Lisa Miller at Basement Discs & Designex

Today at lunchtime I ventured down to Basement Discs to catch local singer/songwriter Lisa Miller performing live. She is a great songwriter and has a lovely singing voice. It has a lightness and sweetness that is not cloying and is very distinctive. On her website someone describes it as blue eyed and broken hearted, which is an apt description.

In the past she wrote feminist songs such as Rule #1 (Never Trust a Man) and her first release was sort of country music. Lisa Miller, though, can sing any sort of music and writes pop songs, ballads, blues – you name it.

Her latest CD “Morning in the Bowl of Night” is inspired in part by the poems of Omar Kayyam and is dedicated to her parents.

Anyway it was a pleasure to see Lisa Miller perform again as I have not listened to her for some time. Shane O’Mara on guitar and mandolin and Peter Jones on drums provided excellent accompaniment to Lisa’s strumming and singing.

Designex and the Yarra River

After walking round the Designex exhibition yesterday afternoon, I was exhausted. I spent about two hours roaming around looking at all the cool stuff being displayed. There was a carnival atmosphere in some areas, for instance these girls modelling textiles. (click for larger images)

I also managed to photograph this guy in his juggling outfit.


Whether this outing was relevant to work or not, it was interesting nonetheless.

The photo below was taken outside the exhibition centre. I liked the striped effect of the building supports with the city in the background.

My job as Supply Manager involves managing and monitoring contracts for appliances and fittings in the public housing sector of Victoria. Recently we called tenders for water saving showerheads to replace standard water wasting showerheads in public housing units. Because public housing tenants need to be treated with sensitivity, you can’t just put in any old thing. If the tenant felt he was being deprived of a good shower he’d rip out the water saving showerhead and replace it with the old model. So, we had to find a water saving showerhead that provided a decent shower and still met the Water Efficiency standard. We did find one. I even tested it out at home and found it gave an excellent showering experience which would not put off any housing tenant.

Other products supplied through my contracts are heaters, hot water services, cooking appliances, washing machines, solar boosted water heaters, carpets, holland blinds and security doors. I deal directly with major manufacturers like Rheem and Rinnai as well as small family run businesses. Because the Victorian Government likes to give the impression that it is serious about climate change and energy efficiency, the products installed in public housing units must be seen to be meeting these standards.

I suppose my job is quite interesting and varied, but I’ve been at it for such a long time, it kind of bores me these days.

Anyway, whilst I was down by the Yarra I took a couple of river shots.

The first is looking eastward towards the Docklands. This area has recently been developed and tidied up. A great many new buildings were erected (mostly high rise apartments).

This photo is of the Polly Woodside a restored 19th Century Tall Ship. It’s a very pretty vessel and stands at the gateway of the Melbourne Maritime Museum.