da Scriffles

This peep hole is in the hoarding at the street level above the hole in the ground - what you see walking along Ann Street. The Cathedral on the hill view is from a street below.

Wanted to publish Dorothea Mackellar's My Country - which I would have thought belonged to Australia not to "estate" - but they reserve the right to refuse use.

""Dear Lisa,

Thank you for your enquiry.

I have contacted the Estate regarding this permission. I will get back to you when I get a response.

Regards""" - - - 

"""Dear Lisa,

I have received notice from all of the beneficiaries and in this case they are not willing to grant permission. I am very sorry if you had your heart set on this but we must respect their decision.

Best wishes  ----- """ 

"

Next time you're standing at a bus station and you raise your hand to hail your bus only to stand helplessly by as your bus goes past without stopping - smile. Maybe it was this bus from heart and soul and it wasn't your time. This bus picks up it's passengers only when it's time to move out of this world and on to the next. I just wonder - if this wonderful feel-good movie's central idea were real - what does it mean that Brisbane has buses that go missing leaving passengers stranded in queues 60 deep at the Queen Street bus depot. Where did that bus go? (The bus comes at the end of the clip)

And then how is it that three buses - two of them the 176 - can turn up at the same time at 7.30am at Holland Park park'n'ride. Apparently, the three buses blocked the entry to the park'n'ride guaranteeing that at least one passenger could not park in order to catch his regular bus. So goes the story told me by a gentleman who sat next to me the night we all stood bemused waiting for that missing bus at the Queen Street bus depot (I don't call that place a station it's not worthy of such a title). Let's call Sir David Attenborough to study the bus ecology. Let's call a clairvoyant! Let's call the Ghost Busters! Someone must have the answers. Or are all of us passengers just ghosts - I think some bus drivers are ghosts of people. I feared for one young man who was extremely polite and helpful because when he looked in my eyes I saw a ghost of man. I include the next video simply to show a great actor in full flight: Robert Downey Jr before he was Ironman. He does it so well. Something to think about when you're on the buses of Brisbane - to ease your pain. A-ooooouuuuuw!

Stradbroke Weather: Squalls from Lisa Yallamas on Vimeo.

Two whales frolicked in Brisbane's Moreton Bay off Brisbane but the beaches were closed. Squally weather marred the first October weekend on Stradbroke Island.

As we waited in the car in a queue for the Big Red Cat - a ferry - the kids were concerned about driving a car onto a boat.

"Can we move around?" "Do we keep our seat belts on?" "Are you sure we can drive on to a boat?"

The Big Red Cat has a little cafe that does a roaring trade and has an enclosed observation deck as a major drawcard - why else would you pay $20 for hot chocolate and tea for five people? The view. 

The cafe was calling completed order numbers out before the last car drove on to the Big Red Cat! I felt sorry for the old Stradbroke Island Ferry - we dubbed it the Blue Dog.

The Blue Dog chases the Big Red Cat over Moreton Bay ;) 

Whales too far off for a Flip camera - which is now dead. Interesting phenomenon with Flips you erase the video and it tells you it's still a full disc.  

I found the word "cripple" falling from my lips when explaining to a child what a buggy was doing driving down the middle of the airport corridor.

"It transports cripples and old people" - I blurted as we hurtled towards the Gate 19 - still under my own steam at this point thank-you very much, not riding the buggy yet.

I expected to be pulled up for being politically incorrect but I was wrong.

"What's crippled?" - was the child's response.

Well, there you go! - a little voice in my head exclaimed - Social engineering actually works.

The word "cripple" makes people cringe - it's so poignant and emotionally charged.

Well, not to this generation of little people. All those years of struggle to weed the word out of the vocabulary has actually worked.

And yes, the Oxford Dictionary says the term is no long acceptable as a noun referring to a person. 

Disabled person is usually used instead. 

I remember schoolyard bullies and jokers taunting kids with the word "cripple".

I'm betting the existence of golliwogs that this kind of behaviour still goes on today.

Has the extermination of "cripple" really changed society's perceptions? 

A leopard doesn't change its spots and human beings aren't born gracious.

Can social engineering actually change the human race - not just the vocabulary?

Well, shortly after (as we wait for the plane) the kids are stretching their lips tight across their faces and laughing.

Offensive behaviour - racist behaviour - they were making fun of the shape of African people's lips.

A UNICEF poster featuring two African children was pasted on a bin - the poster was about poverty, the kids were on about appearances.

Social engineering can't breed out comparativism - the human race learns about itself and the world by comparing itself to everything.

(( And yes comparativism is a word - as is *antidisestablishmentarianism*. 

I learned this word from the kids who explained that their friend found it in an advanced dictionary. ))

Civilization governs us with laws - it tries to cripple the basest qualities of human nature.

Reminds me of There Will Be Blood - starring Daniel Day-Lewis.

But you have to believe in something beyond the law when it comes to walking the walk : character is revealed in what we do when no one's watching.

Spirituality requires us to over-ride instinct it seems - and apparently people today apparently are hungry for spirituality. I'm not so sure about that either.

The Chambers Dictionary of Etymology dates the "noun" back to about 1200 as "crupel... related to cryppan to crook, bend.

It became a verb "to lame or disable" in 1694.

So it took us 810 years to decide that the word cripple causes hurt, discrimination and alienation - not people.

Interesting. Don't you think? 

When it comes to Brisbane's suburban sprawl the egg's been cracked already but when it comes to a truculent Flip Video Camera there's a solution.

So I learned why the Flip Video Camera tells me it's full even after I've deleted all the video.

You have to delete every single file - not just the video files but also all the Flip programs that are installed on the camera when you buy it. Pretty scary huh?

And then you take the trash out after deletion. So then it prompts you to reinstall the updated programs - if you're connected to the internet. 

You start from scratch with a set of new files.

For a time there I feared you had to throw the thing away after using it up - since that's what happens with most consumer products.

Just had to throw out a printer because of a paper jam. 

Here's a shot of Brisbane from a Qantas flight. Qantas must have the flight path right over the city because Virgin never takes this path. Pretty ugly huh?

Every year I make a Christmas print. They make nice icons.

This year I thought it might be nice to take some of the wonderful drawings my nieces have on their fridge and turn them into Christmas pillow slip prints.

What do you think of the result? Do you think they'll recognize them?

Couldn't resist my own composition though - the squashed bug and the koala wolverine.

Two days work. Made extras to sell at the West End markets for $15. If you're in Brisbane and you want one.

Just look for the jam lady - that's my mum. She's got a new batch of marmalade and apricot jam too.

"One needs a fast flowing river to avoid the corrupt air produced by stagnation." _ Leonardo da Vinci

Perhaps the Murray-Darling River slow death is a fit icon for our times - stagnation is a killjoy.

The poor old river system which "flows" through four states and feeds the food bowl of Australia has suffered from salination, been choked by algae blooms, almost stopped flowing entirely until the recent rains and now this issue of humanity releasing its grip enough to let the river flow is a HUGE, huge issue in Australia.

We should be thankful that we do not have economic stagnation - zero growth - just like the United States. Or worse face bankruptcy like Greece, Portugal and Spain.

But what about cultural stagnation? I think we can honestly say that we do not have political stagnation given recent election results.

Still, there is much fear and fear is a big reason for cultural stagnation - institutional culture, school culture, artistic culture ... you add your twist if you want...

I seem to go through my life at the moment flabbergasted by the stagnation of culture at all levels of society - but this blog is inspired particularly by the stagnation (no, failure) of service culture.

It's a radical really: low service standards existing beside a rampaging consumer culture.

Consumer culture rages down the canyon of our lives like water in a gutter in storm season. Can you see the billowing purple-green clouds containing hail?

People talk about a two-speed economy - the mining states booming versus stagnation in the non-mining states. Supposedly mining states like Queensland have an unfair advantage.

It certainly doesn't feel like it in Brisbane where the streets are clogged with traffic, the bills go up and multiply while the jobs don't really seem to be flowing freely any more.

I found government statistics predict hail season in the mining states which have drawn labour away from the non-mining states but have had a significant cost of living or CPI rise as a result of prosperity. 

Yes, it creates employment but eventually when you can't find people to fill positions in mining and non-mining states ( there are labour shortages everywhere ).

Big department stores like David Jones and Big W are like ghost towns - the staff are like ghosts you can't find them anywhere. 

I stood at Big W's "service" station for 15 minutes and pressed the red button several times before giving up on the weekend. 

Today, I tried to get my motor mower repaired. The local guy is booked to January. There's a 10-day turnaround at the place in nearby Springwood.

And if you want to set your graduating child up in a surefire business - have them train as a pooch groomer because they are booked up a month in advance. HUGE shortage: never mind nurses, plumbers, doctors, electricians ...  

Is a fearful, closed-door policy for a small Australia sustainable? Reading these stats, it seems not. Sure this report isn't the latest but I defy you to argue that a stagnation in innovative thinking and action will not lead to "sustainable growth". It'll be like Brisbane the capital city of a mining state which is now choked by traffic, formerly known as Australia's "most livable city".

Is Australia going to like Big W and David Jones stores in future? People standing around waiting...

Oh there are so many ways to slice this sticky Pavlova but perhaps we need a Lamington instead, huh?

Thank God Jamie Oliver is in town!

Never used iMovie before - so easy!