Aussie dosh

Aussie dosh
Originally uploaded by Broken Piggy Bank.

Earlier today, another flickr user asked me if he could use my photograph of Australian banknotes for his
money tree project. He photographs banknotes, prints them, arranges them like flowers, and leaves the "money flowers" on random live plants. Artsy!

Julian ponders the blue

Julian ponders the blue
Originally uploaded by Broken Piggy Bank.

Orange is my absolute favourite colour. Then, navy blue and turquoise are my 2nd favourite colour; it's a 50-50 tie. Both go well with orange.

Imagine my glee when Robin and I decided to dive / to snorkle at Lady Musgrave Island on the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef near Bundaberg and discovered that our site was pure, clear TURQUOISE.

To fathom just a tad of the vast expanse of sparkly, translucent light turquoise blue:

1. Click the photo in this e-mail. (It will open in a web brower.)
2. Above the photo in flickr, click the "All Sizes" icon.
3. Click the "Original (1200 x 1600)" setting.
4. Gaze.

Kilt!

Kilt!
Originally uploaded by Broken Piggy Bank.

Multiple Layers of Anglophone

2003 Rugby World Cup hosted by Australia.

Brisbane.

Picture two Americans in Australia watching a Fiji v. USA rugby match next to two South Africans (one in a Scottish kilt) and a family of Fijians.

Oh wait, here's the picture.

Deer crossing

Deer crossing
Originally uploaded by Broken Piggy Bank.

(click photo to view)

A few days after having returned to Austin from 7 months in the Antipodes (Australia & NZ), I walked to the bus stop; I don't remember where I went. Anyway, during the walk, I came across this "deer crossing" sign and immediately took a photograph. Why? Well, after months of becoming accustomed to koala-, kangaroo-, wombat-, sheep-, duck-, stinger-, and pushbike/bicycle crossing signs; a deer crossing sign was exotic, foreign and un-Antipodean. It was as if I had never seen that sign before.

Then, seconds after taking the photo, I remembered that deer are all over Austin -- as are the deer crossing signs -- and that I knew that already. Dag. I guess that I thought that I was still in Australia, somehow.

Re-entry was discombobulating. Still is, over a year later.

Joey board

Joey board
Originally uploaded by Broken Piggy Bank.

(click photo to view)

I don't have any kids. As such, I'm usually oblivious to the kid-related world around me, such as whether there is a ramp for strollers, kids' menu, booster seat, play area, mothers' room, kids' discount price, Toys-R-Us, Babies-R-Us, etc. It's not that I agressively ignore the kiddie mundo around me, I just filter out things that don't pertain to me. (You do the same thing, too.) Conversely, I filter in things that do, such as anything orange-, Austin-, Texas-, Mexico-, or Australia-related. Sometimes, my filters get crossed.

For example, I was meandering around the annual Austin Thailand Festival at Fiesta Gardens last April. While there, I had to see a man about a horse. Having negociated a good deal, I washed up, and then noticed this pull-down board thingy on the far end of the men's room wall. What caught my eye was a diaper-clad baby koala ("joey") with arms raised -- not the fact that it was a baby-changing table.

I stood there pleasantly stunned for a few seconds because I noticed a koala in Austin! Let me give you a bit of context: in Australia, the koala caricature permeates popular culture. There are heaps of koala-themed clothes, tea towels, pencils, notebooks, snacks, children's shows, hair accessories, games, soft toys, playground bouncy rides -- I even saw a smiling koala firefighter reminding me to "Install a Smoke Alarm" on the side of a Brisbane firestation. So, now you can understand why I was surprised to find an Australian koala slapped up on an American-made baby changing table from a Colorado company inside a men's room located on the grounds of an Austin park with a Spanish name, all during the Thailand Festival.

Then, my smile dropped. Because, well, because I realized that I had seen those baby-changing tables in Austin men's rooms for several years prior to my stint in Oz. I just never paid attention to them before.

Why do I travel so far away from Austin only to come back and notice what was always around me?