Tai Chi in the Park

Park lessons are always an interesting photo opportunity.  Usually if we're having a park lesson, we're at Hyde Park.

Not only is it a lovely place to do Tai Chi, it's also a lovely place to wander round and take photos.

Tai Chi-ers!

  Wanted!  According to this sign, these turtles are an invasive species.

 

Warning!  Seed pods may fall without notice (except that there is this notice, so it's not really without notice, now).

And this just makes me think of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.  Also, this photo must've been taken in early spring, as this is the Jacaranda Walk.  Jacarandas spend most of their time being rather boring trees, except for a few weeks in late November when they're covered in purple flowers, before turning green for Summer.

We've also had a few impromptu park lessons in the park located next to our usual venue.  See some photos here! 

Other oddities in that park are the bus stop (I sat there for quite a while, but never saw a bus.)

And the No Parking sign.  Inside the park.  Where no cars can actually get in.  There are actually a few scattered round the perimeter of the park.

Today's park lesson was held at a new location called Rutter Park.  It's not a very big place, although it is located right by a primary school and community centre.  And the most interesting thing about this park is the not-so-comfy armchair and lamp.

Up close, it appears that the chair is made out of bricks, with a lovely floral design stamped all over the brickwork.

And it's all sitting on a lovely mosaic floor!

I love coming across this sort of thing in parks.  And to find that they've not been horribly vandalised and trashed (although the arm chair does show a bit of a burn mark on the back rest there...) is always a plus.  I know I've not been to many of the parks in my suburb lately, but I don't recall any of them having stuff like this.

And the important final part of any tai chi class...the post class gossip!

 Sadly, the hot topic for today has been our Sifu's bad health - he's been in hospital for the past week with a nasty infection in his foot.  His family are supposed to be flying here from China this week so he can have someone to look after him at home.  It's sometimes hard to remember that Sifu is 80 years old - he doesn't look anywhere near that!  I'm hoping that that is a testament to the health benefits of Tai Chi - the looking good for one's age, not the infected foot, that is.

Tricky Titles

There are times when journalists seem to pick misleading headlines for their articles, leading to a bit of confusion to someone like myself who really only skims headlines in a news feed.

For example:
"Phone box crash sparks chain of events"

Oddly enough, this delightful headline had me imagining that the Doctor has crashed his TARDIS once more.  And this time in Australia!  Sadly, the reality is a bit more prosaic, with the story turning out to be about some hooligan having driven a car into a public phone box (I'm surprised that there are any about to be driven into in this day), causing the box to fall onto another couple of teenage boys, injuring them fairly badly.

This next one was just a result of timing - also, this is something that happened six or more months ago.  I've had it noted down for absolutely ages, but never dated it or saved links to the articles concerned:
"Dingo Charged With Assault"
 When I first read this headline, my first thought was of someone charging an actual dingo.  This was because a few stories earlier, the headline was in relation to Lindy Chamberlain once again going through the courts to get her daughter's death certificate amended to show that the child had been killed by a dingo.

However, it ended up relating to Aussie celebrity Ernie Dingo who'd gotten into a bit of strife at a public appearance after hitting a kid around the same time.

On a related note, just listening to someone talk can also lead to those sorts of misleading conclusions.

Such as:
David Suchet on the Orient Express is a wonderful little doco where Mr Suchet goes on the Orient Express and explores the history of the train prior to his portrayal of Hercule Poirot travelling on the train and solving crime as he is wont to do.

One of the little tidbits of information given, was that there was a spy who once travelled on the Orient Express disguised as a butterfly collector.  However, for some reason, my brain was working at some warp speed that let me imagine that the spy was actually on the train disguised as a butterfly before Mr Suchet had finished the sentence.

Alan Davis on an episode of QI had the same problem when they were all discussing aeroplane-towed gliders.  His mind apparently spun off to imagine some weird hybrid aeroplane toad.

I can't help but wonder if other people have ever done something like that.  Also, that there are times when our brains can work so fast, we can imagine strange scenarios in the space of two words.