Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen highlights of the Queenscliff Music Festival:

1. I wasn't at work!!!!!
2. My Friend The Chocolate Cake - keyboard, drums, bass, acoustic guitar, violin and cello, David Bridie's beautiful voice. Beautiful music on a lazy Saturday afternoon.
3. Renee Geyer and Rebecca Barnard - two great soulful voices on stage together.
4. Dan Sultan - young Aboriginal guy with a BIG voice. Rather a sexy hip swivel too :)
5. Mia Dyson, Chris Wilson, Ross Hannaford, backed by the Unconscious Brothers - nice work!
6. The Blues Train - such a great idea. Shame I couldn't stay awake for the return trip.
7. The ferry trip across the bay. I just love being on the water.
8. Ethanol - rocky, funky band on the small outside stage, Saturday afternoon. The guitarist had just a touch of Jimmy Page about his playing. I only meant to sit down for 5 minutes but stayed for the whole set.
9. The campsite - Point Lonsdale is so much more relaxed than the main Queenscliff site. Fewer people, no security thugs, plenty of room for us all to spread out.
10. The variety - I could wander from stage to stage and catch all sorts of different acts. Some I moved on from, others I stayed and watched for the duration. There was no shortage of music to choose from.
11. The weather - just perfect. Not too hot during the day, not too cold at night and the rain held off (unlike Byron Bay when it rained, heavily, nonstop for 5 days!).
12. The food and drink - far too much of the latter!
13. The euphoria that swept the whole festival when it became clear that Labor had won the election. You could almost touch it. The whole festival just went up a gear into sheer bliss!
T13

Email problems

The boss's sister sent me an email last week to pass on to Laurie. Unfortunately she has something wrong with her computer and I'm getting that same email hundreds of times each day. I've already deleted 200 today and there are 208 still to come! So if I'm not answering your emails it's because they're getting caught up in the endless stream. I blocked the address and restarted my computer today - the email's no longer swamping my inbox but it is still coming through and getting in the way of important stuff! Grrrrrr!

Edit: It's now 3.30pm and I'm finally able to view my emails without any more of *that* email clogging up the works. And, lo and behold, the computer's stopped its go-slow and is back to normal speed. Coincidence? I think not.

Queenscliff pics 3

Sunday, the only day I took the camera into the festival itself - the main stage marquee, big scary creatures wandering around, the Blues Train.

 
 
 
 

Queenscliff pics 2

Saturday - the camp (and the "girls", some of whom rarely ventured to the festival site. Preferred to sit in camp and drink. Don't understand it myself.), the tree behind my tent, another view of the bay and the view from my tent.

 
 
 
 

Queenscliff pics

Friday - the camp and the view from the pathway along the foreshore, between Queenscliff and Point Lonsdale. 30 seconds walk from my tent.

 
 
 
 

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention.....

We have a new government. Yeah!!
Kevin Rudd will be the new Prime Minister and lead the new Labor government. When the results started coming through on Saturday night it gave everyone a second wind. The Queenscliff party seemed to take on new life. People were hugging strangers all over the place, high fives and all that.
Best of all, John Howard might even lose his seat and be chucked out of parliament altogether. They're still counting, postal votes, absentee votes, etc. It's close. I hope the bastard suffers the ultimate humiliation.

The weekend.....

was excellent.
Today I feel like I've been hit by a bus!
I took a heap of photos but haven't looked at them yet, still transfering onto the computer as I type.
On Friday we got to Sorrento with one minute to spare to catch the ferry across to Queenscliff. The trip across the bay takes about 30 or 40 minutes and then we were there. The early arrivals had already set up the kitchen area so I just had to put up my tent. Then the party started!
Saw so much music. On Saturday we headed down after breakfast and I watched various acts from midday through till about 5.30pm. Got a bit sunburnt during the day. Then, back to camp to change into warmer clothes for the evening. Back down to the festival site by about 7. Yet more music till about 11. By then I'd had enough and headed back to bed.
On Sunday we packed up and then went into Point Lonsdale for breakfast and then into the festival. We caught the Blues Train. This is an old steam train with 4 carriages. It does a 25 minute trip to another station then turns round and comes back. In each carriage there's live music. At the halfway stop everyone changes carriages and gets a different act for the return trip. I think I fell asleep on the way back :)
Then we drove home.
A great weekend!

Unconscious Mutterings

1. Filthy :: dirty


2. Therapist :: shrink


3. Duck :: zero


4. Slant :: former Arcadia resident


5. Artist :: da Vinci


6. Lease :: rental agreement


7. Wish :: The Cure album that came after Disintegration


8. Doormat :: welcome


9. Global :: warming


10. Apartment :: flat

from here

See you on Monday

See you on Monday, originally uploaded by jsarcadia.

I'm off to Queenscliff for the weekend.

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen things I'll be doing over the next three days....

1. Finish work at 2pm Friday.
2. Go home, help Laurie pack the van and then we drive to Hallam to pick up Annie after she finishes work.
3. Drive to Sorrento and take the ferry across to Queenscliff.
4. Find the caravan park and meet up with the rest of the crew.
5. Put up my tent.
6. Have a drink. Or maybe that comes first :)
7. Go watch a band or two.
8. Take some photographs.
9. See lots of bands on Saturday.
10. Take lots of photographs.
11. Drink lots.
12. See some more music, drink some more, take some more photographs.
13. Sunday afternoon - pack up and drive home :(
T13

Probably time to talk about a book

Finally finished Kate Elliott's Crown of Stars series. My god it was an effort. Seven books in all, well over 5000 pages. The first two books, King's Dragon and Prince of Dogs, were really enjoyable: good, tight writing and an interesting storyline. But, as with many fantasy series these days, as the series grew so did the number of characters and plotlines so that the story just kept spreading out sideways. Elliott also introduced a religious debate (loosely based on Christianity) that swamped the middle books. Book 5, The Gathering Storm, took me 12 months to read. Book 6, In The Ruins, was a non-event. It could have been completely edited out and no-one would have noticed. The last book, Crown of Stars, continued in that vein for the first half but then ended with a rush of action to quickly tie everything together.
Because the story wandered so much I found myself caring less and less about the characters. The whole religious 'debate' theme left me cold. Quite often it would cause me to just stop reading, particularly as a lot of it was very repetitious. But I persevered and forced myself to finish. I'm not sure why, I think just out of morbid curiosity about how she was going to be able (if she was going to be able) to bring the whole thing to a conclusion. I found that, by the end, there was only one character who I was still interested in. I couldn't have cared less about what happened to the rest of them.
Maybe down the track I might give Kate Elliott another try but, for now, she's off the reading list.

Since finishing I've started three new books:
The Hanging Garden by Ian Rankin. Rebus is on TV at the moment and this was just stting on the desk so I thought I'd give it a go. Scottish detective in the gritty no-nonsense style.
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. This has been on my TBR list for a while and I managed to get my hands on a copy this week. Not far enough in to it yet to make any worthwhile comment.
Magician by Raymond E Feist. This is one of the biggest selling books in the shop so I want to read it to see what all the fuss is about. So far it's routine fantasy but I'm only about 100 pages in.

New member of the family

Clare and Georgia have got themselves a new pup. Don't know what it is or what it's called. Just got sent the pics. Not sure what old Tasha thinks of the new arrival either.
EDIT: She's a Border Collie/Labrador cross and her name (at the moment) is Millie.
ANOTHER EDIT: There's apparently some disagreement about the name. I'll report back when a final decision is made.
YET ANOTHER EDIT: Her name is Lily Africa Pearl.

 
 
 
 

There are none so blind.......

A while ago I went looking for my thongs and haven't been able to find them anywhere. I haven't worn them since last summer so haven't seen them since. (For those of you who speak a foreign language, thongs are flip-flops.)Now, everyday I go out to the car and put the computer on the floor behind the driver's seat. I get to work and take the computer out of the car. I finish work and put the computer on the floor behind the driver's seat. I get home and take it out again. I do this six days a week. Where were my thongs, my bright blue, won't blend in with anything thongs? In the car, on the floor behind the driver's seat. Found them this morning.

Unconscious Mutterings

1. Toasty :: warm. Going to get far too toasty here today.


2. Allegations :: accusations


3. Herb :: basil


4. Bacon :: and eggs


5. Neck to neck :: huh? head to head?


6. Simon :: and Garfunkel


7. Heels :: feet


8. Fundamentals :: basics


9. Middle :: Ferntree Gully pub (The Royal, the Middle and Vass's)


10. Seasonings :: salt and pepper

from here

Create a Connection. I'm an idiot. This is for Saturday Photo Hunt.

This week's theme is "I Love....." Well, there's no contest about what I'm loving this week....

 

Go visit this photostream....

IMG_9515, originally uploaded by dodgeon.

I've known Em since she was just a little girl. Her mum, Bronnie, is a very good friend of mine. I didn't know Em was on flickr till last night. She's over in NW Western Australia and has some absolutely gorgeous shots. Go have a look....

Messing with dumpr

Created with dumpr.net - fun with your photos

Friday Fill-in

1. The things I give thanks for are my healthy family, the genius of Robert Smith and my Canon 5D.
2. My favorite tradition is the cigarette after sex.
3. The best part about today will be when the damned phone stops ringing while I'm trying to do this!
4. My favorite food is Italian, no Indian, no mum's roast spuds or quite possibly the juicy pear I just had for lunch.
5. My whole life was the most embarrassing thing that ever happened to me.
6. After a big meal, I usually burp.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to a drink at the Tav, tomorrow my plans include selling books by the truckload and Sunday, I want to be relaxed!
Go here if you'd like to play along.

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen photographs I've taken with my new camera.

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 

Floating

Floating, originally uploaded by jsarcadia.

Took this the other day while visiting Ma'n'Pa. Just a random flower in mum's garden. I took it from above and like the way it looks like it's just floating above the grass.
Depth of focus is so easy on the 5D :D

I'm having a couple of days off....

Laura's coming in at 12 to take over for the rest of the day and tomorrow is my day off anyway. So I'm outta here till Wednesday. Probably have a thousand or so photos for you by then :)

Unconscious Mutterings

1. Treadmill :: exercise


2. Stroke :: backhand


3. Exclusively :: available only here


4. Lash :: Madame


5. Red carpet :: VIPs


6. Credit card:: don't have one


7. Points :: NESW


8. Domestic :: home


9. 21 :: 22


10. Inject :: needle

from here

There's something in the air...

It seems to me that the chickadees around the place are not a completely happy bunch at the moment. Blog pals, flickr pals, flesh and blood pals, single pals, attached pals, all seem to be having a down patch. There's no full moon so it's not that, but I really think there's something in the ether affecting us girls around the planet. What do you think?

And because we need a laugh....

Friday Fill-in

Go visit here if you'd like to play...

1. Plans and schedules should never be left to the boss to organise.

2. I'm happy when things work out the way I want.

3. The last thing I drank was tea.

4. One of the most valuable things in my life is monetary-wise - my brand new Canon 5D. What do you mean, stop grinning like an idiot?

5. I like mushies, salami, olives, prawns, anything really on my pizza.

6. Dear November, you are the month I bought a Canon 5D.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to reading the Canon 5D manual, tomorrow my plans include taking photographs with my new Canon 5D and Sunday, I want to take some more photographs with my new Canon 5D!

This is not good!

This is not good!, originally uploaded by jsarcadia.

I hope whoever buys it lets us all stay!

What the fuck is going on?

A For Sale sign has just gone up - all four shops in our little block here. The Estate Agent guy was here today, collecting rent, and didn't mention it. Gun shop guy knows nothing about it. Just rang the agent and got diverted to voicemail. WTF????

Thursday Thirteen

There's a federal election coming up - Nov 24th. Here are thirteen reasons why we need a change of government:

1. Change! Hopefully the Labor Party will be a bit different to the Liberals (ie the ultra-conservatives).
2. John Howard is a liar. He makes all sorts of promises and then says they're "non-core" promises, which means they can be ignored.
3. Work Choices. The most diabolical anti-worker legislation ever implemented. It has to go!
4. Immigration. The present government is racist and discriminatory. Its treatment of refugees is disgraceful and shameful.
5. Aborigines. Howard refuses to say sorry for past injustices.
6. The Environment. The Howard government has refused to sign Kyoto. They refuse to make any changes to environmental policy that might in any way affect big business.
7. Peter Costello. The current Treasurer who will become Prime Minister during the next term if they're re-elected. He's the most bland, soulless, uninspiring, slippery, slimy man ever.
8. Alexander Downer. Current Foreign Minister. Prefers high heels and fishnet stockings to real diplomacy.
9. Public education. The Howard government firmly believes in private school education. Funding for public schools has lagged behind funding for private schools throughout the life of this government.
10. The Howard government is government for the wealthy. Keep the masses poor and uneducated and therefore, ignorant, and the Libs can govern for ever.
11. John Howard has a real contempt for the people. He lies, distorts, twists and invents the truth to suit himself.
12. The Liberals have a born-to-rule mentality. Sorry guys, but this is a democracy here. Now fuck off.
13. Iraq.
T13

Look what I got!!

Look what I got!!, originally uploaded by jsarcadia.

I just had to have it. Of course, now I'm well and truly broke. It's gonna take a while to work it out. Can't just point it at something and shoot. Complicated. Can't wait to get out somewhere nice and try it out!!

Yesterday....

Melbourne Cup day. The horse race that stops a nation. It's a public holiday in Melbourne. Yes, we all get a day off for a 3 minute horse race. We take our sport seriously here!! These are very short sentences. Must be because I am very hungover.
I went to a barbecue at friends' house. Drank way too much champagne. I'm kicking myself that I didn't put a bet on. For some reason I always bet on #6 in the Cup and #6 won yesterday. Paid over $20 for a dollar bet. If only......
However, I did win the sweep on the last race and scored myself a bottle of champers. Not what I need right now but I'm sure I'll enjoy it at some later date. :)

Unconscious Mutterings

1. Assets :: property


2. Concern :: care


3. Over the top :: and down the other side


4. Supplies :: provisions


5. Mustache :: lip


6. Doug :: what you call a man with a shovel on his head.


7. Coach :: bus


8. Bleachers :: seats


9. Stripes :: White


10. Assortment :: variety

from here

I'm happy to report that it's raining.

Started last night and is still coming down. Good, constant, soaking rain. Of course, it's freezing cold, windy and horrible out there. But we so need this wet stuff!

EDIT: The wettest day in two years apparently. Gippsland, in the east of the state, has a fair bit of flash flooding. Catchments are happy.

Saturday Photo Hunt

This week's theme is "classic". What immediately came to mind was classic British bikes. This is a 1981 750cc Triumph Bonneville. This is a photo of a photo that I originally took about 20 years ago. The G-Man and I did a motorcycle tour of Tasmania. This was taken at the top of Mount Wellington, overlooking Hobart. It was so cold that I took the pic with helmet and gloves still on!

 

Happy Birthday James

My nephew, 25 today. Where does the time go? This is the wild child of the family. He's pretty settled these days but there were times when I thought he wouldn't make it this far! This was taken last Christmas, he has a bit more hair at the moment. I haven't got many pics of him where he's actually smiling. He and Rosie have been together for nearly 10 years! Happy Birthday Jim!