At first light

Dragging myself out of bed before sunup especially on a weekend is such a feat. With the start to autumn and the now chilly mornings, I would rather sleep in. Who wouldn't? But having longer nights and with end to daylight savings still two weeks away, sunrise in Adelaide would be around 7am (CST). Still pretty much not a big ask to roll out of bed for some early morning photographic adventure.

Inspired by Christina Dickson's entertaining narrative on sunrise photography tips, over the weekend, I found myself setting up on top of Montefiore Hill in North Adelaide well before daybreak for my first sunrise photographs.



For awhile there, I thought the seemingly dark clouds on the south-west will usher in a downpour. Not armed with an umbrella to protect the gear, I braced myself being caught in a rather unpleasant predicament. But all's well - though it did rain, it was light and did not last long to entirely ruin my outing.

Then, in Christina's words, "I smile..."



Out early in the morning, loss of sleep - truly well worth it.

Adelaide City Bridge

The photograph featured today in the weather segment of the ABC 7:00pm News (Adelaide) was this photo of the Adelaide City Bridge.



Bridges have always held a certain fascination for me. For the most part regarded as engineering feats, these structures are likewise architectural design marvels. Taking the course in Architectural Science as part of my undergraduate degree, I became more fascinated in the engineering design of bridges.

The Adelaide City Bridge, also known as the King William Street Bridge in Adelaide, South Australia is one of ten bridges that span the River Torrens. The first bridge was one of timber built in 1839 approximately 500 metres west of the current City bridge, but destroyed by floods in September 1844. In 1849, £6000 was allocated to bridge the Torrens. Within four years three wooden bridges had been built and subsequently destroyed in floods.

In June 1856 the English-manufactured, iron City Bridge was opened, extending King William Street to North Adelaide. A photograph of the City Bridge, circa 1866 shows a bowstring type suspension bridge design with trussed arches. Another Townsend Duryea photograph circa 1866 shows the road over the City Bridge. The iron bridge was widened in 1877 then converted into a two-lane bridge in 1884.

In 1931, the bridge was replaced with a concrete open spandrel deck arch structure. The present day concrete bridge features art deco architectural details reminiscent of the popular movement of the 1930s.





See also: Bridge Basics for a general description of most bridge types.

ABC Weather Photo

This photo of the Adelaide Skyline as viewed from Wellington Square in North Adelaide was today's weather photo in ABC 7:00pm News.

Today was also the O'Connell Street Food and Wine Affair annually held at the Wellington Square, where cafes and restaurant of O'Connell Street Precinct provide outstanding cuisine at low prices.

Adelaide "Green" Connector

One of the Adelaide City Council's (ACC) initiative is to provide a free bus service, the Adelaide Connector, which links North Adelaide and the CBD. To my knowledge this bus service has been in operation since 2001. It really is a convenient service as its routes (the Red route and Green route) include streets not plied by the regular public buses. Plus, it's free! The Red route (nicknamed the Red bus) starts at 8.00am in North Adelaide and heads towards the City. Whereas, the Green route or the Green bus would commence the service from the city to North Adelaide. I would use the service every morning to go to work and I take the Red bus.

This morning, the Red bus has turned "green". Today was the inaugural service of the world's first solar electric bus. Launched in December 2007, the green "Tindo" (Kaurna Aboriginal word for 'sun') bus with plates "Tindo 1" now plies the Red route of the Adelaide Connector. Hooray for the ACC! I took part in history by being one of the first to use the world's first solar electric bus. Being a fully electric vehicle, the bright green bus with quirky exterior design is very quiet. Read more about Tindo here.



In thinking of going 'green', one wonders if factors of embodied energy and embodied water in product manufacturing are taken as criteria for sustainability. More often than not, in aiming for being green or sustainable, we have become more end-product oriented. The process to get to that end-result, which is crucial in the holistic assessment if indeed the product is deemed a 'green initiative' is often relegated to the side. Among the questions perhaps that needs to be asked is whether in the production of Tindo, green measures have likewise been considered.

Reduce, Reuse, Recyle

In line with the global move to mitigate humankind's impact on the environment, lifestyle changes are encouraged. An example is Australia's Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts' promotion of the principles of the "5Rs": Rethink, Reduce, Reuse, Repair and Recycle.

Rethink - the use of all resources. Is there a more environmentally friendly way of doing things, or do you really need to do it? Each time you purchase you create a demand. Think before you buy! For example, walk, join a car pool or catch a bus instead of taking the car, take a shopping bag instead of using plastic bags.

Reduce - the use of all resources, especially non-renewable ones. If you must do it use the alternatives that technology makes available. For example, send and read information electronically instead of printing it on paper, use renewable energy sources such as solar power.

Reuse - where possible reuse resources. For example, use newspaper for garden mulch and milk cartons for tree guards.

Repair - rather than throwing things away
For example, try to buy repairable equipment, sell/give broken whitegoods to repairers rather than sending it to landfills.

Recycle - waste items wherever possible. For example, sort your garbage and recycle all cans, bottles, paper and glass, set up a compost heap for food scraps.

Certainly in keeping with the city's reputation as one of most livable destinations in the world (ranking 6th, 2006), is the access of residents to services and infrastructure. Among the services Adelaide City Council provides is the Hard Refuse collection for domestic premises. Four times a year, the pedestrian paths in residential neighbourhoods will have an orderly pile of discarded household items for council's collection. These could range from furniture, bathroom fittings, to old white goods.

In the last council collection, this was a pile I saw from a house a number of blocks from the apartment building:













The Guggenheim Collection 1991 promotional poster of the Art Gallery of New South Wales now hangs on my hallway wall.













Oh well ... someone's trash is somebody's treasure.

"Liveability - where the grass is greener"

In The Economist Intelligence Unit's LIVEABILITY RANKING of December 2006, Adelaide is one of the most liveable destinations in the world.



As part of the Worldwide Cost of Living Survey, living conditions in more than 125 cities around the world were assessed by looking at indicators grouped into five categories: stability; healthcare; culture and environment; education; and infrastructure.

One of the delights of living in Adelaide, regarded as Australia's '20-minute city', where most metropolitan trips fall within the convenient 20-minute radius - be it the beach or the hills, is certainly the ease of movement. Adelaide, a beautiful garden city, qualifies as one of the best planned cities - laid out on a square mile grid with wide streets and a buffer zone of green encircling the entire city.

Living in a suburb north of the square mile across the Torrens River but still within the green belt ensures that I get to experience a piece of this nirvana. La dolce vita!

Cold start to the work week

Monday last week, I was greeted with a foggy start to the work week. It was amazing to see the CBD blanketed in thick fog similar to the weekend. But Monday's fog didn't let up until 10.30 in the morning. Weather reports that night said the some parts of the state had fog until 3.30 in the afternoon.

This is what greeted me when I left for work at 8am:

Angle Parking

Saw this one early today and I just had to take a photo.

Now you see it, Now you don't

This morning the city was covered in a thick blanket of fog from 6.00am to 9.30am. With visibility up to 150 metres only, about 25 early morning flights in and out were affected. I took the photo above at 8.30 and jumped back into bed.

City skyline on an overcast winter morning:

Beginning of Summer 2004-2005

The lush green leaves of the grape vine that adorned the facade of this bottle shop near the residential college where I stayed somehow aptly depicted the start of the final stages of my thesis writing.