Sunday, October 11, 2009

Spring in October


Say hello to Connor Trinneer. Judging a cosplay contest. Serious work.


It's funny how something as seemingly constant as, say, seasons - or day and night - or even time can be mercurial when you travel. Crossing the date line is particularly odd. One moment it's Tuesday and the next - oh didn't they tell you - it's Wednesday. Or Monday. Depending on the direction. Time is compressed - a night slips by in a few hours, or elongated - it's three o'clock in the afternoon for five hours. It's just weird. Messes up your head. Shakes your faith in the firma part of terra firma. It's more like terra move around'a lotta.
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It's spring in the extreme south west of Australia. Flowers are blooming and hotter weather is on its way. I spent the night in the Karri forest in Bonarup National Park, just outside of Pemberton, WA a few nights ago. It just ain't the kind of forests I'm used to. Smells different. Different birdsong. Different trees. And then a kangaroo hops by. This is the other Pemberton, the one with the kangaroos and the 50 metre tingle trees. Drive a little further and suddenly your in Devonshire, England, with genteel farmland and rolling hills. This is the harsh outback of Australia? It seems pretty idyllic to me. Refined even. But then drive a little further and come to a park with 30 metre drop offs to the roiling Southern Ocean and signs to watch out for quicksand. Quicksand! Yet another challenge on your daily commute. Can you imagine? -- "Sorry Bob, I'm losing the signal, I'm up to my shoulders now..." Only in Australia.
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Speaking of which, the Best of Both Worlds event in November has been cancelled, but, BUT! there will be another Strargate event in Sydney and Melbourne next March which I'll be going to, with, from what I've heard, a super surprise, never been seen before special stargate guest. So if you missed me in Perth, I'll be back down under in the spring. Er, autumn - I mean.
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Be back soon with more pictures...

15 comments:

Rosehawk said...

Seasons, days, time......what a concept!

Thinking of spring sounds nice when we had a small amount of snowfall the other day!

Cool seeing you and Conner together! He was alot of fun to meet in Chicago this past August!

Sounds like you had a fun time and thank goodness you didn't play in the quicksand 'cause then you really would be in the Land Down Under!

Nice pics!

Anonymous said...

I think I'm in love with the quicksand road sign. lol That's just amazing. lol

Hope you're having fun! =]

archersangel said...

nice pic of you & connor trinneer & i presume another judge of the cosplay contest.
what kind of costume won that?

Anonymous said...

Hey David!

Glad you had a great time in the South-west (oh and for the record, the more stereotypical "outback" is either north or east of Perth!)

Isn't the Boranup forest pretty? Hope some of my suggestions helped make it a worthwhile experience for you. Next time, you gotta fly north to Exmouth & check out the BEST coral reefs in the world (nuts to the Queenslanders!) and go swimming with the whale sharks!

cheers
Dana

Migraine Mama said...

I'm glad you had an interesting time. Thank you so much for the pictures. Your description of time must be what it's like stepping through a stargate!

P.S.
If you do go swimming with the whale sharks, just make sure you come back in one piece. We like it best that way. =:3

Sasha said...

Hey, lovely pictures there.
I love your commentary on everything ^^
I'm using that "terra firma" line from now on
Well, it sounds like you had fun
I hope to catch you next time you're in my area since I can't tronce off to Austrailia as much as I'd want to
-Kanku

Anonymous said...

LOL... I want one of those Quicksand signs to put next to my office door.

Nice to see you post!

Tai said...

Oh yeah... time is relative - last week I awoke on Monday... and found out it´s already Thursday. Very annoying! You see? I can travel in time and need no timezones to it. :)

And weather! Pff! We had summer. Till yesterday. Sun, heat, mild breeze, T-shirts, sandals... And today - winter. Autumn was somehow not being held this year in Czech.
(Or... OMG!... haven´t I miss whole autumn as well? What´s the date?! What´s the date?!!)

Jinx said...

I did 7 states & three time zones in 23 hours...then flew back to the point of origin. Rain, forests, Plains, Mountains, Desert, 90+ degrees back home to snow flurries! I STILL don't have a clue where I am or what time it is!

Looking forward to more pictures :) Do they have "'Roo Crossing" signs as well?

amaryllis said...

I once traveled from my home in Maryland just after Daylight Savings Time began to Indiana, which is one time zone back, and thought it would be an hour earlier, BUT it was a part of Indiana that doesn’t observe DST (who knew?), so it was the same time, but only for that half of the year. It took some poor waitress almost an hour to sort me out of my confusion.

I also love the quicksand symbol. It could have so many applications… on a messy desk, on the door to a conference room, on the cover of a computer manual… it fires the imagination.

Mr. Nykl, you have such a lovely eye for photographs! I can’t decide whether I have more fun reading your commentary or viewing the pictures.

Kirsten said...

loved the pictures and the notes from Oz...no smile for the camera though?!

Unknown said...

Glad to see you enjoyed our South West, David. Did you get to see the Dolphins in Bunbury? I hope my directions worked for you. Nice pic of the beach. Denmark?

Aleš said...

Škoda že ten Best of Both Worlds byl zrušen a nebude nějaký v České republice??Dík za odpověď:)

DL said...

Sorry for the irrelevant comment. I really miss the SGA crew. I never knew how much until I saw SGU. Hope everything is going well and love to see all of SGA crew back on Atlantis. Take Care!

Alexandra said...

I love the pictures you take! And the ones you are on ;-).

The green landscape is beau-tiful!

The quicksand sign is quite funny, looks like those elevator jokes where you look like you're pressing a button and suddenly faaaaaaaaaaall! ;-p *giggles*