Walking of an afternoon.

My favourite part of the day is the afternoon on the way home.

First is the train ride from Gaythorne station - a nifty little station within striking distance of where I work.  It's much nicer than Enoggera station in my opinion, even if it is similar walking distance (and more chance of me getting killed by a speeding car.  I live dangerously).  As you all know, getting a SMU is a bonus, but most of the time it's a dinky old EMU - and worse, today was those awful swing-handles.

courtesy www.railpictures.net

Seriously, how hard would it be to send a 220 every so often?!

Now, a sane, rational person would get off at either a) Fortitude Valley and walk home or b) Central and catch the bus home.  I choose c) South Bank station and walk home past the Gabba and along River Terrace.  Why?  Because I love Woolloongabba and I love Kangaroo Point.  Plus I like taking photos with my good pal Rog.

This is Rog.  He's a camera.

Probably the best part of the afternoon is walking past my spiritual home, the Brisbane Cricket Ground, more affectionately known as the Gabba.  If you're ever at the footy and you're walking past section 11, come and say hi!

I have a few favourite spots to take photos from.  One is where I used to live on the Kangaroo Point cliffs, it's great for that sunset snap, especially with the sunlight bouncing off buildings and the boats cruising past.

The next spot is just before the Story Bridge - the buildings are usually lit up by the time I walk past and the lights in the offices contrasting with the sky behind them never ceases to fascinate me.  I could easily spend hours just taking photos of the same group of buildings if it weren't for the fact that I do need to get home, eat, shower and go to bed.

Finally, I LOVE taking a photo of the lit-up Story Bridge from the Wilson Outlook Reserve in New Farm.  The reflections make the photo in my opinion!

Back in Oakey, if you wanted to take photos of the sunset, people tended to look at you funny, plus there aren't very many places to take good sunset snaps from, unless you're willing to get yourself killed on the highway.  In Brisbane however, photography is an accepted form of entertainment.  People tend to treat you like part of the scenery if you're standing there with a camera or smartphone taking snaps.

And while I'm not the most savvy photographer in the world (I love the auto function, Rog tends to know what he's doing and gives me what I want) it's something I enjoy, plus I get a good bit of exercise every afternoon doing it (over 6kms every afternoon is nothing to sneeze at).  Sure, many will question me taking photos at the same locations every day, but in my opinion no two sunsets are the same and I tend to treat sunsets like Pokémon - I gotta catch 'em all!

When did I become sane?!

No, seriously, when the hell did I stop doing crazy shit like jumping out of a train 4 stations early just to get a photo?

Although to be fair, it IS a nice photo.

I used to do things like that a LOT.  I used to walk 14-15kms every Sunday because it suited me.  I used to add 30 minutes to my walk home every day because I wanted to walk through South Bank and walk past the Gabba.  My Twitter feed was full of random thoughts and lyrics to songs I was listening to, and people liked it.  Facebook was just as full of randomness.

I loved living in Kangaroo Point.  Because it didn't matter that I wore dorky bright blue board shorts or ratty old Lions polos walking home.  It didn't matter that in the middle of the pouring rain I'd rush out to get a photo of the Brisbane River.

But it got taken away when I got stuck in poopy old New Farm.  Where people DON'T wear daggy polos and rush out in the rain to take photos.  I started to stack on a bit of weight, but nothing too serious.  I still had my Twitter feed, which was growing a bit more angsty seeing as I wasn't getting the exercise I was used to and was slightly embittered by my exile from Paradise.

Then there was an incident (which I won't go into to protect innocent parties) which seriously hurt me, and had me completely disappear from social media for a month.  Things were resolved, and I tentatively made my way back onto social media, but I was definitely too scared to ever use Twitter again except to advertise my blog and Instagram (plus it tends to crash my browser) and I've locked up Facebook a bit too.

It didn't do my anxiety any good, plus my physical health has deteriorated too.  I've become lethargic and miserable, and almost tempted to get back into my shell and stay there.  Until a couple of nights ago as, like I said, I decided to get out of my train at Newmarket to take some happy snaps and wait 15 minutes for the next train.  This evening, instead of going to Central and grabbing the bus home or walking along the Riverwalk, I got off at South Bank station and walked my old path again, including past the ruin that was my old home.

Sad face.

I even took my old mate Rog the Camera (yes, I named my camera) and took a photo or two from my old vantange point.

Paint Shopped for ease of viewing

And then had a stop by the Story Bridge too.

Also Shopped for your viewing pleasure.

When you're diagnosed, whether it be Aspergers, Anxiety, Depression or any other mental illness or personality disorder, you're whacked with a very uncomfortable truth - you are so different from the rest of the world that they see you as having something wrong with you, and while you can learn to cope with your condition, there's really nothing you can do to fix it.  It comes with a harsh choice - you can go on the way you have, you can try to assimilate, and then there are those of us who try to do both.  Doing both isn't really working out for me at all, and assimilation would involve the use of drugs that wipe out my entire personality, so it looks like I'm going back to being a looney.

Which you all love me for anyway.

 

Street Parking

One thing I have achieved in the nearly nine months I have been living in Brisbane (YAY!) is at work I have introduced "No Standing" signs for the street in front of our building. People parking on the side of the that road turned a barely two-lane street into a one-lane street - and if two people parked opposite each other, you were lucky to get anything bigger than a Getz through.  It was a huge safety issue, not to mention cars parked on the side of the road just looks messy.

It's one of the things that pisses me off about my new home in New Farm.  When I lived in beautiful Kangaroo Point, there was always plenty of parking out the back, meaning no one was forced onto the street.  Here, there are two parking spaces and they have been seconded by two of the other tennants, meaning I'm forced out onto the street.  Usually the spot in front of the house is where I park, but sometimes you get some dickheads who park there, making my life difficult.  Plus someone has sideswiped my car, making me even angrier.

I'm sure plenty of people who visit the Coles on Merthyr Road can testify to how hard street-parking makes getting out of the Coles - you can barely see what's coming, especially dangerous if you're turning right.  On the way to work through Newmarket on Enoggera Road people park on the side of the road taking up the whole left lane, meaning people end up having to quickly merge into the right lane so they don't crash.

I think it should be illegal to sell or rent a property without providing off-street parking, and that street-parkng itself should be illegal.  If that means you have four rooms but only two car parks, you're only selling/renting two rooms.  Street-parking is dangerous and looks horrible, and the sooner we can get our cars off the side of the road the better. 

Men's Health - Why don't they do something about it?!

Saw this on Twitter today (I love George Takei):

And I immediately face-palmed.  That graffiti is a symptom of an illness - a stigma where men will NOT take care of their health, thinking they'll be OK

Us women have it pretty good.  We've managed to organise plenty of awareness for things that plague us like cervical cancer and breast cancer, and raise a lot of money towards research and caring for the sick.  What do men have? Movember.  That's all I can think of.

For crying out loud boys, you're more likely to commit suicide, you're more likely to have heart and bowel problems, and we won't go into prostrate cancer, why aren't you boys banding together like us women have done and start raising awareness?  For crying out loud girls, why aren't we kicking their arses into gear?!  We're talking husbands, fathers, brothers, sons, friends, that could be taken down by any number of problems, and it's a battle and a half just to get them to a doctor sometimes!  The thing that REALLY shits me is the number of males I see commenting on the Internet saying "Where's our day for our cancers?" WHY AREN'T YOU OUT THERE MAKING ONE?!

You know what?  I'm going to start.  So, to my brother, fathers, and other male relations - from now on for your birthday I'm paying for you to have an annual check-up.  You are getting nothing else, you're just having me pay for you to go on a trip to the doctor.  Especially my Dads, who are both in their 40s/50s and need to start looking out for looming health problems.  What do you say girls?  They can't really refuse if it's a birthday present - and for older males particularly, it could save their lives.

Now that I'm done ranting, it's on to a team I like to call the Scums.  They're that plastic mob down the road on the Gold Coast, and they like to try and big-note themselves.  Last year it was having a picture of Daniel Rich on their website that had been defaced, now they're running Facebook competitions to caption a picture of a Lion with its paw across its face.  Seriously, they shouldn't be starting crap they can't finish, and the REAL war is fought on the footy field, not on social media.  If you want to be Queenslands Team, you need to grow the fuck up.

A dying form of communication.

Unfortunately in this day and age where the focus is more on ourselves and getting things done quicker, we're losing touch with each other.  We're not communicating as we should, and quite frankly it's dangerous.  Important forms of communication are being lost, simple forms, and none of these more so than the simple indicator.

For those who are unaware of what an indicator is, it's the yellow flashing light on your car, and there's usually 3 on each side - one on the front, one on the side (or on the side mirror) and one on the back of each side of the car.  They are primarily used by drivers to signal intent - whether it's to turn a corner, pull over or merge into a lane.  It's a vital means of communicaton, and is capable of saving lives and keeping people safe.

Unfortunately this form of communication seems to be going out of style.  I'm seeing more and more cars that are obviously not built with indicators, as their drivers never use them.  It's a worrying trend and could very well be a dangerous one.  I can see a world where you're driving along and then suddenly someone just merges in front of you, giving you no time to act and causing an accident.  I beg car companies to install this critical device on all cars they manufacture, and I beg our driving instructors to make sure that people are trained to use these vital forms of communication.

TL:DR? USE YOUR FUCKING INDICATORS!

Ahem.

So, my team lost again.  All because we simply can't keep up the heat when it's required.  Hopefully we don't lose against the Suns, because my dignity couldn't take it.  Part of me is still a bit sore about last year, not just about the Voss sacking, but all the factors that combined to turn our Club into a warzone.  It was supposed to be an amazing year for me, going to all 22 Lions games in the season and finally living my dream and moving to Brisbane, but unfortunately the PTB had other ideas.  If it wasn't constantly hearing about Essendon, it was the fight between the Lions Members and the Lions Board.  If it wasn't that, then it was Vossy under the pump.  Speaking of which, I've been watching Vossy on Fox Footy and he looks 10x healthier than what he did as Coach.  The red in his hair is definitely starting to return (of course, he could be dying it *shifty eyes*) and he looks happier.  Good for you Vossy!

And on the subject of health - Started week 4 of the Coach to 5kms program and managed 4.3kms today.  Hopefully I can keep it up, I surprised myself by being able to go 5 minutes straight jogging.

http://www.c25k.com/ - for those interested in taking up running but don't know where to start.

Being a Crazy Cat Lady.

It's kind of sad.  I'm only 25 and already a certified Crazy Cat Lady.  I own two cats (three if you count the Beagle back at my parents place - Beagles are simply cats in dogs bodies) named Cheynee Blakeley II (named after ex-Lions player Cheynee Stiller) and Bastet Achilles III (who I would have preferred to have named Joel for obvious reasons, but Bastet suits him just fine) and they are pretty much my life outside of work and footy.

"Cheynee-Brat" or "Chinny" is my beautiful calico princess.  She's a typical tortie with attitude to spare (which she doesn't).  She loves to talk to anyone who will listen (I will admit, she got that from me) and loves to be fussed over - however you have to go to her, not the other way around, and she will yell at you until you come over and give her the loving she wants!

           "Love me!"

"Boofy-Cat" is a black and white menace.  He's a typical bully - loves antagonising his sister and beating up smaller animals/cats, but heaven forbid you take him out of his comfort zone.  While Cheynee likes exploring, Bastet will find the nearest bed/desk/whatever to hide under or behind until he's certain he's safe.  He's also a sook, who will only come over for cuddles if I seem to be busy on my laptop.

"I get it.  You have 'pposable thumbs. Yay for you."

I got them when they were five weeks old from a guy who was trying to get rid of them and their siblings - an unwanted litter. Why people insist on having pets (note I said pets, not breeding animals) when they can't afford to have them fixed so they can't reproduce is beyond me.  

And that is pretty much my family at the moment.  And probably the most my family will ever be - cats.  Or maybe one day a bird.

In other news, poor Tom Rockliff got suspended.  Why? Because trial by media.  Honestly, you see that exact same hit all the time in every game - some players just like to show off their acting skills.  No wonder Buddy Franklin is such a prat if that's what he came up with at Hawthorn.  Of course, if that had been any high-profile Victorian player such as Nick Maxwell, Nick Riewoldt, Joel Selwood, Bob Murphy, etc who had laid that bump on a low-profile interstate player such as Joel Patfull, Scott Selwood, Taylor Walker etc, there would not have been a word said and the media would not have pressured the MRP to act.  IMO of course, but the MRP is far too media-driven and more worried about appeasing the Mark Robinsons and Jon Ralphs of the world than actually adjudicating the game.

Speaking of footy, guess who only tipped 3 wins for Round 1?  Yes, I know I shouldn't tip with my heart.  Speaking of tipping with the heart...maybe I should change my Dream Team captain...

Catch yas later!

The Season has started!

YAY! Footy season is BACK! For anyone who doesn't know me (and I doubt there are too many people who DON'T know me who will be reading this, but if you're one of those people then big hugs!) I am a die-hard fanatical Brisbane Lions fan who last season took it upon herself to go to every Lions game in a season - including flying to Melbourne, Sydney, Tasmania, Darwin, Adelaide and Perth.  And anyone who knows me knows that I can be rather superstitious and believe 100% in the Footy Gods and Karma.  Which is why I try all week to be the best I can be, so hopefully the Footy Gods smile down on my team and I and give us a win.  Doesn't always work, but it's incentive for trying to be good I guess.

Speaking of being good, I just finished week 2 of the Couch to 5kms program.  I tried this earlier in the year before being uprooted from Kangaroo Point to New Farm which completely threw me out of whack, and I ended up giving up at this point.  I still did the International Womens Day 5km Fun Run (raising money for Mater Hill and Breast Cancer research, I got up to $100) and didn't do too badly (IMHO) so I'm trying again to train up.  This time I'm looking at doing the ANZAC Run (6kms) on the 27th April, this time raising money for Legacy, who support the familes of our serving men and women.  So, hopefully this time nothing trips me up and I can complete the program and get fit again (I am seriously overweight at the moment.  It's embarrassing).

Anyway, I'm going to get ready to head to Redlands to watch the Brisbane Lions Reserves boys do their thing (even though I have a bit of a soft spot for Redlands), then I'll either head to Lions@Springwood or head home to watch the senior boys take on Hawthorn in Tassie.  Hopefully my boy Joel Patfull can continue his brilliant form from last year - I've already got him down for his third Club Championship.  Other players I'm keeping an eye on are Justin Clarke, Michael Close, James Aish and Squizzy...and if I ever remember what Squizzy's name actually is I'll tell you.  Close, Aish and Squizzy are making their senior debut today, and Clarke is a young budding defender, and I love my defenders.

ANAZC Run: www.anzacrun.com 

Follow me on Twitter: @kezzstar24
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Join the Joel Patfull Fan Club on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/443410375727984/
Join the Justin Clarke Fan Club on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/633337110017412/

Today's Person of Interest: My best friend His Royal Highness Prince Morgan Beaglehoven I.

Okay, not a person, but still the best friend I have ever had.

DOB: 8 August 1997 (Age 16)
Place of Birth: Unknown
Favourite Food: Anything edible
Favourite Pastime: Eating
Best trait: Highly Intelligent
Worst trait: Has a habit of following his nose into trouble