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...

V = 8799

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 :-)...