Showing posts with label Queen Victoria Building. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Queen Victoria Building. Show all posts

Sunday, November 04, 2012

Fame is fleeting... and Blogger is slow!

Maybe you've been wondering where I've been?

Well, a few months ago, an automated message told me that neither Firefox nor Safari web browsers would be supported by the latest upgrades to Blogger and that, if I wanted to be able to keep posting efficiently, I needed to switch to, or at least install, Google Chrome. Then Google Chrome strongly suggested that I make Google Chrome my default browser. Mmmmmm.

Problem is, I really, really like Firefox - and my first attempts to upload (or link) to things like slideshows made with Flash suddenly weren't being supported by Google Chrome. Mmmmmm.

And everything seems to be running sooooo slow. Aaaarrrrrgggghhhh!!!!

These days I do spend quite a bit of time over on on Facebook and, when a FB thread would become noteworthy, I was often turning that into a more polished blog entry, but these recent changes to Blogger - and the agonising slowness of Blogger to load (especially when keyword searching for a previous blog entry in my History) - has stripped out all the spontaneity. If I can't find an efficient way to auto-synchronise Blogger, Twitter and Facebook, without my entries looking like bizarre cut-and-paste jobs filled with bad formatting and "@" symbols all over the place - I'm afraid time just runs out for well-considered, longer, funnier, blog posts. The art of commenting on blog posts also seems to have dried up in recent years. Again, the same anecdote or pic on Facebook will garner many more responses, even though my potential audience there is much smaller.

Anyway, braving the current mire that is Blogger and Google Chrome, I shall persist, and, if it works, I might try to find time to retro-add some old blog entries that have been stockpiling in my memory.

Ian 2012

A friend emailed me this morning to ask, "Did you read about yourself in 'Good Weekend' this weekend? I think you were the man in the leopard skin suit (jacket) in the story on Selwa Anthony."

OMG? The leopardskin print shirt I wore at last September's Sassy Awards? Off to the newsagents I went! Joe Bananas (of QVB) did say, when I bought the shirt on his strong recommendation, that it was a shirt that no one would forget. It kinda rubs it in, when I'm so far behind on blog entries. That shirt is old news now.

Okay, I'm back from the newsagent! He gave me the supplement for free because it was yesterday's news! Page 9, "Never-Ending Story"; Tim Elliott's article on Selwa in the "Sydney Morning Herald" magazine supplement. I guess I'm the guy in the "full leopard skin suit" who "nods hungrily" at Selwa's suggestion that we be "ready to dance". Never let the truth get in the way of a good anecdote. (Mr Elliott is in good company here!) Ha ha!

It's not my first time being featured in leopard skin, either, thanks in the first instance to Geoffrey McSkimming when he put me in a "School Magazine" play!

Lost librarians

Above: Thanks to writer, Geoffrey McSkimming, and artist, Tohby Riddle, I once featured in a "School Magazine" play ("Touchdown", Vol 87, No 10, Nov 2002, pp 341-346). The character of "Ian, the lost librarian", a Tarzan memorabilia fanatic (instead of "Star Trek"), appears in "Mr A at the Floor of Heaven, or, Not Quite Yeti".

"The misguided librarians are lost in the snow,
Dewey's their system, but snowy they go..."

Ian the librarian wears a spotted loincloth over his snow-pants, of course. He is one of those tiny silhouettes in Tohby's artwork, and was joined by my real life workmates at SCIS & "Scan": Anne (aka "Mrs Dowling"), Wendy and Deirdre.

Yes, fame is fleeting! And Google Chrome is slow.

Saturday, July 09, 2011

Chess master/busker

Chess master/busker
DAY 3

Spotted today at the QVB in the CBD. The chequerboard hat really makes it, I reckon!

Sunday, July 03, 2011

A bird in the crown is worth two in the hand

Bird in crown at QVB

This seagull was attracting lots of attention today as it stomped around inside the crown of the Queen Victoria statue outside the QVB in the CBD.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

"We feel very pretty."

Queen Victoria
The Queen Victoria statue outside the QVB (Queen Victoria Building)
in Sydney's CBD yesterday.


She's been decorated as part of the Sydney Statues: Project!, part of Art & About Sydney 2010. Her temporary robes were designed by Rachael Cassar and Liane Rossler with Michelle McCosker.

Usually, the good Queen Vic looks like this:

#68
17 July 2009, during my "365 Photos" project.

Other Sydney statues dressed up for the occasion include:

The other Queen Victoria statue - Queens Square - Designed by Linda Jackson
Prince Albert - Macquarie Street - Designed by Jonathan James as inspired by Jenny Kee and Peter Tulley
Captain James Cook - Hyde Park South - Designed by Ken Done, Bronwyn Bancroft and Eloise Rapp with Michelle McCosker
Il Porcellino - Sydney Hospital, Macquarie Street - Zoe Mahony
William Shakespeare Memorial - Shakespeare Place - Susie Rugg with Spoke & Spool
King Edward VII - Macquarie & Bridge Streets - Bronwyn Bancroft with Michelle McCosker
William Bede Dalley - Hyde Park North - Bianca Faye with Michelle McCosker.

Worth another trip into the city!

Monday, November 23, 2009

That was the week that was


#190

Stunning flowers fill the gardens around the base of old palm trees in the war memorial park halfway along the shopping centre on High Street, in Penrith. 16 November 2009.

#191

Jack takes "Tiger" to bed. Yes, the current "tiger" is actually a sheepskin platypus. Poor confused dog. 17 November 2009.

#192

These hardy flowers are in numerous commercial stores' flower beds in Penrith. 18 November 2009.

#193

Christmas decorations at the Queen Victoria Building (QVB) in the Sydney CBD. 19 November 2009.

#194

Home customised "Bear and Chook" Christmas ornament. 20 November 2009.

#195

Alien invasion of my bedroom. These little guys are from the "Toy Story" series of Pixar animated films, of course. The one on the mauve base is a very annoying talking night light. The other foreground alien is a bootleg battery operated toy from a bargain importer. The alien teddy is one of those collectible Japanese bears. 21 November 2009.

#196

Jack finally meets Wishbone at Mash cafe in Glenbrook. They were surprisingly well behaved while we ate breakfast. 22 November 2009.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

On the tiles

#158
Passing through the Queen Victoria Building, in Sydney's CBD.

This is one of those lucky shots. I was sitting in QVB, contemplating interesting angles, decided on the old, restored elevator or even a quirky reflection in the underside of the new escalators, but I felt like a stalker whenever pedestrians wandered into my frame. I left the camera app of my iPhone activated as I wandered outside, dejected, and suddenly noticed the amazing connection between the floor tiles and the chequerboard pattern on my Dunlops! Aim and shoot!

Friday, July 17, 2009