Playing the game.....

I'd like to say I've spent the last two days lying on the sofa watching the Olympics but as it turned out I didn't even get a chance to watch the opening ceremony. We decided to tackle a huge project in the back garden, three big trees and a 20 year old vine that felt it had every right to be there and fought for it's life with a passion. To cut a long and gruesome story short after a two day battle we won the fight but not without injury! I'm lucky I have the best physio ever and after she worked her magic on my knee it was time to restore my equilibrium with a walk (limp) around the marina..you might not think it but it is still winter here in Australia, it was 23C today. As for the opening ceremony, I'm not devastated about missing it, I'm going to be brave and put it out there, I love watching the pride of the athletes as they parade into the stadium, I love watching the games but as for the hoopla, call me crazy, I'm of the mind that the money spent on trying to impress (that includes Australia) could be well better spent, when did it all become about the big show instead of playing the games! Hope you had a super weekend and good start to the new week, take care.....p.s these winter swimmers/sunbathers have got to be tourists haha!

Not a bad spot.....!

Even when it's freezing the walk along the West Coast road in the evening is pretty special.. definitely more exhilarating, we have to pick up the pace a wee bit just to keep warm! Aimee and I have a certain spot that we walk to (above), stop, admire the view for a few minutes before we head back. I caught this reflection in the window of one of the many beautiful homes we pass along the coast road, what amazing sights they see each night. Are you all looking forward to watching the Olympics? I am, most of it probably in the middle of the night, ahh! the joys of living in the second most remote city in the world, we're even two hours behind the rest of Australia! I'm tossing whether to set my alarm for 3am to watch the opening ceremony as it happens or watch the replay at a more civilized time!! Hope you have a wonderful weekend, take care and you know....keep safe!!

Life's a Buzz..Drive thru it !

Found in a car park near you, well maybe not you..but me!! Good coffee fast, that's what Muzz Buzz (fun video) is all about. Started in Perth in 2004 and now over east as well, this franchise business is usually sitting slap bang in the middle of a shopping centre car park. You might  think that coffee from a drive through couldn't possibly be up to much, but the creators of Muzz Buzz have gone to great lengths to develop their own unique blend, I've tried it, it's good! This one's for you M la Vache of the Holy Cow Coffee Co. fame, fast coffee Australian style oui! Happy Friday, hope you have at least one 'buzz' today!! Take care.....p.s. I like that the clouds positioned themselves nicely above the 'coffee cup'.....!

Culture 'squared'.....

Mon dieu it was chilly yesterday morning, less than 1 degree, ice on the windscreen cold.. that doesn't happen very often here in Perth! Soaking up a little 'culture' is a good way to spend a chilly winter's day and just over the Horseshoe Bridge in Northbridge you will find the Perth Cultural Centre where, apart from the Art Gallery, Museum and State Library the central area is the venue for many community events throughout the year as well as the urban orchard where children and adults alike are encouraged to get their hands dirty and help plant each seasons new crops. The Centenary Galleries above and below, formerly the Perth Police Courts was restored and re-opened in 1995 and is the Art Gallery Admin Centre as well as housing historical artworks from the 19th and 20th century.

You can see on the map below how conveniently the cultural centre is organized.....

Below, the newer and more contemporary Art Gallery of WA opened in 1979, the art gallery was originally housed in the Jubilee Building (see Monday's post)......

The State Library of WA the building to the back of the picture below also houses the State Records Office of WA and the J S Battye Library.....

This heritage building below built in 1896 was home to Perth's Boy's and Girl's School for forty years, and from 1957 the Perth Technical College. When the TAFE moved out in 1988 it became, and still is the home of the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts PICA for short!

Well that's the buildings of the Perth Cultural Centre, and surely that's got to be a record number of links even for me haha!  Sometime soon I'll visit again and take some 'inside' shots..Hope your week is going well, take care.....

Seen in Subiaco, 'Arty Brellas'.....!

This isn't the 'culture' follow on that I mentioned yesterday, it's been one of those days and I haven't had time to Google all the links necessary for that one, you know what I'm like with my links haha! Keeping to the theme, street art is a culture all of it's own and in Subiaco, one of Perth's lovely older trendy suburbs, you know.. little art galleries, book shops, boutiques, antique shops and cafes, you can come across fabulous surprises like this quite unexpectedly! I hadn't seen the mural above by Tricia Stedman who runs Arty Brellas Workshops so I think it must be fairly new, I love the whole ethos of Arty Brellas and admire people who involve themselves so generously with the community. Below is a glimpse into an art gallery that we passed by, some very bizarre and wonderful objet d'art ici oui! (worth while enlarging to check it out, is that young girl smoking a pipe!!!).

and around the corner a colourful 'Picasso' like display down a laneway off Rockeby road.....

 

On the other side of the laneway this rather scary face painted on a meter box, saved only from being totally menacing by the grinning cat sticker and 'where's Wally' down in the left hand corner, see him down there. Makes you wonder what the heck THAT was all about! I hope your Tuesday was a little less frenetic than mine, here's hoping for a tranquil Wednesday, take care and keep safe.....

Byzantine Beauty.....!

Dinosaurs aside, this building is so big it's impossible to show it all in one hit! The older parts of the museum consist of the Jubilee Building above, built in the Victorian Byzantine style and opened in 1897, and the old Perth Gaol (up to the left) built in 1854, after the last prisoner was sent packing down to Fremantle in 1888 it was known as the Geological Museum before officially becoming the Western Australian Museum in 1897 (there's a super panoramic view on the this link).

This fabulous staircase leading up to the original museum is no longer used, such a shame, I think as youngsters it would have been terribly exciting climbing up these steps to see strange and exciting things don't you agree! The two older buildings are adjoined by the more modern glass entrance below. Even though we're in the middle of winter you can see from the glare spots there's a lot of sunshine around, still chilly but not complaining about that! The museum is part of the Perth Cultural Centre which I'll follow on with tomorrow. Hope your week has started well, take care.....

P.P. Squadron.....

Spotted as we were leaving the Perth Zoo yesterday morning after our four monthly fossick around the Leederville Camera Market (purchases: two new portrait filters and a necklace made from an old film spool for Aimee, total spent $20.. lusted after IF I had a spare $600, a limited edition white Pentax with matching white lens!). If you check out the map below you'll see that just as you enter the zoo on the right hand side there is a lake where we spotted this group of six pelicans, I googled and discovered a group of Pelicans were called..a 'squadron', would six Pelicans constitute a 'squadron' I wonder! I like the way Pelicans seem to always keep an 'eye out' even when they're tucked in. Hope you had a good weekend, happy Monday.....

Through the looking glass.....

into another dimension.... that's what my overactive imagination thought of when I downloaded this shot, an image to trick the eyes! Standing at the Beaufort St. entrance leading into the Perth Cultural Centre is a mirrored sculpture, I wish I could tell you more about it but mysteriously there's no information to be found..at least not on this side. perhaps next time I should step through.. Happy fanciful Sunday.....!!

If you don't know where you are going,

Any road will take you there.....

Lewis Carroll

Cosmopolitan Perth.....

There's no way anyone with a camera at hand would be able to resist a million dollar smile like this right! This young lady was sitting amongst the hustle and bustle of the crowds in the city centre chatting animatedly on her mobile phone while enjoying Perth's winter sunshine.There are so many sales on and the city was jam packed with shoppers looking for a bargain...all except moi, I was just drinking coffee, eating pastries and looking for opportunities like this one. TGIF looking forward to a relaxing weekend, hope yours is also, take care and stay safe.....

Roll up, roll up.....!!

It's the school holidays here in Perth and there's always plenty organized to keep both children and parents happy. The big top is up in Forrest Place and judging by the queues the Big Top Olympians is proving a winner, put on by the City of Perth there are three shows a day and it's FREE!! The top end of the square however looks like it's been the victim of a giant mole invasion, this has been going on for some time now so I did a bit of digging of my own and came across the Forrest Place Masterplan it looks pretty amazing, but then again it already is a great place for rally's, demonstrations, school holiday events etc. Perth is growing and changing so fast, my fear is that it may lose some of it's original charm! Come on Grace, move with the times haha! Happy Thursday, hope you have a fab day.....p.s. today I received a 'Sunshine Award' from Malyss who has the wonderful blogs chronicles from the shore all about the beautiful city of Nice and benches on my way ,merci beaucoup Malyss, much appreciated.....

               

Far from the maddening crowd .....!

Oh my gosh I hope I haven't 'talked it up' too much, you may be disappointed, but this image I just might be tempted to frame and hang, for me this shot says it all, if you're going to be dragged along to an art gallery at least find something that makes sense! This chap had wandered away from the mob around the corner oohing and aahing over a Picasso and had found a group of nude sketches to quietly contemplate, well you know where you are with a nude don't you! The tonal colours appeal to my eye, creams and browns always feel very calming don't you think? Have a peaceful Wednesday, take care and stay safe.....p.s. this must be the first single shot post I've done for ages haha!

I missed his best shot.....!

When we were at the Art Gallery on Saturday there was also an exhibition of photographs by Canadian artist Jeff Wall which were amazing.. I stood in front of his image called Detail from View from an Apartment admiring the aforementioned 'details' for ages but for some reason didn't record it, reading the info (see link) he certainly puts a lot of thought into his images. The photographs are blown up to almost life size and displayed as 'lightbox transparencies', the details in each shot are astounding, the above image is called Invisible Man, and below we have 'Untangling'.....

This one is titled 'A Sudden Gust of Wind'.....

and here we have the slightly gruesome 'Dressing Poultry', not so clear but I enjoyed the young people obviously fascinated by the content which you can see here  much better.....

There were more, but sometimes I think it's nice to stand back and give such fabulous work your full attention without thinking of the best way to capture it. However I have saved my very favourite 'visit to the art gallery' shot for tomorrow, there's always that one that just makes you happy you went oui! Hope your week has started well, take care.....

New York to Perth. Picasso to Warhol.....

Saturday was such a lovely day in Perth, perfect for wandering around the city with camera at the ready! I had been wanting to see the Picasso to Warhol Exhibition since it opened in June, with time on our hands it seemed like the perfect opportunity. This is the launch of a partnership between the Art Gallery of Western Australia and the Museum of Modern Art  in New York. I presumed I wouldn't be able to use my camera but as I was standing beside a security guard I asked the question anyway, expecting a negative answer I was thrilled when he said 'go ahead' just don't use the flash. WHAT...that never happens right!!So although the quality isn't the best it's still a record of the visit. Of course the exhibit started off with Picasso, there's no way you will ever find me in a large group like this going around a gallery, all the info I could possibly need to know is at the side of the painting, yeh I know, I'm a 'cultural pleb' haha!

On to Warhol, and p.s. remind me to never wear my shoulder bag under my cardi like this, I'm sure my derriere is big enough without enhancement!! I always think people at art galleries are such fun to shoot (sometimes literally!), everyone sees something different!

Noooo! put away the phone, you don't need a nose job.....!!

I found these two paintings by Giorgio de Chirico fascinating in that they demonstrate so clearly the concept of the three dimensional image.

Loved the sculptures by Alexander Calder.....

There were many more sculptures, drawings and paintings by fourteen of the worlds leading modern masters some of which you can see reflected (et moi aussi) in this smooth, golden, tear drop shaped piece that is probably the only thing I would if I could take home and display..I told you pleb!! Hope you had a wonderful weekend and are prepared (?) for the week ahead, take care.....

Paris is always a good idea.. Audrey Hepburn.....!

J'adore Audrey Hepburn (who doesn't oui!) I was very lucky yesterday to receive a beautiful bunch of roses from a special friend, they looked so wonderful beside my AH print that I felt compelled to take a shot of them and share. Then of course (being a Libra) I couldn't decide between colour, B&W or a wee bit of a fiddle, so what do you think, with the last image I added a little boost and a touch of posterising, looks quite good when enlarged! I hope the skies are blue wherever you are this weekend, be that figuratively or literally, bon weekend..... 

I love people who make me laugh. I honestly think it's the thing I like most,

to laugh.  It cures a multitude of ills.

It's probably the most important thing in a person.

Audrey Hepburn.....