This is a Pikey bream (Acanthopagrus berda) I made for the little bear as a Christmas present. I have had the denim whales by Mevrouw Walvis and the fish Mimi Kirchner makes saved ever since I first saw their posts in mid 2011. At that time Grandad had only recently died and there were some clothes that I just couldn’t bear to part with or have them turned to into rags for the shed in particular were two pair of  corduroy trousers that he wore, which I’m sure were as old as me if not more. Grandad was also a very, very keen fisherman and the idea of making fish toys out of his old clothes for his great-grandchildren seemed like a very good idea. Of course these fish would have to be relatively anatomically correct as well, this is my family we’re talking about. I trawled the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry website for pictures of fish that I knew Grandad had caught. I then turned them into line drawings and from there into pattern pieces.  As you can see in the bottom picture I lost a little height on the fish as with the help of Mum I had to redo the top to get the dorsal fin to fit correctly.
And there we have it, one Pikey bream from 2d to 3d.
I’ve got four days left at my current job before I embark on a big change and go off to be an accountant. I’ve made three cakes to farewell others in the last 10 days and I’ll be making another one tomorrow night for one of the guys who is posting out on Wednesday. All those cakes will be in another post shortly…
On Saturday I went up the coast. After having my farewell party the night before. I was very good and only had four drinks all night. One of those was a frozen apple pie cocktail. That was divine Just like drinking an apple pie. So, so, so good.  Saturday was not classic beach weather but the water was nice and the waves were quite decent. An old Woodfordia friend was having a vintage garage sale on Saturday -> thus the reason for the trip up the coast. I picked up the most divine Osti shirt dress. So, so divine and just the loveliest colours. A photo may appear at some stage.
Going back to the day before, Friday. Friday marked Chan’s last day working for the company and it marked a week left for me with the company before I change jobs as well. Big things abound for the both of us this year. We’ve been desk buddies etc for the last 18mths 🙁 We met up for one last coffee at Pour Boy, the best coffee consistently in our end of town.
I took my first box of stuff home the other day. That’s the first time it really hit me that I’m changing jobs. Nothing says change like packing up five years of your work life and then walking out the door with an archive box filled to the brim. I’ll bring another box home tomorrow and that should be just about everything I think.
I’ve got my eye set on a few events later this year which mean I need to get my fitness back to a pre-uni and pre-flood level. I moved away from Asics GT 2100 series that I’ve lived in for the past x years and picked up a pair of Mizuno Wave Inspire 9. OMG, I enjoyed my Asics but these shoes are like playing in a whole new ballpark. They’re light, just the right bounce and by darn they are blue.
Just like almost every other house in SQLD, the  mock oranges have flowered and then of course it rained so off came all the petals. Will have to give the patio a very big clean on the weekend as those petals almost bake onto to the tiles. Fun times. People keep commenting on the scent when they visit but I smell nothing 🙁
Chan finally had dinner at Catcus Jack’s after hearing the rest of us at work rave about it for for the past few years. Chocolate Nachos, so, so, so good. One time we will go to Cactus Jack’s and have dessert first I think.
Last Sunday, I finally got my beach wish for the summer. Blue skies, great weather, open beaches, perfect water temperature and darn decent waves. I’ve tried a couple of times this summer to go to the beach but every time I’ve been thwarted by crap weather, closed beaches or last minute plan changes. The girls at work near on couldn’t believe it that I finally got my beach day.
Just loved this detail on the Ladies change rooms at North Burleigh.
I picked up a tray of strawbs at the start of the month for $9. Hello strawberry jam!
Strawberry jam, cooling so I can test it for set.
Strawberries, sugar and lemon juice waiting to become jam.
Glass jars all washed and waiting to go in the oven before they get filled.
And one last picture for this lot. A snipped of one of the baby quilts I’m making at the moment 🙂 Just love that May Gibbs fabric.
There we have. The first ten days or so of Feb-ru-ary in photos.
I was flicking through some of my old drafts and came across this one for some reason I never posted rounding up the last of the movies I saw at BIFF in 2007. So here it is, only a few years later. There were some good ones and not weird ones but all good movies. Head over here to check out the other BIFF posts from 2007.
Well after movie 4 I sort of got side tracked by life. So here are movies 5 to 13. One of the bummers is that I have been slightly running round like a chook with its head cut off this week is that I have managed to doze off in 5 of 9 I saw in the past week. Hasn’t really mattered in most as I was able to find my self pretty quickly but there was one or two when I went hang on a second what I have just missed?
Parents
We were undoubtedly the largest group in the cinema with there been 8 of us and 2 girls that Thor ran into that she also knew
Watching parents made me realise that I quite possibly know a bit more Icelandic than I think I do as I was able to pick out quite a few words that I knew as well as following the conversation loosely when my eyes were resting. I was unsure about it been shot in black and white but it worked in keeping the film quite gritty. Just as I like seeing movies filmed in Brisbane especially to pick out familiar sights it was also cool to play pick out the Reykjavik sights in Parents, I think they drove past the apartment block where my sister used to live (Herdis, have you seen Parents?) and there was obliviously a few cafes that they used which were familiar to Pabbi. It was gritty, dark, slightly depressing but also sort of uplifting in showing what parents go through and the decisions they make for their children.
Quinceañera with short film out of milk
Was the movie that made me say I have to go to BIFF this year. I first heard about it last year some time when it was doing the festival circuit in the northern hemisphere and I remember watching the short and knowing that I had to see this movie. I really, really enjoyed it. It was the perfect blend of angst and comedy set against a community which is grappling with gentrification.
The short film was a laugh but also a good look at how a child sees her mothers affair as it happens right before her eyes.
The Future is Unwritten: Joe Strummer
I missed a bit of this film due to going to sleep but from say the 80% that I did see, I really enjoyed it. They drew heavily on the large wealth of archived material and in particular the use of the audio from his BBC World Service radio show London Calling. It was remarkable. One of fun things about the film was that it kept on coming back to people sitting round a fire, singing and chatting in various locations around the world. The film was knitted together quite well in how they used
Eagle vs Shark
This was everything I thought Napoleon Dynamite was going to be and more. A film from New Zealand which was really, really, really fantastic. The right amount of laughs, the right amount of darkness and the right amount of everyday blandness and of course good old New Zealanders and the word awesome. This was in my top handful of movies for the festival. It was just a crackpot.
Barakat
I had high hopes for this one but I missed the middle of it since I dozed off and I never quite caught it again. It tells the tale of two Alegiran women during the recent civil war
Donkey in Lahore
This was the first of two Brisbane produce docos that were screened together at GOMA, both of which were delightful. I was on my seat for most of Donkey in Lahore as I crossed my fingers and hoped that it was going to work out for Amber and Amir. A fantastic movie.
Unlikely Travellers
Unlikely Travellers was the subject of a fair bit of controversy over the subject matter of this documentary and it was a very, very thought provoking film.
An Old Mistress
This was a last minute addition to my viewing schedule and it really surprised me.
Once
Based on the paragraph description in the BIIF booklet, it sounded like a pretty nice movie about a busker who through chance manages to make a break. Little did I know that two leads are both accomplished musicians before they are actors. The busker is played by Glen Han of The Frames and the female lead is Mar Irglova. Even more surprising was that The Frames were in town to support Bob Dylan and popped into to the theatre to play a few songs acoustically for us.
Really not much has changed since I made that post on Nov 24, 2008. Speaking of the number 8, this little corner of the Internet that I call my own turns 8 in March! Wow!
Here is the list from 2008, I’ve changed one or two
1. Dew drops
2. Jacarandas
3. Botanical gardens
4. Hot chocolate
5. Live music
6. Christmas ornaments
7. Honeygold Mangoes
8. Kitchenware stores
9. Salad
10. Gum trees
11. Oxfam
12. Lavender
13. The markets
14. Liberty prints
15. Thunderstorms
16. Ginger beer
17. Soft hair (I’m guessing I meant freshly washed hair)
18. Photography
19. The sound of cicadas
20. Folk
21. Msn Ahh the days of MSN Messenger and ICQ before that. Nowadays it is Skype, sweet sweet Skype.
22. The Mountain Goats
23. Ginger nuts
24. Patterns
25. Postcards
26. Christmas
27. Mowing the lawn
28. The smell of the rain
29. Polished floors
30. Going bush
31. The dairy section
32. Dresses
33. Window seats
34. Handkerchiefs
35. Pesto
36. Pain au Chocolat
37. Cherries
38. Colour
39. Falling snow
40. Reading
41. Cloves
42. Country roads
43. Rocking chairs
44. DIY
45. My family
46. Fresh flowers
47. The Farm
48. Roast chicken
49. Book shops
50. Pot plants
51. Sea kayaking
52. Soup
53. Lush
54. Melbourne
55. Pink (colour)
56. ABC Fora. Now rebadged as ABC Big Ideas -> I still love it.
57. Recycling
58. Girraween
59. Bed linen
60. SES
61. My camera
62. Morocco
63. The beach
64. 4zzzfm
65. Cooking
66. Marigolds
67. Bollywood
68. Cake
69. Central Asia
70. Tupperware
71. The library
72. Free range eggs
73. Kitchen aid
74. Iceland
75. Weddings
76. Ice cream
77. Fairy lights
78. Rosemary
79. Milk
80. Internet banking
81. Ikea
82. Henna
83. Lip balm
84. Brisbane
85. Green grass
86. Water
87. Tetris I used to play a lot of Tetris. I’ll insert Figgjo Flint Lotte in on this line I think.
88. Pasta
89. Laughter
90. Jam jars
91. Wattle
92. Friends
93. Sunshine
94. Woodford
95. Quotes
96. Nectarines
97. Pretty things
98. Smiles
99. Fireworks
100. Life
Only one really big change, the other two are just changes to bring them up to 2013. There are a couple of other entries that I could have changed but it was a hard call.
In the family I’m from a stroll round the local Botanical Gardens is always in order when one goes visiting a new town. There’s new plants to see, old ones to admire and just a lovely time strolling the paths.
Of course one of the few things on my must do list for Christmas in Hobart was a visit to the Gardens. le Sigh. I love those gardens. I didn’t get to fully explore the Japanese Gardens this time, just had a quick rush in to take photos of the Ginkgo biloba.
Oh and a little snap of the Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum cv. Utsusemi) as well.
Highlights included this Rhododendron Azma in the Rhododendron Terraces
Mum and Margaret did a lot of this. Botanising we call it, both of them with their BSc hats on.
My favourite area of the garden on this trip was probably the Deciduous Lawn and the Oak Collection.  I had a very nice time taking photos of backlit leaves. The angle of the sun in Tasmania makes it so nice for taking backlit photos.
Like this one (unlabelled tree).
or this one (English Oak Hybrid (Quercus x robur))
or this one (Pyramidale Silver Maple (Acer saccharinum)).
My most favourite photo of the outing was this one, a very quick photo as we got back to the cars. Taken just like that because the light was just right. My cousin Erica and her little bear.
The Museum of Old and New or really a place full of crazy old stuff and even crazier new stuff.
One of my must do things whilst in Tasmania for Christmas was to go to MONA, sadly I didn’t get to see everything I wanted to on my visit to MONA but still I did see a fair bit.
It confirmed me that the detail in barkcloth is amazing, Sidney Nolan was nuts, you really can just take anything and call it art.
Such as this.
Queen (A Portrait of Madonna) by Candice Breitz (2005)
