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!
Life, Culture and Politics from BrisVegas
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Politix, preparing job applications, more politix, a little gardening, reading Ross Fitzgerald’s excellent biography of Qld Communist Party MP Fred Paterson, yet more politix, and hanging out at the Glebe St Fair this afternoon. [Note: only a quarter of the usual daily dose of politix]
Now off to a friend’s birthday.
Ripper of a storm through Brissy. It hit about 4.30pm and lasted an hour. Stopped me from mowing the lawn (Oh damn!).
A reminder to claim the $200 Queensland government rebate for the new water-efficient washing machine, as I doubt that bit of green generosity will last to next year’s tight budget (if there isn’t a mini-budget first). Good advice from the nice lady at The Good Guys.
The big bike path loop – 117 kilometres of mostly easy riding.
This weekend I had a real weekend off, which has been lovely. Yesterday morning I worked my way through some torrented TV, and in the afternoon ventured into the CBD for some very early Christmas shopping. Today I’ve been working my way through the various books I’ve been reading (see the other thread), and also working on a fiction project I’ve had going for the last few weeks, and that is really starting to come together, probably as a short story.
I’ve been enjoying spending a truly lazy weekend with no huge deadlines hanging over my head! And commencing the Great Apartment Decluttering Project of 2008 – consigning old clothes temporarily to the void of the garage, taking Terry’s excellent advice and holding a (metaphorical) bonfire of the photocopied journal articles, and sifting, discarding and retaining papers and things from the past – some going back as far as 1990. It’s been thoroughly cathartic!
Started watching series 2 of Rome last night on dvd. The actors who play Mark Antony and Atia are a real delight! … and continuing my Angel re-runs late at night – just finished series 1.
After a quick wine on Friday night, did some preliminary scoping for Christmas shopping – and yesterday, when I was hunting down a book recommended to me at Folio, came across a present which I think is absolutely perfect for one close friend!
And still enjoying the afterglow of the phd seminar celebrations the other day/night – I am recommending pinot noir chardonnay for all festive occasions!
By the way, congratulations Mark. When can we start calling you Dr. Mark?
Thanks, Rob!
Sometime next year, depending on the slack procrastinatory habits of dissertation examiners!
Congratulations Mark! *Raises glass*
I hope Jovial Monk is keeping the torch of dog obedience alight, because we have missed the second Sunday class in a row (Boychild’s third due to health issues.) We R full of fail and will miss the trials next week, I think.
A late boozy party on Saturday night, too.
Terry, you 1) have lawn? 2) have rain? Quit yer whingeing!
Studying for my Uni exams tomorrow (20th Century History)… so I have no idea why I am reading LP…
Helen
Loving the rain and loving what it does to the lawn. Have power as well, which sounds like an added bonus from what I can gather has happened in some Brisbane suburbs.
Apparently the Channel Seven studios got flooded and the 6pm bulletin nearly didn’t go to air.
Thanks, Helen!
It was a doozy of a storm. First really huge downpour of the season – with lots of thunder and lightning. Where we are in New Farm we tend to be somewhat protected from the more intense and destructive effects some folks experience elsewhere.
I’m enjoying the rain and the cool tonight – very welcome after a very unpleasantly hot and humid couple of days.
And settling in to watch 2001: A Space Odyssey on SBS.
I staked the tomatoes, pinched the laterals and organised the drip system. A little play at ebay, a read and watched the whales on the tele. Also caught up with a friend in Tassie who is enduring this thesis thingy, as well. Well done Mark!
I’m working in gardens and such 7/7 because it’s been raining. Today I was out at Upper Brookfield when it became quite threatening and I decided to make a dash home. I ended up sheltering in the new car park behind the shopping centre at Kenmore. When the wind died down I ventured on, but coming down Stuartholme Road about 2k from home my motor cut out. It’s a great feeling when you realise that your power steering is gone, and then your power brakes when it’s pissing rain going downhill (well a bit, it’s not too bad) on a winding road.
My ’93 Falcon ute is useless when there is water on the road, it seems. So the last 2k took 3 hours as I ended up having to get a tow.
We’ve had 58mm tonight, others would have had more. There is always masses of stormwater that goes straight into the rivers and out to sea in SEQ in the summer.
I believe The Gap and Ferny Grove got smashed, also the central city. I think Mt Tambourine was first to cop it and Sunshine Coast/Maryborough the last
The Gap got smashed – hard. I know – I was there to visit my mother to help clear out the garage. Green skies, cyclone-strength winds, almost-horizontal hail, and plenty of trees coming down – on houses, over cars, through wires, or sometimes all three. There were roughly 10 trees down within 50 metres of my mum’s house. Waterworks was blocked, as was Illowra, and the corner-store had lost its top story and the interior. Things were so dangerous that cops got one of the buses to use as a barricade. No power as of 11:30 – the time when we felt there were enough trees cleared for a taxi to be able to pick us up.
We were lucky. We got the car in the garage a few minutes before it rained. A little leaking from the porch to one of the downstairs rooms was the worst damage. Better than the people three doors from me that got a beam through their living room, or the house across with no people home and windows open or smashed.
Scary? Damn straight. Hail isn’t meant to hit windows – that’s what roofs are for. Worst storm to hit the suburb since… before when my family moved in. 1980.
Wow, sorry to hear about your horrifying experiences in last night’s hailstorm. Sympathise with you all having lived through two similar events in Armidale.
New medication, which fortunately I only have to take for a bit over a week, mades me feel quite ill on Saturday morning, and, if in the open air, my COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder) would likely have worsened and I would have ended up in hospital for at least a week. So I decided to stay indoors and cancelled arrangements to go on the Walk against Warming on Sat. morning, which wasn’t a walik, as Armidale Council had refused permission for it, apparently. (Should I put that in capital letters?) So I spent most of the weekend at home, reading Peter Martin’s bio. of Samuel Johnson, then started John Gascoigne’s new bio of James Cook. A little bit of time on LP. Sat night, Rough Diamond came to its predictable end. Sundaynight, ordered a pazza and Coke, watched Romm with a view. Ifinitely better than the boring Merchant-Ivory movie.
Robert’s effort makes our 40km look like a walk in the park (well, in this case a ride around Olymic Park). That said we climbed indoors for a couple of hours beforehand (not enough rain to top up the dams, however more than enough to make sandstone somewhat “scary”).
Mark – major congrats on submitting *Raises Coffee Mug In Salutation*
As for the storm – you know it’s bad when a Brissy storm gets reported in Sydney…pity about the urban explorer type who died – that’s gotta be pretty hellish…
Back home.
I’m very glad I made the effort to go to my son’s twenty-seventh birthday party. He lives more than a hundred ks from me so there is a bit of driving involved.
But it’s so good to meet one’s children’s friends every now and then, just to see what the group is like and catch up with what they’re doing.
The party was held in a small back yard in one of Melbourne’s older western suburbs, Coburg in fact. The birthday boy and his girlfriend had prepared a feast of salads, breads, dips along with meat from the barbeque that kept on coming. Beer was the main drink. They’d set up a table-tennis table that was the scene of a rugged round robin competition that went on all night. The soccer table game was also popular.The hills hoist was garlanded with chinese paper lanterns that looked beautiful in the dark. It was a cold night but the brazier kept everyone warm.
I can’t help thinking how lucky we are to be able to enjoy such simple but rich experiences.
That’s coburg for ya.
Joe2, can you expand on pinching the laterals? That may be where I am going wrong. I pinch off any horizontal bits with leaves and no flowers.
Sorry not to sympathise more with the Quincelanders, after reading the above I acknowledge that torrential rain, hail and cyclonic winds are not very desirable, even though we are short of rain down here that doesn’t really help.
Wow, do you reckon? I thought it was much more boring than the Merchant Ivory one — which I really liked, and which was much closer to Forster’s novel.
Helen , lateral pruning is only for upright plants like gross lisse or my new thrill, black russians. This link illustration shows the smallish laterals that you need catch to maximise tom production rather than foliage.
http://www.gardenaction.co.uk/fruit_veg_diary/fruit_veg_mini_project_july_1b_tomato.asp
Dr Cat, I noticed some unfavourable chatter on FB about the Room With A View remake. Personally, I can’t understand the perceived need to remake all the costume dramas every couple of decades or so – I very much doubt anyone could equal Helena, or Simon Callow as Mr Beebe. The 80s one was just so good. So I boycotted it!
I really enjoyed 2001 actually – particularly the stunning use of music – I’m going to try to trackdown some of György Ligeti’s music.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gy%C3%B6rgy_Ligeti
Want larger, more consistent-sized, faster ripening tomatoes? Pinch them laterals, baby!
You’ve got it about right Helen, but don’t wait to see if they grow flowers. Anything that’s not either the main stem, a leaf stem or a flower stalk must go. Pinch early, pinch often, so the plants don’t waste energy growing stuff that ends up as mulch.
Black Russians eh Joe2? Hope they taste better than the drink.
PC – I’m with you. Gorgeous as Elaine Cassidy was, the Merchant Ivory one was pretty tough to improve upon.
Rest assured, Helen!
yesterday morning I was told that Demi would come first in any trial, but that the dumb creature at the other end of the lead keeps walking into her!
So need to practise walking Demi along straight lines: I am thinking local Westfield carpark early Sunday am b4 lessons would be the go. Maybe I could fashion blinkers so I can’t look at my stupid dog?
Agility a slight change of plans: my present club elected as Head Instructress someone who no doubt runs a tight ward at Yatala Womens Prison but is shit at a volunteer activity like dog agility training. Will go to Adelaide which is close to my shop so if I bring my dog on Tuesdays she can have a long walk/run b4 the lessons: she is very energetic and needs that!
Did some gardening first thing: love daylight savings, get up early and drink coffee outside in cool of morning and do an hour or so of gardening. Tomatoes approaching a metre in height with fruit and flowers aplenty. Even the smaller seedlings I planted last are finally starting to grow quickly. Still only watering once a week using mains water, timer and leaky hose.
Going to look for some SciFi books next Sunday.
Mark, the answer as to the remake of period novels is an economic one. They’re no longer in copyright, so you get the marketing benefit of a really well known name, without having to pay for the rights, which would be hefty in a contemporary novel that’s as well known as the Forsters. Austens, Dickens etc.
Bah! Humbug!
But thanks, Fine.
I did see about ten minutes of it – between watching an ep of Rome on dvd and 2001 starting – and was appalled, appalled!
It looked really naff to me in the previews. I watched a DVD of a film called ‘Kings and Queen’, by a French director called Arnaud Desplechin. He’s absolutely fantastic. Does these mad family melodramas in which he completely works against audience expectations and his visual style is to die for. His latest is ‘A Christmas Tale’ and if it happens to get a release’ go and see it.
Yep, Elaine Cassidy was the best thing about it. Her and some of the music, and Florence, even though the cinematographer did his damnedest to make it look like period London on a rainy day.
All i can remember of the Merchant-Ivory Room with a View is Maggie Smith was in it. I was bored to death by it. Guess i didn’t have the same experience as other people.
Re the storm, the latest is that the water at The Gap should not be drunk without boiling. On local radio this afternoon there are still 35,000 houses without power, that they know of. They reckon that everyone that still has a house should have power by about this time tomorrow.
Apparently there were 650 “wires down” reports last night. The SES reckon it’s the biggest single storm since 1985. I remember that one. It smashed through the city and hit worst around Hamilton/Ascot near the old airport.
I heard about one woman who was watching TV (would you believe) during the storm and next thing found herself crawling out from under a tree. Another couldn’t see where she was driving and swerved away from the headlights coming straight at her. She ended up in the creek with the car a complete write-off.
The tow truck guy who moved my jalopy over the hill to the garage today said he worked to 3am, having been on duty since 5.30 am yesterday.
So far there has only been one death reported, a 19 year-old bloke who went for a walk to inspect the damage with his mate and unfortunately got swept into a drain in a flash flood at Chermside.
There is a photo gallery here. The threatening skies are impressive. The worst damage pics are towards the end, but don’t quite match the verbal reports I’ve been hearing all day.
Paul: thanks for your kind words, but as I say – we were lucky. One co-worker had to stay home after some trees decided to crash through his windows and roof. And mum has gas to boil the water, unlike others. (It was installed at mother’s place after the SEQEB strikes of 1985.) That’s why she’s able to provide safe water to neighbors who have nothing to boil the water with.
As far as natural disasters go, Brisbane got off easily. Only one fatality so far, and even that due to extreme recklessness.