The Bar-Tailed Godwits have left for Siberia

Posted by David on May 15, 2009
Life 'n' That, Vlog

It’s no secret that I think Diane and I live in one of the world’s greatest cities. We even have the stats to prove it. Sure, it’s not perfect, but considering there’s close to 4.5 million people here, it’s fairly fantastic.  Even if we are also the 15th most expensive city in the world.

It was a truly glorious day last Saturday, and as our unit was being touched up (ie: painting all the bits we never got round to finishing – like ceilings, doors, skirting boards, etc) in preparation for sale…Diane and I took a walk to enjoy the nearby urban wetlands, one of my favourite places. I love mangroves, but these ones especially since they are in the middle of a big city.

Following our regular visit to our favourite local coffee shop (Lattecino), we headed over to the parklands for short walk that ended up being 4 hours.  We’ve lived in our unit for over 3.5 years, but we walked through some parts of the wetlands we’d never been before. It’s criminal I tell you.  So much amazingness on our doorstep.

Anyway, we had such a lovely day I thought I’d share it with you.  So here’s a slideshow of Diane’s iPhone photo highlights (ie: the iPhone’s somewhat deficient camera being my excuse for the poor quality). Keep an eye out for the post title in there…and yes, the photo of the house + skywriting is supposed to be on its side, so you can see what’s being written by the SkywriterFailPilot.

If you’ve got any questions about the pics…there’s a space for comments where you can ask them.

WARNING : this slideshow contains bridges, water and trees…some of which may now be dead trees. Just sayin’

and here’s the obligatory (short) vlog done from my non-iPhone.  So it’s fairly average quality.  And it’s just me too : Diane’s beautiful voice isn’t in it.  That reduces it’s appeal by around 98.7%, give or take…  However, there’s one interesting statistic in there that I discovered while iMovieing the footage.  I could put it here…but that would mean there was no reason to watch the video at all.

When was the last time you discovered something new in your local area?

Tags: , , ,

This website uses IntenseDebate comments, but they are not currently loaded because either your browser doesn't support JavaScript, or they didn't load fast enough.

14 Comments to The Bar-Tailed Godwits have left for Siberia

crittyjoy
May 14, 2009

You have a cool accent too so that make the video worth watching :P Fascinating to know more about where y'all live.

Beautiful photos…

And um I live in a small town and there has been nothing new to discover here in years….sad I know.

Russ Hutto
May 14, 2009

Great vid!

Pokinatcha
May 14, 2009

I still have a whole island to discover! Even after living here for over 8 years there are still things I haven't seen. This summer I want to start hiking to the interior part of the island. It's supposed to be pretty fantastic scenery. Now that the kids are all older and I'm not sick anymore it's time to go explore!

David
May 14, 2009

Too kind Christy.

I grew up in a small town…which was over 60 miles from any other communities in any direction. Yet, I still managed to keep finding new spots I'd never been to.

And when I say local area, in Australia, we usually mean anywhere in a 3600 square mile area (60 miles by 60 miles). Yeah, I know, we're weird. That's the same size as the whole of Ireland…nearly…ok, I'm lying… o.0

David
May 14, 2009

I'm so glad you Google Earth'd it to find out where I was standing :) That is coolness.

David
May 14, 2009

And I want to see the photos and videos you do when you hike. So we know where to go when we come visit…whenever that happens ! ^_^

annie
May 15, 2009

Neat! Someday I will have to visit …

David
May 15, 2009

Yeah, you will … to visit all your Aussie readers :)

And there's so much more to see too – I just love that this is literally on our doorstep, while all the famous Sydney sites are about 20 minutes by train or car, and half an hour by ferry.

I sound like a tourist brochure. Just as well Diane and I love being tour guides!

annie
May 15, 2009

Oh great! Well, whenever I make it to Sydney, I'll for sure know who to look up! ;)

And I just noticed (/thought it was funny) … you posted this on 5/15/09 … but I'm reading it on 5/14/09!! hahahahaha. yeah. I know. old joke probably. So … how's Friday?

David
May 15, 2009

The timezone thing is my favourite bit of fun.

A lot of my Twitter conversations discuss life in the future. It's a little bit windy here today, but with a big church event tonight, lots of preparing to do. The day will be summarised in my weekly worship recap post on Sunday, btw.

Anyway, I've got the day off work to do the preparation…starting by catching up on some online stuff, of course.

Cee_Lew
May 15, 2009

Ess loved the music Dave!

David
May 15, 2009

That's kinda funny :)

I love that version of Perfect Day by the sadly departed Kirsty MacColl along with Evan Dando…but I wouldn't have thought it was particularly kid-friendly. Ess is certainly a unique little chickadee :D

Crystal Renaud
May 18, 2009

thanks for the warning about the dead trees… phew!! oh and what i noticed in your little video is the lack of kissing noises. have you gotten better about that or did the iPhone just not pick up on it? just curious? :/

and something new in my area? well, there's not much but if there is anything of interest to see, my brother generally knows about it and takes me there. but usually it involves driving through the ghetto to get to those parts… generally historic and abandoned. he finds it interesting… i find it terrifying because i could get shot at any moment. always an adventure though i suppose.

David
May 19, 2009

Ghetto adventures :) I remember the first time I drove through Harlem in the middle of the night on a tour bus. Suddenly everyone huddled to centre of the bus rather than near the windows. This was before NYC was "cleaned up"

And the lack of kissing noises I think is likely more attributable to the other environmental noises than me getting better at not doing it. However, I really don't know. The more I listen to myself, I'm thinking the better I'll get at not doing it. Or not. :x

Leave a comment

WP_Big_City