Dog Food Cake With Brain Icing

We had a bit of a neighbourhood party on Sunday - which co-incided with one of the local dog's 10th birthday. We told the kids it was a dog food cake with brain icing. In the end their curiosity got the better of them!

Enjoy Ice Cold

The Happy Shopper

It's just great when someone actually smiles for the camera!

Here ends our brief people-watching trip to Inala Civic Centre. We'll come again, I think, and next time we'll go food shopping.

Chinese Chess at Inala Civic Centre

You can wander around the square in Inala Civic Centre and see several different games happening at once. There are huddles of people around each board with everyone staring intently...

Deb Selling The Big Issue on Boundary Street

I was originally going to post this picture with just a few basic details but after I got chatting to Deb, she asked that I include what we talked about in this post...

Deb was abused as a kid by her step father. He and her mother took off when Deb was 18. She has two boys, 7 and 14 years old who live with their father, and she doesn't know where they are. She was late with the rent once and now she can't get a place of her own because she's been black-listed. Having no parents around hasn't helped. She says that she's in the process of getting photo ID... which will make getting her life back on track a lot easier.  She's currently staying at the homeless shelter in Roma Street.

If you see her around, buy a Big Issue from her.

I was right behind you and it was far too humid for a long sleeved shirt!

For readers who are familiar with the blogger 'Z' from Z Captures, you'll recognise this at once as I have completely ripped off his idea! He has a whole series of shots of the back of people in New York called 

"I was right behind you".

Let The Wild Rumpus Begin!

Ah, the joys of learning a new instrument.

Have you ever been up close to someone playing one or two long notes loudly on the trombone? It sounds similar to a foghorn and your head vibrates...I think she was laughing because I had gone cross-eyed. And a beginner blowing through the reed on a clarinet can produce squeaks that will make your hair stand on end.

 The bottom photo is my daughter and the top one is her friend and they have both been playing for about 2 weeks. I expect to see them busking in Boundary Street in a few years. In the meantime, if you are in about a 2 mile radius of that trombone when it's being blown then you'll get a bit of a preview.

Retail Therapy, Queen Street Mall

Off With His Head!

This one just makes me laugh - it's of a cameraman and a journalist taken at work a few weeks ago. The cameraman on the left is about 6' 8".

Portable DVD Player

We had a street party recently. Some of us got stuck into a game of street cricket, some stood around with a beer and had a chat and some took charge of the BBQ. These two must have found us all a bit boring!

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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In the style of Z

I am follower of a blogger named "Z" in New York who you may already be familiar with. He's started posting some exciting photos of people in the street under the tag "Chaos and Dynamism of NYC". The photos are close range, shooting from the hip with lots of contrast and saturation. I tried to give it a go, choosing Queen Street and Albert Street in hope of some crowds but there just seemed to be nobody about. This picture was the best of the bunch I took. It was really hard! I haven't quite managed the Hitchcock-esque technicolor look but I'll keep working on that one. Anyway - to check out what I am trying to get at, see here.

Three of a Kind

Brisbane is definitely going a bit ukulele mad. This trio provided some great background music while selecting fruit and vegetables at the market last week.

Crash Landing!

West End's Kurilpa Derby Day kicked off with a parade of all sorts of weird and wonderful ways to wheel yourself around. There was no shortage of stacks.

Big Hello Outside Lock 'n' Load

Kurilpa Derby Day

West End's main street, Boundary Street, was closed off yesterday for a series of wacky races. Prams, bikes, go-carts and pretty much anything else on wheels was eligible. As well as the races, there was a brass band, bicycle polo and a roller derby demonstration. Too much going on for just one photo so sit back, relax and enjoy the next few days courtesy of the folk of West End.

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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Uke'n have a good laugh learning the ukulele

Last night I went to the WEE BUMS which is like the main BUMS (Brisbane Ukulele Musicians Society) but more of a sub group based in West End (hence WE ... don't know what that other E is there for - maybe because it's supposed to be smaller than the main?). Anyway. It's held in Blackstar cafe on the second Friday of every month and last night when we got there it was standing room only. Someone had a double bass and the rest - there would have been about 50 people - had all manner of ukuleles and were playing at all sorts of levels. A few people up front took it in turns to load up a song onto the projector with all the words and chords. Despite me realising that I was playing the completely wrong chords on more than one occassion, the overall sum of our parts was strangely harmonic.

Coffee at Urban Grind

Boundary Street, West End, is host to a mix of cool, funky hip cats (see above), people with bed heads and bare feet, a bustling Greek community, yummy mummies doing lunch, construction workers, aboriginals, office workers, drunks and nutters. That's why I love it so much. These guys were deep in conversation outside the Urban Grind coffee shop. It took me a few minutes to work up the courage to ask for their photo but they were very obliging and carried on as if the camera wasn't there.

Time Out

On the footbridge from Roma Street to the Victoria Barracks as seen through the window of the Palace Cinema.