Brisbane perspectives.

I'm sitting beside the Brisbane River enjoying the sunny view and a cafe latte. (Brisbane finally knows how to make them.) I'd forgotten how much brighter than Melbourne the mornings are. Sleeping past 7:30am without comprehensive blackout curtains, even in May, is an impossibility. So even though my breakfast date is  not until 11am, I'm up, checked out and sitting by the river.

A favourite thing of mine is to visit markets and the Brisbane Riverside Markets were a huge sprawling cornucopia of handmade artisan wares. I expected to easily fill an hour and half but have been disappointed. Perhaps twenty stalls exist, some of them lovely, but most selling junk. Perhaps the online shopping revolution has hit here too.

The Story Bridge looks more serious by day. Its structure black and grim, contrasting with the clear blue sky and sparkling water. The river beneath is busy with traffic - ferris zigzagging from one side to another while cars cross the river above.

Just before 10am my phone tells me it's currently 22 degrees Celsius, yet a man sits at a nearby table wearing the strange combination of skimpy shorts, thongs and a polar fleece jacket. I'd forgotten the craving for seasons that one gets living somewhere like this. During the week, I saw women on their way to work defiantly wearing knee-high boots, scarves and coats. I watched them, dressed in a summer dress.

As I walked in this morning, the river was on my left and the skyscrapers loomed on the right, their footprints substantial, standing solidly, in contrast to the mercurial water opposite. They look so clean and impossible. It must be the space around them that makes them seem bigger than anything in Melbourne.

Three metres from where I sit, a white-haired woman has paid a woman with a matching hair-do to tell her fortune. Her husband has opened his wallet, handed over the cash  - and his wife - and made himself scarce. The two women look like old friends meeting for coffee.

My weekend has been filled with friends and food. I love living in Melbourne but I do feel a tug whenever I come back to Brisbane!

Refractions
© 2014 divacultura 

Refractions II
© 2014 divacultura

How was your weekend?

My favourite things this week

Today I played the role of a woman whose partner has some kind of cardiac event before her very eyes, about four weeks after open heart surgery.  Luckily, I had the pleasure of working opposite a man with whom I work regularly and is a good friend.  We drove in together and started to play our characters from the moment we greeted each other.  We were asked several times during the course of the day whether we are partners in real life.  Other people who knew we weren't continually stated that we looked like a couple.  I'm constantly amazed by the power of acting and it's always fun to play scenes like this with a person you know.

Working out how to delete books from my Sony e-reader is a major achievement.  There are forums all over the internet and none of it made much sense.  I just started pressing buttons on the reader and it worked!  This is my standard approach to technology and it generally works.  A known issue with the reader is that it will sync multiple copies of each book from the software on the computer to the reader.    Apart from being annoying, it meant I actually ran out of space on the reader.

Related to that, I thought I had an SD card in my reader, but discovered that I only have a piece of grey plastic, shaped like an SD card.  One of my favourite moments!

The change of season from summer to autumn is finally happening.  We had rain, wind and cooler nights.  I even turned on my electric blanket last night before I went to bed - just to take the chill off the bed.  It's always fun to rediscover the rest of the wardrobe - all those gorgeous scarves I've knitted.  It also means I don't resent the days I have to wear a suit for work.

I recently discovered the band, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals.  I've been listening to the album all week on LOUD.  They're great!

This morning I didn't have to start work until 10:30am so I was able to sleep until after 8am!  Bliss after a series of 5:30am wake ups.

How was your week?

Christmas windows - how do they happen?

As I walked out of the building after 6pm today where I'd been working with a corporate client, a team of about twelve people, dressed in yellow high visibility vests, were putting up the Christmas tree.

There they were, a strangely mismatched family.  There was one woman amongst eleven men and she was busy unpacking the boxes.  The men were busily unfurling the branches and leaves of the Christmas tree itself.  The frame for the tree was standing ready and it was very large.  I wondered how long it would take to erect the tree, let alone to decorate it.

Two older men were standing up and deep in conversation as they fiddled and twiddled their sprigs of spruce.  Another young man, sat to one side, grimly intent on his task.  There was something incongruous about the men at this task, but I can't quite work out what it was.  It made me smile.

I remember putting together my brother's Christmas tree last year.  It was very large, but it took quite a bit of time.  Not reading the instructions or having an understanding of the basic shape of a pine tree  made the task more difficult.  It may have taken me about an hour.  I can't imagine when the task will be finished for these workers.  The tree was probably going to be five times larger (at least) and there would probably be hundreds of pieces to put in place.

I wonder whether these people like their work.  They may be staff of the organisation, but they looked more like a team of people who go around doing window displays and it just happens to be Christmas displays at this time of year.  I wonder if they enjoy their work.  Do they take pleasure in this seasonal tradition?

I imagine them returning to a home bare of any decoration.  Certainly there would be nothing requiring assembly at their place.  I wonder what they gather around on Christmas morning at their place.

Personally I enjoy the colour and cheer Christmas decorations bring, but I don't often decorate my own home.  I don't like the waste and consumption that often goes with cheap, quick decorations.  I'd rather have one, very special, treasured ornament that is displayed each year and carefully laid away until the following year.

Gone are the days of spraying "Santa snow" on the windows of the house.  It's summer here, so that makes no sense at all!  But I do love to put some Christmas music on the stereo to sing along to.  I know it's inconsistent, but imitating Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" croon, makes me feel silly and Christmassy.

What's your approach to Christmas decorations?  Do you have a tree?  Real or plastic?  How about lights?  Do you drain the eastern seaboard of electricity when you flick the Christmas switch or perhaps you light a candle with a thought of someone special?

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

My favourite things - this week ( in pictures)

Lygon Street Carlton
(c) divacultura 2012

You never know what you'll see.  I was on Lygon Street in Carlton on Monday afternoon when I saw a man dressed as a cowboy riding his horse down the street!

Spencer Street
(c) divacultura 2012

 The city was shining in the weak morning sunshine, helped along by the rain that had fallen.  The view from the top of the escalators at Southern Cross Station was beautiful.  The streets look silver.

Wood 'book' panelling
(c) divacultura 2012

I visited the city library today to collect my reserved copy of "Savages" by Don Winslow.  (Need to read it before I see the movie.)  They've had a makeover.  There's sculptural wood panelling that's in the process of being installed.  It looks a bit like books.  The timber is from trees that had died within the City of Melbourne.  A great way to give them a second life.

Shoe parade
(c) divacultura 2012

Waiting to cross Collins Street at Elizabeth Street today, I noticed the bright yellow snakeskin shoes worn by a man wearing orange trousers and a navy blazer.  If he had turned around and was wearing a cravat I wouldn't have been surprised.  At the same lights was a woman wearing an incredible pair of shoes with rectangular, diagonal heels.

Spring glimpse
(c) divacultura 2012

On a very cold day, at the end of a very cold week, I was happy to see this little green sprout, evidence that spring is here.  Really.

Evil flowers!

While the spring flowers and grasses are playing havoc with my immune system, they are very pretty to look at.  Here's a sample of spring in Yarraville.

(c) divacultura 2012

(c) divacultura 2012

Breaking through
(c) divacultura 2012

Waratahs
(c) divacultura 2012

Wild footpath
(c) divacultura 2012

Countdown to winter.

There is half an hour left of autumn for the year.  In thirty minutes it will be winter.  Officially.  Mother nature blessed us with a final, stunning day, representative of the best of autumn - clear, blue sky, 18 degrees Celsius, still.  I knew it was going to be like this, so I had the washing machine going early to maximise drying time out in the air.

My kitchen faces north and at this time of year, on a day like today, if I position a chair just so, it is like a sun room.  So I do.  I pull up a chair and I roll up my sleeves and I take some sun.  As I write this, I'm mentally making a note to ask my doctor whether I can absorb vitamin D through glass.

The phone was working overtime today.  This morning it was so constant that I didn't have my shower and get out of my pyjamas until about noon.  It wasn't because I was lazing about either.  I was working.  Being able to do it in your pyjamas is one of the joys of working from home.  I don't work in my pyjamas on a week day very often.  Even though I have lovely pyjamas, I get dressed for work as part of gearing up mentally.

Anyway, I was drying off after my shower when I heard Skype calling on the computer.  My brother and I work together via Skype and usually we've made a specific time to meet.  I went out to answer the call - it was my brother - and almost accidentally pressed the "answer with video" option.  Thankfully, for everyone, I didn't.  Dashing naked from the shower to the desk at home is one thing, broadcasting via Skype is a whole other ball game.  Everyone is okay.

I had some errands to run and took advantage of the day by walking the long way round.  Crackling and swooshing through the papery autumn leaves is another one of my favourite things to do.  It took ages for the leaves to change and fall this year and now suddenly, on the last day of autumn, there are plenty taking up the footpaths.

Heading to St Kilda this evening was gorgeous at about 5pm.  The blue in the sky was darkening, tipped with blush pink and highlighted with golden streaks.  Being in slow moving traffic over the Westgate Bridge did not bother me one bit when there was a sky like that as backdrop.

After dinner with a friend and opening night of a play, I was looking forward to a quick trip back home.  My hopes were dashed when I turned on the car radio and heard that there had been an accident and the Westgate was closed in both directions.  I sighed.  I would have to drive the long way around.  Instead of 20 minutes, it took 40.  Five minutes from home I was pulled over for random breath testing. I'd had no alcohol to drink yet I still feel hot and guilty whenever I'm pulled over.  They're streamlining too: no questions about what I'd had to drink tonight.  Straight in with the request to "blow until I say stop".  I always run out of breath and then fear inadequacy.  I'm an actor and a singer for goodness sake.  I have more breath than THAT!

With twelve minutes to go before winter's arrival, I'm happy to be in my electric-blanketed bed with its white sheets and big, square pillows.  I imagine how much more I will appreciate it in winter.

My favourite time of year

Autumn is the very best time of year in Melbourne.  The sun shines and there's a refreshing crispness to the air. It's possible to go outside without living in a hay fever haze. Layers and layers and layers of clothes are not required and we don't have the notorious four seasons in one day which afflicts Melbourne in spring.  The nights are lovely and cool and clear.

If it was possible to have autumn all year round, I would be happy!

I haven't seen the colour of autumn yet, which is amazing because we're half way through.  I did notice that the bright green leaves I featured in this post in November last year have faded a little.

Summer juiciness (c) divacultura 2012

Faded glory. (c) divacultura 2012

But it's the same stunning blue sky. And we're heading for 25 degrees Celsius today.  Perfect.