Although it’s been uni break over the last week, I’ve been a busy boy. I now have a date with destiny for my doctorate – I’m presenting to a final seminar on 30 October. This is the internal examination stage of phd completion according to the QUT rules – it’s a bit like a viva voce where you talk about what you’ve done and found and are questioned by a panel of senior academics (and the audience!) – in my case from QUT’s Humanities Program (once was a Faculty…) I more or less wrapped the thing up on Friday, did a little revision yesterday, and lazed around last night and watched Maggie Cheung movies on dvd, and today and tomorrow before the teaching and marking onslaught resumes, I’m giving the thesis a final spit and polish.

So I’m very chuffed!

Folks might also remember I’ve been doing a bit of travel writing – of the insider’s guide to where you live variety. I filed my copy for that and sent in the invoice on Tuesday arvo, and it was a really neat gig. On Monday, I went for a wander around Paddington and took some photos – not for the project itself – but as an aide memoire. It turned out to be a dodgy day to be walking – 35 degrees maximum. But it did also prompt me to decide that walking for about an hour a day was a good custom to be revived – so I’ve been doing that ever since – in the late afternoon on cooler days and at night on hotter days. Anyway, here’s the photographic record of my Paddo perambulations. It’s a really nice part of the world, and somewhere I wouldn’t mind living. But the real estate market would really have to collapse before I could contemplate buying there!

White picket fence II 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.

Steep streets by *phenomenologist on deviantART

Miss Posh Poodle I by *phenomenologist on deviantART

Miss Posh Poodle II by *phenomenologist on deviantART

Colourful cottage by *phenomenologist on deviantART

Paddo house II by *phenomenologist on deviantART

Sassafrass by *phenomenologist on deviantART

Kiln gallery by *phenomenologist on deviantART

Paddo houses by *phenomenologist on deviantART

Spring by *phenomenologist on deviantART

Grey shop by *phenomenologist on deviantART

Kookaburra Cafe by *phenomenologist on deviantART

Paddo shops by *phenomenologist on deviantART

Colourful shop by *phenomenologist on deviantART

What I actually wanted to share was a writing experience I really enjoyed. I was auditioning – as it were – providing a writing sample on demand – for a gig (which I got, and which I’ll talk about later on when I can link to the finished product). The brief was to write about something in Brisbane in a hundred words – a restaurant, a bar, a street, whatever. It’s really quite a neat exercise to try, particularly because what you are attempting to do is convey something of your own city, and something about the bits of it you love, to people who might have varying levels of knowledge and perhaps varying preconceptions.

So here’s my 98 words about The Alibi Room. I haven’t gone back and edited the passage, as I will be doing for the rest of what I’m writing for this project.

You might no longer hear Italian casually spoken in the deli, and the artists and students might have been priced out of the real estate market, but Brisbane’s rapidly gentrifying inner city suburb of New Farm still hosts the neighbourhood bar of all the musos, tattooed and pierced folks, street press writers and burlesque performers. Whether you’re looking for a Tiki Bar, or the chance to play a Brady Bunch board game, The Alibi Room is pop culture, Brisbane style. Twirling a cocktail umbrella, you can ponder the eternal question – just how ironic is the Vegas in Brisvegas?

And to illustrate further, some photos of the said bar. Incidentally, Alibi is a very web 2.0 savvy drinking hole. Not only does it have a website, it’s also on MySpace. And it has its own YouTube promo, and has inspired some YouTube vids, particularly of the spiffy practice that we now know and love in our fine town of going outside for a ciggie.

Click through on the image then click “full view” once inside the gallery for a higher res and larger version.

Alibi Room by *phenomenologist on deviantART

Alibi Room II by *phenomenologist on deviantART

Alibi Room III by *phenomenologist on deviantART

Susie loves Didge by *phenomenologist on deviantART