Pictures I owe you...

Since starting a blog, I always keep my camera in my handbag (you know, the bag I take with me EVERYWHERE). I do this so that I can ALWAYS take a quick photo of whatever is going on around me and show it to you :) You'll be surprised, but I actually DO take these photos. The problem is that they rarely make it to you.... *sigh*

So I thought I'd play a little catchup and show you some of the photos with a brief blurb of what they are! Enjoy :)

YARD WORK

As I've mentioned a few times, this last month has been 'major re-haul of the house and yard' spring cleaning (yes Emily - complete with Von Trapp outfits). We've laid new carpet, got the old carpet (staying in some rooms) cleaned, re-plastered and painted walls, cleaned every cupboard in the house and then some, hung new pictures, redecorated certain rooms, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. Our house now looks VERY nice, and I'm so very glad it's DONE! My favourite though, is yard work, because then I get a tan, and I get to feel all 'outdoorsy and sportsy' for the duration :)

Anyway, here's a couple of pictures of Dad and James working up on the lattice work over an outdoor patio in the yard. You can see the neighbours house (the tall one) in the back ground. I actually took these photos for Dad - he was going to put them on his blog - but that was weeks ago, and he still hasn't posted them so..... :)

WARD ACTIVITIES

We have a LOT of ward activities in our ward! I took a little video recently of the youth in our ward doing a dance they'd made up for a ward activity. They're really into costumes, and even the boys like to sing and dance! It was fun to watch them :)

Then, about an hour later, I walked into the kitchen and found all of the youth - still in their costumes - doing all the washing up. I thought that was so wonderful that I took another picture!

MELBOURNE TRIP

I always mean to take great photos on each of my work trips, but I usually get too busy working, and I forget! I did take a photo of my hotel room though, because I liked the reds, and because it was nice. I've stayed in some lovely places, and I've stayed in some real dives! The horrible ones are usually the 'only ones' ...

LUNCH WITH JESSIMA

Jessima (my sister-in-law) works across the river from me in the city, so whenever we can both make it (which isn't all that often unfortunately) we both meet for a bit of lunch. I work right on the river, so I cross the river in the City Cat (ferry) and she works down to the river and meets me at the dock. Then we eat at the Coffee Club and enjoy a yummy lunch together. Anyway, we had lunch last week, and I took some photos for you all to enjoy :)

This photo is the view from the ferry of the city.

This photo is the Coffe Club on the pier as I pulled up in the ferry.

This is Jessima at lunch - looking very pregnant (yay!)

On the way back, I was so distracted taking photos, that I got on the wrong ferry, headed to the WRONG station. *sigh* This is the view back towards the city during my half hour walk BACK to work after taking the wrong ferry and getting off at the wrong ferry station!

These are some of the lovely apartments I passed on my walk back to work... I wonder how much they cost? They're right on the river with a great view of the city :)

MT. ISA

I just got back from a trip to Mt. Isa. Did any of you look it up to see where it is?! I didn't realize it, but it's actually way way in the outback :) In fact it would have only been a two hour drive from Mt. Isa to the Northern Territory border (I really wanted to go - but I couldn't convince the camera man and client that it was worthwhile *sigh* I know there'd have been nothing there but desert and scrubs and maybe some crocodiles and Crocodile Dundee, but STILL, I think it would have been VERY cool!). Anyway, Mt. Isa is a small town, in the middle of the nowhere, surrounded by red rock hills with bush trees and scrubs dotting them. The town isn't a nice town - the houses are all old and little and run down - but from the town lookout, you can see that there are lots of green trees in the town, and they really stand out from the deserty red hills surrounding the town. I really loved the country, even though I didn't love the town. I was there to film at the Power Station just out of town (This was my forth power station, and I'm starting to find them quite beautiful! But when you go anywhere with the intent to shoot it, you start looking at the place as if you're looking at it through a lens, and before you know it, you're seeing beauty where you never would have seen it before! I'm afraid that beautiful light on shiny towers is starting to be very exciting!), but most of the people in town work at the mine. And this is what was funny- the mine is right there in the town! Usually there's a space of some sort separating them, but the town comes right up to the mine - there's only a normal road separating them - and I found that very unusual. The stacks were spewing out some scary looking smoke! I think I'll be back in Mt. Isa in the next few weeks to shoot at the mine, but I'll let you know if that happens.

Our hotel was very nice (sorry no pictures) - apparently it was a 5 star place, which is surprising considering I was in Mt. Isa! But it was very nice. My favourite part of the trip though, is that they flew us back to Brisbane in business class. I LOVE business class! There were only 12 business class seats on the plane, and the seat us first. They they come round (having memorized our 12 names) and say things like 'Ms. Munro, can I get you a drink before take-off?' So I sit there sipping orange juice from a champaign flute, and watching all of the other poor economy fliers walk through my fancy cabin on their slums out the back. The longer I sat, sipped and pitied, the higher my nose rose into the air! :) I understand why I'm not mega rich now - I'd be too proud and end up in hell! But it was lovely while it lasted :) They fed us yummy yummy food on real china *sigh* It was heaven. Our little toilet actually had fresh flowers in it! When we got off the plane, our luggage all comes through first, because it's got bright pink 'business class' tags on it. So I had to step forward - with the economy hoards watching - and collect my bag, which was hard to see because (again) my nose was pointing straight up and my bag was down on the conveyor belt. I was a bit surprised, actually, that someone didn't come and collect my bags for me - I really shouldn't have to bend down like that!

Yep. Definitely going to Hell.