City of Blinding Lights

This year's Brisbane Festival ended with a bang last night with Riverfire. It's an annual fireworks spectacular coupled with an aerial display that Brisbanites love.

I didn't go - I never have, as battling a crowd of 500,000 is not my idea of a good Saturday night, nor fighting people for a good viewing spot on Kangaroo Point. However, this year I did have a hankering to see the City of Lights laser display.

A few days of nagging later, husband agreed to take me. Conveniently, it was on every night of the Festival and completely and utterly free.

Arriving at Southbank, we were greeted with the dreamy sight of hundreds of strung lanterns lining the boulevard.

We then wandered over to the riverbank to wait for the laser show. I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't white lounges set up for seating! These all being occupied, C and I set ourselves up on the grass. I had brought mum's lovely good camera along and I must say, it performed very well considering it was at night, taking photos of lasers projected against water and smoke, and also on AUTO. 

I couldn't resist the opportunity to snap a couple of shots of the Wheel of Brisbane lit up in the darkness. How glorious! I can't imagine riding it at night though. I found daytime terrifying enough!

It was a fun, if short, evening. I never go south of the river any more, so this was a special treat. We even got ice cream on the way home.

And just because, here is the song this post is named after. When it plays in The Devel Wears Prada, just as the heroine arrives in Paris... sigh. My heart beats faster. I have seen it live too. Amazing.

Practical Prepping

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So this is not another post about meal prepping. It's about DOOMSDAY prepping.

My twitter followers know that husband and I do enjoy an episode of Doomsday Preppers. In fact, we have yet to get through an entire show without pausing it and having a lively debate about the pros, cons and practicality of some of the things we see on there. And sometimes just have a good laugh.

But seriously - we're getting some good ideas. I'm not embarrassed to admit we are doing a little prepping of our own, on a small scale, just in case.

I've posted before about our Bug Out Bags (or BOBs, though I swear to god I did not know that BOB also stood for something else when I wrote that post) but now we're thinking beyond that to food and camping gear.

The reason I think this is a good use of our time is sometime in the future we may be able to actually use this stuff for camping. Or in a post-apocalyptic zombie scenario. Whichever comes first.

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Today we were discussing freeze-dried foods and MREs so decided to get one from the camping store. We'd been pricing a few over the last 12 months or so, and picked up one which was two servings for $15. Yeah, I know. My justification? I spend more than that on KFC for us. Plus we were going to eat it for dinner tonight (providing it was edible), and all I had to do was boil the kettle and wait 10 mins! Bring it on!

I got to choose the meal type - it was a Thai Chicken Curry. And WOO-WHEE was it hot! But still good. I ended up being able to eat only half of my serve but C ate his and my leftovers. Good to know - that flavour will NOT be going in my Bug Out Bag.

I know some of you may think that we're kind of paranoid. But hey, we lived through one Summer of Disasters. If we get another, and the power goes out and/or we're isolated from services and shops? I'm going to be a heck of a lot less batshit crazy knowing we're at least a little prepared and have things like torches, batteries, radios, a gas stove etc etc.

PS - Queenslanders, just you watch - we'll get another little pamplet and fridge magnet from the State Government over the next two months telling us to prepare for storm season. I still have mine on my fridge from last year. And you know what it says? Always have at least 3 days of food and water on hand. Good tip.

New Toy

Since my parents are in Eastern Europe and paranoid about taking things worth money with them, mum has left me with her lovely Nikon DSLR camera. Don't ask me which one it is, all I know is that it has lots of buttons and I yell at it a lot because it won't let me take shots sometimes.

Now, I know some photography snobs look down their nose at anyone who uses a lovely DSLR with all the bells and whistles and continues to shoot on Auto (or the pretty little flower for close up things) but honestly? I looked up some photography stuff and it was all greek to me. I mean, I'm pretty smart but all the talk about aperture, depth of field etc really did not compute.

This weekend I got it out and played with it a bit. I took some stock photos for my Etsy store Little Moments Vintage, then went about the house and yard clicking happily.

 A lonely chair near the back fence. I have no idea where it came from or why it is there.

Playing with perspective.

Shadows - oooh!

 Don't my work shirts look so white in the spring sunshine?

 As you can see, some of my herbs are progressing better than others. you'll be happy to know I have transplanted the rocket in the hope some may actually survive.

I still can't get over the fact this camera has no trouble taking shots of things like flowers close-up on Auto.

Hubby working on a car - business as usual around here, whether it's ours or someone else's!

Today my other half abandoned me to go for a motorbike ride. After moping for a bit and loudly reminiscing about the times we used to go for drives together when we were dating, I pulled up my big girl pants and decided he deserved it after working hard all week. I was glad I didn't put on a sulk about it in the end, because when he came home this afternoon he was all grins and trying to tell me about how he gets a sense of 'calm' when he's riding the windy mountain roads. Bless. 

Anyways, I asked twitter what I should do all day to occupy myself and I got some wonderful suggestions - indulge in a mani/pedi, go window shopping, take myself to lunch, pull out an unfinished craft project. I identified a theme and decided to do something I always feel like doing on the weekend and never do - going to the coast. So I hopped in my little hatchback and drove myself up to Caloundra. Of course, I took the new toy with me.

I came to the conclusion that day-trips to the beach aren't as fun without someone with you. I was all self-conscious and a bit lonely with nobody to talk to. It reminded me of when my friend B and I used to pack some nibbles and go up there for the day, walk around, take photos and eat chips at Bulcock Beach. Maybe next time you're home from freezing ol' Blighty hey B?

What did you do this weekend? Do you think these pics are pretty good even for someone using Auto?!