August Theme Day - My City's Skyline

Here's the ever changing view of the city from Gladstone Road in Highgate Hill. Plenty of cranes around the monolithic "Tower of Power", 1 William Street, which is soon going to hold all of Brisbane's civil servants and is dominating the skyline at the moment.

But not for too long...the powers that be have approved this giant casino complex called Queens Wharf see the computer fly-through here. Due to start construction next year and be finished around 2022. The view from here will certainly be very different by then.

You can see other theme day posts from around the world here.

Look Down

Whoops! I missed the theme day. Too busy galavanting on the other side of the world. I discovered that wifi alone doesn't cut the mustard (in UK, Ireland and Greece, anyway). The coverage was sketchy and the speed was slow. And blogging from a phone is a bit hard for me too. OK grumpy old bird rant over. I know I know first world problems and all that.

So July's theme day was 'Look Down' and here's my offering. The view from the City Hall clock tower on to the concreter's dream that is King George Square. The square underwent a renovation a few years ago. It used to be grass with fountains and big trees to sit under. Now in the middle of summer the searing heat bounces off the concrete and reaches face-melting temperatures. There's hardly any shade or anywhere to sit. On the plus side,  if you fancy protesting against poor urban planning, you can fit thousands in to this space and the clean up afterwards is relatively easy.

June Theme Day: Shadows and HIghlights

Here's my take on the City Daily Photo theme Shadows and Highlights. Morning breaking through the kitchen windows at work. Plenty of shadows and the prospect of food which, for me, is always a highlight.

To check out what other City Daily Photo bloggers have posted for this theme, click here.

May Theme Day: Smell

Living in the city, sometimes you need that extra boost in your garden. Late last year a group of us clubbed together to get a truck load of the most rotten, stinking manure you can imagine delivered from the farm to my door. It worked out at A$3 per bag which is a bargain! This was one of the bags that wasn't crawling with maggots - the farmer proudly told me that it was from the bottom of the pile and as stinky and rotten as I was going to get. The garden LOVED it!

Check out other posts for today's City Daily Photo theme here.

Playing Catch-up Again

Looks like it was me who was the April fool. This month's theme day was "Cobblestones". I spent all month trying to find an old laneway in the CBD that might be cobbled and in the end gave up. Then yesterday I was cycling down by the river at Riverside and stopped to take a picture of the Story Bridge when I happened to look down...Yikes! They wouldn't be old enough for horses but they look like cobble stones. Which is why I'm late.

Julie from Sydney Eye has kindly organised a back-up portal while the City Daily Photo is out of action. You can check out everyone else's take on the cobblestones theme there.






The portal is back up and running again! Hurray!

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March Theme day: Electricity

Today is the first of the month which means it's theme day for those of us in the City Daily Photo gang. This month's theme is Electricity. So being storm season in Brisbane, my intention was to get out there and get the classic shot of lightning over the city but I always seemed to be working or in bed, or very comfortable with a glass of vino when the electrical storms passed through this past month. So I have gone for a shot of the generator at work which is at one of the TV stations up in Mt. Coot-tha. At this time of year with the weather being so charged with electric storms, and with a giant transmitter tower sitting on top of the building, you have to factor in the possibility of being struck by lightning. In the 5 years that I have worked in the building, we have been hit several times and each time this enormous generator keeps us on the air. We run it every time a storm passes near Mt. Coot-tha. It's about 2 metres high and 5 metres long, burns 9 litres of diesel an hour and is very, very noisy.

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Yesterday's Birthday Lunch at Pearl Cafe (and Animal theme day!)

My thanks to Joanna. I had completely forgotten about the theme day but she pointed out in the comments that as today's City Daily Photo theme day is "Animal" I could still enter! (apologies to my vegetarian readers)

Being that a friend and I share the same birthday, we felt like we should make a bit of an effort so we trotted off with a few of our frocked-up mates to the Pearl Cafe in Wooloongabba. I had the ploughman's lunch because I am a bit sentimental it reminded me of home.... except it was much fancier than any ploughman's lunch I've ever had in England. There was smoked Wagyu, leg ham, homemade pickles, pommery mustard, cornichons, sourdough, French butter, mature cheddar and a mouthwatering dark brown pickled onion which I think was preserved in balsamic vinegar and a watercress salad. It was glorious.

It probably should have been washed down with a mug of real ale if I was being a purist. I plumped for several glasses of ice cold sparkling wine instead. You need it in this heat, really.

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants and hopefully to see pictures of animals more alive than this one.

January Theme Day: Photo Of The Year

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I think people in Brisbane are probably sick of hearing about the floods which is why I hesitated before posting this one. Having said that, it was the defining event of the year for my family and many others in Queensland and it is appoaching the one year anniversary so I'm giving it another airing here.

This photo was taken on January 14th at 6am  - just before we walked back into our flat to see what awaited us. The water had subsided really quickly overnight - this street had been under two metres of water 24 hours before I took this shot -  and the belongings which had been floating around in the murky water for days landed haphazardly all over the streets. Our first floor flat got about 30-40cm - not enough to be a disaster but enough to have to dismantle cupboards and floorboards and get rid of some of our larger furniture.

We were among the lucky ones - Aside from the hard work put in by countless volunteers during the immediate aftermath, we had friends with enough room to take us in and give us the phone number of a good plumber, plasterer, electrician and tiler. The son of a friend of ours painted our walls for free. We had enough money to bridge the gap before the claim money came in. We moved back into our flat with a brand new tiled floor on Valentine's Day and had a brand new kitchen fitted by about April. By that time a lot of people were still waiting for insurance money to come in before starting to rebuild.

Aside from the story behind the photo, I just like the oddness of stuff  being where it's not supposed to be.

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I'm off on my holidays for a couple of weeks - back mid January!

December Theme Day: Action Shot

Woohoo! Summer's here! Today is officially the first day of summer although most of November was glorious sunshine. Just the kind of weather for taking a plunge in the pool. Actually this one gets a perfect 10 from me for the ultimate belly flop.

Fab to be back posting again after a much needed break. Happy theme day!


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October Theme Day: Mystery Object

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September Theme Day: Perspective

 This month's theme is "Perspective". I must admit I struggled with this one. In the end I decided on a camera-on-the-floor shot to give a bug's perspective of the City Botanical Gardens on Sunday afternoon just gone. I don't know the couple and don't know if they were aware I took their photo...I hope they don't mind!

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August Theme Day: Postcard-worthy

 It's the first of the month and, as City Daily Photo bloggers, we all get the chance to take a picture along the same theme. This month's theme is "postcard-worthy". I think that had I remembered about the theme day sooner I would have gone for something a little naughty perhaps involving some well-endowed women strategically placed behind some tropical fruit but... well time eluded me (not to mention willing volunteers). So instead, here is a Brisbane sky, lit by the dying embers of a winter sunset. That's the city on the right and the observation wheel just visible under the Goodwill footbridge. And of course the mighty Brisbane River around which Brisbane is built.

Having a ball - wish you were here!

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July Theme Day: The Colour Green

 

Members of the school's green house roused the troops before doing battle with the reds, yellows and blues at sports day earlier on this month. I think it got down to about 11 degrees celcius which is bloody freezing for people in Brisbane so don't laugh. I should have got a shot of the parents. We all had scarves and hats on and were warming our hands on our coffees.

It's Green Theme Day all over the City Daily Photo world... see how others interpreted the theme:

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May Theme Day: Mailbox

Today is the first of the month which means it's the City Daily Photo Theme Day and as you can see, this month's theme is "Postbox". I've chosen a close-up look at one of Australia Post's thousands (? surely) of public street post boxes.

The picture near the letter slot shows a variety of brightly coloured squares. Stuff you're not allowed to put in the post from a public mailbox in Australia... *sigh* it's just no fun anymore.

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April Theme Day: Edges

Today is the monthly theme day for City Daily Photo bloggers and this month the theme is Edges. I've chosen to show you the edges of the Brisbane river two months on from when they became a bit blurred and we all got a bit wet.  Things are still in repair mode with ferry stops and pontoons out of action. It makes me wonder. If it takes months for a city to clean up after a few feet of relatively tame water, how long for Japan?


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March Theme Day: Your Favourite Part of Town

It's the first of the month already! Last month I completely forgot about the theme day things were still very upside down. This month I'm a bit more with it. "Your favourite part of town" is the theme and I choose anywhere in West End.

Boundary Street (pictured). The individual shops (that aren't in a mall) and the bars, restaurants and buskers. The casual atmosphere, sense of community, interesting and engaging residents (myself included, but of course). The fact that you actually see Aboriginal people... and people from other backgrounds that aren't white. That people walk or cycle around the streets instead of driving everywhere all the time. Oh the list goes on even more than I do. It's a great part of town.
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January Theme Day: Photo Of The Year 2010

 

Happy New Year!

It's the first of the month and so that means it's Theme Day for members of the City Daily Photo community. As you can see from the title, the theme is "Photo Of The Year".  Here is what I think is my photo of the year. 

It was also my choice for the Graffiti theme day back in October and was taken in a vacant block near where I live which boasts huge walls that are a perfect canvas for local artists. I used my new fast camera lens which I treated myself to earlier on in the year . It gives you a short depth of field and really vivid colours which I think worked well with the different spray-painted textures on this wall.

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December Theme Day: Time

30 days is not a great deal of time to cultivate a stylish soup strainer but, as you can see, the boys at work have given it a good go. It's all in the aid of Movember, a charity which raises funds and awareness for men's health by getting guys to grow sponsored moustaches during November each year.

This month's City Daily Photo theme day is Time. I know you're wondering... what has this blatant plug for charity got to do with time? Well... despite it now being December, there's still TIME to donate to this worthy cause on the Movember website here. And: maybe it's TIME for a shave?

For less tenuous takes on today's theme...
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November Theme Day: Public Transportation

Here's one of our CityFerries. Alongside our CityCat service which has bigger, faster boats, these wee things chug around the river happily stopping at smaller destinations.

It's the first of the month which means it's the City Daily Photo community's theme day. This month, as you can see, is public transportation. To see how others interpreted the theme, click on the link below.

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October Theme Day: Graffiti

This is a wall near my house on a vacant lot that has been repeatedly spray-painted by local graffiti artists. I love that technicolour grout between the bricks and the contrasting textures of the bricks themselves.

Today's post is part of the City Daily Photo community's monthly theme day. The theme is Graffiti.
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