Sunshine Coast Daily Photo

Thursday, 21 August 2014

Coastal Banksia - 2

A little earlier, before they get to the "bottle brush" stage, the flowers are really quite beautiful in another way; robust and plastic like.

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Coastal Banksia - 1

I think Banksias in all their forms might just be my favourite flowers.

Maybe it's their haircut that reminds me of my own.

Marcoola

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Colour

On a bright sunny day, this building used to stand out just a bit. I suspect that the owners will eventually realise the folly of painting a building in colours that fade, and it too will join the sea of amorphous white that adjoins it.

Marcoola

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What's in a name?

I guess this is proof that they aren't called "plumbers" because they run things perfectly vertical every time.

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Potential.

Vacant land on the beach front means only one thing: it's a SITE!

How long will it be until someone takes advantage of it?

Marcoola

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The grumps continue.

Mount Coolum is one of the few things that qualifies as a natural landmark around these parts.

It's a pity it can't be seen all that well behind the barrier of power lines. Perhaps they are more indicative of where we live.

Marcoola

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Strange bedfellows

I'm not sure if I get it, nor if I like it even. I am usually a fan of structured topiarised gardens and they look wonderful in front of seventeenth century French Chateau, but the thought of tweaking Australian native plants into these unnatural shapes somehow takes something away from it all.

I don't know why.

Mudjimba

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Wall Art

I like the thought here, the wave that could very well be beach, the background that could very well be ocean, the pandanus tree, the leaf.... no, I am not quite sure what the leaf represents, nor do I have a clue about the ice-cream cone with the purple prickles in it.

But I like the thought.

Mudjimba

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Cynical recycling.

On the back of the airport carpark ticket there is a voucher to enable one to purchase two small bottles of water for and amazingly expensive six dollars.

Of course to redeem the voucher one would have to spend more time in the terminal, pushing up the cost of parking, and if the voucher were to be taken on redemption, who knows how expensive the parking would be with a "lost ticket'.

Perhaps I'm just grumpy because I'm thirsty.

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Air Fans

There are ceiling fans at the airport which must be close the larges in existence.

They are very aeronautical in flavour too, being a little reminiscent of a cross between an ancient radial engine and the wings of a jumbo jet.

And the place is airconditioned too.

I wonder what their purpose is?

Sunshine Coast Airport

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Finding the car.

At the airport, the carpark is neat and sub-tropical and holiday landscaped. There are even shade structures every so often to provide shelter of sorts.

At this point, I was wondering if I had made it within the seven minutes that would have allowed me to park for free,

Seven minutes! Who thinks this stuff up? I'll bet there was some sort of survey carried out which showed that the average visit is seven minutes and thirty seconds.

Sunshine Coast Airport.

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The arrival experience

When one arrives at the Sunshine Coast, the arrivals lounge such as it is, is located in the baggage collection area, but the welcome sign is large, the one marking the toilets clear, and there is a large koala with a sore arm begging for money.

It is so quiet that even with one other person in the building it would have seemed a little more bustling.

Sunshine Coast Airport
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The picture doesn't do it justice.....

I tried an experiment. I thought I'd make these photos look as though they were taken by a tired traveller arriving on a flight.

That worked!

The walkways between Arrivals and Departures are, I must admit, much prettier than this photo would have one believe, but I'm not going to spend another five dollars to take a photo when the light is better. This series has cost me a dollar a shot after all!

Sunshine Coast Airport

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This is no LAX

Even the least sophisticated traveller can see that this is not Los Angeles. The traffic is travelling in the wrong direction for a start. Actually the traffic is on gazillionth of what one would expect in LA (or perhaps any other airport in the world for that matter!)

Sunshine Coast Airport

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Welcome!

Airports are not usually happy places for me, they are busy and dirty (even the clean ones) but this one is different. It only serves a few commercial flights per day, and when it's not awake, it's very much asleep!

The flag, by the way, is the state flag, that of Queensland.

Sunshine Coast Airport.
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The Five Dollar Fotos

It looks very much like a guard tower, perhaps they are on the lookout for bandits, but it's actually the cute little control tower at the Sunshine Coast Airport.

I went off on a hunt for photos in the rain, and thought "Airport".

That was my first mistake - parking is free for SEVEN minutes, the nine I was there cost five dollars, and I could have stayed for another two hours if I hadn't been so lonely.

Sunshine Coast Airport

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Stand-up Paddle Board

Stand up.

Paddle.

Bored.

Moffat Beach

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The View South Again

Moffat Headland without a swell.

Moffat Beach

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The View North Again

The view north from Moffat Beach, on a day without waves.

Moffat Beach to Mooloolaba

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Two

Two trees, two people, two garbage bins.

Two minutes of your time.

Wasted!

Moffat Beach

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Take Away Store

Colloquially, newsagents are referred to as "paper shops", because they sell newspapers.

I wander past very early in the morning. I pass the mat proclaiming "Welcome" and the message that implores me to "Win Big, right above the poster that reads "Woman Crushed by Car, Man Drowns", and wait for the nice lady to tell me to have a nice day.

Do I really want to take this sort of news away?

Dicky Beach

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Surely Not!

I'd even be prepared to place a small wager that no one in San Marino lives in an apartment block called "Marcoola".

Marcoola.

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Fake!

The bike is real enough, but the flowers are not, and the beach is a poster on a real estate agent's shop window

Mooloolaba

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Necessities of life

Everything that's necessary for a day at the beach. Belly boards in all sizes, and cricket bats too!

What a great holiday it will be!

Mooloolaba

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Where am I?

In the Mediterranean region, the Sirocco is a hot, dry wind, bearing clouds of dust and wreaking general unpleasantness. In Mooloolaba, it's a luxury apartment building.

Mooloolaba

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Where Am I?

I am struggling to draw a connection between the African Coast and the Australian one, but here you can pretend you are somewhere else as well!

Mooloolaba

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Loo with a sign

Over the years as I have posted photos around the Loo with a View in Mooloolaba, I have sometimes been greeted with incredulity. Surely it cannot really be named that can it?

It can, and here's the evidence.

Mooloolaba

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Two blokes surfing, with seagulls.

Two blokes surfing, while seagulls watch.

Mooloolaba

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Rain on the horizon

Rain on the horizon.

Mooloolaba

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Beach Playground

Is it odd that a playground on the beach is required to be constructed of "soft fall" material?

Mooloolaba
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Gallery

Artist Wayne Strickland's gallery has a distinctly Asian feel about it, enhanced somewhat by the Thai Restaurant that sets up shop in the courtyard every evening.

It's a relic really from a by gone time, when shops and buildings were cheap, perhaps in inverse proportion to the quality they contributed to life.

Mooloolaba

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Where am I?

By now you will have guessed that this is not in the Aegean, but in Mooloolaba.

Lucky guess.

Does it even look a little Aegean? I don't think so, particularly since it's new colour scheme, but we can pretend. Actually why would we want to pretend? There's not a lot wrong with where we are!

Mooloolaba,
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Where am I?

Well actually no, this Caribbean Resort is not in the Caribbean. It is in Mooloolaba, and again I must ask the question, is there a "Mooloolaba" resort in the Caribbean somewhere.

How cool would it be if there was!

Mooloolaba

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Where am I? - An occasional series!

There is a Newport in Rhode Island in the US, famous for glamour and wealth, and one in Wales as well, perhaps not even famous, but here is Newport in Mooloolaba.

I often wonder what it is that prompts buildings to be named after some place that bears no relationship to the one in which it is built.

Why Newport for instance? Why not Mooloolaba? Is there a building called "Mooloolaba" in Newport?

Mooloolaba

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Insecurity

It's hard to imagine that less than two decades again, Mooloolaba was not self assured. It was like a teenager trying to stand out in the crowd by dying it's hair in a shock of colours.

Except that Mooloolaba had buildings that were trying to be something they weren't. A few remain, but the colours are doomed. Eventually, unit owners will grow tired of the battle with the sun, and newer more subtle schemes will prevail.

Eventually.

Mooloolaba

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Real or Fake?

The Wharf at Mooloolaba was cleverly detailed in the latter part of last century, with all sorts of "character" additions to make up for it's lack of real patina.

The "crane" for instance is completely fake, and while the faded colours were originally a little less faded, they were chosen to evoke a feeling of age.

How terrific is it therefore, that now the complex is of an age where genuine distress can be seen. See the disused sign for instance, pleasantly rusting away, this is not fake! There is no necessity to do any maintenance on the buildings, this is how they were supposed to look!

Mooloolaba

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Cruisers

There's a kind of bicycle known as the Beach Cruiser, a contraption without any compromise to the anthropometric necessities of efficient cycling.

They are heavy, ill suited for use by a human body, and very colourful and oh so cool to be seen with!

Mooloolaba

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OOhhh

Meanwhile on the opposite side of the door, there's a girl with a stare in her eye that could disturb some viewers.

Perhaps a smear of chocolate on her jowls would make a better sell!

Mooloolaba

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Ahhh....

I am not sure what this chap has in common with a lolly shop, but I have to say that he looks as though he has something stuck in a very uncomfortable place indeed.

Lolly pop?

Mooloolaba

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Lucky for some

It's not long after dawn, it's raining and it's bin collection day so the street looks a mess, and then there's a little patch of blue sky with a promise of things to come.

Then, well then this monstrous coloured arc belted across the path of the rain and touched down at the end of the street.

And I was there.

Dicky Beach

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Across the park

It's not a weekend, so the barbecues are unused.

Another winter scene from Moffat Beach

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The Tiger Swamp

There's a little patch of jungle in Moffat Beach, on the pathway between the shops and the beach.

I tell my grandchildren that tigers live there, but we haven't seen any so far. Perhaps they are afraid of the hippos.

Moffat Beach

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Everything I hate about winter

Clear blue skies, sparkling water, gentle breezes, and southerners who think it's warm enough to swim.

Is there any wonder I move to the northern hemisphere in search of summer at this time of year!

Tooway Creek

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It's pretty, and there's not a cloud in the sky, but my timing was exactly wrong so there's no "zing".

Be content to breath the morning chill and come back with me another time!

Maleny

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