Weekly Photo Challenge: Silhouette

Sydney Opera House and City Skyline ©beeblu

Five favourites from this week

http://ohmsweetohmdotme.wordpress.com/2012/10/19/weekly-photo-challenge-silhouette/

http://wheresmybackpack.com/2012/08/24/silhouette/

http://warmhotchocolate.com/2012/10/20/weekly-photo-challenge-silhouette/

http://zainabdullah.wordpress.com/2012/10/20/weekly-photo-challenge-silhouette/

http://cjvl.wordpress.com/2012/10/19/weekly-photo-challenge-silhouette/

For more entries, see The Daily Post at WordPress.com

Weekly Photo Challenge: Mine

My ways of seeing are uniquely mine,

as yours are uniquely yours,

but we can learn a lot from each other…

A glimpse of the Sydney Harbour Bridge on the Kirribilli to Taronga Zoo walk

For more entries to this week’s photo challenge, see The Daily Post at WordPress.com

Weekly Photo Challenge: Everyday Life

Early morning swimmers – Bronte Beach Baths, Sydney
©beeblu

Our quotidian rituals

bring discipline,

structure

and joy

to our hours;

they are the anchors

of our existence.

****************

For more entries to this week’s photo challenge, see The Daily Post at WordPress.com

Feeding Time on the Golf Course

“I think I spy a worm…

“Got it!” 

“Pssst, Horace, I think we’re being watched.”

“Oh for goodness sake, Edith, stop imagining things and eat your dinner…” 

“Mmm…I think I spy a plumper morsel over there…”

“nom, nom”

Click here for the Animal Olympics

Weekly Photo Challenge: Dreaming

For me, dreaming is about possibilities, and none so wonderful as those brought by travel.

I became a xenophile at around the time I started school, and dreamt of going to live in exotic places, mostly Japan and rural China, and of flying off to wonderful cities, such as London, Tokyo,  Amsterdam and Marrakech. Years on, and living in a different country, I’m grateful that I’ve been fortunate enough to travel to many parts of the world, and to have experienced incredible adventures and fascinating cultures as a result.

And the dreaming continues – I’ve yet to get to Japan or China 😀

To dream is to travel: to travel is to realize a dream

On these themes, a re-post of a poem I wrote a while ago –

Dreams of a Love Gourmand

He ate Suzi’s paella

and dreamed of Impanema,

of romance in Marbella

and Rio de Janeiro

He ate Fleur’s rindless blue,

his dreams were psychedelia,

he dreamt he was Theroux,

da Vinci and Ophelia

He drank Ping’s green absinthe

and dreamt he was a fairy

with eyes as green as minthe,

his wand, a blue canary

He ate Fang’s chou dofu,

her durian, then balut,

and napped as King Shi Chu

at war with King Canute

He ate Ann’s cherry duck,

nightmared of Gordon Ramsay,

who served confit of muck

with jus of some philandery

Then came Maeve’s Irish Stew,

no dreams his sleep disturbed

and as he woke he knew

his food of love’d been served

**************************

And for the Aboriginal peoples of Australia, Dreaming has a very special meaning – it encompasses beliefs about the origins of the earth, the stars and all living things, and the connections that exist between them, and is brought alive in wonderful stories, art and music. You can read more about the Dreaming and the Dreamtime here.

For more entries to this week’s photo challenge, see The Daily Post at WordPress.com

Weekly Photo Challenge: Summer

The Surfers’ Code – Manly Beach, Sydney

(The poem below is a re-post)

Suburban Summer

electric light show

rumbling closer,

scented star jasmine

mingling fragrance of rain,

thrum of cicadas

blending languid laughter,

glasses at the hills hoist

toasting vintage summer

—x—

See the Daily Post for more entries to the Weekly Photo Challenge: Summer

For Frizztext – Traffic Solutions

Image

Aussie Duck (waterbus) on Sydney Harbour

This is related to a recent post by Frizztext.

Frizztext, this is actually not a common mode of transport in Sydney but a tourist attraction – it’s an amphibious craft that would cost far too much to run as a regular transport option, but if they could make smaller personal craft like these, it would be a fantastic option in this city because of the size and reach of our magnificent harbour.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Celebration

21 years married today –

cause for celebration,

wouldn’t you say?

😀

xxx

Because it’s my wedding anniversary today, I’m celebrating my other half by posting some photos he took

on another day of celebration – NYE 2009

Sydney – NYE 2009

Sydney - NYE 2009

Sydney - NYE 2009


A slice of a Sydney weekend

Breakfast at Via Del Corso?

mmm, not quite breakfast

that’ll do the Man

fruit fit for bees

it’s a beautiful day for a boat show

to play tourist and reflect on the harbour

and the city

do some shopping

don’t forget to buy The Big Issue

(step away from the cupcakes!)

have lunch

spicy chicken laksa

and head off to friends to watch the rugby

Sometimes

Sometimes,
we turn away from work,
inhale others’ gardens,
look out at iridescent birds,
shapes cast by the sun

Sometimes, we ignore our chores,
cycle the distant suburbs,
look at how another tenth live,
eat exotic foods on the streets

Sometimes, we forgo the car,
ride the ferries and trains,
look for treasures in labyrinthine shops,
play tourist for a day

Sometimes, we shun the inner life,
chase the little white ball,
look right, look left  (up at that thieving crow),
rarely straight down the middle

Sometimes, we blow the budget,
wine and dine on the Quay,
watch the passing parade,
the city at play

Sometimes, we forget ourselves,
lie outside in the dark,
look up, and beyond
to the edge of the universe

and close our eyes
in peace

If a tree falls in the woods…

I broke my only rule for this blog, which was to never post anything other than poetry here,
and let’s just say (euphemistically so) that it didn’t quite work out.

But, as someone once said –

One must suffer for one’s art.
(Or was that, “One must suffer one’s art”?  🙂 )

Poetry does not require an audience but a competition requires a winner  (usually) and, as yet, and maybe forever, this one has none. However, in the interests of fairness and squareness, not to mention officialdom, it must be properly concluded with a closing date,
winner or no.

So, the closing date for the Easter egg hunt (sort of) competition

is midnight 8th May, 2011 (Sydney, Australia time)

Best wishes

bb

and, now, back to what I came here for…

One does not love a place the less for having suffered in it unless it has all been suffering, nothing but suffering.”

Jane Austen, Persuasion

City Style

Midday,

it’s lunching,

suited in boardroom sociopathy

By 3pm, its black sartorial

boredom hangs

in downtown coffee bars

The city, at 6, loosens silk ties, casts lustful

stares across crowded pubs

Its throaty, pashmina’d laughs drift

over footlights at 8,

Around 10, it’s sporting fusion-cuisined

energy and scent of MSG

Overtimed road-crew neon reflects

stumbling stillettoes,

come midnight

And at 2am, it’s pyjama-shuffling

its drug-coma’d streets,

mad-haired, in the darkness

But you’ll find it

just before sunup,

reposed against periwinkle sky,

at its naked

best