This week the award goes to Carole King, one of the most recognisable voices of the 1960’s and 1970’s (Think of “You make me feel like a natural woman” and you’ll know the voice).
The feature song this week is “Beautiful”
You’ve got to get up every morning with a smile on your face
And show the world all the love in your heart
Then people gonna treat you better
You’re gonna find, yes, you will
That you’re beautiful as you feel
Waiting at the station with a workday wind a-blowing
I’ve got nothing to do but watch the passers-by
Mirrored in their faces I see frustration growing
And they don’t see it showing, why do I?
You’ve got to get up every morning with a smile on your face
And show the world all the love in your heart
Then people gonna treat you better
You’re gonna find, yes, you will
That you’re beautiful as you feel
I have often asked myself the reason for the sadness
In a world where tears are just a lullaby
If there’s any answer, maybe love can end the madness
Maybe not, oh, but we can only try
You’ve got to get up every morning with a smile on your face
And show the world all the love in your heart
Then people gonna treat you better
You’re gonna find, yes, you will
That you’re beautiful, you’re beautiful, you’re beautiful as you feel
As you would probably be aware, Nattie & I went down to the lawns in front of Old Parliament House on Sunday morning for the final morning of the 2006 Canberra Balloon Fiesta. This was something Nattie & I had been planning on doing ever since the “Circus of the air” hot air balloon festival around Canberra Day. Normally the Balloon Fiesta is held in the week leading up to Canberra Day, but this year it was moved to the autumn school holidays as an experiment.
Anyway, at 5am I got out of bed, after having no sleep but instead listening to John Kerr on 2CC whilst keeping warm with a hot water bottle. At about 5:15 I gave John a call and had a chat with his lovely producer Leonie, before having a chat with John.
At 5am it was about -2°C, and it warmed up slightly to hover around the -1°C – 0°C mark for the next couple of hours.
At 5:35 Nattie and I left for our walkies, and by 6am we were walking along Commonwealth Avenue, which is a little bit ahead of where we were last time we walked to the hot air balloons. Unfortunately John’s show ran into the news and there wasn’t any time for him to play “Good Morning Good Morning”, so I sang it anyway.
As we crossed Lake Burley Griffin on the Commonwealth Avenue bridge, we stopped to look out over the lake. It was still quite dark, with just a little bit of light in the sky, but the camera did a good job of “over exposing” the image to produce a brighter picture.
The Carillion was also looking good.
As we got closer to the Balloon Fiesta, Nattie could smell the breakfast being cooked, and started to pull harder on the lead in an effort to get there quicker. We arrived at the event and heard Mike Frame acting as the master of ceremonies, and walked over to the stage to say hello to him. After that we went to the food tent and got some breakfast. We chose the bacon, egg and toast breakfast, with a cup of coffee.
Nattie decided that we weren’t leaving the food tent to sit down at a table unless she got some food first, so the food on the plate in this photo is already depleted of some bacon.
Nattie and I shared the bacon.
I ate the egg, but Nattie insisted on having some toast. She also insisted on licking the plate when we were finished.
By this time the balloons were starting to be inflated. Some balloons were unusual shapes, and this one had a cat on the roof (that will make sense when you see the balloon in later photos).
Mike Frame was still acting as master of ceremonies.
Nattie was looking back towards the food tent.
Mike Frame was having his maiden hot air balloon flight, so Nattie and I followed him over to the area near where his balloon would take off from, and we watched the many balloons inflating.
The “Liberty” balloon is the one with the cat on the roof.
This photo is rather interesting in that we have two inflated hot air balloons, some inflating hot air balloons, plenty of bystanders (including Mike Frame bottom left, and new MLA (Member of the Legislative Assembly) Andrew Barr bottom centre), Mount Ainslie in the background, and the dome of the war memorial directly below the peak of Mount Ainslie and just poking up above the roof of the car.
The Click Photo balloons was the first off the ground.
As the balloons continued to inflate, Mike Frame and Susan (I’m not sure of the exact relationship, although I’m sure I’ve heard Mike mention her name on 2CC) posed for a photo. Mike is holding a Canberra Balloon Fiesta mug.
The Liberty Financial balloon started to hover just above the ground. It appears to be harder to get cube type balloons off the ground.
It floated around for a while, and seemed to be heading in the general direction of the pond in front of Old Parliament House, thankfully there were plenty of balloon staff on hand to guide it away from the pond.
The cat seemed happy on top of the Liberty Financial Balloon though.
Mike Frame’s balloon was inflated and almost ready to go.
Mike Frame entered the basket.
Other balloons continued to inflate.
Mike Frame seemed quite happy to have a chat whilst waiting for the balloon to take off.
More balloons took off.
The Liberty Financial balloon finally got off the ground.
Nattie was keenly looking on.
One of the balloons seemed very happy. (The John Stanley “Accentuate The Positive” Balloon perhaps?)
The Bumble Bee Balloons inflated.
Mike Frame in a moment of madness, pretending to be very nervous, as the balloon started to take off. New MLA Andrew Barr is behind Mike Frame.
Up, Up and Awaaaaaaaaay….
Mike Frame can be seen in this photo looking back towards the lawns of Old Parliament House.
Of course there were plenty of other balloons taking off.
Including the bumble bee ballons, which tend to fly together.
There was certainly no shortage of balloons…they just kept popping up everywhere.
It was about 7:15am, and Mike Frame gave David Young a call on 2CC’s “David Young’s Garden” programme. David lives in Yarralumla, and Mike said he could see David’s house, he also tested out his “Frame in the Plane” traffic reporting ability by correctly indentifying Parliament House. Incidentally, Mike was in the Doma Hotels balloon. People in Canberra may recall that Doma Hotels did some skywriting a couple years ago. Between 7am and 8am the temperature rose to 1°C.
More balloons appeared, this time it was a windmill balloon.
And the bagpipe player.
A clearer photo of the windmill.
The bagpipe player seemed to match the building behind it.
Ye gods…more balloons…
Balloons do look good amongst the autumn foliage.
The windmill balloon took off.
And flew directly overhead
Nattie and I then started to walk home, whilst listening to David Young’s Garden on the radio. As we reached the Commonwealth Avenue bridge we saw some of the hot air balloons. Unfortunately the lens had some moisture on it, and part of the camera strap in front of it, but if you look to the left of the middle lamp post you will see a red and white hot air balloon, with another balloon above it, which looks a bit like a “patchwork art” balloon.
And a few more.
The Doma Hotels balloon was flying over Yarralumla.
Lake Burley Griffin was evaporating…you know its cold when you can see the moisture in the air at low altitude.
A short time later the Doma Hotels Balloon came down in Yarralumla, maybe they really did land in David Young’s Garden! Of course it is also possible that they merely floated at low altitude before taking off again, but it appeared to be down from where Nattie & I were on Commonwealth Avenue.
Nattie and I got home around 8am. Nattie went back to bed, and I had a cup of coffee.
Based on the visitor numbers, and the increased comment activity, I get the feeling that there are a few people waiting around for Samuel In Dolgnwot and Samuel’s Musican(s) Of The Week.
I’m terribly sorry, but I’m going to have to push them back to tomorrow night. You see I’ve had almost no sleep in the last 36 hours (and my alarm didn’t go off during my quick nap this afternoon), and I haven’t actually drawn this week’s Samuel In Dolgnwot or chosen the Musican(s) Of The Week.
Anyway, for those of you who would like a sneak peak at the Balloon Fiesta photos click here. I have numbered them 1 through 48, and the ones which start with “thumb-” are the smaller versions of the photos.
Yesterday another person in the household visited Supabarn (EFTPOS transaction blurred by Samuel).
The back of the receipt looked about the same as last time…
Except for one small difference…see that up the top:
It looks like Magnus print destination stores on the receipt paper, which probably means that somebody made a data entry error prior to printing, and the Big W receipt paper was assigned to the wrong client. Whilst these errors will happen from time to time in automated environments, it is a pity that nearly a week later Supabarn are still using the incorrectly addressed Big W batch, as this probably means nobody picked up on the error until it was far too late.
It is probably too late for either Magnus or Supabarn to do anything about it (after all Supabarn need receipt paper), but I have written letters to both of them bring the matter to their attention. I only got around to posting them late last week, so I’m not execting a reply until early to mid this week, and even then I wouldn’t be surprised if they say that there isn’t anything they can do about the error.
I do want to make something very clear here. I am not trying to criticise Magnus, Supabarn or anyone else for this, I just want to make sure that the people involved know about the problem, and the rest of us can gain some entertainment from it, and learn a bit more about the receipt advertising industry in the process.
You might recall that we previously met Catherine Garrett in about half a second of video where she introduces Daniel Gibson, who is showing off my weather picture in 2000.
I met Catherine in 1999 when she was reporting on a story about ACTION hiring female bus drivers and she had a cameraman with her filming the bus driver of a school bus outside Ainslie Primary School. On that occasion we had a chat and she gave me a “Prime Possum” postcard, which I still have here somewhere.
Prior to Prime Local News going to air with my weather picture in 2000, I rang through to speak to Daniel Gibson and ended up having a brief chat with Catherine, who remembered me from our conversation the year before, and even remembered some of the subject matter.
Since then, Prime Local News folded and Catherine went to the ABC as a reporter on their local news service. In 2002 I was informed by an ABC reporter that she had gone on maternity leave, and the next I heard of her was last year when she wrote one of the rare useful articles in City Ads, about her time in Germany with Deutsche Wells Television.
Catherine is now back in Australia and is a reporter and producer for the ACT edition of Stateline, the weekly state/terriotry based current affairs show on ABC Television.
Regular host of ACT Stateline, Phillip Williams is overseas reporting on the events in the Solomon Islands, so Catherine Garrett filled in on Friday night, looking as bright and bubbly as ever.
I’m obviously very late in welcoming Catherine back to Australia and Canberra, but I must say that it is great to have her back, and I will send her a letter on Monday to say just that.
Mike Frame’s business card just keeps on growing, he’s already 2CC’s Classic Aussie & unofficial Lawn Bowls correspondent, as well as Southern Cross Ten’s colourful racing personality/racing commentator, and even New South Wales Lotteries’ ACT Promotions Person. Now he gets to add “Frame in the Plane” to it (if it fits).
Mike Frame is the new 2CC/2CA traffic reporter, as Andrew “Pye in the Sky” Pye is the new copywriter at 2ST Wollongong, after their previous copywriter left for the UK.
This is where things start to get a little bit convoluted. 2CC/2CA use the services of The Australian Traffic Network for their traffic reports, as do many other stations around the country. ATN provide traffic reporters to radio stations, and do so in a very transparent way, which makes the traffic reporters appear to work for the radio stations in the minds of listeners. Andrew Pye did work for 2CC on occasion as a panel operator and “around the grounds reporter” during Canberra Raiders matches. Mike Frame continues to work for 2CC as an announcer.
Andrew’s position with ATN was advertised on radioinfo a couple weeks ago, and I applied for it, although with the speed at which things I post seem to be moving of late, I wouldn’t be surprised if my application hasn’t left the post office yet.
The question that I am having trouble with at the moment is working out whether or not Mike Frame (who called himself “Frame in the Plane” this morning on Weekend Magazine…if they are still calling it that) is the permanent replacement for Andrew Pye, or just filling in? I suppose time will tell.
After a week of unusual weather conditions preventing the hot air balloons from flying above Canberra, they were able to go up this morning, and should be able to do so again tomorrow.
Nattie and I won’t be letting the forecasted overnight low temperature of -1 degrees celcius get in our way…we’ll be making our way down there in the morning with the camera. I’m led to believe that 2CC’s Classic Aussie Mike “Frame in the Plane” Frame (more on that shortly) will be flying away in one of the balloons. Nattie and I will try and catch up with him.
Often scanned images have a tendency to look “washed out”, and the Samuel In Dolgnwot pictures are no exception, as can be seen in the scanned version of series two, episode three.
I have been manually attempting to fix this with some tweaks to the brightness and contrast, which works to an extent.
However GIMP has a most useful feature which is designed to fix up the colours on scanned images automatically (it can be found under “Layer–>Colors–>Levels” and click the “Auto” button (Yes, I know, American software with American english). It does an excellent job.
I have now gone through and fixed up all of the Samuel In Dolgnwot images, and as such, they are now much more like the drawings, and much more lively.
As many of you would have noticed, just about every image you see here is buried somewhere in the /wp-content/ folder. Up until recently it was possible to browse this folder without hassle, which is something I don’t mind as I like people to be able to sift through the files in there, after all, it is all on the blog somewhere.
When I upgraded to version 2 of WordPress, the upgrade script added an index.php file to the /wp-content/ folder which produced a blank page instead of a directory listing. I noticed this the other day and it has now been removed.
Apart from people being able to peruse the files in there, it is also important to have this folder accessable so that the National Library of Australia’s PANDORA project can gather not only the posts and files I link to, but also an accurate a full collection and index of the files on the site. Back in January when the site was last archived by PANDORA they were able to do that because I had linked to one of the many Blog View Stats folders, and as such, were able to follow the links through to the rest of the directories. Having a blank index page on /wp-content/ would have made that task impossible.
Anyway, if you’re feeling curious, feel free to take a look around inside /wp-content/
The people at Behind Big Brother have been kind enough to remove my photo and mention that I am not a contestant, however they have also gone and called my request that they remove my copyright image a “legal threat”.
Interestingly, a threat is defined as “An expression of an intention to inflict pain, injury, evil, or punishment” by answers.com…but take a look at the email I sent to them overnight and see if you think it was threatening.
Dear Sir/Madam,
As per my most recent blog post, I am not going on Big Brother, and have no intention of ever doing so. I’m used to my name being thrown around for various reasosn, and I’m not fussed about this.
I would, however, like to point out that in your article “Rumoured Housemates” you have used a copyright image of me, from my website, without my permission. Please either remove the image or request permission to use it. You have also called me “Samuel Stewart”, I’m not terribly fussed about that, I just thought you might like to know that “Gordon-Stewart” is my proper last name.
Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Looks to me like I asked them to remove it or request permission to use it…I can’t see a “legal threat”…can you?
Recently I agreed to be interviewed about my life by The Editor of GrodsCorp. The interviews took place by email, and have resulted in a rather interesting article about me, which does appear to give you a bit of the background story of my life.
I don’t know where the rumor came from, but I do not have any intention of having any part in the strange television show Big Brother.
I have seen bits of it, usually the last five or ten minutes of an episode while I wait for the next show to start, sometimes this is due to a show finishing early on another channel, but usually it is due to Big Brother running beyond the advertised starting time of the next programme.
The thing that makes the notion of me being on Big Brother quite amusing, other than the fact I find the show to be quite obnoxious, is that I don’t even know how people get on the show. I gather that there is a nomination process or something like that, but how does it work? Do people ask to be on it? Or do other people nominate them to be on it?
Regardless of how it works, I am not going on it, and I have not been contacted by anybody involved with the production of it.
To those of you who have come here from the “Behind Big Brother” website, welcome. It is obvious that a number of you think Samuel’s Persiflage is boring…that’s fine, I think Big Brother is boring. I will be contacting your site administrators to have my copyrighted photo removed.
Yesterday around the middle of the day I had a leisurely stroll around parts of Braddon and Reid, in an effort to document Autumn in Canberra. Autumn in Canberra is a time of contrasts and a time when leaves start to fall. Some plants manage to drop their leaves before others even get started changing colour, some don’t change colour at all. This mixture produces a spectacular natural scene of beauty, one that is best expressed in pictures.
I was planning on taking these photos on Tuesday, but a certain event involving stairs and gravity prevented it.
So here I present you with 28 pictures of Canberra in Autumn, taken in the full glorious light of the middle of the day.
