It seems like ever since I started working that my social life has been filled up with places to go, people to meet etc. That may have been in part due to Georgie coming home and also not working 4 nights a week.
Since I don’t think I will ever catch up with big blog posts I will do a mini recap – I still have photos from Melbourne to post, namely the warbling Tom Woodward gig from the last night.
Saturday 8/9/07, two parties.
The first party/bbq was a farewell party to a friend from high school, Belinda who has received a 3 year scholarship to Cambridge(yeah that Cambridge) to complete her Phd in something to do with MRIs and modelling. Great to catch up with both Bindy’s family and the girls from high school.
The second party was an interesting hour filled with ramblings, alcohol and photo taking. A couple of people from work and their random friends.
Sunday Arvo 9/9/07
Shakespeare on Oxford.
A free presentation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream on a Sunday arvo. How could I resist? Georgie joined me for the last part of the play before we headed back to her house for dinner with her family. Quite a nice afternoon.
Monday 10/9/07 POTN Brisbane night time adventure night 1, Southbank.
Someone had the whacky idea of going out two nights in a row to take photos of the City at dusk/night from two different angles. From Southbank the first night and Kangaroo point the second night. They were both very fun nights with lots of flash war fun. Props to the fast recycle time/flash strength of the 580ex. I could out flash all night long 😀 Still going through photos from this night and I haven’t even started on the next night. All I have left to go through for this night are photos from the break dancers we stumbled upon at Southbank and random POTN crew photos.
So, I have now been doing the daily grind for 2 weeks or 80hrs and in that time, every time the phone rings at home I instantly think xxxxx xxxxx, Helen speaking. Then I have to pause for a moment and think of what I am actually meant to say. At this moment I can’t even think of what I normally do say, Helen speaking I think, who knows. Even the home phone feels strange in my hand because it is so light compared to the one at work which I spend just a little bit of time on each day.
I am starting to enjoy it though as I get to know the people, the projects and what I have to do.
Georgie and I are off to see Educating Rita tonight at the QUT Gardens Theatre, which should be a very good night indeed, even if the two others we invited had to bail on us…..
Some photos which are not fireworks from Riverfire on the weekend.
We had it all planned out. You know what they say about the best laid plans though. We ended up with Georgie, Mum and I at Cpt Burke Park on one side of the river for the fireworks and Georgie’s parents and boyfriend on the other side of the river as they missed the last ferry across the river. They also had the bubbly that we had been looking forward to, as well as the sushi and quiches that we made that noon. We ended up meeting back at Georgie’s house where we had a supper of the goodies that we didn’t get to eat at Riverfire and we got to drink the bubbly.
The crowd and their camp chairs
The light trails are from some Army helicopters that did a flyover.
The Bridge awaits
The City
Channel 7 well and truely had their mark on the event this year, these signs were every 10m or so along the riverfront.
Today was a nice day. One of those days where you are doubly happy to be living in this wonderful world. The sort of day where you forget about the troubles. I woke this morning at 5:30am and after laying there for 30mins I could not get back to sleep. I decided I may as well get up and face the day. I went into the kitchen and started the process of making some olive oil bread. I was using fresh yeast for the first time as well so that was fun. Once I had made the dough and left it to rise, I headed down to the Nundah markets which is very small affair of a few produce stalls and some other knick knacks. I was hoping to get some basil to make a big batch of pesto but was out of luck. I did however pick up some nice tomatoes which I will use for dinner tomorrow night.
It was also just such a lovely morning, Mum and Pabbi were at Tangalooma for their wedding anniversary, the guests of the Palsson Guest House (read my brother and his friends) were still fast asleep. It was just me, the overcast sky outside, the kitchen, a cup of Nature’s Cuppa Ceylon Tea and Macca on the radio. Macca and Australia All Over on a Sunday morning is something that I have grown up with. I know I often talk about how much I love listening to the ABC but Macca and Australia All Over is something extra special. Listening to people call in from all across this wide brown land and from around the world about what they are doing is just a great thing on a Sunday morning. Also just listening to Macca in general, he has such a great personality. I read the papers, had some breakfast, tended to my bread and just soaked up the overcast sky and the drizzle. I didn’t make a plain olive oil loaf but folded two cloves of finely chopped garlic into the dough as I formed it. Which when I got it in the oven made the kitchen smell wonderful, that mixing of the yeasty smell with garlic, just so yummy.
Once the bread was cooked I grabbed it out of the oven, wrapped it in a tea towel and headed over to Georgie’s house. Georgie and her boyfriend left Brisbane at Christmas to do their last semester of uni at University of Toronto before tripping across the world. They got home just over a week ago and even though we have spoken on the phone a few times, it was great to spend the afternoon hanging out looking at photos/videos, chatting, laughing, cooking and laughing some more. As well as chatting to her parents, boyfriend and playing with the cats and dog.
Today has been overcast for most of the day and raining for most of that. Which made it perfect weather for staying inside cooking in the kitchen. As opposed to going for a walk or browsing the shops on Oxford St. Staying inside cooking is what we did. We made a very tasty spiced pumpkin coconut soup with prawns for a late lunch which went very well with the bread. Then for afternoon tea we made a berry slice 🙂
It is bed time for me now as I have my last 5am start at work in the morning, oh I look forward to starting at 7!
Of course no post is ever quite complete without a photo and as I didn’t take any this afternoon at Georgie’s, here is one from the other week when the film festival was on.
When I left the Troubadour early last Monday morning, we had made plans to catch Parents on Tuesday night and maybe go to the beach on Tuesday. Monday Arvo, I was awakened by a phone call from Svavar, asking me if I wanted to go to Noosa with them for the night. As I had just bought my BIFF tickets for that night minutes before I said no. Then a phone call to Mum to hash it over I decided to skip BIFF for the night and to hit the road to Noosa. I rang Svavar back and then an hour so later I was at Thor’s house ready to pile into Ronnie’s land cruiser for an escape from Brisbane.
Once we were up the highway we made a toilet stop and supplies stop. For most journeys that is nothing out of the ordinary. Ronnie’s car often takes a little bit of fiddling to get going again. This of course proved a perfect time for some photos.
We made it Noosa and found the YHA, after a walk round town we headed back to the hostel for dinner as well everything else was just slightly out of our price range. Had a very nice veggie lasagne from the hostel kitchen. Then it was time to socialise, play with cameras and watch the International Ping Pong tournament between Pete and Svavar, I believe Pete may have won this round.
From a photography perspective, I love this shot as I took it just as the flash went off on Svavar’s camera.
After some shenanigans, it was down to the beach for some ‘walking after midnight (though it wasn’t midnight yet), chasing the waves, doing cartwheels/handstands and having fun with some shadow plays.
The next morning we woke up and made pancakes for breakfast, Ronnie headed off to do a mornings work with some guys who came to the hostel the night before.
We headed off into the wilderness, well Noosa National Park. Where 3/4 of our party went swimming twice. Do the maths and look at the photos, I was not a crazy nutter. I didn’t go swimming.
Svavar, he relished the chance to swim in the Pacific Ocean and he ended up swimming at all three beaches we stopped at during the day. Pete was also in the water, but he is a Melbourne boy. Thor well she is 50% Icelandic compared to my 25%. I well I am a Brisbane girl, we don’t go swimming at the beach in Winter, the water is just too cold!
After a while it was wisely decided to head round to a more sheltered beach where the distance from trees to water was less. We walked up to Hells Gate which provided a great chance to whip out the 12-24mm and take some portraits.
Shooting straight into the Sun gave me some sweet as sugar flare with this photo.
We then started walking again to the next beach where, Pete, Svavar and Thor frolicked in the ocean like Puff the Magic Dragon.
Before it was time to retreat to the towels for some relaxing and some music.
As well as checking out the local wildlife.
Once we had all baked like chickens in an oven we headed back to the entry of the National Park where we were met by Ronnie and we cooked up a pretty wicked BBQ lunch made all the more special by Svavar’s made on the spot Guacamole. Then we headed off to Noosa’s main beach where we spread out under some Pandanus , chatted and enjoyed some more music with Pete and Svavar providing a perfect soundtrack for an arvo at the beach.
All good things to come to an end and before too long we were back in Ronnie’s land cruiser heading home to catch Parents with Thor’s parents, my dad and Tom the other member of this travelling trio of Troubadours.
A totally random trip and quite possibly the most spur of the moment thing I have done with people that I didn’t really know and it turned out to be the most fantastic experience.
Sunday night in short the most touching or moving concert I have ever been to. I have been to concerts where I have loved the music and danced or grooved the show away but to have a concert where the three headliners reach inside and touch you with each song they sing is a rare occurrence. There may not have had any fancy lights or a packed house but the music was soul music. Music about Iceland, about life, about travelling and just music. When I eventually got home, I wept not cried, not sobbed but wept myself to sleep as I was just so moved by the music of Tom, Pete and Svavar. Sunday night also set the stage for two days of fun on Monday and Tuesday with the Icelandic Posse as Clare called it. I was with one of my best mates (Clare) and made a swag of new friends as well. What more can you ask for?
First up was local lass Tara Simmons. I haven’t seen Tara play an entire set before so it was nice to finally catch a set and it was quite nice to start the night off with her.
Next up was Pete or Owls of the Swamp as he is known. Pete, touched something inside a few of us on Sunday night as he talked and sang about his experiences in Iceland. There were times when you would think to yourself, hey I have been there or I know exactly what he means. And as much as you want to get on the next plane to Iceland and see all those familiar sights again and give endless hugs to your nieces and nephews you know that you can’t.
Mr Woodward, Tom Woodward. Mr Tom has a song called Reminding Me Of You(follow link for a listen) which in 20 years time I can see people drunkenly singing it in Pubs along to the covers band in the corner or on the Karaoke machine. I reckon that Reminding Me Of You is the “Sweet Home Alabama” of 2007. Since Sunday night I just can’t get it out of my head. And with a mop of curls like this how could you not just love him.
Svavar. Frankly words don’t describe it from Clemetine to a lullaby to the rip roaring drinking song and everything in between it was pure magic.
Check out the Rave review for more flowing and structured notes on the night, I think you all know by now that I don’t do/can’t do that sort of review. I am very much looking forward to seeing all three of the guys sing again either round Aus or in Iceland.
Oh and Clare, the polaroid is coming. How could I not share that.
