Being 42

May 04 2013

Buddha’s birthday lanterns

Saturday 4th May 2013, 12.25pm (day 618)

Apparently today is the anniversary of the birth of Buddha – or at least, today is the day on which this anniversary was marked with a kind of fair set up in Brisbane’s South Bank complex. Happy birthday, Buddha – your religion always seems to me rather less dictatorial and more self-empowering than most of the others, so I feel relatively sympathetic towards it. I got a few decent photos today from a ride up and down the river on one of the amazingly cheap CityCat ferries, but I choose this picture instead because I like the light, the vivid colours and the calligraphy.

Tagged 43, Brisbane, Buddha, Buddhism, Chinese lantern, gallery, photography, South Bank

May 04 2013

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Daily Post, Portrait, Stranger

By the entrance to the Botanical Gardens

Friday 3rd May 2013, 10.15am (day 617)

Maybe I take too many candid photos of strangers but let’s look at it this way: 617 days into this blog and I’m trying not to repeat myself, take away the street portrait photography and there’d be even less to work with. I think this photo also encapsulates how nice it is to have this lovely slab of parkland right beside the QUT campus: who’d not feel like studying outside, in the continuing lovely weather here.

Tagged 43, Botanical Gardens, Brisbane, gallery, photography, student

May 02 2013

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Daily Post, Interior

Evil mop

Thursday 2nd May 2013, 10.10am (day 616)

A few days ago I laughed at this blog post – 31 Inanimate Objects with Secret Inner Lives – it’s well worth a look. Since then, I too have been seeing faces in ordinary household items. Like this mop, for instance. It’s been giving me the evil eye for days now.

Tagged 43, gallery, inanimate object with secret inner life, mop, photography

May 01 2013

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Daily Post, Urban scene

Fire alarm

Wednesday 1st May 2013, 1.05pm (day 615)

I’m sure everyone was really annoyed that they had to go sit outside for 15 minutes, I mean, what a tough break, in the harshness of a Queensland mid-autumn.

Tagged 43, fire alarm, gallery, Old Government House, photography, Queensland University of Technology, QUT

Apr 30 2013

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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Ducks, Brisbane River

Tuesday 30th April 2013, 2.30pm (day 614)

Last day of April, the third full month in a row spent outside the UK, but the last on this current run – by the end of May I will be home. Either way, it’s about time we had some more ducks on this blog. I like ducks, and whatever sub species these individuals are an example of, they arranged themselves rather fetchingly along the Brisbane River bank this afternoon.

Tagged 43, bird, Brisbane River, ducks, gallery, photography, wildlife

Apr 29 2013

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Daily Post, Landscape

Mount Beerwah

Monday 29th April 2013, 1.50pm (day 613)

This is the highest of the Glasshouse Mountains, about 50 miles (80km) north of Brisbane. As viewed from Mount Tiborgargan nearby, and given added mystery by a pall of smoke which hung over these old, eroded volcanic plugs most of the day, courtesy of some scrub-burning I think.

Tagged 43, gallery, Glasshouse Mountains, hiking, Mount Beerwah, mountain, photography, Queensland, walking

Apr 28 2013

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Daily Post, Portrait, Stranger

After the goal

Sunday 28th April 2013, 4.15pm (day 612)

My second trip to the Gabba to see the Brisbane Lions, who today won their second game of the season by about 35 points over the Melbourne Demons, who are even less good it seems. Nice day though, nice afternoon. The Demons had just scored here, hence their noticeably perkier shoulders compared to the maroon, blue and yellow-clad Lions, but there was plenty of time left in the game to secure the win.

Tagged 43, AFL, Australian Rules Football, Brisbane Lions, gallery, Melbourne Demons, photography, sport, the Gabba

Apr 27 2013

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Daily Post, Friend, Portrait

Taija

Saturday 27th April 2013, 10.45am (day 611)

Taija (pronounce it to more-or-less rhyme with ‘higher’) is from Oakland, California, and has been staying at the Kookaburra Inn these last few days. I took this while we hung out this morning, with her on her way to the airport and eventually somewhere else in this, the sixth-largest country in the world. Like a lot of people I have met on this trip, we were only acquainted a short time, but I think this shot captures her quite well – or more accurately, my image of her.

Tagged 43, Brisbane, gallery, Grand Central Hotel, photography, pub

Apr 26 2013

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Daily Post, Urban scene

Little shrunken church, Brisbane

Friday 26th April 2013, 9.45am (day 610)

This is St. Stephen’s Chapel, part of a complex of buildings that comprises the centre of Catholic worship in Brisbane. The main church is to the right, just visible at the edge of this photograph. I like the way this looks like a little baby church, or a kind of shrunken one, too small for the lawn it’s on and the city around it.