Tuesday 12th February 2013, 11.55am (day 537)
Blimey. I haven’t seen anyone doing this seriously in years, possibly decades, have you?
Being 42
Life, one day at a time
Category Archives: Portrait
Debs, on the balcony
Monday 11th February 2013, 7.00pm (day 536)
This is Debs who is a regular of the Railway (you’ve seen it often enough) – she has been here for a while visiting family and we both happened to be in Brisbane tonight, so shared a couple of Guinnesses (there they are) at the Irish pub with its cool balcony on the corner of George and Elizabeth Streets. Sláinte!
Jetty jumping, Glenelg
Saturday 9th February 2013, 2.20pm (day 534)
What is it with Antipodeans and their urge to fling themselves off high places? Don’t expect any bungee jumping action shots from me on my upcoming trip to New Zealand, either. Glenelg is one of Adelaide’s beach suburbs, very busy today but it does have great sand so one can see why. Last day in South Australia, back to Brisbane – briefly – tomorrow.
GOMA (Gallery of Modern Art), Brisbane
Thursday 31st January 2013, 3.55pm (day 525)
This is an exhibit by (if I remember rightly) Tiffany Chung – who has cast literally thousands of little glass animals and arranged them in this twenty-foot long swirl. There were lots of interesting pieces in this place today, for the ‘APT7’ (Asia-Pacific Triennale) exhibition. I was more into taking photos of the visitors, though.
Anzac Square, Brisbane
Tuesday 29th January 2013, 11.30am (day 523)
Brisbane has been spared more flooding, the sun came out, and there were lots of nice things to see. And, well, in the end it was a choice between a photo of her and one of a lizard. But I’ll catch the lizard again some time.
Shelter from the storm
Sunday 27th January 2013, 5.50pm (day 521)
This is Serge, a naturalised Australian but born in Belgium, smoking a cigarette as he shelters from Cyclone Oswald, which began walloping Brisbane pretty much as I arrived yesterday and hasn’t stopped yet. It’s been very harsh and today no one left the Kookaburra Inn – the backpackers’ hostel where I am staying (expect to see more of this place over the next few months). However, the worst seems to have passed. The rain has mostly stopped and the winds are high, but manageable. I hope. This was the second-worst day of weather to be featured on this blog (after 9/7/12).
There is a double meaning to the title of this post by the way. I realised today, after about 24 hours of being here, that a good proportion of the people staying here are not ‘backpackers’ at all but refugees being housed here by the Australian government, from Iraq and Afghanistan. Interesting. Anyway, you will see more of Australia yet, never fear – but we just have to wait for this cyclone to pass over, which in accordance with all natural laws, it will.
Transit lounge, Changi airport, Singapore
Friday 25th January 2013, 5.05pm [Singapore time] (day 519)
A 2-day journey through the global lymphatic system that is the air travel network, largely on night flights, is never going to produce great photography, so here’s my attempt to encapsulate this day of pure transit: me trying to keep myself busy in the good-value transit lounge in Changi airport. It gets another country onto the blog – Singapore – but in the most mundane way. Australia tomorrow…
The completed tattoo
Sunday 20th January 2013, 7.05pm (day 514)
Instead of more of that snow crap, here’s a more personal view on current events. Clare here helps me focus the definitive pic of the completed tattoo, first prefigured way back on 3rd September, and subsequently completed in five sessions, of an average of four hours each, of various degrees of pain (the most recent one, on Friday evening, being a shading session of exquisite agony).
Some people have said – ‘but you don’t get to see it!’. The thing is, I do. As much as I see my face incognito, at least. But I know what I look like, I don’t need to see it every day to remind me, and I think I look just fine.
Gathering snowball material
Saturday 19th January 2013, 10.55am (day 513)
This is turning out to be a rather different weekend from last weekend… and it’ll be rather different next weekend as well. In the meantime, here is Joe out gathering material for a missile. Plenty of opportunities to take cliched snow shots of picturesque old Hebden Bridge today, but I was trying to avoid that.
Ethiopian coffee goddess
Tuesday 15th January 2013, 9.55pm (day 509)
Last evening in Nairobi. We were taken out to this Ethiopian restaurant where, at the end of the meal, I had my first sip of coffee in about 18 years – having definitively given it up in favour of tea back in about 1995. Still, looking at this photo one might understand why I was persuaded to partake once again, even if just in a small way.
