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A very happy find

Yay!!! Lotte Mugs

At long, long last I now have two of these mugs.

I saw this post on The Old Boathouse last night and said to myself I’m stopping in at WAC on my way to pick up something at Mt Gravatt in the morning. I was at WAC shortly after opening time… I didn’t even look at the pictures properly otherwise I would have known about the mugs before I got to WAC and had to just about pick myself up off the floor when I saw them. I’m very happy. In the online Lotte world, these mugs are pretty darn rare and when they do pop up on the various auction sites they go for a pretty penny. My Lotte collection is just about an entire table setting now as I picked up some tea cups on ebay the other week. I eat off Lotte every day and I smile at every meal time as I look at the designs.

The table at WAC
Lotte at WAC

I was so very tempted by the squat milk jugs but I had to say no this time. Perhaps if they are there next time I visit I will pick one up but I think all that Lotte goodness will be well and truly gone by next WAC visit. I had forgotten how many nice houses there are in the Holland Park/Mt Gravatt area, will have some photos coming soon.

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The Cat Empire, The Zoo, 30 Sept

Last night I went to see/feel/experience The Cat Empire at the Zoo for one of the gigs they are playing as part of their tenth anniversary tour.

It was magical, beyond most words usually used to describe a gig. There was just this energie in the room that you could feel the entire night.

Felix

The above photos is not from last night but from those years I spent as rock photographer. On that topic, last night was the first gig in some time that I have had no desire to take a photo and didn’t spend half the gig picking out the best shots and the like. Last night, my mind and body was totally there, a couple of rows from the front just to the right of the centre (the best position at the Zoo, as you get the breeze from the open windows but are still in the middle of everything), very kindly standing in front of a guy who made me stand in front of him as he was a few inches taller than me.

I didn’t think much of the support act, they sounded very different to their recordings/videos, a whole lot less polished. The total reverse to The Cat Empire who sound good on their albums but live the songs become longer with more music, more jams, more dancing and better.

The Cat Empire are playing four shows in Brisbane, two at the Zoo and two at the Tivoli, presented those options and the fact that this is their tenth anniversary tour how do you not pick the sweaty, confined spaces of the Zoo over the more majestic open space of the Tivoli? When you know it’s going to be a night of pure energie and of music that is going to flow amongst the crowd? I guess that is why the shows at the Zoo sold out first…

If the anniversery tour hasn’t rolled into your town yet, get your self some tickets and go have fun!

It was magical.

Call Me Home was just everything and more.

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Sun-day

I’m about to head off to spend the day at Uni working on a group assignment. I’m hoping though that I’ll be able to meander through the old botanic gardens this afternoon as the spring flowers in there at the moment are divine.

On spring flowers, here are mine. I planted primulas in the front bed and oh it is so lovely to have flowers in the garden again. As a kid we used pick the flowers and spin the stalks round and round between our palms pretending they were Catherine wheels.
Primulas

I didn’t plant the clover but looks almost as pretty.
Clover

When I mowed the lawn, I couldn’t stand the thought of mowing down all those pretty clover flowers so I left a square of flowering clover in the front lawn 🙂
Clover Square

Now for a collection of links and the likes.

Ten People Who Observe Birthdays on 9/11 – Whilst American based, I can certainly attest to quite a number of statements made.

I can’t stop listening to this cover of Back in Black by Will Shine
Will Shine – Back in Black (AC/DC cover) by the3penguins

The Iceland AFL team recently hosted Norway in the first ever international game in the country, my brother was of course there to capture all the action. I particularry liked how they rigged the goal posts up.

Shiney Flaggy Purse also available with more Union Jack and less stars.

Now I’m off to spend the day with my head buried in the AASBs.

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Overheard at Uni

Mandarin

The other week I went to uni during the day(!) for my last deferred exam, as I was walking past the library I ran into this conversation.

Girl 1 – I really want to go to Israel.
Girl 2 – me too, I’ve heard Judaism is a really beautiful town.

Yep, I really hope that these girls aren’t studying something like Middle Eastern Politics or the like.
le Sigh.

and before ask if I mis-overheard Judaism and Girl 2 was trying to say Jerusalem, nope. Girl 2 placed such an accent on the d that there was no mis-overhearing to be had.

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a year ago

A year ago today, my father died. He didn’t in my words “pass away”, that’s what you do if you die in your sleep or your slip away in a hospital/palliative care etc setting after typically a long battle in which you may be quite medicated.

My father didn’t do that. In the morning he was alive, he called the ambulance because he wasn’t feeling good, he walked to the ambulance and then maybe an hour later he was dead.

This is what I wrote a year ago minus 12 days – 12 days ago.

It’s been a period of adjustment at varying levels for all of us over the past year and it will continue to be for the rest of our lives. As there are all those things that you just imagined Pabbi would be there to see, things like more grand-kids, weddings, graduations, Christmases and of course more volcano eruptions.

Yesterday Mum and I went to the Service of Thanksgiving which is an annual event “in recognition of organ and tissue donors and their families who make transplantation possible”. We went because we donated Pabbi’s eye tissue. It was a good event to go and it was nice to hear the stories of transplant recipients as well as stories of other donor families.

Below is who my father was. This is the slideshow that we played at the reception we had after the funeral.