Had to come in today for an 'emergency'. When I got here, no one had any idea why I was here. Turns out, the robot is not working in some areas and they want me to fix it. The other robot works but one of them dies when it gets close to its docking station. No one knows why and they want me to figure it out. Right now, I am supposed to be checking the AP units in the roof to see if they are working but since the other robot works everywhere, how can it be the AP units. They both use the same ones. But I have been going around and rebooting them as I find them. About 20 in each area and there are 5 areas. And now they just called me and asked how it is going, so I have to go and check if I can find any more with problems. So maybe this entry will be carried on until tomorrow.
Ok, back for a bit but probably have to leave again.
This are festival we went to for Maeghan. I wouldn't say it was good but it was interesting. Basically, it was a bunch of sculptures and exhibits placed around the botanic gardens. Kind of a weird setup as it was at night, so they were all light shows or they were lit up in some way or another. There were a couple of food trucks around but they all had long lines or were not serving anyone. I think the burger place ran out of gas at some point as I stood in line for a few minutes but then heard it would be a thirty minute wait so I left. When I came back, there was no one in line and they were not serving. A bit after that, I saw someone bringing in gas bottles and headed that way. Sometime after that, they were serving again and the wait was 45 minutes. So I didn't wait.
The reason I was wanting something to eat was that I had just come from this job and did not have time to eat anything. Juanita, William and Maeghan had all eaten before they go there so I was the only one. Plus, I had walked from the train station to the gardens and that took about an hour. They all took the bus from the train station but since I had no idea what bus to take and did not feel like trying to find out, I walked. I had walked almost the same walk for a job I did so I didn't see it as a problem. It became a problem when I got off at the wrong station because I thought it would be closer to go that it way. It wasn't. By the time I got there, I was tired and hungry but didn't get to eat until after we left, which was two hours later.
After trying the burger place, we decided to start seeing the exhibits. There was a map that had the path you were supposed to take to see them all. There was also a bar area and some type of active exhibit across from it. It appeared people were painting there but that will some into this story later.
The first exhibit was a bit strange. We walked down a path looking for it and came across a cargo net hung from the trees above us that was lit up. Maeghan said that was the exhibit but I was not sure. She did point out that it was lit up so it must be the exhibit. As we finally decided to walk past it to the next one, we came across a sign that said this was in fact the exhibit. So we walked back to it and tried to find what we were missing. It was a cargo net hung from the trees and poles and was lit up. Guess it was art. We moved on.
The second one was along the path next to the river. Juanita and I saw that we were on the other side of the river from where the mountain climbing wall was. Too much of a story to go into but there are cliffs along one part of the river and lots and lots of people go there to practice mountain climbing. About 50 meters tall so it is no small feet and when we had driven there once by mistake, there were a lot of people there waiting their turn to climb. I'd say about a thousand. Of course, it was night this time and it was across the river from us so we did not see any climbers. But it was a revelation to recognize this was where we were.
Once we got to the exhibit, it turned out to be a light show being shown on this one tree. It was projected from a little cabinet they had setup and would show different things in the tree. It was interesting but not entertaining enough for me to watch the whole show. We went to find a bench to sit on while Maeghan and William watched the whole thing. It lasted about 5 minutes each show and repeated itself all the time so there was no gaps to know when it ended and when it started again. You just had to remember if you had seen the pictures again to know you had seen it all. The highlight was while we were sitting on the bench, a possum or some kind of animal came up to us. Probably expecting food but it walked to within a meter of us before moving on down the river bank. Turns out, we say a lot of them while we were there but it was interesting to see this one just come right up to us.
I am not sure what the next exhibit was. It appeared to be some type of old photos and old films being shown in different boxes arranged along a wall. But while we were there, a couple stood right in front of it and filmed each section, so you could not see what was actually showing on any of the screens. I patiently waited for some time but they never moved. Just stood there with their phones filming it and blocking everyone's view. For a while, I thought maybe they were part of the exhibit but they had kids who kept running up to them and they would just wave them away so they had to be just rude people who didn't think about anyone else wanting to see anything. We were there for about 5 minutes before we decided to leave and move on.
The next one, you had the choice of going up the hill or down. There were supposed to be more food trucks uphill so we decided to go that way. Maeghan said that was the one exhibit she had heard the most about anyway so it was good we decided to go that way. Turned out, there were no food trucks up there and it was just the other entrance to the gardens. But, the exhibit was nice. They had put a bunch of cloth or paper on the trees and shown some kind of light over the whole area so it looked like the trees were glowing. Not sure what the material was but they were allowing people to make their own and it appeared to be some type of mesh or something. Maeghan got one but when it is away from the light, it is just a piece of mesh cloth. Nothing special about it. The area they had done up was nice though. Could have used a food truck or two but it was nice.
Down the hill, there were the remaining exhibits. A big tent like thing that had a whole bunch of cameras around the walls. The cameras were streaming to a little screen that was on a little mound in the tent. Interesting part was you never really knew which camera was on. It kept jumping from one to another and everyone in the tent kept trying to figure out which camera was on from what they were seeing on the screen. Just about the time you would figure it out, it would jump to the next one so you could never be sure you had found the right camera. To confuse it all, they would sometimes show several pictures on the screen at once and people would try to figure out all the cameras that were on. I would have liked to spend more time in there but there was a big crowd waiting to go in and Maeghan could not really see the little screen that was there so we left.
Across from the tent, there was a big cabinet that had some kind of moving 3D images in it. Not sure how they were doing it but it would appear there were actual dolls in it and they were projecting other things into the cabinet so it looked like they are moving. But I am not really recalling what was going on in that one. It did seem interesting but I was tired and hungry by that point and I just went to find a place to sit down.
The last exhibit was a string of something high up in the trees. I think it was a rope ladder or something but like the first cargo net one, we were not sure what it was supposed to be. A rope ladder in the trees. I probably missed some part of it but as I said, I was tired and wanted to go sit down so I just walked past it.
When we go back to the beginning, Maeghan went to see what the people painting were doing. Turns out, it was a contest between two artists to paint a giant painting in a short amount of time. They were doing it side by side and I am not sure how long they had but it had been going for a couple of hours when we got there and they were just taking a break until the last hour was to begin.
I wanted to go but Maeghan wanted to stay. So we stayed. We waited through the break, and then the extra hour of painting and then through the reward ceremony for who did the best painting. All up, about two hours. Maeghan watched the whole thing. Juanita and I and sometimes William as he wandered back and forth between us and Maeghan, went and sat near the water. The benches there were really really hard so I couldn't sit for any length of time. I decided to get William a dessert of a Belgian Waffle or whatever it was. It had chocolate and candy bars on it and some ice cream. He split it with Juanita. I didn't have any. Eventually, I went to find a more comfortable seat and found a picnic table I could sit at and lean on the table for some rest. While I was there, a young lady and her small child sat with me and discussed the merits of the big thing of waffles and ice cream and strawberries and all kinds of other stuff on it. Juanita came over then and talked to them. I am not sure what they talked about but I know at some point or another they mentioned me. Not sure what was said.
I don't know which painting won but they all knew each other, the announcer, the artist and the judges so they spent some time congratulating each other before they gave the winner a voucher for the bar that was next door. They gave the runner up something too but we did not see what it was. They said they do it every night of the festival and it runs for four days, this was day two, so they told everyone to come back and watch again the next night. We didn't.
Maeghan had a good time. She was disappointed I didn't but I was tired and too hungry to actually dance around and entertain everyone. Not sure how Juanita and William felt about it but she tells us we are going again next year so start planning for it. I am sure that is what we will do.
Maeghan's class ends soon. Her art class. It was only a six month course. She starts back on her child studies sometime but I am not sure when. She says she has all the information and is not behind in registering for it but I am not so sure. I don't want her to miss out again. The last I heard, she was going to switch to Caboolture for the next class but I have not heard if that is true or not.
William is making plans for getting a job and moving out with his friends. Not sure how serious that is but he had me fix his resume the other day. There is nothing on his resume but he wanted it ready to hand out. There is a Brisbane Council work program we just got from the school. We will get him signed up for that this weekend.
My computer just flashed up a message that the battery is low and then shut itself down. I have plugged it in but that was very little warning before it shutdown. You would think it would tell me before it did that.
It does mean I am tired of typing and I want to go home. Didn't finish all the things they wanted me to do but I was not supposed to be here today anyway. I told them I would get to them tomorrow. They seemed happy with that.
So I guess I will be signing off now. It has gotten very quiet in the reception area. I am getting afraid there is something going on but I am packing up and leaving so it doesn't concern me. I will just sign off and go. Maybe another entry tomorrow.
Until next time,
Later
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