Brisvegas – photo essay from the Gold Coast

by Cellobella on Saturday, December 4, 2010

Photo essays seem such a cheat don’t they? Not many words…

Citycycles seem a clever way to get around

This was the first thing I saw on arrival in Brisbane.

I love the idea of citycycle.

I wonder how well it works.

The view from Mt Coot-tha

We went up to Mt Coot-tha for the spectacular views.

The colours in the sandstone seemed artificial

The amazing colours of Brisbane sandstone look as if someone has dyed them.

Our team at the lookout

This is our team.

This is me not deciding which photo to show

Don’t you love the curves in this building?

Groovy apartment building in Broad Beach

On the way back to Brisbane we went shopping on the Gold coast.

The apartment buildings are fabulously over the top.

Mile after mile of hotel apartments

It’s as if all the architects in Australia went on holiday on the Gold Coast and over a few bevys let their imagination run wild.

Now normally you wouldn’t see me up at sunrise but this day the fire alarm went off.

The bloody fire alarm got me up early to catch the sunrise

And went off, and went off.

So I got up early.

It was of course a false alarm.

Rainbow Beach maybe

The first night we had dinner at the Rainbow Beach Surf Club.

Good food.

Fantastic view.

Fail: Tattoo on - Tattoo off

This amused me.

Tattoo parlour with tattoo removal joint a few doors down. LOL

Were they that bad?

The heads at Tweed Heads

This is the view from our balcony.

Not bad eh?

My hotel room

And of course the obligatory bedroom pic.

We stayed at Tweed Ultima and the apartments were very nice.

Photo essay from Esperance

by Cellobella on Thursday, November 25, 2010 · 2 comments

The colour and clarity of the Southern Ocean is to die for.

I love Esperance.

The water is so beautiful, the beaches so white, the rocky outcrops so… rocky.

If only the sharks weren’t so big, the water temperature so low, the wind so… windy.

Of course being a bit of a space geek I also love that Skylab fell on Esperance.

Seen on the side of the Skylab museum

I’ve been meaning to go to the Skylab exhibit each time I visit… maybe next time.

The museum is open from 1.30 to 4.30.

I wonder about this advertising campaign though.

Are they promoting the fact they have very officious rangers?

Not much litter around though so perhaps Keep Australia Beautiful should think about a similar campaign:

“Don’t litter or we’ll sic the Esperance rangers on you!”

It's a windy place old Esperance, so I imagine this was used well

Yep it’s a wind radar.

Not really much more to say.

An amuse bouche on the menu at the Tearooms

This did amuse me as I ordered my bacon and scrambled eggs and long black coffee.

Oh which reminds me of the coffee I had in Mandurah on the weekend – I asked for a long black and clearly confused the waitress who served my black coffee in a tall clear glass. LOL

The view across the bay from the Tearooms.

It was 37 degrees in Perth this day and about 25 in Esperance.  Mild and overcast.

The pine trees were planted as a navigational aid – you can kind of see why here.

Ahhh Esperance.

I hope to come back soon and next time maybe go to see what’s left of Skylab.

Sweet sixteen but has he been kissed?

by Cellobella on Wednesday, November 24, 2010 · 5 comments

Well as if I would know, I’m only his mother!

five months old

Five Months Old

Opening of the Graham Farmer Freeway

Opening of the Graham Farmer Freeway

At Rally Australia

At Rally Australia

sliding across lake deborah

Love this one, sliding across Lake Deborah

Mates

In our kitchen with his mate

Leaving for India

Leaving for India

So has he been kissed?

Watch the video to find out. :)

Cloud street

by Cellobella on Tuesday, November 23, 2010 · 1 comment

Cumulonimbus cloud bubbles up above the horizon

Look out the window, they cried, look at the clouds!

Well it is not often that my colleagues are inspired to look at clouds and so I thought they must be pretty spectacular, but it turns out that they just thought I’d be interested because I am a cloud geek… actually I do like taking photos of clouds.

I rushed to the huge office window and looked down Royal St – and indeed the cumulonimbus clouds were pretty impressive.

Not impressive enough for me to actually leave the building to photograph but impressive enough for a quick pic through the glass.

No rain though.

Tomorrow night I’m off to Queensland for the GNOT finals.

I bet there’ll be rain on the Sunshine Coast.

First day of the first test ALWAYS rains.

If you’re lucky, I might even take a photo of the storm clouds.

:)

A shameless plug for a nasty character

by Cellobella on Monday, November 15, 2010

Groover... is Mr Williams in The Beat Goes On

Groover is in another play – The Beat Goes On – which opens this THURSDAY at Camelot Theatre in Mosman Park.

The play is really three one-act plays all, as you might imagine from the title, about police work in the home country.

Groover is in the third of these plays, directed by Sinead Bevan (the co-director of his last play Arsenic and Old Lace) and he plays a nasty piece of work.

Mr Williams is a thug.

He’s been arrested countless times and always seems to get off on a technicality – the police powerless to do anything about it and forced to be polite and over-courteous all the time.

Honestly, practicing his lines with him, I just wanted to slap him!

Still it is quite amusing and thank goodness this time at a theatre closer to home – although he has some performances out at Midland as well.

I’m going both Friday and Saturday nights - hopefully I’ll see you at one of those performances!

Book here.

Could Christmas decorations in Perth be more lame?

by Cellobella on Wednesday, November 10, 2010 · 6 comments

Sigh. So lame.

I’m sorry but isn’t this the boom state?

Could we not do something a little more classier?

I know that everyone has those old tinsel trees ready to throw on the verge and therefore the City of Perth is doing us a favour by recycling them but please people!

Surely we can do better that these, discovered at the corner of William and Hay this afternoon.

It’s not like they are traditional – no sentimental value here to warm the cockles of my jaded heart.

They are just crap and ugly.

(in fact Worst of Perth, you must be close to doing a Christmas special no?)

How I long for the fairy lights of New York and London.

Yes yes it is dark there just after lunch and we need something down in Sandgroperland that will stand out in the bright sunshine.

Surely it can’t be that hard.

Boughs of holly or some other dark green foliage… maybe something native?  Or those leafy red flowers that are around at Christmas time… poinsettias.

They look Christmassy and you could always add fairy lights for night-time.

I know it must be hard but year after year I am embarrassed.

To call them more appropriate for a country town suggests they have some rural charm.

I’m not sure even the most impoverished town would want them.

Of course… I could be wrong.

And goodness knows we could spend the money elsewhere.

In a way, I’d rather they didn’t have any decorations at all.

Bah humbug!

Just call me Scrooge.

It’s only November after all.

Lame lame lame

Stage kissing – not a guide

by Cellobella on Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Backstage at a New York Minute

So as you know I have recently been in a play – a wholly improvised play – at Subiaco Arts Centre, and Saturday night’s performance took me back to an audition I had when I was about 15.

15 and NEVER been kissed.

In the audition piece I had to kiss my lover.

WTF

Well having NO experience in the matter – such an innocent – I delivered a rather chaste little kiss on the lips of this much older man.

No no no! Said the director…

Kiss him like you mean it!

Needless to say I didn’t get the part.

Now, you would think, me being much older and more experienced in the way of kissing, if the situation were to happen again I would be fine.

I know what to do right?

Well the other night I watched my fabulous colleague – one who can actually act pucker up and ravish all the leading men – boy can that girl deliver a believable snog.

And she says to her on stage lover that he has to do the same to me.

Maybe I would have been less apprehensive had I no warning.

This poor boy, twenty years younger than me then has to kiss me and I…

!!!

I don’t know what to do.

I am 15 again.

As awkward as a teenager on her first date.

Luckily I have a blue feathered fan to hide behind.

A shame really.

It’s not often one has the legitimate opportunity to snog a young man…

Despite my parents sitting in the front row, I really should have taken advantage.

Video trailer for In a New York Minute

by Cellobella on Friday, November 5, 2010 · 1 comment

Courtney Sage Hart is one of the actors in the show I’m in – In a New York Minute, the Spontaneous Insanity production at the Subiaco Arts Centre.

The first three shows are sold out, and there is one extra show on Saturday night (which I am also playing in) at 10pm. Book here.

Anyway I think Courtney has got a brilliant future ahead of him in film making… check out the trailer he made above.

Meanwhile with opening night behind us – we are gearing up for tonight’s show.

I don’t know whether to be scared or excited!

Thank goodness I can rely on the rest of the ensemble.

They are amazing.

Trackside at Karrakatta

by Cellobella on Thursday, November 4, 2010

Karrakatta from the tracks

Another incident stopped the trains last night, well, stopped the Fremantle line, and this time I was on the train.

The train stopped about 25 m shy of the Karrakatta platform.

The driver’s voice came over the PA – “Passengers.  There has been an incident and the train will be stopped for a while.  Please be patient.”

(or something along those lines)

Of course most of us can guess what that means.

A short time later fire and emergency trucks started to arrive, lights flashing, and we could hear people shouting along side the train.

Couldn’t really hear what they were saying though, and we couldn’t see down the train to what the problem was.

Then an announcement came over that we should stand back from the doors which were going to be opened and a fellow jumped in and said that “Obviosuly there’s been an accident, please be patient, and you probably don’t want to look out the windows on the left hand side.”

Well of course then most people looked out the windows but from our carriage – the front one – you couldn’t see anything.

Then followed a period of waiting with emergency personnel running up and down alongside the train.

Then the lights went out.

I saw a blanket being passed down.

Someone running by with a kit of some kind.

Lots of shouting.

Eventually we saw people walking past which is when we realised they were evacuating the train carriage behind us.

And then we saw a ladder come past and we were asked to go to the front of the carriage to disembark.

We used the ladder to hold onto to jump safely to the ground with the help of tough looking emergency officers… tough but gentle.

And walked along the track to the platform where more emergency officers were standing by to help us up.

I thought they might debrief us but instead we were asked to move to the side of the road where busses would be coming to take us down the line.

They were very efficient in getting us all off the train safely.

I forgot of course to “tag off”.  (For non-commuters – you tag off with your electonic smartrider card to show that you’ve left the train)

In the end I got a lift home with a kid who had got his mum to pick him up.

In fact, turns out I knew her from my kids’ first school.

Small place, Perth.

You just have to feel sorry for the family and for the poor driver.

A taste of summer

by Cellobella on Wednesday, November 3, 2010 · 2 comments

Random beach photo

This blog is fast becoming a weather blog.

(I suppose a one time weather girl can be excused)

But it’s HOT today. 

Really hot.

36C kind of hot.

Oh sure we’re expecting a cool change overnight and it’s only one day… but still.

36 degrees.

It was hot waiting at the train station, and the cool airconditioning welcome on arrival at work.

There are fires today at Red Hill, Eneabba and Wagin and they are just the ones I know about.

Suddenly I’m not looking forward to summer.

…

Although it would be nice to be on holidays near a beach…

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