl went to entertain. I could not fathom to imagine how much that phone call would have cost if I had made it on the landline, nearly two hours from Australia to Iceland, it would not have been cheap. The best thing is that he had little piece of news for us, he is planning on coming home for Christmas :D, also my second eldest brother, his wife and his two daughters are also planning on coming to spend Christmas in Australia too Christmas 2008 is going to be a blast

Sheets on the line, the sun coming and going between the storm clouds to the south. Sheets billowing in the wind.
I was getting a bit stir crazy yesterday laying inside, so I went outside with my 85mm lens and lay on the old brick bqq taking a few photos. I took a few frames of this shot, trying each time to get the sheet billowing just right in the afternoon breeze.

I have looked up at the antenna on the roof next door numerous times, each time thinking that would be a cool photo, yesterday I took the photo.

That was my week.

this year will be my year

Published

Helen

on February 2, 2008

in random life

. 2 Comments

Yeah, that is an employment contract on the right of the frame. Yeah, I now have a full time job working in medical admin as part of the Defence Force Recruiting organisation. I am working with a great bunch of people including one girl who was a few years below me in primary school. I also have a very nice view from the twelfth floor out to the Spring Hill end of the CBD. Things are starting to look up. 2008 is going to be a good year I think. It may not have started very well at all but things happen for a reason.

Thursday evening after buying my car, I went over to Thor’s. Tom and Tiana had arrived in town a few hours earlier ahead of the gig up at Eumundi tonight (my car’s first road trip). Before I had even walked in the door I had hurt myself. Thor has a first floor flat, you walk below her balcony to the stairs, they were sitting out on the balcony. I said “hooroo, buzz me up will you as I have no intention of climbing the wall up”. Thor joked about letting down her hair and I could climb up on that. I did a little leap as if to grab the hair as it was been let down. I missed the imaginary hair by a mile. I landed in the garden, my ankle landed on the concrete. My ankle went ouch, I went cripes my camera. Camera all fine, ankle very sore. What a way to make a first impression on Tiana. That is life though. RICE is making it ok though, swelling is down a bit and a lot of the pain has gone.

I am listening to ZOOP at the moment. It is something magical. I wish I had pocket sized JD and PPH to keep in my pocket. Then when I needed some ‘Goats, I would carefully lift them from my pocket, place them in the palm of my hand or on my desk and listen to them weave their magic.

Everyday Formula

Published

Helen

on January 22, 2008

in photography and random life

. 0 Comments

I am so tired to but in a good way. I am working in the city at the moment with quite classy Brisbane River and Story Bridge views before my eyes. This means that I need to get up just a bit earlier than I used to have to get up when I worked down the road. I am thoroughly enjoying catching the bus to work again. I get to read, people watch, listen to music, think, etc. The reason that I am tired however is that I went to a concert last night. It was The Zoo, it is summer, it was a sweaty night.

I took this photo as my day 21 photo as I left the concert and headed back to the car.

I am about to go to bed but I have to take today’s photo yet. I don’t know what it will be yet. I am not going to pike though on the 366 days no matter how tempted I am to just fall into bed now.

Is this not the most delightful photo? It is currently my desktop background, thanks big brother.

I have watched parts of Kalahari on the ABC the last two Sundays. I could say Damm five hundred times over after watching that. Just the sheer amount of wildlife. Seeing those clouds of birds or the Acacia trees covered in bird nests or those herds of Zebras. I just can not fathom the sheer numbers. It was breathtaking.