Monday, August 31, 2009

Paladar Fumior Salon

This is Paladar, the beautiful Cuban cigar shop and cafe on Merivale Street in South Brisbane. You can hang out on the roof, have a coffee and a chat to the owner, perhaps smoke a Bolivar or Partigas... and listen to some live music.

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Friday, August 28, 2009

Where There's Smoke, There's Fire Skywatch

Some of the sunrises we've been having recently have been gorgeous - like someone has taken a giant blow-torch to clouds and left them smouldering.
Enjoy your weekend - Brisbane looks like it's gonna be a scorcher!

For other flaming lovely skies around the world, visit Skywatch Friday.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Nepal Peace Pagoda

Following on from yesterday's post....80 tonnes of timber from a Nepalese Jungle went into making this beautiful building. I recommend a feel.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Doorways of Brisbane

This is one of the entrances to the Nepalese Peace Pagoda, a hand-carved wooden building in South Bank given by the Nepalese government to Brisbane. Apparently, it took 160 Nepalese families 2 years to craft! They made it in sections and shipped it over from Nepal in 1988 in time for the World Expo which was held here in the same year. The detail is stunning.

Monday, August 24, 2009

A Force To Be Reckoned With...

I only noticed this flyer on a telegraph pole outside my place on saturday so I was a bit too late for the meeting. And there was free food!

Queensland police have had their fare share of notoriety over the years - particularly in the 1980s and early 90s. This looks to me like there are still bridges that need building.
Interesting choice of music artist...

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Winter Wonderland


We're having a bit of a mid-winter heatwave at the moment. The weekend temperatures are up around 30 degrees with it getting even hotter on monday and tuesday. This is a shot of Streets Beach - a man-made riverside lagoon in the centre of the city that many locals and tourists head to if they don't have time to drive the hour it takes to get to a real beach. Perfect on a summer evening if you live or work nearby... and most days less crowded.

This was taken yesterday at about 1.30pm when all skin-cancer conscious heads were buried deep in the sand (while getting an attractive brown bum).

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Art Deco Building

There are some beautiful Art Deco buildings around Brisbane. This one, an apartment block on Vulture Street in South Brisbane, is one of my favourites.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Suck It Up Skywatch


Having been a bit under the weather this week I have lacked last week's get-up-and-go...I looked at the sky from my bed >cue the violins< so you're going to have to make do with a different shot from last week. I like the way the clouds do this: they look like they're being vacuumed up from an unseen part of the sky.

Get your sky fix now at Skywatch Friday.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Traffic Stopping Art (number 27)

This guy lives on Blunder Road in Durack and brightens up the busy road no end.

Brisbane has hundreds of painted traffic signal boxes. Any resident can submit a design which makes for a huge range in styles. For the others in the series, click on the TSBs label below.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Blue Tongue


Being a Londoner, all things reptilian provoke a brief paralysis in me during which time I assess just how close to death I am. Anyway I don't know a lot about these things but I am pretty sure if it's a fat snake with legs, it's a Blue Tongue Lizard. They're supposed to be very gentle and many people have them as pets. So when I saw this thing in the back garden yesterday morning, sunning itself beside the Aloe Vera, after my heart started beating again, I grabbed the camera. My lens only goes up to 55mm so I was less than a foot away from it. It's a shame he didn't stick his tongue out - it really is a lovely blue. Maybe if I had waited long enough... but I was a little anxious to get it over with. I had to keep telling myself that it wasn't going to spring forward and sink two giant fangs into the side of my neck.
The things I do for a blog photo.

Monday, August 17, 2009

Spring Is Springing!

You can't really call the weather we are having "winter". Today is going to be 29 degrees and flowers everywhere are starting to perk up.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Things Here Are A Bit Pear Shaped

Here we are at the Queensland Art Gallery on the south bank of the Brisbane River. Not to be mixed up with the Gallery of Modern Art, next door. At the moment they have a huge exhibition of impressionist and realist works from New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. I can't imagine the care that must go in to transporting that precious cargo halfway around the world. Grudgingly, I agreed not to take any pictures.

On the up side, they let me snap away in other parts of the gallery. This is the appropriately named "3 Pears" by artist George Baldessin. That third one is tucked in behind - you can just see the stalk from this angle. They looked to me like they were made from bronze but the label said no, "polyurethane with shellac finish" so there you go. Easy to lift in case of intercontinental exhibitions... or if you're in a rush. Read a time line of George Baldessin's life and works and see a very handsome picture of him here.

The gallery gets very creative with this pool of water and, depending on the exhibition, floats things on it, creates stepping stones and walkways through it, uses it a means of reflection... and that's just the few times I've visited. It's not very deep - maybe 5-10 cm.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Chinese Chess

Chinese Chess (also known as Xiangqi) is a board game for 2 players popular in China, Vietnam and Inala Civic Centre on saturday mornings. There were several games going on at once, with groups of spectators that looked like they may have been dishing out some serious advice.
Needless to say I had absolutely no idea what was going on, but it looked good.

Friday, August 14, 2009

Consolation Skywatch


Wednesday was a public holiday in Brisbane metropolitain area for the "Ekka". It's an annual agricultural show and carnival that people get quite excited about.

I've got one of those silly jobs where public holidays mean nothing... so I was up really early on Wednesday while the majority of Brisbane slept in. As you can see, it wasn't a bad consolation prize. The skies are starting to lighten earlier each day and the morning air is losing its bite.

For other bloggers who have pointed their cameras skyward this week, visit Skywatch Friday.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Smoko

In Australia, regardless of whether you smoke or not, if you work outdoors your tea-break is usually called a "smoko".
Some things here with one syllable get an "o" put on the end. (smoke-o, dave-o, john-o) Other things with more than one syllable are shortened to their first syllable and then get an "o" on the end (afternoon: arvo, ambulance worker: ambo, garbage collector: garbo)
The group of workers were celebrating one of them having a birthday and were in fine form.

Monday, August 10, 2009

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Inala Fish Market

Inala is one of those neighbourhoods you get in cities that doesn't have a lot of wealth but has a really diverse population. Notably Aboriginal, Torres Straight Islanders, Vietnamese, Chinese, Thai and Indonesian. I went shopping there yesterday and had a ball. We picked up a barramundi and a snapper for a BBQ. Mmmm!!

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Moreton Bay Fig Tree

I have gone on about these trees before I know... but I just think they're beautiful and deserve going on about. In my local park here, they line the path by the river and are lit beautifully in the evening sun, emphasising their big old knarls and tendons.

Friday, August 7, 2009

On The Inside The Sun Still Shines...

This is looking up at the sky from inside the tropical dome at the Botanical Gardens in Mt Coot-tha. You can be on the outside looking in here.

Pop quiz: The title of today's post is the first line of the chorus from the theme tune of which 1970s and 1980s Australian drama?

For more views and reviews of the sky throughout the blogosphere, visit Skywatch Friday.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Shake Your Tail Petals

A flower commonly seen in Brisbane all year round is the Strelitzia, more commonly known as the Bird of Paradise flower, so named because it's petals look a bit like a bird of paradise's plumage. They also come in bright orange. In my local area, they have planted a large patch of them on the edge of a footpath on a busy road. It makes the walk past much nicer!

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

So Who's This Brisbane Bloke, Anyway?

The life and times of Sir Thomas Brisbane in 10 concise and over-simplified bullet points:

*Lived: 1773-1860
*Born: Ayrshire, Scotland
*Went through the ranks in the British Army
*Became govenor of New South Wales
*Sent a scout north in 1823 to find a settlement for convicts
*Et voila! Our beautiful big river flowing into Moreton Bay! Perfecto!
*The settlement was named in his honour
*In 1839 it was opened to free settlement
*Brisbane wasn't around for that as he'd gone back to Scotland in 1825
*He was a keen astronomer, publishing a book of stars and establishing an observatory in Parramatta, Sydney
*Died: Ayrshire, Scotland

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Heavens Above!

This is a statue of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. He's sitting casually out the front of the Planetarium at the bottom of Mt. Coot-tha. He was a Russian rocket scientist who is credited with inspiring those who led Russia into space.
I love his posture with hands in his pockets, gazing upwards.

Monday, August 3, 2009

I'll Take The High Way

This is the new bridge over the Centenary Highway which links the bikeway with Mount Coot-tha. It cost $10 million to build - much to the outrage of certain corners of the media - but it's a step closer to making this city more workable for pedestrians. I think it was much needed and makes lovely shadows on a sunny day.

Sunday, August 2, 2009

City Hall Angle

Brisbane City Hall is a beautiful old building (1920s) in the centre of Brisbane. It houses the fantastic Museum of Brisbane as well as various concerts throughout the year. Hundreds of people become Australian citizens here every year in a big grand ceremony and you can even go on a tour up the clock tower. At the moment there is a problem with a lot of the concrete walls within the building in that they're falling apart. It's going to cost A$120 million to sort it out. It cost A$480,000 to build... I wonder what that is in today's money?

Saturday, August 1, 2009

August Theme Day: Night

Brisbane showing its multicoloured neon ripples, soon after a Citycat has glided past.

If you've managed to come here without going to the City Daily Photo portal first, you're missing out on our monthly theme day.

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants
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