textish tuesday (heat wave)

Text #1 "We be stttin in the sun for last 20 minutes. Bus peeps getting edgy. 4 buses in front not moving. At least I have music. And air con. Hope you have better luck with the computer man"

Text #2 "saw the Morning of the Earth article after you told me. Mentioned Nat & Mark Warren but nothing of Queenslander MP!!"

Text #3 "Beautiful day. Crystal clear and flat asa tack. P came down yesterday and didn't take board off roof."

Text #4 "Do you have my copy of Ocean Rhythms? Can't find it anywhere"

Text #5 "Shot some iPhone video as the bus cruised through the cultural wasteland that is The Valley"

Text #6 "Happy New Year guys. I'm DYING here. Didnt get to be until 6am,,,having a bit of the hair of the dog now...hopefully it helps."

Wednesday Wordage

Some time ago, I picked up a neat game called "what's your story?" by Corban & Blair. Essentially it's a bunch of cards that have diferent questions on the back. You shuffle and then pick one to share with a group of friends eg card might say "my best holidays have been . . ." and you tell a story about that and then your friends add their adventures.   It's a great concept for sharing a yarn and for elderly folk to engage with younger folk - everybody gets to share a tale or three.

Now they have a travel version of the card pack with questions like "Who has been your best travelling companion?" It reminded me of hitchhiking and some of the strange characters you meet - and sometimes escape from, like this one night I was trying to get from Lennox Head to Ballina. 

After the usual theatre where cars would slow down as if to give you a lift and then take off after you run up to them while yelling abuse, one pulled over with a bloke at the wheel and a very pregnant, chatty lady in the front. "where you heading? Ballina. Hop in."

We were in the middle of nowhere on a dark road in the middle of the night when it dawned on me that the guy was not fit to drive and I resolved to get out of there as soon as some semblance of civilisation appeared. Luckily there was an all night style fuel stop/diner on the outskirts of Ballina. I said farewell to the couple and thanked them for the ride when the very pregnant lady hopped out as well.

I didn't recall them having any harsh words and this was no place to give birth. She tells me then that she was hitchhiking to Sydney and was glad to get out of that car. I wonder what became of her and her baby?

Rough & smooth

Xmas Shopping

Monochrome Monday (Aqua tints)

textish tuesday

Text # 1
"Yeah you better be into r and b and hip hop by the time i'm back. and house!"

Text # 2
"Time for you to go home and be a productive member of society again"

Text # 3
"Expect to hear that you jogged home in preparation for Maldives"

Text # 4
"Worked from home yesterday and surfed K's . South swell and north winds, perfect arvo"

Text # 5
"Your handwriting analysis fails dismally. Did you have a nice time at X?"

Caffein, craziness and commuting

It's been a crazy hectic week. I feel like I've been hit by a bus.

The only things that have kept me going during these surf doldrums have been great coffee, witty colleagues and my bad dress sense.

I believe a road trip might be required.

Have a great weekend, wherever your woody takes you.

Keepin it green

Hope you have

a green weekend.

Strictly Commercial

There's a cornucopia of television beamed into the Brinecave, free-to-air from both the commercial networks (with sundry banal advertising saturation) and from the government run channels. The latter often gets an unfair description as stodgy, elitist or just boring. 

Fortunately, the good folk at the Australian Broadcasting Commission have decided that surfing history, may be a part of the artistic and cultural evolution of the "youth scene" and have promoted a brilliant surf exhibit at the Museum of Sydney called Surf City based on their scene. According to MoS's blurb: 

"Boardriders, shapers, writers, cultural stirrers and everyday waxheads with attitude and sun-tanned bodies shook up the conservative city and created a new culture of freedom and hedonism."

Check the museum site here.

Check the ABC's tight little video here. Stomping optional.

Bristol x Brine

"I lived up at the Cross in a cheap hotel for a month and then found an apartment at North Bondi. I loved it and would have stayed there for life, but then I remarried and had two kids and I've got parents who are getting older here in England, so that's why I'm here." Geoff Barrow of Bristol trip-hoppers Portishead on why he lives there and not at the beach. Either way. they make beautiful sounds and play the Harvest Festival circuit later this year. 

Out of tune

Album of the week is The Beagle and the Dove by the John Steel Singers. I had a good listen to this CD last night on the big Denon and was magically transported away. It's one of those albums that you discover you like the more you play it. 

I would be playing it again on the commute today but I have lost my iPodsky and a good pair of noise cancelling headphones. So I am tuneless. Instead having to be content with the existential banter of my fellow wage slaves. 

If you would rather have your tunes live and free, then get to the Peregian Markets after show - all ages, dogs, smokers, locals, tourists kicking back on a Sunday arvo. You might see my mate H selling wooden barrels or even Coolum lad Luke MacDonald, guitarist from the John Steel Singers.

Boat x Boogie

Green Flash

Most afternoons

we would anchor

somewhere safe

head up to the roof

have a drink

talk story

and wait 

for the sunset show.

We were

never disappointed.

Once I thought

I saw

a green flash

just as the sun 

wobbled beyond the horizon.

Young x Fever

In the liner notes of his 1977 anthology album Decade, Neil Young stated that he wrote "Down by the River" and "Cowgirl in the Sand" while delirious in bed in Topanga Canyon with a 103 °F (39 °C) fever. So I'm making an effort to land some type here despite feeling the same on a cold, wet spring morning.  I can barely click the mouse. Don't know how he did it.
Pic below is our surf guide from last week, Stumpy. He sure could sniff out the perfect take off spot and find the odd Maldivian barrel as well. I can't sniff anything at the moment. Lasted two days on The Commute before succumbing to some sort of energy sapping, nose/throat/head cold bug thing. So grateful it happened AFTER the trip and not during.

Pirates

Mono Monday

Just got an email from one of my "shipmates" asking this question, "Why is my office swaying?" After a week on a boat riding currents and waves in the Maldives, I'm in the same boat, so to speak. The wooden kitchen floor is gently swaying back and forth like our galley. Great mates. Great trip. Some memories to share over the coming weeks.
Public confession of dropping in once. Thanks Bill. What a wave!

Long Grain

One for my colleague Gina, who is managing the chaos while I'm on holidays. And to all the other smorgasboarders out there, have a great weekend. (Forecast for Male 28 degrees C)

Short Grain

soon to leave in search of some uncluttered, whackable walls

Kneelograin

"The whole discussion of whether an image is manipulated or not is an outdated one that belongs in a photo department at a newspaper in the ’90s. I think it’s more interesting to observe our overflow of images and the fact that every man can call their self a photographer. Out of all these images, how much can we absorb and how much will we forget?"

 photographer/artist Peter Funch 2011

This post dedicated to Queensland DisAbility Action Week and the surfers with disAbility and still charging no matter what. Legends!!