the past week.

Monday.
Light, 42/366
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.
Ceiling w/ cornice, 43/366
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.
Sorry

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.

Portaloo on the move, 44/366
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.
Entertainment in bed, 45/366

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. πŸ™‚

Friday.
Waiting for the Bus, 46/366
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.

shopping centre symmetry
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 πŸ˜€ Christmas 2008 is going to be a blast πŸ˜€

washing day, 47/366
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.

surbubia, next door.
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.

not the day

There is all this stuff I want to say but it doesn’t feel like the right time to say those things at the moment. I need to dwell on them for a little while longer. It is frustrating. I’m looking for that fast forward button. I want things to start now. Moving on.

Yesterday morning, Mum and I dropped Matthew at work and headed off to the Hotel Broadway markets. We parked the car at the Kangaroo Point Cliffs and walked the rest of the way to the Hotel Broadway. It is a relatively small market but it was good. We got some Mangrove Honey πŸ™‚ We walked home via the specialist food shops on Balaclava st, which open at 7am every morning! We had a good walk, window shopping, garden shopping, people shopping watching and I had fun taking some photos.

The Markets
Hotel Broadway Markets

The Gabba
Woolloongabba

The Cliffs
Roo Point,19/366

The Story Bridge
Bridge & Sky

The Valley
Gipps St Red

Windsor War Memorial
Windsor War Memorial

The Park
the park

The Couch and The Bridge

Last Saturday night before heading to the Step Inn, I took this photo at Newstead.
Couch

Last night I went back and took this photo, this time I managed to get the entire couch in the frame (just) and not have such a visible tripod shadow. I am going into the Valley again tonight for a concert so I might swing by and take yet another photo.
The couch revisited

After that I went down to the Story Bridge and took some photos.

This is from the Bridge looking towards New Farm
New Farm & The Brisbane River

This is the Bridge.
The Bridge

Bridge Traffic, looking towards The Valley
Heading towards the Valley

oh happy day!

That’s what I am singing today.

new day, new sunrise, new leadership

The election last night didn’t go 100% as I wanted it to go but I am extremely happy with the House of Reps result, slightly cheesed about the Senate (below the line peoples, below the line), sad for the Democrats, but so so happy for the Greens. Extremely happy for Queensland. Extremely happy for the future of this wide brown land.

We spent the night round the TV last night, watching the ABC, I was listening to Roy & HG call it on Triple J whilst I was in my bedroom processing these photos. So looking forward to the Chaser’s election wrap up on Wednesday night. Would have loved to have heard what Tim Freedman would have said at the Concert Hall last night on hearing that the Terror had ended. Happy for the future of this country.

Yesterday morning I got up round 3am to go out and get these photos. I was close to going back to bed but I said to myself, today is going to mark the dawn of a new era, I need to have those photos. I went out to Shorncliffe to watch the sunrise over Fisherman’s Island with my camera. It was cloudy, it was very windy but the sun did peek through those clouds and give me a promise of what was coming later in the day.

The Terror ended today

Sunday in Brisbane

Sunday, Mum and I spent the day doing some cultural sight seeing around inner Brisbane. We started off at Southbank before getting on the City Cat down to the Powerhouse to check out the new photography exhibit (not the biggest fan of it) and then back on the City Cat to Bulimba to the Queensland Centre for Photography where my Aunt is currently exhibiting some work.

Chocolate Concord, River Bend Books, Bulimba

Then we met up with Georgie for a quick stroll on Oxford St, a browse at Riverbend books and a bite to eat (the above picture, which we split into three parts). Then it was back on the cross river ferry to Tenerife and the bus into the Valley where we browsed in Mod Cons and then finally the bus home.

A very nice day indeed.

Target 140 refined

Well it is now a bit over three months since the Water Commission formally introduced Target 140. When I did the last post on our water usage the Brisbane average was 137L per person per day. That has now dropped to 133L. Our water usage in that period has dropped from 77L per person per day to 54L. In the next period I/we are going to try to reduce that to 35L as that would mean that we would be doing Target 140 for the whole house instead of per person.

For the entire 3mths that this advice note reports on, our washing machine has been fed off the rainwater tank 100%. It is dead easy to reduce your water use and we don’t have aerators on our taps, we don’t have a water efficient shower head and our toilet rigged to use less water by the shampoo bottles full of water inside it. If we did have these we would quite possibly reduce our use even more. It is just a matter of taking a millisecond when you turn on a tap or step into the shower to reduce what you use.

Water Advice