Feb 03 2013
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Daily Post, Landscape

Stairs down to South Port beach

Sunday 3rd February 2013, 3.55pm (day 528)

South Port beach, 3/2/13

 

Well, I’m sure it’s very spiritually fulfilling to spend February Sundays all huddled up around a good fire but this year, frankly, give me this kind of thing. This is the stairway down to the beautiful – and mostly empty – South Port beach, at the mouth of the Onkaparinga river just south of Adelaide. Visited the vineyards of the McLaren Vale today and then drove back (or was driven back, by my excellent hostess Caroline) along the side of the Southern Ocean, and enjoyed the whole thing.

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Feb 02 2013
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Pigeons at the South Australia Museum, Adelaide

Saturday 2nd February 2013, 3.45pm (day 527)

Pigeons, SA museum, 2/2/13

 

Translocated myself (via Qantas) to Adelaide this morning. My original plans were to spend this week checking out the Queensland coast but Cyclone Oswald put paid to that, so here I am in South Australia instead. It feels very different – not sub-tropical like Brisbane is, but more Mediterranean, much less humid, and with these big wide boulevards and low-key, but attractive, architecture. But then again it was a 3-hour flight, and a 3-hour flight from Manchester gets me to (say) Corfu, so I suppose it’s no surprise that the environment has altered somewhat.

More evidence of this – we are back with pigeons (as opposed to ibises) as the bird-pest of choice. This huge flock of them were wheeling on and off the cornices of the South Australia Museum this afternoon, as I came out, having done the tourist bit.

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Feb 01 2013
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Daily Post, Interior

Digital Barrier Reef, QUT

Friday 1st February 2013, 1.10pm (day 526)

Digital Barrier Reef, 1/2/13

 

This massive, interactive display – 30 feet (9m) high at least – resides in the foyer of the brand new Science and Technology block at Queensland University of Technology (QUT). OK, it has nothing to do with business process analysis, or whatever – so is essentially trivial – but it gets a lot more interest, from all sorts of people.

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Jan 31 2013
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Daily Post, Portrait, Stranger

GOMA (Gallery of Modern Art), Brisbane

Thursday 31st January 2013, 3.55pm (day 525)

GOMA visitor, 31/1/13

 

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.

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Jan 30 2013
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Ibis drinking in the Botanical Gardens

Thursday 30th January 2013, 10.05am (day 524)

Ibis, Botanical Gardens, 30/1/13

 

When I first came to Brisbane in 2011 I remember seeing an ibis wander down the main shopping street and thought, cool, how exotic. Very shortly I realised that they occupy the same ecological niche as pigeons in other cities, and are basically a pest. But they look quite good, with that curved beak and white plumage.

I do like the Botanical Gardens in Brisbane, a beautiful park nestled in the curve of a river, but I couldn’t wander through it today and enjoy the sun, because it’s closed because of storm damage. You get a small sense of the amount of debris that is around by looking behind the bird. This shot is taken through the perimeter fence, with a big zoom (x50 at least), hence the slightly strange depth of field: but I like the effect.

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Jan 29 2013
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Daily Post, Portrait, Stranger

Anzac Square, Brisbane

Tuesday 29th January 2013, 11.30am (day 523)

Anzac Square, 29/1/13

 

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.

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Jan 28 2013
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Daily Post, Urban scene

Brisbane River boardwalk

Monday 28th January 2013, 1.30pm (day 522)

 

Brisbane River boardwalk, 28/1/13

As you can see, it was a much nicer day today, but there is quite a lot of debris around the city from yesterday’s storm, particularly in the Botanical Gardens. And the Brisbane river is very full – but not yet flooding, indeed, there is evidence that it has gone down, namely the thin layer of mud over this boardwalk below the museums on the south bank. You can see here that it is scant inches – millimetres in fact – below the pedestrian and cycle track. Here’s hoping…

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Jan 27 2013
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Daily Post, Friend, Portrait

Shelter from the storm

Sunday 27th January 2013, 5.50pm (day 521)

Kookaburra Inn, 27/1/13

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.

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Jan 26 2013
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Daily Post, Interior

First day here, first cliché

Saturday 26th January 2013, 11.25am (day 520)

Vegemite, 26/1/13

 

First day in Australia (at least on this trip – I’ve been here once before, in May 2011 for two weeks); and it’s Australia Day. So let’s get the first cultural icon into the blog. I fully intend to get a picture of a kangaroo, a koala and a surfer in before I leave. Though possibly not all on the same photo. Do people still wear those hats with corks round the rim?

This stuff’s not a patch on Marmite by the way. Interpret that how you will.

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Jan 26 2013
2 Comments
Daily Post, Family Member, Interior, Portrait

Transit lounge, Changi airport, Singapore

Friday 25th January 2013, 5.05pm [Singapore time] (day 519)

Transit lounge, Changi, 25/1/13

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…

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