Tall tale

Ever get the feeling that there's a moment in time that stares you in the eye as it passes you by? Even waves a coupe of times. And for any given number of reasons you are acutely aware of its passage. But for all practical purposes, it's utterly insignificant. This is commonly referred to as getting caught up in trivialities. And it often happens when you are bored and restless :|.

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Apparently last weekend the thunderstorms that hit Perth did more than just confine me indoors. They ripped up a whole bunch of trees in King's Park. Had I known this earlier, I would probably have not ventured out this Sunday afternoon for a trip to Freo, under similarly dark and menacing skies. When I got there it was raining, but hey, I had my umbrella! :D I whisked it out and unfolded it in a flash, all in a smooth fluid motion as I stepped out of the train station.

To say that it was a mistake would be an understatement. In fact that last statement was itself an understatement /:). The raindrops were flying pretty much parallel to the pavement. I had my umbrella firmly into the wind, and that was straight ahead. The only reason I didn't bang into anyone else was because no one else was stupid enough to venture out :|. I think I've mentioned that my umbrella's a metre across, trouble is, under the circumstances, that still left another 3 quarters out to get soaked. To make matters worse, one of the spokes of the umbrella finally succumbed to the persistent wind! Thankfully, before matters got worse I was under cover.

By the time I'd warmed up with a couple of mugs of hot coffee though, the rain was history, so I set out to fulfill the purpose of this trip. Walking down the south side of the docks, I was clicking away when this old man (the one in the pic) came up and offered me his binoculars for a closer look. I don't think the opportunity will ever present itself again, so I made the most of it. I told him I worked on that rather strange looking ship :D.He was suitably impressed, and I was going YAEEEEIII in my head :P. Okay, it's Perth, it's a weekend, sources of entertainment are severely limited. And you being in a city when your ship docks there is not exactly a regular occurrence. Anyway, all I'd intended was to take a few pictures and relish the fact that at the end of this I was going to walk away. Just walk away, not back to the ship, not back on shift, away. The jolly old man, who turned out to be quite a character, was just a bonus :).
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Anyway, I was eventually back in Perth before another spate of heavy showers could catch me, and proceeded to spend the rest of the evening watching Nadal get beaten by Federer. Again :(. And then Raikkonen win for Ferrari. Again :). Too bad about Massa stalling his engine though, the way he carved his way back up to 5th, who knows what he could have done had he started from 4th :-<. Oh well, that was the last GP I'll get to see for a bit. The only channel that airs F1 in Oz is Ten, and we don't get it on the boat :(. But I did get to see the last four, so I'm not complaining... too much.

Currently: beyond bored :-<
Listening to: Norah Jones - Lonestar