I went out on Sunday, to go to a movie and to meet up with some potential new friends - one of the sites I have joined up with recently. I was wanting to get some reprints done from films back from 1999, so instead of Brunswick Street, where the cinema was, I got off at Central. Of course, the shop I was thinking of going to turned out to be closed, but not knowing any camera stores in the Valley, was a round trip back of about ten minutes :)
I had checked out the address and map location of the place where I would be meeting the website people, but as for the cinema, not one of the multiplexes, and I had gone there about twenty months ago, and had trouble finding it back then, but of course I didn't get a map search. I had an hour or so to walk around the Valley, I would find it I was sure.
But then I got distracted with some photo taking in the back streets - the Valley is so different in the day time, and there were some nice churches, and I had gone all the way up Ann Street, and came back through Wickham. Was the Palace Centro on James Street, or was that a throw back to Wellington and a couple of streets behind Courtenay?
Suffice to say, I didn't find the place in the hour timeframe I had set myself - damn getting diverted that first half hour, damn my maleness not asking when out on the street, damn not thinking to get a map LOL. I got a good walk out of it, with a lazy two hours to head over to West End, and yes, I was going to walk again. Had a Quiznos sub for lunch, they just seem to toast their bread perfectly, yum...
Wandered down to Queen Street, was in the mood for shopping, but nothing really caught my eye - got some new sunglasses in Rebel Sport, which was nice. Had dropped the other ones at some railway station or another a while ago, wasn't until I was on the train that I noticed they were missing - duh me :)
While walking across the Victoria Bridge, I glanced over to South Bank, and for some reason, the whole memory of Expo 88 sprang to mind. The tens of thousands of people who flocked to the place every day, the distinctive canvas sails, the mindlessness I got into of merely collecting pavilion stamps in the Expo passport rather than really soaking in the experience. I was only twelve at the time, and the stand out pavilions were the Canadian and Japanese.
Hmm, I am sure around the world somewhere, on eBay or elsewhere is a guide to Expo 88, so that I can relive it by either video or book, and it can jog more memories than I currently have at the top of my mind. Anyways, all that from just a glance across the river :)
Went down to the depths of West End, all that walking walking walking and all I had had to eat was that Quiznos sub - delicious yes, but filling for that amount of walking, perhaps not - to meet the photo website lot. For the first time.
Meet at 3pm at [insert pub here], they said, well I was there at 3.10 and no one had their cameras out on the tables. I went around the entire bar, twice, before sitting down, fretting that I had missed a sign or something, and that they may well be there, but I had missed them.
About five to ten minutes later, a woman with a big camera bag came in, I wandered over, tapped her on the shoulder - so not like me, but then again, meeting people from a website, in a group environment, is so not like me either - and asked whether she was part of the site. Thank god she said yes. Stay at home mother, and started up a reasonable conversation.
Soon after, another website person turned up, IT techie in real life, and the party really got started. We ended up with a total of seven, not a bad turn out, and after talking mainly cameras and taking a few pictures, we didn't go piccie mad and a couple of drinks, and a nice friendly atmosphere, suddenly it was two and a half hours later. Time well worth spent, any new contacts is good. Workmates are all well and good, but I need more socialising than just that every month or so...
And yes, talking new contacts, I am still shopping around for a gym or something, it will happen, just hasn't happened yet - I have got a list of gyms from the directories in front of me here. It will happen :)
Later peeps
Pauly
I had checked out the address and map location of the place where I would be meeting the website people, but as for the cinema, not one of the multiplexes, and I had gone there about twenty months ago, and had trouble finding it back then, but of course I didn't get a map search. I had an hour or so to walk around the Valley, I would find it I was sure.
But then I got distracted with some photo taking in the back streets - the Valley is so different in the day time, and there were some nice churches, and I had gone all the way up Ann Street, and came back through Wickham. Was the Palace Centro on James Street, or was that a throw back to Wellington and a couple of streets behind Courtenay?
Suffice to say, I didn't find the place in the hour timeframe I had set myself - damn getting diverted that first half hour, damn my maleness not asking when out on the street, damn not thinking to get a map LOL. I got a good walk out of it, with a lazy two hours to head over to West End, and yes, I was going to walk again. Had a Quiznos sub for lunch, they just seem to toast their bread perfectly, yum...
Wandered down to Queen Street, was in the mood for shopping, but nothing really caught my eye - got some new sunglasses in Rebel Sport, which was nice. Had dropped the other ones at some railway station or another a while ago, wasn't until I was on the train that I noticed they were missing - duh me :)
While walking across the Victoria Bridge, I glanced over to South Bank, and for some reason, the whole memory of Expo 88 sprang to mind. The tens of thousands of people who flocked to the place every day, the distinctive canvas sails, the mindlessness I got into of merely collecting pavilion stamps in the Expo passport rather than really soaking in the experience. I was only twelve at the time, and the stand out pavilions were the Canadian and Japanese.
Hmm, I am sure around the world somewhere, on eBay or elsewhere is a guide to Expo 88, so that I can relive it by either video or book, and it can jog more memories than I currently have at the top of my mind. Anyways, all that from just a glance across the river :)
Went down to the depths of West End, all that walking walking walking and all I had had to eat was that Quiznos sub - delicious yes, but filling for that amount of walking, perhaps not - to meet the photo website lot. For the first time.
Meet at 3pm at [insert pub here], they said, well I was there at 3.10 and no one had their cameras out on the tables. I went around the entire bar, twice, before sitting down, fretting that I had missed a sign or something, and that they may well be there, but I had missed them.
About five to ten minutes later, a woman with a big camera bag came in, I wandered over, tapped her on the shoulder - so not like me, but then again, meeting people from a website, in a group environment, is so not like me either - and asked whether she was part of the site. Thank god she said yes. Stay at home mother, and started up a reasonable conversation.
Soon after, another website person turned up, IT techie in real life, and the party really got started. We ended up with a total of seven, not a bad turn out, and after talking mainly cameras and taking a few pictures, we didn't go piccie mad and a couple of drinks, and a nice friendly atmosphere, suddenly it was two and a half hours later. Time well worth spent, any new contacts is good. Workmates are all well and good, but I need more socialising than just that every month or so...
And yes, talking new contacts, I am still shopping around for a gym or something, it will happen, just hasn't happened yet - I have got a list of gyms from the directories in front of me here. It will happen :)
Later peeps
Pauly
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