Saturday, August 17, 2013

Living by the Beach

A few months ago my sister decided that she had always wanted to live by the beach, so she promptly up and moved to a suburb on the other side of town.  It is not a suburb that I would like to live in, but every time we visit, I insist on going for a walk along the beach, after all that was the reason she moved there!

You know it is a classy area when this is hung by the pool;


The actual beach isn't my kind of beach scene, I do prefer further north such as Caloundra, the landscape is more beautiful, in my humble opinion.


Maddy doesn't really care what the beach is, for her it is always about the hunt for shells.  It has become an activity that we share together, and we always try to find a 'special' shell for our collection at home.  I love to watch her little journey of discovery, and every now and then I get a glimpse of what she will become.



 

Friday, August 16, 2013

Feeling Disconnected

There has been a few bumps in the road of life of late, and I have really tried to maintain my optimistic approach.  Generally I have been successful, but despite all of this, I am having a period of disconnectedness.  Trouble is, I know it is creeping from the point of origin and seeping across my life.  I can feel the titanium casing starting to shift around me, and I may not be able to hold it off this time.

In times of trouble, I generally locate at home, enjoying the solitude of a blissful acre.  As we stood on the deck I looked across at one of the unfinished projects, building another vegie garden.  After a sigh around the thought of the joint project that needed to be finished solo, the youngster and I hooked in to make a start.


Clearly a renovators delight!  The landscape truck has just arrived, so I will post some more shots later, and if we are really lucky we will finish it before those grey clouds unload.
 

Define your Current Role

At a recent training course I was asked to have an artistic moment in time and draw my current role.  I am not the best on the spot person, and really not the best artist.


When asked to describe what I had drawn, I responded with "globally spinning at the pace of a cyclone, and way out of balance".

Defining a Person


As I was driving the other day, I somehow landed behind this vehicle.  One of the stickers says "If you think the car is dirty, try a night with driver".  After reading the remainder of the car, I couldn't even look at the driver on the way past, and I never want to imagine what a night with the driver might be like!

What on earth possesses someone to adorn their vehicle in this manner?!

Brittish and Irish Lions

I was very lucky to even pick up tickets to this event, they were expensive, and sold out in minutes.  Suncorp Stadium isn't far from work, so we parked at work and walked up to the stadium.  We have done it stacks of times, but certainly not as the only two specks of yellow in a sea of swarming red.

The atmosphere was indescribable.  The heckling was constant, but good natured.  Over the course of the walk, I was led to believe that we would be lucky to even score a point, and I had wondered what the walk of shame back to the car was going to feel like with all of these supporters.

I have on the list of things to do a soccer match in England.  When I envision what this would be like, I can certainly relate to the atmosphere in the stadium on that night.  You could hardly see or hear an Aussie and the noise was constant and deafening.

Thankfully we did put up a bit of a fight, and the walk home was just like the way there! 


The next day I headed over to visit a friend and thought I may as well wear the jersey from the night before, as I had only worn it for a couple of hours.  The heckling from the sidewalk as I drove back through the city was a tad surprising!

Picking an Instrument

Hoping to pick up a spot at the esteemed Sommerville House for 2014, and knowing that playing an instrument will assist in the interview, Mum has finally insisted that an after school activity will be occurring.

After a small amount of consideration and knowing the two older boys both play guitar, it was an unsurprising nanosecond before the announcement came on the instrument of choice. 

So we headed out to pick up our own.  For girls the colour is everything, so she picked out a 3/4 number in just the right colour...well after Mum excluded both a red and blue ukulele!

The young male sales assistant, complete with a range of tattoos and piercings was surely surprised when I asked him to play twinkle little star.  His eyes looked very confused, but he ripped off his best version.  The child looked on with a frown.  When it was over, I simply stated "See it works just fine!"  I had an inkling that after the frustration of the first lesson kicked in, I was not going to be returning the guitar because it didn't work!

Aerosmith

As an Aerosmith fan from the 80's, it was with eager anticipation that I waited for this show to arrive.  My sister who accompanied me was fairly impressed about the whole thing.  This band has been around since the 70's, and Steve Tyler is 65.  This guy was amazing.  He must have an amazing level of fitness, and when dancing around in almost nothing, it was evident that he was in good shape for an old fella!

http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/33763



Encouraging Sport


As an avid fan of just about any live sport, it has been a humbling experience to have a child who has not yet grown to appreciate it!  Never the less, I have a plan.....buy a scarf and a season pass to the local team and take three out of the five family members who love it and cross your fingers!