Kate Tempest at Avid Reader last night.

Australia is being treated to a book tour by London rapper, poet and novelist Kate Tempest. Last night she was being interviewed at my local bookshop, Avid Reader. She's promoting her novel, some of which she performed from memory with the same rhythm and intensity that she gives her poetry. It gets you deep down.

Great Brisbane Bike Ride 2016

Yesterday was the primary event in Bicycle Queensland's Bike Week - the Grest Brisbane Bike Ride a giant bike ride with over 2,000 participants. Riders can choose between 40, 75 and 110km routes. They close off or partially close dozens of roads that are normally choked with traffic. Traffic light signals switch to flashing amber in the city and an army of volunteers and police give cyclists as much help as they can. There was a bit of a bottle neck at the Moggill Ferry as hundreds of riders arrived and the ferry man said he could only take 60 people at a time.

It was about an hour and a quarter between the two photos. That's the ferry with the cars on it. Luckily for us, the 40km ride on the other side of the river had a lot less hills than the preceding 70kms!

Practice practice practice

This Sunday is the start of Bike Week in Queensland. The flagship event is the Great Brisbane Bike Ride which includes cycling up Mount Coot-tha. OK, it's less of a mountain and more of a 2.5km hill so we're not talking Tour De France or anything but it's challenge enough for your average everyday cyclist. This week there have been lots of cyclists squeezing in some last minute practice each morning. The light here at this time of year is beautiful and all you can smell is eucalyptus forest and all you can hear are birds and the sound of your own gasping and wheezing. Sublime.

Kurilpa Derby 2012

Every year, the residents of West End close off the main road, dress up and get on their bikes, scooters, prams, beds, office chairs, wheelie bins or whatever else they can put on wheels for a big party. There's a big parade followed by a series of whacky races. There's plenty of music, dancing and laughs to be had....

 

 

 

 The squid relay is disgusting but strangely mesmorising. Teams have to run with and transfer a squid to their team-mates using their mouths only. My thanks to Pete for these two fab photos below. I was standing right next to him at the first transfer point, camera poised, ready for action, when my camera suddenly stopped working. Aaargh! The memory card had filled up - what a schoolgirl error. I am still kicking myself. Anyway you can check more of his photos out here.

Rummage!

Brisbane's regular Suitcase Rummage at Reddacliffe Place went on location for the Home Festival. You could pick up some real bargains! 

 

Take Me Home...

Last Saturday I ventured out to Kangaroo Point for a free festival called the Home Festival. It was a great day out with loads to do and see. Here's a few shots...

 

 

 

 

Finders Keepers at the Old Museum

 We've been having some beautiful crisp days in Brisbane recently. The air is dry and cool but the skies are sunny and clear. It reminded me of this time last year when I was at the Finders Keepers market at the Old Museum in Bowen Hills taking some photos for a local cafe. There are all sorts of stalls selling really beautiful home made stuff from craft to clothes to food stalls, a cafe and a bar. There's a stage with bands playing... loud enough to hear but not loud enough to drown out any conversation... and an area where you can just lounge around in the winter sun. I looked up the Finders Keepers Brisbane blog and it turns out they are having another one on the weekend of July 7th/8th so mark it in your diaries if you're in the area.  Here's a flavour of the event. All photos taken 2.7.11...

   

...and that's just outside! I didn't take any shots inside of any of the clothes or other bits and pieces. I'll save those shots for this year.

Everybody Say Cheese!

Yesterday was the West End State School Fiesta. We set up a photobooth with some props and, as you can see, people really got into it!

Corroboree Preparations

Continuing on with the Sovereign Embassy story... it's still there, just in a different part of Musgrave Park. They have 3 tents: one for men, one for women and a kitchen tent. The controversy seems to have died down and on Sunday there was a Corroboree to help celebrate National Sorry Day. It was a beautiful autumn day - warm in the sun but chilly in the shade. I hung out for about an hour or so but things were taking their time getting off the ground. I was especially looking forward to seeing some dancing but I had to leave before it all started. The BBQ food was all donated by the local church and elders ate first.

Naaaaaybeeeers! Everybody needs good....

Wednesday was Anzac day in Australia - a public holiday and for us a chance to catch up with the locals (and some not so locals), have a few beers and play some music together.

There was a range of instruments to come to the party. We had 3 types of drums, 2 guitars, a banjo, a banjolin, a fiddle, a harmonica and about 8 ukuleles. And lots of singing voices.

Light It Up Blue

As part of Light It Up Blue, an Autism awareness initiative, Brisbane will light up the William Jolly Bridge every night in April with artwork from Tim Sharp who is a 23 year old artist with autism. This is only one of the landmarks in Brisbane taking part. Everything is blue this month: the Treasury Casino, Kurilpa Bridge, the Wheel of Brisbane, the Story Bridge and City Hall.

Some other Australian cities will be taking part. See who and how here.

Princess Flowers For International Women's Day

Today, March 8th, is International Women's Day. It celebrates how far we have come in our efforts to gain equality with men in every day society and examines the (often long) road ahead.

 For every woman reading this, these flowers are for you! They are Princess Flowers (also known as Tibouchina urvilleana) and are blooming right now in parks and gardens all over Brisbane. They are native to Brazil but do very well here in our subtropical climate.

By the way - the International Womens Day official colours are purple, green and white.

And now here's Bob with the weather...

I suppose after last year we're all a bit more alert when the Bureau of Meteorology refer to rain in terms of being an "event".

So what's happening in South-East Queensland at the moment is plenty of rain. 100mm a day with no sign of it letting up over the next few days. The day before yesterday there was a dog on a surf board on a flooded street. Yesterday was a little less light hearted - there were lots of flooded roads and some cars went under in flood-prone areas like Toombul. The good news for me is that Wivenhoe Dam (the big Dam protecting the Brisbane River from drastic flooding and consequently my flat which I've just finished renovating) is only 75% full as of yesterday - the absolute capacity is 200%. Last year it got dangerously close to 200% but I am - erm - anxiously confident that this year they will have the benefit of hindsight and start releasing some of that water soon.

Everything's going to be fine.
>breathe<

Rubber Ducky, You're The One!

This is the starting line for the Great Brisbane Duck Race which isn't until October 30th but they want to promote it a bit. The deal is, you buy a (normal sized) rubber duck and that money goes to charity. Your duck gets a number on it and gets poured, with all the other ducks, into the river when the tide is going out. The ducks float down the river in a 'race'. They've got people cheering and a race caller on a megaphone and it's all a good laugh. I think the winner this year gets a car.

Read more here.

NRL Grand Final

It was the Rugby League Grand Final yesterday. If you like big men with big necks getting into a bit of rough and tumble then you'd probably love it. It's not really my thing. I spent the afternoon in the garden sipping wine.

Roller Derby Girls

This one was taken a couple of weeks ago during the Kurilpa Derby. The Sun State Roller Girls did a bit of a demo, chasing eachother around, bashing into eachother, cartwheeling and jumping over their teammates who were lying in the road...  all in sexy clothes and on roller skates. Excellent.
Learn more about them here.

Interactivity

This is the Light Scope again as featured in yesterday's post. Some of the lights are interactive such as these dots. They follow you around as you walk, or cluster together if you stand as a group.

Light Scope

 

It's a bit like walking through a kaleidoscope with lights and mirrors everywhere. Sometimes there are moving images, sometimes patterns. Sometimes there are little blobs that follow you around. Ace!

It's on each day until Saturday 9am-9.30pm outside QPAC.

Mirror Ball At Night

I went down to South Bank again last night in the hopes of capturing the laser show reflected in the big mirror ball. Unfortunately the ball is a little bit too far away from the action but it is lit from underneath in light that changes colour every few seconds.

I'm off camping in the Bunya Mountains for a few days so hopefully posting will continue while I'm away. Back next week!

Santos City Of Lights last night

As part of the Brisbane Festival, there is a laser show to music every night at South Bank. There are huge searchlights that fly around, laser beams from the tops of buildings and laser images projected into the spray of water canons on the river. Not as exciting as Riverfire but if you are in the area, it's worth a look. The best place to see it is between Victoria Bridge and the Goodwill Bridge.  There are free shows every night until the 24th. Times are here.

By the way - last night I committed the cardinal sin of photographers and ventured out without realising I had a low battery. My spare battery was sitting in the charger at home so my camera died about 3 minutes into the show. D'oh! Another lesson learned.