Crazy Clark's

This is Crazy Clark's Discount Variety Store in the basement of the Big W building on Queen's Street in Brisbane. Actually, I like Big W better. Big W is the discount section of Woolworths. It is a little higher quality than Crazy Clark's but doesn't suffer from the high prices you see at fancy name brand places like J C Penny or Sears. My kind of place...

Butterfly and Lantana

OK - I am back to taking some nature photographs again. This butterfly was checking out a lantana in bloom on Mt. Gravatt. Lt. George Gravatt was commandant of the penal colony here in 1839. Today there is a radio tower up on the summit and you have a view back towards Brisbane. There is also a nature park where I photographed this butterfly and the lorakeet below.

For those interested, the butterfly was about a meter away when I took the picture. Click on the picture so you can see it larger (but much lower resolution than the actual picture since I have reduced the size for faster internet transfer). I really like the texture in the leaves and note the way the veins in the butterfly wings match the color of the flower beneath. I took some other pictures of this same scene and each one shows a little different detail of the insect with it wings up or down, above or below the body. Neat...

Lorakeet

This lorakeet was in a tree about 30 meters away. I took the picture with my Nikon D200 with the tele zoomed out to 250 mm - equivalent to 400mm on a 35 mm camera. The picture has been cropped but that is all. I was pretty surprised it came out this sharp since the camera was hand held.

Lorakeets are parrot like birds that are sized in between parakeets and parrots. There were two of them in this tree sitting fairly close together but I couldn't get a good shot of both of them together.

Woman and Dog

This woman and her dog were enjoying the sunshine at the Scottish Festival on South Bank just down the river from the apartment. Scotties have a well deserved reputation for good temperament. I can't imagine too many other dogs happily wearing this outfit and a funny little furry hat. They weren't alone though...

Aussie Rules Football - Breaking Through

Here we are at an Australian Rules Football, start of the game, with the Brisbane Lions (Go Lions!) breaking through the banner. Australian Rules Football is not Rugby. It is played on cricket grounds and might be described as a cross between soccer, rugby, and maybe some American football mixed in. The ball is oblong and yellow. There is kicking (lots of it), running with the ball, a kind of punch pass, dribbling, and tackling. You have to kick the ball through posts to get points (outer posts are 1 point and inner posts are 6 points). The action never stops, and it has four 30 minute quarters.

Lions Fans

Fans like to get dressed up for the game and this gives you an idea of the stadium. It is round, and completely surrounded by the bleachers. It was a pretty cold evening and a bit windy. Here in Brisbane, we consider 50 degrees F a pretty cold evening :-)

By the way, this picture was taken at the bar which overlooks the grounds. You can order beer, wine, or a mixed drink, and there are plenty of delicious junk food offerings like fish and chips, sausage rolls, and such all around the stadium.

Lions Vs. Power

This gives you some kind of idea about the action in the game. Lots of running, passing, etc. Especially lots of running. It is more like a marathon than a sprint.

It was an exciting game. Brisbane started strong and fell behind by about 30 points at half time. They struggled until the 4th quarter where they made a tremendous effort and tied the game at 105 - 105 with only minutes to go. Unfortunately, the Power scored 7 points in the closing minutes to prevail 111 - 105. David ranks the game below basketball but above baseball. I think it is as enjoyable as either one of them. The players don't have to be large and endurance is at least as important as speed. Interesting game...

Possum Eye View

Here is a possum eye view, actually two possums, entering a garbage can in the park. I was walking home from work and heard them in the can. When I walked over, the one at the top popped his head up to look at me and then turned back to the business at hand. The fellow below him never looked up. I just stuck my camera out over them and snapped their picture...

Pelican Art!

Now this is real art. We also have the goofy modern style that nobody knows what it is. But this is cool! Click on the picture to enlarge it and you will see that the guy on the left has a propellor for a tail. Nice...

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Mr. XXXX

Melbourne's got rain and Sydney's got yuppies,

Tassie got the chop and we got lucky,

Nobody does it like up here does it,

We love it up here,

We don't just like it, we love it!

We don't just like it, we love it!

We love it up here,

The people the places, the mates the faces,

The XXXX, yep, the beer up here, we love it up here!

XXXX jingle, early 1990s

I am tiring of taking artistic pictures of cities at night so I am switching to poetry. If the poem above doesn't make sense, try drinking a few beers. I twisted the beer cap in this picture off a bottle of XXXX and quaffed it just the other day. The same Mr. Fourex in his jaunty boater hat is visible on the brewery in Milton a pleasant walk from the apartment. He might have been modeled after a fellow named Paddy Fitzgerald (a lot of the convicts who came to Australia were Irish) or he might have been based on a well-known dwarf who sold newspapers in Fortitude Valley in the late 1920's based on my research. Nobody knows for sure...

Brisbane in the Rain

It was a wet and windy night...

Brisbane at Night

I like my new Nikon D200 camera. It does all sorts of tricks. Look behind Yebisu for cool pictures of David at the barbie and standing on the balcony. The trick here was a slow shutter, a bounce flash, and for this picture a wide angle lens.

I still take most of my pictures with my Canon point and shoot because the Nikon is so much bigger and heavier. I do like it though...

Brisbane on a Cloudy Day

Brisbane Central Busines District (CBD) projects out on a long lazy bend of the Brisbane River. From the balcony of the apartment it looks likes a city on an island.

Houston in the Rain

I like taking pictures of cities at night. This was taken right after the ballgame and there was a slight drizzle and a really gloomy look over downtown. I took my little Canon point and shoot, braced it on a chain link fence, and shot.

Ballgame

Here is a self portrait (I'm holding the camera out in my right hand pointed back towards us) of Cody and I at Minute Maid Ballfield watching the Astros whip up on Seattle.

Brisbane Fireworks

The other night there were fireworks again on the river. I don't know why. The River Cat that ferries people home from work is stopped in the river in the foreground waiting for things to let up. And there are fireworks being lit off of one of the buildings downtown in the right background also. Celebration is good...

Brisbane Sunset

This picture was taken upriver off of the apartment balcony in the same direction as the one above at sunset. It has been cloudier of late, and as such, there have been more colorful sunrises and sunsets. Natural fireworks... Having water outside your window seems to make things more interesting. It leads your eye to the horizon and people, the landscape, and the sky seem tied together. I like it...

Brisbane Possum

The first time I saw one of these little guys I thought he was a small racoon. Their color is a bit like a racoon and their rear legs are longer than the front so that they walk with their butt up in the air like a racoon. No mask though.

This fellow was in the park about to partake of his evening meal. He is sitting on a garbage can and climbed down in it just after I took his picture. They are marsupials and nocturnal just like North American possums. I think he is a little more handsome though...

XXXX Maroon

XXXX (4 eks) is the favorite beer in Queensland. Q: Why is it named XXXX? A: Because Queenslanders don't know how to spell beer.


And did you notice that the color of Queensland is maroon? This is deja vu all over again. The poor Texas Ags are grossly maligned and rally under the maroon flag too. The little guy wearing the straw hat is the XXXX mascot and XXXX is the local beer. Kind of like Shiner in Texas. Queenslanders are considered the hicks in Australia and they are fanatic about Rugby (thats what this banner is all about).

The Origins game between the "Maroons" and the "Blues" is at least as big as the turkey day game between Texas A&M and Texas. Obviously, as Queenslanders and Aggies, we are for the Maroons. Go Maroons! And don't forget to stop in at the local pub for a XXXX to get in the proper spirt :-)...

The Reason I Fish

I take lots of pictures and usually there are only a couple that are any good, maybe none. My definition of a poor picture is one that doesn't tell a story that I really connect with. On some occasions, I end up with more than a couple that I like and there is a tendancy to want to post all of them. But I think if you can condense a story down to one, or sometimes two pictures, that is best.

This last week Jack, David, Cody, Stuart, and I took another fishing trip - this time to South Louisiana. You can't go any further South. Now, I like to fish. If you have fished with me you know that I usually try to be the first one with a hook in the water, to keep the hook in the water when it is not in a fish's mouth, and be the last one to reel in. But that isn't the real reason to go fishing.

The two pictures I am posting here sum it up best for me. First of all, it is fun to get together with people you enjoy and go fishing. Stuart and David arranged a hardhead catfish tournament one night and you can tell we enjoyed it in this picture. The second reason is that it is just good therapy to be outdoors. It is hard not to relax viewing nature, a sunset, or wildlife. I enjoyed seeing the two pelicans below after visiting with a couple of them in Australia a few weeks ago.

Now you may be thinking that I am just writing all this about nature and good company because we didn't catch any fish. But we did! The first day we caught more than enough trout for the freezer and the second day we were fortunate to catch some large redfish and release them. Stuart caught the biggest hardhead, Cody caught the most hardheads, Jack caught the biggest redfish, and David was one of several claiming to have caught the biggest trout. I got the most pictures (there are a few more behind Yebisu). And we all enjoyed just getting out...

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Pelicans - This time near Cocodrie Louisiana

The brown pelican has made a good comeback after almost going extinct from DDT in the 1950s. These two fine fellows were sitting on piles near a small wellhead platform in an open bay enjoying the sunshine and people watching.

Good Luck

It's nice to be appreciated and get recognition from admirers.

Nachos

In a restaurant called El Cholo in Los Angeles that is supposed to be famous – the claim to fame comes from serving stars such as Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty, Michele Phillips, Nolan Ryan, Marlon Brando, Madonna, Elizabeth Taylor, George Hamilton, Tom Hanks, etc. - they have information on the birth of the nacho. Namely, it is stated that one Carmen Rocha from San Antonio, who joined El Cholo in 1959, started making something called a nacho and that the restaurant brought said appetizer to fame

Based on my own exhaustive research, taken from the Texas Journal published May / June 2007, I can report the true story. In the early 1940s, Ignacio “Nacho” Anaya worked at the Victory Club in the Mexican border town of Piedras Negras across border from Eagle Pass, Texas. He was the only employee on duty when some women came in for a snack. In the blink of an eye, he tore corn tortillas into triangles, fried them, topped them with cheese, and placed a slice of jalapeno on top.

The women called it Nacho’s Especiales. It was soon shortened to Nacho and the new snack was born. Of course there was nothing wrong with Carmen taking it to Los Angeles in 1959 but it should be known that El Cholo didn’t have much to do with the regional delicacy that has swept the country.

Anyway, the food was pretty good there. And the weather was nice. And David graduated from college!

Buddha's Birthday

It was Buddha's Birthday here in Brisbane (and elsewhere) and we had a celebration. There are a lot of Chinese people here and there was a festival on the South Bank just down from the apartment. Here is a picture shot from our balcony of the fireworks.

Winter is supposed to be coming but it is still a good 30 degrees C during the day (86 F). Tomorrow is labor day here in Queensland (vs. the first of May everywhere). Anyway, I have the day off. The thing to do on long weekends around here is to get outside (I played golf) and go barbeque. The city has put barbeque in lots of nice places, including along the river, so everybody barbeques. Hope you are getting outside too...

View from the Terrace

Brisbane is such a beautiful city and there really is a lot to write about. I just don't seem to have the time - what a poor excuse. Anyway, we have managed to find a place to live and this is the view off of our balcony. Amazing isn't it? The only downside is that there is a fair amount of road noise from that bridge if you are outside. But with the door closed - hardly anything. And with this view, who is complaining? Not me.

The bridge is Captain Cook bridge and the land mass across the river is called the CBD - Central Business District. The river snakes throughout the city and divides it into smaller communities. The lighted cliffs at the far right are on Kangaroo Point. Just across the river from us, the green area is the Botanical Gardens. I work in one of the high rises on the right side of the CBD. It is visible in the picture but not prominent. The lighted bridge in the background on the right is the Story Bridge. The large bridge on the left in the background is Victoria Bridge and the small pedestrian bridge in the foreground on the left is the Friendship Bridge. That is how I walk to work. It is a nice place to live...

Brisbane

Brisbane is a really pretty city especially along the river (this view is from the park). There are lots of parks and open spaces and there is a mix of high density apartments and housing. It feels more like a big town than a city in many ways. But it has good public transport including river ferrys, trains, and busses. I'd like to maybe live along the river and take the ferry to work...

Pelicans - Manly Australia

A wonderful bird is the pelican

His beak can hold more than his belly can

He can store in his beak

Enough food for a week

And I don't know how the hell he can

Or something close to that...

Ogden Nash

Australia

It's been a while since I've written but here are my first impressions of Australia. There is a lot to write about and with time maybe I'll get to write it. This is a wonderful place - nice people, great climate, beautiful countyside, and good food and drink too.

But the two things that are most striking to me are the wildlife and the scenery. I don't have any good pictures of the birds but they are really amazing. There are cookaburras, parrots, cockatoos, magpies, and I don't know what all. You see kangaroos on the golf course and giant lizards on the sidewalk. Scrub turkeys are everywhere as are ducks and cranes. I've seen pelicans and reef fish. Everybody loves the outdoors here....

North Stradbroke Island

North Stradbroke Island is a short ferry ride across Moreton Bay from Brisbane. It is beautiful, relatively undeveloped, and unspoiled. It is an amazing place and yet so close to a large city. At certain times of the year you can see whales off this penninsula.

One Last Photo from Qatar

Here is one last photograph from Qatar. These are the people who started in Japan and followed through to construction. The flag has the signatures of everyone who was present in the front end of engineering. The red figure being held above the flag is Daruma-san. You may remember that we had a ceremony when the contract was awarded and one of Daruma-san's eyes was painted in with a wish for a successful project. I didn't get to paint his other eye in on completion, but I am sure that with this group it will be done. Best of Luck!