Since we don’t live by politix alone (I sincerely hope), what did people get up to this weekend? Join in, share some tales, regulars and lurkers all!
My main weekend activity has been attending the ever wonderful Lifeline Bookfest – and since it goes til next Saturday and I’ll no doubt be popping in again, I think I’ll save up my own tales for a dedicated post.
In the meantime, here are some photos I took down in The Valley the other day.
Valley lights by *phenomenologist on deviantART
If you’d like to see a larger image of the photos, click on them then click on “full view” once you’re inside the gallery.
Grey day by *phenomenologist on deviantART
Love those grey skies over Brisbane. They evoke good memories.
Dare I say, Brisbane at its finest – storm brewing, heat lifting, clouds whipping in from the bay. And the democracy of hills in that town – most punters, highly and lowly, can get a long view of the weather rising.
Fantastic!
In one of the books I got @ bookfest, Lefty E, a facsimile of a ninenteenth century book on Oz by a Brit, there’s an ace description of a storm brewing over Kangaroo Point. Dude was a sports writer.
For those who just can’t wait for pics of Bookfest, and crappy photos of what I got for two hundred odd bucks, here you go:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=27315&l=04658&id=680773131
Fixed the fallen-down back fence; read for review some (not enough) of a 550-page airport romance set in the imploding Haiti of 1986; and went to see Atonement, which I liked in spite of the good arguments against it, and which momentarily took my breath away when I realised who the actor was playing the elderly anti-heroine in the little cameo at the end.
Sounds cool. Post it sometime! Not enough 19th c material!
I take it you’ve read The Mayne Inheritance, Mark? I know you’re a Kangaroo Point fan from way back, and it features heavily.
Well….I woke up slghtly dehydrated in a B&B in Ballandean. We drove down from Brisbane yesterday to catch the Stanthorpe Little Theatre do their annual “shakespeare in the rocks” thing at the Bangarawarra winery. I enjoyed it hugely, especially after a local told me the love interests were actually mother and son.
We hit the local markets for lunch, then had a beer at Boonah, then Beaudesert. We picked up the kinder and finished at home with bbq salmon and a couple of very over-priced qld whites.
Not bad….
Darin
First part of the weekend, logged a little, read some of History of Sub-Saharan Africa. Watched Thew Bill, Saturday night.
Most of Sunday spent takingf notes for review of book on Australian Press and Vietnam.Blogged a little. Watched Jack Thompson’s fascinating family history on SBS. (Here there’s some sort of Govt. investigation going as to whether SBS can legally broadcast ads in the middle of programs.)Watched To the Ends of the Earth. Marvellous.
Nice pics Mark: I see Safari suits are back in style.
Actually no, Lefty E, somehow I missed it. I should pick up a copy at bookfest later in the week.
I’m still a fan of the East Brisbane-ish bit of Kangaroo Point, and the riverside parks, but unfortunately the riverside bit where I used to live is almost all apartments now. It was cool when the painters and dockers’ union office and all the tiny workers cottages were still near the pub and the sleepy decaying Queenslanders lined the riverside streets.
Ps – good idea to post it, LE. I’ll make a note.
Ah, well, let me say I think you’ll like the book! Goes through the estbalishment of Brisbane from the 1840s onward, a gruesome murder mystery in the the 1840s in Kangaroo Point, early Councillors, the establishment of UQ, and bizarre line of inheritors who live with a family curse.
Quite a thriller, considering its non-fiction.
http://www.theblurb.com.au/Issue33/MayneInheritance.htm
Agree, the old city/ eagle pier side is basically gone now, excepting the jazz club (?). Site of some good parties circa 87!
Yep!
Mark I read in the woeful Sunday Mail that there was a violent altercation at the Lifeline bookfest in the Cookery aisle. Do you have any physical intimidation tales from the Bookfest???
On Saturday morning my partner and I cleaned the apartment from top to bottom until it was cleaner than it’s been since before Christmas, and had cool, refreshing gazpacho for lunch as a reward. Paolo the budgie took a short constitutional around the living room before settling on the side of the guinea pig cage and watching intently as I cleaned his own cage for him. He was returned home safely before the vacuum was turned on.
A long-neck of Coopers Pale Ale in the afternoon was perfect with volume three of ‘Emma’, though I grew weary after Frank Churchill’s letter, and wearier still after reading Mr Knightley’s reaction to said letter. The evening was spent watching Johnny Depp: first in ‘Cry-Baby’, then in ‘Benny and Joon’ and finally in ‘Sleepy Hollow’ (which I had disliked intensely at the cinema, but quite enjoyed this time). We ate another soup for dinner – this time a thick vegetable soup with dollops of sour cream – and for the movies we had microwave popcorn.
Sunday was for shopping – clothing and groceries – before an afternoon at my parents’ place. In advance of the storms, I had my brother (who is learning to drive) drive me home to take washing off the line. On Sunday evening we all enjoyed Eddie Izzard’s ‘Circle’, including the classic ‘Death Star Canteen’ (recently rendered in Lego). A great, if low-key, weekend.
Spent saturday driving around various properties during the New England Merino field days (centred on Walcha). Took miss 7 with me and we had a pleasant few hours, although the A/C in Bruno the Alfa is still dead so we got a bit hot. Also discovered that big, front wheel drive Alfas are no good on dirt roads, although Bruno is very fast indeed on the bitumen and nothing fell off, which is heartening.
Very interesting to see some of the stud breeders using the new mulesing clips (while still a bit unpleasant, nowhere near as cruel as surgical mulesing). Basically, it’s a plastic clip that grabs folds of wooly skin around the sheeps butt, where they eventually wither and drop off, leaving a bare patch of skin not conducive to fly strike. Breeders reckon the animals do much better with the clips, although they aren’t keen on having to pick them up in the paddock afterwards – apparently cattle like to chew on the dropped clips. Also saw a few “bare breech” sheep that the breeders have been identifying in their flocks – there’s a selective breeding trial which is trying to breed a Merino with an entirely bare butt that does not require mulesing or clips. Medium term, it seems like the best approach (although some animals will still require mulesing of some sort, the overall numbers of sheep mulesed should drop significantly).
Sunday, baby minding. Was horrified by the beach cricket on channel 10. What a stupid concept.
Missed that, Antonio.
Wouldn’t entirely surprise me, though.
The selfish bookfester with the shopping trolley full of books, an offsider, a mobile phone and a box sitting on top of a heap of books others would like to look at is certainly not unknown. Some of these people are very large too.
I spoke to one such person who’d completely obscured about a metre’s worth of books. I leaned over to look at one I could just see and she remonstrated with me. “I’m sorting books”. “Don’t you think that’s a bit rude to others who might like to look at the books under the ones in your box and all the piles you’re constructing on top of books”, I asked. Response was a grunt.