Tropical, icy-icy!

[shapeofthings]

Yesterday evening we had a hell of a hail storm come through. Right on peak hour - half past five - it hit: thunder, lightning, pelting rain and hail. We'd just made it home, so unplugged anything exlodey, I made hot chocolates on the stove and we snuggles together and watched the storm. At first it was just rain, but then we heard the hail approaching - a great wall of sound! After it was all over we headed down to Milton as I had to pick up a memory stick from the computer store. About two blocks away from our place the world was white! Massive amounts of hail banked up in drifts over a foot deep and leaf trash everyewhere. Totally surreal. Navigated the icy roads to get to the computer store, only to find they'd suffered a loss of roof integrity and were closed for business. They were none too happy about it either!

On my way to work at 6:30 this morning there was still some hail about in areas where it had obviously fallen heavily, which surprised me a little. Hail is usually a summer phenomenon and even after a huge storm it doesn't stick around for long! Anyway, it was a gorgeous day today; warm and sunny, around 23oC, so you can imagine my surprise when I was riding from work to the city at half past three this afternoon and came across this...

Everlasting hail - Jerdanefield Rd, St. Lucia

I nearly fell off my bike! I think someone needs to remind the weather that Brisbane is clearly subtropical and 21hr ice is just not on! Anyway, I didn't fall off and I did make it into the city, so please,

Which hemisphere am I in again?

The plan was to go into the city to go disposal-store shopping for going into the field next week and catch up with a mate while I was at it. Said mates' mobile phone was dead so I couldn't find her, which was fine by me as I had my camera and was swamped by material. There was some hideous public humiliation/entertainment going on in Queen Street Mall, with the chappy below supplying the cheesy pop sound track. Now I'm a raver and I love my DJs, so I know how much of a joke this guy is - couldn't even beat mix! Damn pity he's got suck a nice set of decks.

I'm ok taking pictures of stangers when there's a goodly distance between them and me and they're not looking, but most of the people that catch my eye are nearby and alert. So I've taken to asking people if I can take their picture, and surprisingly, most people dont seem to mind. I wonder if they think I'm some hip photojournalist or something? Mr. Green Left Weekly was pleasant chap, and nowhere near as snide as I'm making him look (even when they know you're taking the picture, they don't know when you're firing that shutter!). We had fun discussing how fucked the vapid people were going to be when peak oil hits home. Hmmm, so much for the pleasantries of small talk.

*sigh* conformists!

Turned down towards King George Square where a small army of very yellow people were catching my eye. Turns out Yellow Pages was doing a promotional stunt - not like they don't have enough mind-share already. Hello?? At least they were colourful. One of the promotions guys commented that I had a smileyface and that people in the city weren't supposed to be smiley. That just made my grin bigger =D Sometimes being me rocks.

Across the road were more yellow-folk and I wanted a photo. The pseudo-tradesman chappy wanted me to take the free notebooks they were handing out before he'd pose for a photo. I told him I didn't need one - I collect unwanted print-out from work and bind them into notebooks - and he told me that was irresponsible. I pulled a face and one of his supervisors came over and made him pose for a photo. Rockin!

Then something very strange happened... one of the other supervisors raced on over and struck a ridiculous pose right in front of me. What else was I to do but point and click?

Up into the Square then, to find the Homocide Survivors Support Association set up with a display fit to make your heart burst: pair upon pair of shoes belonging to murder victims. So very sad =(

Back into the Mall again and I'm talking to the blind busker who plays the saxophone. Telling him that he's part of Brisbane to me and he tells me about the trip he made to the USA two years ago where he got to jam with the jazz musicians in New Orleans. I wish I had a picture of him laughing as we talked! Met up with Alex and we wandered off for coffee and went disposal shopping where all I bought was a new hat because they didn't have any second-hand pants. Told the young lad behind the counter that he'd best give up his liking of swords by the time he's 25 if he doesn't want to scare off the ladies, then giggled our way next door to Central Station records to buy Mayhem tickets.

zenandtheart, this is for you. Anyone who's been in the Brisbane rave scene for a while knows Flash. An ex airforce teacher he's now a fashion designer and a passionate raver. His specialty is phat pants. For the last 5 years or so he's been making custom phats for the Brissie crew, but recently he's developed a commercial range, which Central Station are stocking. Flash phats are the best ones I've ever seen (if I design a fish motif he'll make me a custom pair at almost cost!) and even though the mass-produced ones aren't as good as his customs, I thought they deserved showing off =)

Going to Central Station with Alex is perilous. I bought two Mayhem tickets. He bought 11 new records. Admittedly, I don't exactly discourage it, selecting a spinning a fair few myself and handing the ones I like over to him for a listen. I must say, we have some tasty new tracks. Now all we need is for one of us to learn how to mix properly o.0

So the week is over and a busy weekend lies ahead before leaving for rural QLD on Monday morning. here's hoping you all have a good one =)