now a thirtysomething from Brisbane
sage advice of the day.
coloured highlighters, pretty post-it notes and cake makes the day a little bit better.
a trip to the library is always a good trip, even better when you get your groceries in the same trip.
watching Opera Australia’s La Boheme on ABC2 is a good way to spend the night.
paying off my car in just a little bit over a year feels really good.
tomorrow is Friday and that means the weekend is in reach.
“Christmas, children, is not a date. It is a state of mind.†Mary Ellen Chase (1988-1973)
This year/last year (Christmas 08 is what we are talking about here), instead of getting a Radiata Pine from the farm, we got a farmed Radiata from Real Christmas Trees. Oh my lordy what a tree it was. It was just packed full of branches and it was shaped like a real Christmas Tree! In saying that in hindsight, we would have done some selective pruning as since the tree was so bushy, the ornaments were to a degree buried in the pine needles.
Karl, the girls and I decorated on the afternoon of the 23rd. Well perhaps it is more true to say Karl and I decorated the tree whilst the girls had fun with the tinsel and taking photos. What follows are photos, lots of photos. IF the photo has Silja in it, it was taken by Birta, if it has Birta in it, it was taken by Silja, that applies for most photos, but pretty much the first half were taken by Birta, the next half were taken by Silja and then the last handful and the first few were taken by myself and then a handful near the end were taken by Karl. Does that make any sense? probably not.
Eventually the tree was covered with ornaments and then out came the magic texters and the girls gave tattooed our legs. I went to the doctors that afternoon to see about my leech bite with one leg covered in doodles 🙂
Karl
Wrapping the tree in tinsel
Birta and I doing silly faces
Due to the sheer number of photos to share from this day, here is a slide show again 🙂
I am currently packing for my move next weekend, listening to the Hottest 100 on the radio and listening to the screams from the cricket match that is currently been played on our street by the house across the road and down one.
This morning, I went out with the SES to a park in The Gap where there was a community recovery event been held which included a Citizenship ceremony, a sausage sizzle and lamingtons, along with a number of stands from various organisations ranging from Lifeline, The Salvos, Telstra, Police, Rural Firires etc. We handed out stickers, magnets and chatted to people whilst hoping that the rain would come to cool it down a little bit.
In the Big W catalogue the last week, they were advertising Australian Flag Holeproof Explorers . Score!!! I now have a pair and I wore them today 😀 They are so cool 😀
There is now only one song left in the Hottest 100 and I can hear the broadcast echoing down the street from at least two other houses 😀
I was sitting in the kitchen eating just about to eat my dinner (smoked chicken noodle soup from the freezer) when I looked out the window and saw the most beautiful colours. I raced out the front door onto the footpath and went wow. I then raced back in and grabbed Rebecca, one of my flatmates to come out and have a look as well. She happened to have her camera in her hand so she started taking some photos. I then went hang on and raced back inside to grab my camera and a Grad ND. This is what I got.
props to anyone who knows where that title is inspired from.
I have gone out two times in the last few weeks to have a look at Christmas Lights, the first time it was just Karl, Mum and I. We stopped first at a street in Carina which is where the following photos were taken.
We then continued on our way to Rochedale South where Mini Sal (the little brother of a friend of Karl’s) had put on a *little bit of a light display*. Such a *little display* that he won the best new entrant in the lights competition. Which is pretty cool. So cool that he got on Gizmodo a couple of days ago. It was so cool.
Here is a little bit about the display as written in an email that Mini Sal sent.
– It’s all computer controlled, with almost 300 individually controlled channels of lights,
– It’s synchronized to music, which is played on speakers in the yard and broadcast over a low power FM transmitter (which you can listen to by tuning to 91.7 FM),
– There’s about 600 metres of rope light and about 420 sets of fairy lights used in the display, which gives a total of more than 70,000 individual lights,
– The entire display consumes about 85 amps of power when fully on — I don’t actually have the power capacity to turn it all on at once, even after getting 6 extra dedicated circuits installed for the display. 🙁
– The display this year is dedicated to the Royal Children’s Hospital Foundation, and there’s a collection box out front if anyone would like to make a donation.
The display was soo cool. Lots of red, white and green lights, Christmas music and a whole heap of lights. Here are a few photos from the display and then I will put some of the youtube videos at the bottom which give a good picture of how the display works.
This row of Christmas trees was probably my favourite part of the display, so keep an eye out for them in the video and watch them dance.
The introduction to the loop and a little about the display.
Silent Night – I love how the the lights “wake up” in this.
Wizards in Winter – like many others inspired by this youtube video from a couple of years ago
Good King Joy- watch the row of Christmas trees.
Jingle Bell Rock – do the rock.
Christmas Eve Sarajevo – lots of colour runs in this, I love it
The house is on Childs St, Rochedale South, so if you are in Brisbane and have a free evening, take the kids, take the dog, take the neighbour, it is well worth it.
There were flight delays out of Singapore and again out of Sydney but finally a plane landed in Brisbane carrying four special people. My brother, my sister-in-law and my two nieces. One of the first things they girls did when they arrived was hopped on the net, spoke to each other on MSN and played various Flash games. This photo is so much more than just a girl at a laptop, it is Birta, in the living room of my parent’s house in Australia playing on my laptop and that makes me smile.
One of the things Karl did shortly after he arrived yesterday was to have a little look through the camera bag I had with me. Today, though he had more of a play with my lenses and I had a little play with his 24mm f/2.8, which let me take this image.
This afternoon after the girls had a little nap, all of us bar Mum and Pabbi went to the park and played French Cricket for a while which was a total ball and I am looking forward to quite a few more French Cricket games between now and Christmas Day. Oh I am so looking forward to the next few weeks! Tomorrow I am back at work though after taking the last two days off for the arrival of the Icelandic contingent.