random life & musings – Page 45

June 12, 2007

big weekend

This past weekend has been the Queen’s Birthday long weekend and what a weekend I have had. Saturday I worked as usual. Sunday, Mum and I did a 22km kayak round Coomera River and Sanctuary Cove with NPAQ. Sunday night, I went to the Wallflower Records launch at Bar Soma. Monday morning, I went to work as usual at 5am and then met up with the POTN Brisbane photographers in the City for a day of camera filled fun. When I went to bed on Monday night at about 8ish, I had had just 4 hours sleep in the previous 38hrs so I was buggered and I have about 350 photos to go through. That would be fine in terms of processing them all if I hadn’t spent the last 19 hours in bed, I have come down with some sort of bug which has really not been kind to me. I woke up in the middle of the night with a really sore stomach and a headache and I am very lucky that I decided to get out of bed and go to the toilet as I then proceeded to be quite sick. Luckily though I haven’t vomited since then and am slowly starting to feel a little bit better.

Lots of posts to come in the next couple of days hopefully.

Here is one photo from yesterday I processed last night before I went to bed, one of the guys lent me his Sigma 105mm macro for the day yesterday I had a ball with it 🙂 There was actually lots of lens swapping yesterday and on my part camera stealing where when a few people were not looking I would pick up their camera and take a few random photos for them :p.

May 29, 2007

in short

Yesterday was my day at the board, and I wasn’t recommended for the two jobs I was after. I am able to return to the board 12 months and apply for those jobs again if I wish. After I was told by the board president that they weren’t recommending me, mainly due to lack of experience, I had a chat with a recruiter as to some other jobs that I might be suitable for and have come home with a few jobs to have a look at both general and officer entry.

The board was a great experience and I was a lot more collected in my emotions and knowledge than I was on my assessment day which I was proud of. Other than myself there was three men attending the board on the same day I was and it was great to chat to them about what they have done in their lives so far (I was the youngest by three years).

I am taking a few days to step back and really think about what it is I want to do with my life and how I best go about achieving those goals. Also taking some time to recharge myself after the last week where I had been running at 120% in preparing for the board. Last night I was in bed by 8 and woke up at 7 this morning, I was so buggered. The world goes on though and it is not the end of the world that I didn’t get the recommend, I am happy that I made it as far as the board in the first place.

May 24, 2007

The Final Countdown

The day that will have the biggest impact on my life so far is almost here. In three days time I will be at the board presenting myself as best I can. The last couple of days I have been busily going over my notes, talking to people, writing new notes, reading reports and more. My desk seriously looks worse now then it ever did when I was at uni.

We picked Mum up from the airport this arvo. It will be a bit of a change having her home again after three weeks away. We have fallen into a system since she has been away and as of tonight that will all be out the window and it will be back to how it was before she went away. In saying that though it very nice to have her home again and to hear all her stories about the sights she has seen out west.

There was an excellent piece of news tucked away in the Higher Education supplement of The Australian yesterday about Asian Studies or more precisely titled the return to Asian Studies not only in universities across Australia but in the school systems as well if Labor wins the upcoming election. I let out a little cheer in the tearoom at work where I was reading the paper and then proceeded to send messages out to various friends either current or former Asian Studies students telling them of the story. In particular it made me think of one of my dear friends Sam who I met in my first year Indonesian class and in a couple of weeks will complete her degree to be a secondary Indonesian teacher and the fact that if Labor wins (as they very well should) her future looks much brighter if a greater focus is made on putting Asian languages and in particular Indonesian into more schools across the country. Kevin Rudd is an Asian Studies man, he did his degree though at ANU and had first class honours to go with it. The electorate that he represents though is Griffith, the very electorate that holds the university that I went to, Griffith University and when Griffith Uni was opened in 1975, one of the four subject areas it offered was Asian Studies. It all seems quite linked together when you look at it. Here though is to the future of Asian Studies not only in Australian universities but Australian schools.

April 24, 2007April 25, 2007

Roma St Parkland

On Sunday I headed into the Roma St Parkland with some friends off POTN to have a couple of hours taking photos. Oh what a delightful time I had in the short period of time I spent with them before been called away for family duties and missing out on the trip they took in the afternoon up to the Mt Cootha Botanic Gardens for some more fun.

We all had a great time and it was such a joy to see so many things in flower in this time of drought due to the excellent water management of the parks in collecting and using rainwater. Whilst I loved the water lilies, my favourite had to be the gerbera bed up in the concentric garden. They were so gorgeous. One day I would love to have a bed of gerberas like that in my front garden. One day I would also like it to rain.

Water Lilies

Dragon Fly

Eastern Water Dragon

Sculpture in the Concentric Garden

Flowers

Interesting dead flowers/seed heads of some aquatic plants.

I hope to get back in there pretty soon to finish checking out the rest of the gardens as I could have spent all day in there exploring and taking photos.

April 18, 2007

Do a jig

I had my assessment day today for the Air Force and I am extremely happy to say that I have been recommended for the Officer Selection Board (OSB) which should happen in the middle of May.

I wasn’t sure if I was going to be recommended as my Interviewer kept pulling out questions that I had never seen before or been warned on and I started stressing out. He then said that this is the stuff you need to know for your OSB not today, I am just warning you. In saying that it wasn’t till he said that I am going to recommend you did I relax. Then for the rest of the arvo whilst I was waiting for my medical tests I felt so calm and relaxed. Huge load of bricks off my shoulders. I have a lot of study to do between now and the OSB but I know I can do it. I just have to remember to breathe 🙂 My interviewer did say however that whilst you need to know more information for the OSB it is normally a whole lot less stressful than the interview which is nice to hear.

And here is another Easter Egg photo. These are eggs will grow into Easter Egg shrubs in a couple of months and will fruit around March next year. Click on the photo to see it larger (as usual).

April 15, 2007

Bunny Family

The only time to buy Easter Eggs is after Easter when they are half the price. Especially when your sole purpose is to have fun taking photos of the chocolate delights. We went to The Farm today so my box of eggs and bunnies came along, as The Farm has acres upon acres of green grass, they are after all a turf farm and unlike Brisbane they aren’t affected by that thing called “The Drought”.

Oh what a delightful time I had carefully styling my shots, placing the eggs down in a random but calculated array, finding the perfect bush for the bunny to hide behind and so on.

Here is a family of Lindt Gold Bunnies following each other on the turf. Don’t they look so cute! There is the Papa bunny and the two little kittens. They are crossing the turf back to the warren where Mama bunny is waiting. After I finished with the Bluesfest photos I will post some photos of Lindt bunnies adventures at The Farm and Easter egg fun time.