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But if you stay, I'll make you a night
Like no night has been, or will be again
I'll sail on your smile, I'll ride on your touch
I'll talk to your eyes that I love so much
But if you go, I won't cry
Though the good is gone from the word goodbye
If you go away, as I know you must
There is nothing left in this world to trust
Just an empty room, full of empty space
Like the empty look I see on your face
I'd have been the shadow of your shadow
If you might have kept me by your side
** Please don't use this image on websites, blogs or other media without my explicit permission.
© All rights reserved
Note: I chose this as my "photo of the day" for Dec 15, 2013.
Note: this photo was published in a Nov 26, 2014 blog titled "Rogers Santa Claus Parade Vancouver 2014."
************************
Virtually everyone in America, as well as millions of other people around the world, know that Thanksgiving is one of the main occasions for organizing a huge parade.
It’s especially true in New York City, where I live — hundreds of parade workers converge on a one-block stretch between Columbus Avenue and Central Park West on 77th Street on the night before Thanksgiving to assemble the floats, and pump the huge balloons full of helium, so they’ll be ready to go the next morning. The parade itself lasts for hours, and stretches all the way down Central Park West and Broadway, and ultimately through Herald Square and past the main entrance to Macy’s on 34th Street. The whole thing is televised for the benefit of viewers all around the world, with TV commentators and an endless procession of marching bands, baton-twirlers, singers, dancers, jugglers, magicians, Broadway actors, and other forms of entertainment…
While New York City may be the only example of a Thanksgiving-Day parade that people around the world actually see on their TV screen, it’s definitely not the only such parade that takes place in this country. I’m sure that every big city has its own version of the turkey-day parade, as do most of the medium-size cities, and quite a few smaller towns and villages, too. They may not be visible on television, but a lot of local citizens and visitors turn out to watch such parades, if only because their sons and daughters are typically marching in the high-school bands that form a big part of the event.
On this particular occasion — in November of 2013 — I happened to be in one such medium-size city, where the parade took place on Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. It was in Portland, Oregon where we were spending the holiday period with one of our sons and his family; the parade took place in the “Pearl District” of downtown Portland … and, to our amazement, we were able to park our car about a block from the parade route, and walk right up to the corner (at Davis St and NW Park, if you want to track it down on Google Maps) where all of the bands and floats and costumed marchers walked by. In fact, I was able to take the “parade experience” even one step further: the people were friendly enough, and the security was light enough, that I was able to walk right out into the middle of the street with my camera, to photograph the floats and bands and marchers as they approached me … scampering out of the way only at the last moment.
Admittedly, Portland is a much bigger city than a tiny village of a thousand people somewhere in the midwest … but it still felt like “small town America” to me, and it was a great spectacle to watch. I got the impression that many of the visitors and observers standing along the street actually knew the people marching past them … and in any case, the marchers laughed and smiled and walked right up to us, handing out little pieces of candy to all of the children. Maybe next year I’ll go looking for a really small Thanksgiving parade in one of those tiny midwest-America villages, before retreating back to the Big Apple to watch the spectacle of thousands of marchers parading past millions of observers, and a TV audience of tens of millions …
I wish that I had taken some video clips of the parade, because the sounds and the music and the motion were a big part of what we experienced. But for better or worse, all I took was a bunch of traditional still photos. Actually, I took a LOT of still photos — nearly a thousand, altogether — but I’ve winnowed the collection down to 50 “keepers” that I hope will give you a sense of what Thanksgiving is all about…
Actually, if you live anywhere besides New York City here in the U S of A, you already know what Thanksgiving is all about, at least to the extent that it’s symbolized by the parade. But for those of us who spend most our time in New York City, it was a very pleasant experience indeed. After an hour, it was all over; we walked back to our car a block away, and drove back to our son’s house … and a day later, we were back in New York City. And thus ended another Thanksgiving holiday, at least until 2014.
The original mid-13th-century Magdeburger Reiter (Magdeburg Rider, also Horseman of Magdeburg) is the main attraction of the Kunsthistorisches Museum. Further exhibits in this small local history and art museum include:
Banknotes from the hyperinflation period of the early 1920s, including a Billion Mark note (i.e. a million million marks) and a thousand mark note changed to a billion mark one through a simple red stamp.
please note: simple invites to post an image to a particular group are always welcome but no pictures, awards, or badges in comments. i call it dumping on the lawn. thanks very much for understanding, and I sincerely appreciate your visits.
Birds on wires in Paull, East Yorkshire. I can't read music, but if I could would these music notes formed by these birds be Leonard Cohen's 'Bird on a Wire"?
February 12, 2019
We got a little snow! (Likely be gone by morning though)
(A few hours to late for Crazy Tuesday Music!)
Brewster, Massachusetts
Cape Cod - USA
Photo by brucetopher
© Bruce Christopher 2019
All Rights Reserved
...always learning - critiques welcome.
Tools: Canon 7D & iPhone 6s.
No use without permission.
Please email for usage info.
Image: Flying Fish Cove from Territory Day Park, Christmas Island, Indian Ocean. External Territory of Australia.
Below is the first in a series of five monthly reports I sent back to friends in 2007.
Recommend reading them in order to get the best out of them.
Very long.
Notes from Christmas Island (CI)
Chapter 1
JULY 2007
RANDOM OBSERVATIONS AND LIFE EXPERIENCES ON A RAINFOREST COVERED ISLAND, NO WHERE NEAR ANYWHERE AS DESCRIBED IN AN OFTEN
NON-CHRONOLOGICAL, NON-SEQUENTIAL, NON-LINEAR, ALL OVER THE PLACE MANNER!
I imagine the short exchange between Christmas Island International Airport [XCH] Air Traffic Control and our pilot went something like this:
“Inbound National Jet RJ-70 this is XCH.
You are cleared to land, winds 20 knots ESE,
So why don’t you stop messing around and put that sucker on the ground, then we can all go home”
“Groovy XCH, this is inbound RJ-70, copy that, please have a Canadian Club and Dry waiting for me on the tarmac, will have this big bird on the deck in a second.”
Or words like that.
Within ten minutes I became the last person off the plane as the flight attendants smiled nicely whilst, quite possibly, gently cursing my unstressed gait as I alighted the aircraft.
With a nose full of wonderful warm and clean tropical air I glanced towards the smallish aviation terminal building.
The terminal’s primary task was to allow for the lawful and obedient arrival and departure of passengers as listed on the aircraft passenger manifest.
It’s secondary but nevertheless important duty was to hold back a very green swath of rainforest from imminent invasion of the outrageously undulating but clearly useable runway.
This should be the last time I would be requiring that lumpy runway for a little while.
Christmas Island [CI], 10 degrees south of the Equator,
2600 km north, north-west from Perth,
2800 km west from Darwin,
360 km south from Indonesia,
1300 km south from Singapore
900 km north, north-east from Cocos (Keeling) Islands is to be home to Jody and myself for at least the next three months.
This airport is 291 metres above sea level.
For some perspective:
That is higher than the Central Park Building Perth, Australia
Outrageously higher than anything built in Adelaide, Australia
Fractionally lower than Centrepoint Tower in Sydney, Australia
Marginally higher than the Transamerica Building in San Francisco, USA
Almost twice the height of the Washington Monument in Washington DC, USA
A couple of storeys short of Bank of China Building, Hong Kong
Four fifth’s the height of the TV Tower Berlin, Germany
And that's just the height of the airport, some of the island is a third higher again.
As a rock, this island pokes right out of the water.
All the settled areas of CI are either a bit below, quite a bit below or massively far below the airport.
The steepness of the hill is severe in some places, sufficient enough to make a Tour De France rider squirm in his bike shorts and say “Sacré Bleu!”
Cleverly we had booked a 4WD hire car for the first week.
With certain smugness we took this all terrain vehicle out of the airport and down, down, down the hill to our unit.
Our three monthly lease of this unit, signed sight unseen, could now commence.
Let’s see what we have signed up for.
With the six kilometre winding downhill drive completed and the 4WD parked outside our new home, we were ready to collect the key, which was securely sitting on top of the frame of the front door.
Or so we were told!
As expected it was nowhere to be found.
Sleeping in the jungle seemed quite a chance.
This is where old contacts come in handy.
Also where the philosophy of, always make friends not enemies, pays dividends.
The neighbour to our property was a friend of mine in 1991 when I lived on the island.
A quick explanation of our predicament and soon a key was produced.
He had previously owned the unit and only sold it this year.
A spare key to the unit still jangled, if shaken, on his key ring and within moments we were inside.
Who’s a lucky a boy!
We leased this unit, which was to be one of either:
a] furnished
b] partially unfurnished
c] completely unfurnished.
To be frank we were not exactly sure what we were getting, but we knew we had a roof over our head and a front door and potentially a key.
Apart from the water leaking from the shower that drips out in the four cardinal directions and into the crappy carpet and onto the laundry floor, it would be adequate.
It won’t be featured in any of the following magazines:
Homes and Gardens or Design Trends or Architectural Weekly or Architectural Monthly or Architectural Annual.
Can’t see it getting a run in Clean Carpet Weekly but is a very good chance for a major feature in The Bad and Damp Carpet Journal.
On the plus side, the walls were painted, once.
The unit was old, tired, pretty well completely dirty and in summary
‘a bit crap’ however we are really quite happy here.
There was also no mattress on the bed, my friend but also had a spare, so we were soon sorted in that regard.
Because what it does have, is a fairly cool location.
We are unit two, of a set of four.
Where unit one is separated from the ocean by the main arterial road on the lower part of the island.
Not unexpectedly unit two is behind unit one.
Our ability to live in properties adjacent to main roads continues.
However this road is not really busy.
Sometimes fifteen minutes can elapse between cars and after midnight possibly hours between one lot of traffic and the next.
Of a morning there is no good reason, not to sit out on a chair, on the lawn near, but not under, the adjacent coconut tree and have my bowl of cereal and watch the ocean move and the traffic go by.
CI , an Australian external territory has a population of around fifteen hundred with eleven hundred being adults.
Life is unhurried and casual.
In a city all tasks seem to be done quickly or required to be done quickly.
That is not necessarily the case here.
Not everything can be done quickly, as shipping and flying things in and out have their own schedule, such as:
Monday has a flight from Perth to CI.
Thursday has a flight from Singapore to CI.
Friday has a flight from Perth to CI.
Postage leaves here on Mondays and Fridays direct to Perth.
Postage to CI on Thursdays goes from Perth to Singapore then changes airlines to fly from Singapore to CI.
So theoretically if a letter was posted from a person in Singapore to someone here, the letter would travel from Singapore to Perth to Singapore to CI.
A ship arrives around every six weeks or so to restock the non-perishables and larger items.
Crime is virtually unheard of, perhaps the occasional minor issue but any offence is unusual and certainly the talk of the town if it happens.
We think the cops, mainly go fishing.
Cars have the keys left in the ignition all the time.
So much easier to find the car keys when they stay in the car ready for use.
No one locks their car.
More often than not during the day we do not lock our house.
It took a week or so to get comfortable with this.
At night, we do, while we are sleeping but at some point that will probably change.
Jody gave up her handbag on the second day and my wallet has been ditched.
In it’s place is a small tough plastic bag, to hold some cash and now and then my plastic card to get cash out from the bank.
Fresh food comes in three times a week.
On Monday from Perth, Thursday from Singapore and Friday from Perth and occasionally on Saturdays from Perth, if it is school holidays.
Anything that comes via a plane is pretty pricey such as refrigerated items, fruit and vegetables.
We switched immediately to long life milk, which comes up via ship instead of the "short life milk" that comes up on the plane.
Items from the ship seem to be only about 20% more expensive that in Perth.
Not bad considering where we are.
Similar situation for the fuel, here it is AUD$1.41ltr when in Perth it is AUD$1.31. Could be worse.
The ship did arrive end of July, despite being due in the middle of July and is kind of a big event as restocking occurs.
Also on this ship were our mountain bikes which will give us more capacity to get around if vehicles are not handy.
The wildlife here is fantastic.
CI is known for the red crabs and their accompanying migration around December.
Which is a world class natural event.
The red crabs are kinda nice, in a crab type of way.
Not aggressive at all and in general, a peaceful type of creature.
Out in the jungle there is about one crab per square metre or two, which makes about 60 million of them or 480 million legs if you were to count them that particular way. But why would you.
Then there are the other crabs, the blue crabs that hang out in freshwater stream areas and the awesome robber crabs plus another ten or twenty other varieties that scuttle left and right.
The robber crabs are massive, sitting about six inches / 15cm off the ground.
Apparently larger ones can be 70 years old.
They prefer coconuts and can grind away at them with their claws until they get them open.
Allegedly their claws are so strong they can snap a broomstick in half, not that anyone has ever seen it happen, but looking at them it seems a fair call.
To see a crab weighing two or three kilograms suspended from a tree trunk eight feet in the air, is a formidable sight.
There are plenty of other amazing creatures, more on them in the next chapter.
For a small population there is a wide array of outlets for food and drinks.
There is one large supermarket similar to any well stocked shop in a small town on the mainland.
Three small Asian supermarkets whose aisles are so narrow that your shoulders barely fit between.
For meals there are two Chinese restaurants, three coffee shops, three pubs and a Chinese noodle house.
Add or possibly minus from that list a Malay Restaurant that doesn’t seem to open!?
Due to the nature of the geography most places have an ocean view and a cooling breeze.
Other items of note for a small, extremely remote island is the sensational hospital (ocean views standard), an 18 million dollar recreation centre with 25m swimming pool, children’s pool, basketball court, coffee shop and a brilliantly resourced gym.
Half way up the hill is the outdoor cinema, with great ocean views before the sun goes down and a lovely breeze when the movie is on. Unless it is raining.
There is one movie per week at AUD$5 per person, movies get to the island just as they are leaving the cinemas in Perth, so they are reasonably current.
Popcorn is available, but if four people have ordered popcorn before we get there then we have to wait eight minutes before ours is actioned.
Two minutes each packet in the microwave.
Practical solution to a practical problem.
Movies can be sponsored, so if I wanted to make the film
“brought to you by Keith and Jody” then we just have to lay the money down, rumour is, about AUD$300.
A local radio station is transmitting along with a few FM stations from Perth, ABC Local Radio plus Triple J that transmits Australia wide.
TV has ABC, SBS, WIN being a local version of Channel 9 and GWN country TV that takes combination Channel 7 and Channel 10.
Sadly both WIN and GWN suffer from the Western Australian country commercials varying from low quality to really low quality.
We convinced the landlord to supply a new mattress as the old one borrowed was pretty knackered.
We found a suitable one at the supermarket and arranged purchase.
For delivery the supermarket manager, who I knew from 1991 helped me lift it on the back of his ute, gave me his keys and said to drop the ute off in the carpark when I was finished and to leave the keys in the ignition. Fantastic. That’s how business should be done.
Vehicle transport is a necessity to get up the hill.
I do go running up the hill but I am the only one I know who does, my chances of having Jody run up the hill are about one degree.
That is, in every 360 times I ask she would probably agree to run once.
From the beginning of August we have hired a car from an old friend, or to be nice, a friend from a long time ago.
Not everything on the car works but if it did then the deal I got wouldn’t have happened.
The car is for sale and I can hire it until it sells.
Who knows I may have been able to get it for free, maybe, maybe not, but one needs to be fair here so some payment was necessary
Normally a newish car for hire would be about AUD$300 hundred per week.
My weekly hire rate is one carton of Boag’s Lite beer and one bottle of Champagne. Total cost $44 per week.
Those who know me and thought I possessed a minimum level of sophistication then the following will clearly shatter that illusion and those who believe I have no sophistication will be vindicated.
When I enquired what type of champagne was desired, the reply was “Brut”.
Easy then, off to the supermarket I headed to stock up on the grog.
Alcohol and cigarettes do not attract the mainland duties and taxes.
These items are ridiculously cheap.
Bottle of 1 litre spirits that would be $30 - $40 on the mainland are $14 here.
Cigarettes, for those filthy smoking bastards are around $2.50 a packet instead of the advised figure of $12 (so I am told.)
Even if I have my smokes prices a bit wrong, it’s still damn cheap.
I should start being a chain smoker and become an alcoholic, I would save sooooo much money!!
Back to the Champagne, I scoured the Champagne section of a very comprehensive alcohol section, juxtaposed to the dishwashing powder and washing machine liquids.
No brand of Champagne called Brut here!
With a bowed head and dragging of feet I slunk out of the supermarket like an abject failure.
I would be unable to fulfil my end of the “grog for car” regime.
Later Jody in a calm and quiet voice took me gently aside and explained that Brut was not a brand but a variety.
With a spring in my step I located a nicely priced bottle of James Hardy Champagne.
You can see my confusion, the words “Brut De Brut” located under the brand were not obvious and the whole thing just looked like a plain old bottle of wine to me.
Maybe this is not my area of expertise.
Jody was kind by saying it wasn’t my fault given that it is a "chick’s drink" or that it is "women's business" and I had no real right knowing about that type of thing anyway.
Sounds like the perfect disclaimer for me.
If I haven’t said so already, we are loving life here, sure the mosquito’s are impressed with Jody’s fair skin and tasty new blood.
They don’t get fair skin much like that too often, so they are making hay while the sun shines.
The mosquitos are not as bad as I thought, though, going thoroughly through a thoroughfare throughout the jungle like a thoroughbred where it is damp, mozzies can be an issue but in the settled areas, no worse than on the mainland.
We came prepared with a wonderful white mosquito net to cover us while sleeping.
Looks quite romantic really and keeps those buzzing mongrels away.
I once read, never skimp on two things when camping (extend that to remote areas) those being toilet paper and mosquito nets.
Go cheap and you will regret it.
This advice is being taken.
Before I go, please allow me to talk about the weather.
Those who might read this should be in the following listed locations and regions.
As I write this, early August 2007, it is winter in Australia and summer in the northern hemisphere.
On the “mainland”, as continental Australia is succinctly referred, we understand the situation is thus:
Perth, has been raining virtually all month since we left.
Adelaide, varies from miserable to cold and miserable.
Melbourne, is well, Melbourne and enough said there.
Sydney, would be similar to Perth, but with delusions of grandeur.
Hong Kong, let's mark you down as hot and humid with afternoon rain.
South Korea, possible storm clouds on the horizon, not from the weather but from those crazies next door in North Korea.
Germany, should be lovely and if on the autobahn, then fast.
While not being familiar with summer in San Francisco, San Diego & Palo Alto I expect you have your hottest month right now and I would guess pretty nice.
Washington DC now should be as warmish as it gets and trying to rule the world.
Hope I mentioned everyone.
According to official temperature collection data, Christmas Island minimum never drops below 20 (centigrade) and maximum never gets above 30.
Humidity levels can be neatly described as, humid.
When the local’s describe the water temperature as cold, it isn’t.
It’s a great place.
OK it is late and that’s enough for now.
If I send this when I have written everything I want to say, then it will never be sent.
This is Chapter 1, Chapter 2 is for another day...
If you print them all off then you will have a first edition of this virtual book. How about that!
All replies readily accepted, go easy with attachments, anything larger than 200KB or 0.2 MB takes forever to download and at $8 per hour costs me a fortune.
Hope you are all fine and unless we hear otherwise, we are assuming you are.
See ya
Keith (and Jody who is currently sleeping and missing her 2 cats)
Note the dashboard...
Vehicle make
PONTIAC
Date of first registration
04 February 1991
Year of manufacture
1986
Cylinder capacity (cc)
2800cc
The Agilitynut just reminded me that I have this little number just waiting for a moment to debut. Hutchinson, Kansas.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - March 25 - Sheri attends UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals Notes & Words on March 25th 2023 at Fox Theater @ 1807 Telegraph Ave, Oakland, CA 94612 US in San Francisco, CA (Photo - Drew Altizer)
🎶Little bunny foo foo hopping thru the forest, picking up the field mice and bopping them on the head...🎶
maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/The%20Place/223/81/32/?tit....
by Samuel Musungayi.
Captured with a Yashica T5 and an expired roll of Fujifilm Fujichrome Sensia 200.
CanoScan 8800F.
Notes :
Expiration date : Unknown
Film speed : ISO 200
Shot speed : ISO 200
Die Schweizer 10er-Note ist der offizielle Flyer der «Volksinitiative für ein bedingungsloses Grundeinkommen»
Foto: Pola Rapatt
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