There's so many things in this world that fascinate me, these are some of my favorite things.
Wednesday 31 December 2008
Bedknobs & Broomsticks
Over the years I’ve revisited the movie a number of times and still think it’s an enjoyable piece of art. Originally Walt Disney had planned to do this movie as early as 1964 (the film wasn’t made until 1971. Author, P. L. Travers was proving difficult during pre-production of Mary Poppins so Walt quietly was planning Bedknobs should Mary Poppins fall through.
Occasionally, out of the blue something will catch my attention…I discovered that the Walt Disney Studios Archives occasionally display a number of movie props at the offices. I was surprised to see the actual bedknob and book, The Isle of Naboombu (vital to the movies plot).
A few years ago the movie was restored to its original running length with many deleted sequences restored for the first time since the movies original preview. If your looking for some light weight entertainment…revisit Disney’s, Bedknobs & Broomsticks.
Thursday 25 December 2008
Dreaming of Jeannie No Longer!
Santa was spot on this year! Santa arrived (dressed suspiciously like a person working at FedEx) with the complete series of I Dream of Jeannie. So what!? The packaging from Sony is the famous genie bottle. I’ve been toying of buying a replica bottle for years – but I’m glad I held out. The US packaging is so well designed and thought out it was hard to refuse. The episode guide is clever as it’s all printed on special trivia cards, again with rare photos. Should I lift the cork and see if Santa gave me Barbara Eden as well? It’s all too much!
Monday 22 December 2008
my work gets creative
Every year at work I seem to assume the role of “person in charge of Christmas festivities”. I don’t mind. It’s fun to keep coming up with creative ways to keep the staff amused and merry. Last year I initiated a Christmas Coloring Competition. It was to help celebrate our Christmas Pageant’s 75th anniversary. They were giving an outline of one of the Pageant horses to colour, or, to be as creative as they like. One lady had clipped her dog and glued dog hair all over the horse. She didn’t win but won something special for being so creative! Skip forward one year…staff approached me with the question, “what are we coloring this year?”…somehow I think I seem to have started a tradition. Bearing in mind that these people are adults, I was more than shocked (and secrtetly delighted!). I decided this year would be a choice of colouring a tree, an elf or a goofy Santa hat. Nearly everyone participated, and again, brightened up our work environment with some great artwork.
Being that my work is incredibly tight with money, we needed a fresh approach to decorating the office. I found some small DIY cardboard trees for $2.00. I gave the staff the concept that it could be decorated “in a creative style of your choice”. They were perfect to decorate the office with. Surprisingly, some of the trees found their way into the boardroom for the AGM. The board had no idea the staff had created them. Once they knew, the board took a walk around admiring the other staff made trees.
I was pretty impressed with their talents. I wonder what I’ll have them do next year?
Sunday 14 December 2008
it's christmas time
If you've found this through my flickr site you might get the vague notion that I like Christmas. It's nice to give a house a complete makeover for a few weeks (or months in my case)...it's okay putting everything up, but removal is a thing I detest. Today the tree came down. Sad but true. The cat found the aluminum (or aluminium, depending on what country you live in) tree just a little too delicious. Metal in a cat's stomach don't mix. Fearing the worst, I decided I love the cat more than the tree. A lot more. For the first time I'm tree-less. I refuse to put up the big tree. It takes three days to decorate and with Christmas so close it means it would come down about 3 weeks later. That's not going to happen....maybe I should buy a real tree. That would be a first for me.
Friday 21 November 2008
it's back!
Saturday 18 October 2008
Creative Christmas Photography
So when it comes to photography it's all about photoshop. Here is a vintage Hallmark Christmas stocking holder. I decided in my mind he should be sitting at the North Pole on an iceberg resting from his festive duties.
A white sheet became the backdrop, a shopping bag became the iceberg and the North Pole was the kitchen table. A few simple camera clicks and then it's off to the process lab known as photoshop! I was pleased how the final image ended up.
Wednesday 17 September 2008
goodbye sky streak elevator
Saturday 6 September 2008
royal show memories
Not many kids would be allowed to roam the showgrounds on their own – I was a lucky one. I think I spent most of my time in the Show bag Pavilion. I was never one for the rides. They were for the older kids. I’d walk around seeing how much things cost – trying not to impulse buy – and then return to get what I wanted. If I was tired I wander to sit and watch the fashion parades or back to my fathers stand only to unload my purchases before heading out again on another shopping spree.
When my father wasn’t working he’d have his Standard 8 movie camera with him, he filmed some things at the show, (these screen captures from the mid 1970’s) without his films I doubt I’d remember The Wombles helping the Kesab (Keep South Australia Beautiful) campaign.
The showground’s have seen many changes over the years. Who remembers the Rothman’s Theatre, Hamilton Hall, The Alpine Chair Lift, the original Motor Pavilion (demolished to make way for the Jubilee Pavilion), Centennial Hall, The Savings Bank of South Australia with the giant Humphrey Bear sign?
Sunday 17 August 2008
bad luck for some
This, believe it or not, was my works mascot for a number of years. It was deemed ugly by just about anyone who looked at it. Then, its worse fate came when someone called it a bad luck omen. We'd put it on people's desks (or close by) and the day would usually be a disaster for them. He was about to thrown out when we moved, naturally I nabbed it because when someone least expects it...it's going back to work so its reign of terror can begin again!
Wednesday 13 August 2008
cooking like mom used to cook
For many years this book has been in hiding. My mother purchased this book in the early 1970's. I grew up looking at the pictures often asking her to make something that caught my tiny eye. I'd forgotten how many recipes she used from this book - many more than I thought. Although my mother passed away in 1976, I can now sample some of the food I grew up with. It's the funny thing about food, the taste can instantly bring back long forgotten memories. I doubt it will ever look as good as the pictures, or taste as good as my mother made, but hopefully it can come close. If not, I will always have the pictures to look at and a chance to recall dinners past.
Have you ever checked out old cookbooks? You should, the food, the pictures, the typeface, it’s all classic and often quite comical.
Sunday 3 August 2008
here today...gone tomorrow
Tuesday 29 July 2008
bye bye starbucks
Much like the American downsizing it seems as though Australia is now affected by Starbucks closures. I'll miss my local Starbucks, mercifully, Sydney Starbucks seems to be still alive & kicking, it'll make trips there extra special.
I feel sorry for the staff.
Monday 2 June 2008
universal studios burns
Sunday 1 June 2008
play loud
The B-52’s have released their ninth album, Funplex. I have to admit, it’s been a long time coming. 1992 was the last original album. We’ve since had 2 ‘best of’ releases, one featured 2 new songs but it’s nice to have an album with 11 new tracks. They haven’t lost their touch for great party music. Grab it and party the night away.
Saturday 19 April 2008
what a carry on
It's been years since I sat down and watch a Carry On movie. For some unknown reason I stumbled across a delicious box set of 18 movies - all fully restored and with amazing bonus features. Each film has its own commentary track - 13 episodes of the Carry On TV series from 1975 - on set photographs - trailers and so much more. The set was advertised on Amazon.co.uk for ₤125.00 but I managed to find it on hmv.co.uk for only ₤17.00. Well worth buying at that price!
Sunday 30 March 2008
luna park
Whilst in Sydney I purchased the Luna Park DVD - Spirit of the Carnival and Just For Fun a book by Sam Marshall. Both were a wonderful insight into the history of Luna Park. I discovered it started it's life in Glenelg, South Australia, but with constant moaning from the local government and residents, it was packed up and moved to Sydney.
Luna Park is probably the one park in the world that can claim to have been opened, closed, opened, closed, bulldozed, rebuilt, closed, opened all in the space of 73 years .
The Spirit of the Carnival was a great accompaniment to the book with much historical footage and great interviews with people who helped shape the park. Both the book and DVD are highly recommended. You don't need to travel to Sydney to purachase these, they are available from the Luna Park Web Site: http://www.lunaparksydney.com
Monday 24 March 2008
sydney, australia
Sydney was great. I found everything really easy to navigate & the people very friendly. Sydney Harbour was just beautiful - so photogenic. Hyde Park was a nice place to relax after long treks around the city. We worked it out that I covered approximately about 50km on foot on the first day. I needed to rest. The Opera House is incredible up close. Wandering over the bridge was great - you can really appreciate the work that went into building it. Luna Park was quiet, but mercifully it was open so I got to see most things. I even got to witness the bats flying around at dusk – pretty cool!
And did I manage to photograph everything I wanted? I sure did!
Tuesday 18 March 2008
my amazing race
Sometimes with me things may take a while. I’m now hooked on The Amazing Race. It’s exciting, fun, stressful and highly entertaining - & I’m just watching. I seriously doubt
Friday 14 March 2008
Sunday 24 February 2008
the amazing race
Since New Years Eve I've become hooked on The Amazing Race (it was my show to watch on New Years Eve when eveyone else was out seeing in the New Year.) It's possibly one of the best reality shows around. Sure, some of the contestants get testy, some downright annoying, but mostly they are a joy to watch. It's a show where age is no barrier (unless it's something extremely physical - but hey, look at Gretchen, in Season 7 - she abseiled a wall in no time)
Other countries have hosted their own version. Why can't we? I want Australia to have their own version. I want to be on it. I want to be testy and down right annoying!
Saturday 5 January 2008
going nowhere
Funny thing the new year. You can never expect when life will throw one of those unforeseen twists. The holiday that was planned for August and September has now been postponed until July 2009. On the positive side I’ll get to be in the States for Independence Day. This is good.