ormiston

it had been a while since i had been on the cleveland line, and so a journey was most certainly in order to rectify that situation. thankfully, a friend from my former work place lives at the end of the cleveland line, and had been at me for some time to come out for the day and visit her. this particular human and i became friends on my first day at the pharmacy, ever since i asked her if they had any fee stuff at the front till that they no longer required. her response was to call me a scumbag. we became friends instantly, and have remained so to this day. i am pleased to say that our friendship outlasted my employment at that store, as i recently resigned (see my banyo blog) and we still keep in touch regularly so that i am not left out of the loop of the gossip. since she is in charge of the tills at the front of the store, which we refer to as cash and wrap, she is naturally in the most ideal position to obtain and filter all gossip to the appropriate places. if you wanted to know something, you would ask peri. if you wanted something to get back to management, you would tell peri. all workplaces need someone like her, because her rapport with the staff and customers alike is something that cannot be replaced overnight. she is a genuinely funny person, and tells the best stories about amusing customer requests and we often had conversations about the fond memories we had of former staff members. if i type the words separated or dumpling, i know full well that when she reads it, she will laugh and have the same mental images i have right now. needless to say, i didnt need any encouragement to push me to head out to ormiston to visit her or a few hours instead of studying.

my journey to ormiston began most unusually, at aucheflower station. the day was a public holiday, and so i didnt have to be at uni for our compulsory monday class; the kind where if you miss it you need a stat dec or a medical certificate, and it is essentially easier to turn up no matter what kind of disease you may be carrying, than to arrange to make up for missing it. since peri doesnt work mondays, it made for the perfect opportunity to catch up with her. we had been meaning to catch up for weeks, and now we finally had the opportunity to do so.

the journey began at auchenflower because despite it being a pubic holiday, karen had decided to head in to her store for a few hours to do some work to catch up. she thought she would drive in, and since she was driving, she offered to drop me at a random railway station on her way. i was more than happy with that arrangement. i have her trained well, because she even asked me which stations i was missing on the ipswich line, and at that point in time i was missing east ipswich, goodna, sherwood, graceville, chelmer and auchenflower. she knew how to get to auchenflower, and asked if it would be ok to mark this one off my list. how could i refuse? i have her trained so well! so she kindly dropped me at auchenflower on her way to the city. because it was a public holiday, trains were running to a weekend timetable, and so i was lucky enough to have a descent wait before the next inbound train came through the station. a long wait meant a chance for many photo opportunities, and so after several photos and letting several trains pass in both directions so that i could get a lovely quota of photos of various angles of the station, i finally rode a train as far as roma street where i could change for a cleveland line train. i must have spent a good hour at auchenflower, because while i was at roma street i had a fifteen minute wait for the cleveland train. a quick stop by the loo and i had fourteen minutes to kill. i had my study notes in my bag, but there is only so much study one can do in such a short amount of time, and so instead i wasted my time waiting for the cleveland by assessing my auchenflower quota. i had well over a hundred photos, which was a good effort.

the cleveland arrived as i was packing up, and i managed to get a comfortable seat and set myself in for a long train ride to the second last stop o the cleveland line. the cleveland line and the ipswich line stretch in opposite directions, despite the fact they are not linked in the same rail corridor. The ipswich line stretches to the west and the cleveland to the east. ormiston station, being the second last station on the cleveland line, followed only by cleveland itself, is quite literally almost as far away from where i live in the opposite direction that you can get to on a train. if you look at the network map you will see what i mean! ormiston station is preceded by wellington point and followed as i have said by cleveland itself. the beauty of the ormiston station is that it is quite simply a single platform station; just like clayfield on the doomben line which has already featured in my blog. actually i had been through ormiston before, on the day i went to cleveland to see the end of the line during my uni holidays between semesters in the third year of my degree. that journey was actually before the inception of the blog though, and while it does count on my go card as a station i have visited, it doesnt count officially to the blog yet because i have no photos of the event; and so i will need to make another journey to cleveland in the future to rectify this.

if any of my university lecturers stumble across this entry, (hi jacqui, hi jude!) you will be pleased to know that i studied the australian medicines handbook and took notes from it for my personal medicines formulary between roma street and wellington point where i figured it was time to pack up and get ready since ormiston was the next station. i think i used my time wisely, and i got through most of the osteoporosis drugs in that hour. by my standards, that is quite productive, and just as an aside, i seem to study quite well on the train because i have less distractions on the train than i have at home (television, pantry, fridge, books, bed, blog) so it isnt at all uncommon to see me studying on the train where i will catch it to some random station, disembark, photograph, and then ride again when the next train comes along. i never know where i am going to end up half the time, and that makes it incredibly fun! i feel like bilbo baggins out having an adventure.

ormiston station, like clayfield, is a single platform, though unlike clayfeld, it s actually slightly more developed, and has station art and a rather generous car park for commuters which peri swears she has never seen full. i didnt have time to count the parking spaces (and despite my pretty bad obsessive compulsive order) i havent actually done that yet at any of the stations i have visited. i will say this though, the parking at ormiston rivals that of dinmore. whether you have been to dinmore or not, that is a serious statement, because from my dinmore blog you can see just how generous the new car park at dinmore is, and since it is a pretty popular station (one of the most popular stations past darra for sure) ormiston station is not known for having that level of patronage. it goes without saying that we discussed the generosity of the car park at length as we walked through it once peri arrived at the station.

while I waited for her to arrive, i naturally went about my usual trainspotting business, to get as many descent pictures of the ormiston station as i could until she arrived. i was expecting an urgent text message with something along the lines of, i am here where are you?! but no such message was required. i saw her coming a mile away (the car park seriously feels like it is a mile long!) while i waited for her, i spent my time wisely getting as many photos of ormiston station as i could; despite the fact there was another commuter at the station who disembarked the train when i did. i think he may have got the wrong station somehow, because he appeared to wait at the platform (at least you cant mess that part up) as if waiting for the train to return. naturally, with another person at the station, getting a full spectrum of photos was indeed difficult, but i did the best i could with what was available to me. hopefully my photos contained within the blog actually do justice to ormiston station!

once peri and i caught up and i finished admiring her humble little station, we walked through the massive car park on our way to a park to feed some ducks the stale bread that was in her pantry. well, that was the intention anyway! to get there, we had to cross a road, which seems simple enough; though i am known for making the simple look impossible and the impossible look simple; and naturally i messed it up. once when i was in year three i tripped over my own feet crossing a road and broke my wrist. i didnt think it was possible to outdo something quite that bad, but i managed to in front of a friend. while crossing the road, my knee (which currently requires a complete reconstruction) gave way, and i ended up flat on my face and belly in the middle of the road. thankfully the oncoming traffic stopped! peri being the amazing friend that she is, stood there laughing with a confused look on her face (as if wondering what had actually just happened) and she called this incident the highlight of the day. it is nice to know who your friends are! we went to her place after attempting to feed the ducks (they didnt like her stale bread) and we drank chlorophyll and gossiped before having fish and chips for lunch at wellington point. after lunch, peri and her partner matt kindly dropped me to wellington point station where i got to catch a shorncliffe back to roma street, then an ipswich to ipswich and change to a rosewood so that i could finally collect thomas street station where karen was going to meet me. collecting thomas street would finally complete the rosewood line for me, marking it as the first line where i had collected all the stations. it was a wonderful day, collecting four stations in a single day, catching up with a friend, a near death experience, fish and chips, and a bit of study thrown in for good measure on the train. i wish i had more days like this!

welcome to ormiston! this beautifully informative schematic map of the ormiston station layout is near the entrance to the station; conveniently located near a public telephone box. i dont know what is more amusing; the fact that ormiston station has one of these signs in the first place or that since ormiston railway station is a single platform, the sign simply says platform without specifying it as platform 1.

the cleveland train i had traveled on to ormiston station departs on its way to the end of the line. there isnt far to go: cleveland is the next station! it seemed such a shame to have caught a wifi enabled cleveland train all the way from roma street to ormiston and not used my ipad once (i had it in my bag, so i could have) because i was trying to do the right thing, and do some much needed study. it is scary how soon exams are approaching, and even scarier that these are our last series of exams for the degree. after these, providing we all pass, we are expected to know everything there is to know. that is slightly terrifying!

this is one of the most descriptive photos of ormiston station i could actually get, because it shows the platform (platform 1) with the cleveland train departing the station to continue its journey to the end of the line. i know it is an early call, but this would have to be shot of the blog so far. as you can see to the right of the photo, the cleveland line is a single track and ormiston station is a single platform. peri was telling me that the first time our workmate jackie (who lives at bowen hills and featured in my exhibition blog) visited her at ormiston station, she remarked that it wasnt a real railway station. when she is used to the four platforms of bowen hills, perhaps she has a case; but ormiston certainly isnt alone. there are a lot of stations on this network which are single platform stations. ormiston is actually the second station i have blogged about which is a single platform; clayfield on the doomben line being the other. i cant believe that on the road passing ormiston station (northern arterial road) there is a car towing a trailer. irony much? i cannot stand trailers!

this photo is very blue for some reason. i just wanted to highlight that despite its small size, ormiston is still equipped with a water fountain. i am not known for consuming town water, but i really like the idea of having water fountains at railway stations, and i actually think every station should have one. i know that is a very expensive idea, but it would certainly be convenient for commuters. when i was here at ormiston it was a fairly hot day, and i was thankful i had my water bottle. if i didnt, i would most certainly have had to violate my personal rule of consuming town water from a public dispenser due to the extreme thirst i was experiencing. i dehydrate very easily and because i am prone to seizures, i need to keep on top of my fluid intake (so please dont go thinking i have gone soft in wanting fountains at all the stations! i am sure i am not the only person who rides the train that thinks they are a great idea!) in emergency situations like this, these fountains are certainly worthwhile. it is also better for the environment if we keep refilling water bottles instead of buying new ones all the time. in case it isnt obvious (but it should be) i got this photo on platform 1 (haha) at ormiston, near the middle of the platform. the assisted boarding mat is visible in the bottom left hand corner of the photo. the cleveland train has not long left the station, heading outbound one more station to cleveland.

it really goes without saying that i certainly approve of the ormiston railway station sign! that font is fantastic (please make them all like this in the future queensland rail). the bold font really makes the sign stand out, and i truly hope that when dinmore gets its upgrade, it receives a new sign with a bold font like this. i was going to write that this station sign is on platform 1, but that is pretty self explanatory really isnt it, since ormiston only has one platform. this sign is towards the cleveland end of the ormiston station platform. i wanted to get a few photos of the railway station before i caught up with my former workmate.

the cleveland train has departed ormiston station, as it continues its journey outbound along the cleveland line. it has one more station to go: cleveland itself; as ormiston is the second last station on the cleveland line. i got this photo at the cleveland end of the ormiston platform, looking outbound along the cleveland line towards cleveland. that does sound like a lot of clevelands!

i got this photo at the cleveland end of the ormiston station platform (platform 1) looking inbound along the cleveland line towards wellington point. the platform at ormiston looks incredibly long and narrow, which i think is a touch deceptive; and is probably caused by the fact it is a single platform. it is long enough for 2 full trains, or 6 carriages. there are a few little shelters on the platform to provide adequate shade while commuters await the arrival of their train. 

still at the cleveland end of ormiston railway station, i couldnt resist getting a photo that shows the billboard across from the cleveland line; especially since it is advertising balloons and parties! anything this happy deserves to be included in the blog! i notice that they advertise they do helium balloons; i have always wanted to have my own cylinder of helium (no, not to inhale and make my voice really squeaky! my voice is childish enough as it is! i still sound like an 8 year old on the phone apparently, which is very convenient when those annoying people ring to try to sell you something. they always have to ask me if mummy is home. usually if they ask about the location of mummy or daddy i say something along the lines of they are in the shower or they are in the bedroom. it is priceless!) the main reason i want helium is because as a scientist i love the periodic table (if you dont know what it is, seriously, where have you been living?! please tell me you have at least heard of the elements song by tom lehrer!) and i have been trying to collect a sample of each element from the periodic table, just like theodore gray. i had memorised the periodic table by the time i was 15 and can recite it in under a minute. i really should investigate if that is a skill worthy of a guinness world record. hopefully some day soon i can have a cylinder of helium. i dont need an especially large one, just something small will suffice, and will look fantastic in my office with the rest of my element specimens. if you happen to have a spare cylinder of helium you no longer require, please feel free to email me. aside from the billboard, this is a nice shot of the cleveland line.

this humble little shelter is on platform 1 at ormiston railway station, located towards the cleveland end of the platform. the ormiston station office is on the very left of the photo, maybe a third of the way down from the top. i love that smoking is banned at all the station on the queensland rail network, but i dont think there are enough staff to enforce the bans, because i have seen people smoking at various railway stations over the years. the most notable was the guy at helensvale, who was in the way of my photo of the airport train arriving, and a guy at south brisbane who i manage to photograph smoking. i think i mentioned in my toowong blog how much i hate smoking, so i wont go into it here too much. i will say that if you smoke, you obviously want cancer, so you are more than welcome to take the cancer from a person of your choosing in any oncology ward around the country. i am sure they would gladly trade places and allow you to have their cancer, since you want it so much and they desperately dont. 

it really is beautiful isnt it. how amazing would it be if all the railway stations on the network throughout brisbane and the surrounding areas had uniform signs on the platforms of every station? i think it would be absolutely grand. it would certainly help my ocd! look how easy the sign here at ormiston is to read. to quote mary poppins: practically perfect in every way. the car park in the background is practically perfect too, its bloody massive! it certainly rivals the one at dinmore in terms of its size, though i think dinmore may just have ormiston covered in terms of patronage. 

i got this photo at the wellington point end of the ormiston platform, looking inbound along the cleveland line towards wellington point. ormiston seems like quite a lovely area, though it was incredibly hot on the day i visited peri at her railway station. the cleveland line is a single track from manly outbound to cleveland, though it does split to form two tracks at some of the railways stations along the line, such as wellington point; it is essentially a single track for most of the journey outbound from manly. it is hard to believe that in 2014 such a major railway line in brisbane would still be a single track.

the complementary photo from the opposite direction, looking back at ormiston railway station from the wellington point end of the platform. the cleveland has no need to branch into two tracks here, because poor ormiston is only a single platform. perhaps some day in the future a second platform may be added and the track duplicated. sadly i cant see that happening any time soon.  

i was more concerned with getting another photo of the ormiston station sign to realise there was a pied butcher bird sitting on top of the sign near the speaker. this is what happens when i wear my sunglasses instead of my prescription glasses! i cant see more than a meter in front of me without them, which is evidenced here. still, it is a good shot of the ormiston sign, complete with small bird. it would have been incredibly cool if i could have got a photo of a kookaburra sitting on the wulkuraka station sign, since wulkuraka means plenty of kookaburras. ormiston has shown wulkuraka up, by officially being the first station in my blog to include a photo with a bird sitting on its station sign. this ormiston sign is at the wellington point end of the platform.

the little bird is surprisingly not afraid of this scary little human standing beneath it with a strange contraption pointing up at it. it is more concerned with attacking something on top of the ormiston station sign. an unfortunate spider or lizard perhaps? i will never know (i am too short to have even attempted to look) but now i had actually noticed the bird was sitting on the sign, and wanted to frame a nice show of it, however it moved at just the wrong time and i have managed to capture a lovely shot of its backside. i believe the phrase i am looking for in russian would be клaccнaя пoпкa. i am sure i have mentioned before that birds dont have bladders, and that they urinate and defecate through the one opening. evolution really is fascinating, and i have a huge appreciation for it because of just how much i struggled with the biology like subjects during this degree. give me math and chemistry any day, and throw in a bit of physics just for fun to remind me of the fun times in high school before our friendship group imploded like a badly cooked cake.

i nearly didnt see this; perhaps the only reason i did was that i was actually taller than it! towards the wellington point end of the ormiston platform i saw this fascinating structure on a tree branch, and straight away it reminded me of a slightly deformed human brain (perhaps a bit like my own). i think it is actually some kind of insect nest. there was no way i was going to touch it to find out. i believe i am still highly allergic to wasps, and i am also anaphylactic with peanuts. the interesting thing was that i didnt actually know i was allergic to peanuts until last year. one of my workmates, cheryl, who has made an appearance in this blog before when i wrote cannon hill, and will no doubt make another appearance when i get around to writing manly; can claim the responsibility for the discovery of my allergy. we were hard at work one particularly busy day at the pharmacy, and i felt like my asthma was flaring up, which was strange because i hadnt had an exacerbation of asthma for many years even with playing footy despite being unfit. i tried to ignore it, but it was worsening, and i thought that perhaps it was anxiety though i had nothing to be anxious over. i decided i would need to purchase a salbutamol inhaler and try to get some bronchodilation happening; when i saw cheryl open one of the draws and reach into a small bowl she had hidden inside the draw. i asked her if they were peanuts, and she said they were and she offered me one. we then realised that i was struggling to breathe because somehow my body had detected they were in the draw under the counter. cheryl laughed it off saying that i should stay down the other end of the counter, which would mean that she would be able to get more of the sales. we joked that the only way she could beat my sales was to try to kill me. ever since this incident i have had to be incredibly careful with peanut products. another amusing story stemming from my peanut allergy comes in the form of a laboratory practical involving peanut oil, where the lab staff made me do the experiment on my own at the opposite end of the lab to where my syndicate were performing their test together. this gave me a fantastic opportunity to shine on my own, and to also share a bench with one of my best friends who was doing a different experiment. he was excited to see me at his bench while he attempted to make a cream; and he may have lost concentration as he stirred the contents of his bowl whilst it was on the hot plate. at this moment we were talking across the bench and i distinctly recall telling him to be careful in case it spilled. one of the lecturers happened to walk past me just as a large cloud of steam came up from my friends hot plate. this lecturer walked around me and said in her heavy french accent: what is burning? we both looked over at my friend (who i have kept nameless) who was standing there laughing the contents of his bowl, which had somehow escaped and splashed all over the hotplate. it was priceless; and he swears it is all my fault, because it was all brought about by my peanut allergy. he has told me that that story should go with us to the grave; oops!

this shelter is towards the wellington point end of ormiston stations single platform. the ants nest resembling a deformed brain is towards the left of this photo (at least it was when i took the photos!) hopefully it is still there when you read this in the unlikely event that you decide to visit ormiston railway station just to search for it. if its gone (my apologies) you can sit and wait in this lovely shelter while you wait for an inbound shorncliffe or bowen hills train to take you back to where you came from. unless you came inbound from cleveland; in that case you will need to wait here for another outbound cleveland train. 

this little shelter does throw a descent amount of shade, as evidenced by the shadow on the platform. the ormiston station office is in the background on the right of picture. it was unattended when i visited ormiston, though this may have had something to do with the fact it was a public holiday. had it not been a holiday, i would have been stuck in class instead of having the chance to visit my awesome friend from ormiston.

well done darth. perhaps next time i should wear my glasses instead of my sunglasses. this pitiful attempt was meant to show both the station sign and station map of ormiston, as well as the station office. in theory such a simple and easy idea. i am just a horrific executioner when i try to photograph sans my prescription glasses. i am sure you are all laughing at this useless photo, though i still wanted to include it because despite the obvious flaw in cutting off a section the station map, this photo is still relatively good at describing ormiston railway station. the ormiston station sign is attached to the back of the station office, and the entrance to the station is to the right, just out of picture (along with the rest of the map!)

at the entrance to ormiston station is this very retro station art provided by the ormiston state school. rock on! i love music; despite the fact is possess no musical talent whatsoever. i remember attempting music as a subject in year 8 and failing dismally. the teacher even asked me if i had learning difficulties! (this was before the aspergers diagnosis, and before the dexamphetamine for the adhd...) i had always wanted to learn to play piano, as i think it is a really amazing instrument. i admire anyone who can play music because i am so appalling at it. the colours in this artwork are really cool. i have always loved bright colours, because they look happy.

there is a pretty flash bicycle storage facility here at ormiston station. this bike shelter is in the carpark in relative proximity to the entrance to the railway station itself. i hope some day i can learn to ride a bicycle. my mother never wanted us to have dangerous things like roller blades, skateboards or bikes. when you have accident prone children, i suppose that does make sense! i got this photo from the entrance to the ormiston station, looking across at the bike storage unit.

such a warm and welcoming entrance to ormiston station! the entrance to the platform is to the left of the photo. how cute is this though!? i love koalas, they are a lot like cats: eat and sleep all day and everyone loves them. occasionally they can be affectionate as well. if reincarnation was real and we actually get an option of what we wish to return as, i am seriously giving consideration to becoming a cat. if i can choose to return as a molecule, i would choose teflon, that way nothing sticks to me. i think i have become a lot more like teflon as i have got older, and as a result, i have had so much more fun than i did when i was little. i think the font that ormiston is written in looks a fair bit like comic sans ms, perhaps you agree? my grandfather was a colour printer by trade, and i grew up having him often test me on fonts and their sizes. he also made us read many books and would ask us questions about what we read to see if we actually read it or not. i think that instilled a love of reading in me at an early age, as today i have a massive library which would rival most book shops. for example; i guarantee i have a bigger collection of cricket books than any middle aged man in brisbane. the ormiston station office is to the left of this photo, out of picture. the platform is just behind the koala panel. this area is undercover and makes a lovely sheltered waiting area while commuters await their cleveland or shorncliffe service.

ormiston station has some lovely bottle brush plants along its embankment which i tried to showcase with this photo. i got this picture as i ventured from the platform down the ramp to the carpark. the carpark is to the right out of picture. platform 1 (the platform) is visible behind the fence, along with an ormiston station sign (complete with striking bold font). the koala from the previous photo is to the left of this image behind a larger plant.

i got this shot at the bottom of the ramp which leads up to the ormiston station platform. the ormiston station office is visible near the top of the photo, and was unattended on the public holiday that i visited peri here at her station. it is great that ormiston station caters for passengers who are unable to use a staircase due to impaired mobility or for reasons of reproduction in the case of families who have a pram with a young child in it who wish to board the train. i like that this station has both a staircase and a ramp. some railway stations try but fail to cater for passengers who require ramp access. hopefully some day, all of the stations on the network will be able to be used on each platform by passengers with disabilities or who are mobility impaired. even if you dont require ramp access, the walk along this ramp is rather pleasant, in that the garden contains some lovely bottlebrushes. the ormiston station sign proudly looks down over the garden which lines the rear of the platform facing the car park. perhaps i watched far too much rosemary and thyme when i was in hospital years ago, because i actually find plants fascinating. many more medicines come from plants than you would realise. im sure you know of the basics like aspirin, atropine, morphine and other opioids, but did you know digoxin is plant derived? it comes from foxglove. quinine and quinidine come from the same plant (ironically known as the quinine tree!) reserpine comes from a plant with the awesome name of rauvolfia serpentina, and the chemotherapy drugs paclitaxel, docetaxel, vinblastine, vincristine are all plant derived, and all have complex chemical structures. even strychnine is plant based! it comes from a plant which has some very interesting names. strychnine was a popular drug in nineteenth century europe where it was used to treat traumatic shocks, for example, from train accidents. it is also highly toxic in overdose.

taken from part way up the ramp looking at the garden to capture not only the station sign, but also the garden itself. yes, i know the ormiston station sign is the hero of this photo, but the garden is also important. perhaps it would win best supporting actor because despite not being in full bloom, these bottlebrushes are incredibly cute. the entrance to the ormiston station is to the left of the picture, as you ascend the ramp. the wellington point end of the platform is to the left of the photo.

i ventured into the extensive carpark to get a shot of the front of the ormiston railway station so that you could get a good idea of what the entire station looked like. despite being such a small railway station, the carpark is absolutely massive. peri swears she has never seen it full. i have seen the parking lot at dinmore full on a few occasions, but dinmore is one of the biggest stations on the ipswich line. heading outbound along the ipswich line, after darra the stations which have the most passenger traffic would have to be goodna, redbank and dinmore. yes wacol is relatively popular too, and so is ipswich itself, but in terms of sheer human traffic volume, i think it is a safe bet that those three stations make up the majority of the pie graph of patronage breakdown by station on the ipswich line. i think ormiston is a very pretty little station, and while it may not have the patronage of a station like dinmore, it certainly has more aesthetic appeal (and punches above its weight with its car park!) hopefully when dinmore is upgraded the revamp adds a bit more appeal to our station! look how welcoming ormiston is! im so glad i got to visit this beautiful little station and catch up with such an amusing friend, all on the same day. it is journeys like this which make my trainspotting odyssey so enjoyable, and i feel fortunate to have visited so many stations as well as having a chance to share a story about my journey with my readers who have been following me around the network all this time.

i might normally dress in black or dark colours like bottle green and navy, but despite my drab dress sense, i do actually like bright colours (i simply dont own any clothing that is bright!) so, naturally my love of bright colours attracted me to this mural as soon as i saw it. this is one of the things i really love about train stations, because station art really gives each railway station its own personality. here, ormiston is showing how bright and bubbly it is, and i think it has done a fantastic job. as you can see, this artwork is at the front of the station, with the staircase to the left and the ramp to the right. the station office is located at the top as you enter the station (bypassing the happy koala). the entrance then opens out to the solitary platform. for what it is, this station certainly makes a huge effort to appear impressive, and i think it has done a great job. the mural was painted by ormiston state school. it looks awesome.

ok, so i apologise now if i offend any of the ormiston state school artists responsible for this image. when i first saw this particular part of the mural, i couldnt help but laugh. im not sure if i am laughing at myself or simply my interpretation of what i see when i look at the image. i shall explain: as you know, i study and work in pharmacy. we see and hear all sort of strange things in our industry, and we have so many amusing stories that we could tell, but obviously cant due to privacy and confidentiality of our patients. some of the stories peri can tell from cash and wrap are simply hilarious. many of her stories can actually be repeated because they dont involve confidential material like most of mine do since i mostly deal with prescriptions. when i see the word script, it is only natural for me to think of a prescription. when combining it with the figure to the right of the script, who i thought was actually holding it, i deduced that yes they did indeed require a prescription, perhaps for an anxiolytic or an antidepressant because they appeared incredibly stressed, and look like they are not coping well at all. this image reminds me of how i get around exam time (which is coming soon, unfortunately) where sometimes i think i probably do need one of the aforementioned medications to get me through. somehow i have managed to pass everything without needing a supplementary exam, so hopefully that trend continues for the final exams of the degree (one can only hope!) this image will probably also appeal to peri who often feels this way after working with dumplings for too long, as she finds them rather challenging. the funny thing is, i didnt see the large font beneath the figure that said drama until after i had thought about what medications would be appropriate to treat our highly anxious patient here in the middle of the photo. once i saw it i couldnt help but laugh at just how pharmacy i really am. i have tried hard to distance myself from the industry a bit because it is all i have done for my working life, and it feels very one dimensional at times. thankfully karen lets me help her in her workplace (i dont get paid but i do get staff discount) which doesnt have the amusing stories of bizarre customer requests that we get in pharmacy. i was once asked by a woman if we sold cotton swabs, because her children had eaten all the ones she had at home. (what the...?) and after speaking to a foreign lady who kept repeating she wanted to purchase a baby check, i realised she was requesting a pregnancy test. perhaps peri and i could write a book about pharmacy some day. as shes older than me (dont stress, i wont put your age or even your decade of birth in here, i am not that mean to my elders!) shes been in the industry a while and has so many amusing stories to tell. whenever we catch up there are always interesting gossip sessions about the latest bizarre happenings in the world of pharmacy. shes a one in a million type friend, but what do you expect from a girl who grew up in a commune in new zealand, who called me a scumbag on my first shift?

dance like nobody is watching… i see that a lot on various advertisements and social media posts. if  danced,  dont think anybody would want to watch because dancing is not something i am blessed with an ability to do. (when you are 5 foot 4 inches tall with size 11 feet, dancing isnt going to be your thing!) we had to do dance as a subject in year 8 when i began at my new high school, and i tried to get out of it because i knew it wasnt going to end well. it didnt. the teacher was a lovely lady who tried incredibly hard, but i, like a few of the friends i had at the time, just wasnt cut out for it. funnily enough, i was aware of this fact before i got stuck with the class, so didnt really learn anything i didnt already know. i recall getting an a- for the written assignment, which should have been a sign that something was wrong straight away, as i almost never got high marks on any written tasks (clearly. you have read my blog. you know i am terrible at english, which i indeed failed in year 12.) despite the relatively good mark for the assignment, my choreography and ability to perform it was clearly below expectations, because i ended up with a straight d for the subject. not even my a- pulled me up high enough to pass. funny that! i am sure the ormiston state school children who painted this mural are far more talented at dance than i will ever be. it looks as though their school put a lot of effort into performing arts, skills of which i severely lack. despite my inability to dance, i really like this photo because it shows part of the mural, the staircase, station office and the ormiston station sign. the cleveland end is to the left, and wellington point end is to the right.

this is simply a wider shot of the mural to show off the ormiston state school childrens art work. i love the positive partnerships program with the railways and the station artworks which appear at a lot of the stations on the network. the more station art, the better i think, as it creates a positive environment and gives you something bright and happy to look at while waiting for your train. the artwork here at ormiston is certainly bright and colourful and gives off an incredibly happy and vibrant  feel to the second last station on the cleveland line. you can see the staircase on the left and the ramp on the right, and that these lead up to be level with the platform near the koala to the right of the station office. it is a very cute little station, and incredibly suburban in comparison to bowen hills, which is why jackie remarked ormiston was missing part of its station. i would love to see how she would react to traveston!

this is a slightly wider version of the last shot. i wanted to show the ramp a bit better, with the ormiston state school mural, so you can see the ramp alongside the garden at the back of the platform. the ormiston station office sits proudly atop the platform, complete with beautifully bolded station sign affixed to its outer wall. an adjacent phone booth could be useful in an emergency, and it is conveniently located near the entrance to the station. the wellington point end is to the right of the photo, and cleveland end is to the left. the car park extends significantly to the right of this photo, and also a fair bit backwards from where im standing to get this shot. for a single platform, ormiston station is pretty cool. its a bit quirky, sot of like peri.

a rather self explanatory photo, but still one worth including. i will state the obvious: this is the entrance to the ormiston station car park. the entrance to the railway station itself is via the staircase or ramp to the left of the photo. the car park itself extends quite a distance to the right of the picture in the direction of wellington point. there is one die hard visible in the car park on this particular occasion, and no, it isnt peri because she lives close enough to the station to walk to it. it is a descent walk, but it is certainly doable even sans an anterior cruciate ligament or medial ligament in your knee (as mine are both completely torn and sadly i need a complete knee reconstruction). i really like this photo because it shows the trees which are within the parking lot itself, making it much more inviting to park in than a bare patch of bitumen with no shade whatsoever.

trees. perhaps i should have been a botanist? i dont know what it is about me and plants, but i just find there is something really cool about them, particularly when they are dotted through a railway station car park, giving it a much more earthy vibe than a solid bitumen parking lot. whats that song? paved paradise and put up a parking lot. i actually cannot stand that song. i find it incredibly irritating, both versions. i think its the mmm bop bop bop bop part. whenever it comes on the radio, its one of the only times i turn the radio down. there aren't too many songs i cant stand, but that is certainly one of them. unfortunately, it is now stuck in my head. i tried to frame this shot so you could still see the ormiston station sign in between the trees. this shot looks towards the wellington point end of ormiston station.

this time looking towards the cleveland end of omiston station, featuring the bicycle storage units in the car park. you can see the entrance to the station through the storage units, signifying that they are in close proximity to the station entrance itself. some clever framing allowed me to capture the ormiston station sign on the station office at the right of the shot. dont think for a moment that this is accidental. its me, and its a station sign! enough said. check out the awesome tree line in the background behind the ormiston station itself. the trees run alongside northern arterial road which runs parallel to the cleveland line behind ormiston station.

ok, so not my best photography, but i got this photo just as peri came into my vision range at the wellington point end of the ormiston car park. in my excitement, i hastily framed this shot to quickly take it before walking to meet up with her. i would have run, except i cant actually run on my knee since it was damaged a while back. (actually i can hardly walk on it either, as peri herself is well aware after i met up with her on this particular day!) i couldnt help but get another photo of a bottlebrush. this little guy is in one of the small gardens in the ormiston station car park.

how beautiful is that mural!? see, ormiston has a really lovely, arty atmosphere to it. this is further evidence that ormiston station is incredibly cool. this wall backs into the ormiston station car park, and received its beautiful mural in 2011 when some local artists got together with the local school and medical center. it is part of the positive partnerships project queensland rail do at a lot of the railway stations. i even managed to find a time lapse video of the mural being painted here on the top right hand corner of page 12. it is worth a watch. the pdf also shows some artwork from a few different stations around the network.

taken from the wellington point end of the ormiston carpark, its sheer length becomes apparent very quickly. the beautiful mural featuring various aspects of the redlands area is visible on the left. either way, peri assures me you can always get a parking space at ormiston station. this information may or may not be useful to you, but it would be more useful to you than to me since i live between karrabin and wulkuraka stations on the rosewood line! just after i got this photo, we walked across sturgeon street. its a relatively busy road, and has a small and narrow refuge island in the center between the two traffic lanes. it was while walking to the refuge island briskly (making haste due to oncoming traffic) that my knee decided it had had enough and uncooperatively decided to give way in the middle of the busy street. somehow i managed to get my hands to the ground faster than my face, save knocking out any teeth. thankfully i didnt rip a whole in my work pants, since they are the only good trousers i have (i mostly wear shorts). peri turned around to find me flat on my face, in the middle of the street, and laughed asking what on earth i was doing. she later swore this was the highlight of her day. i dont know what she expected me to say, as i was too busy trying to get up again because the oncoming traffic had had to stop because of me laying on the road like a piece of roadkill. this is further evidence that i seriously do need to have my knee operation, and the sooner the better. apparently recovery from the type of operation i require can take up to a year providing i dont have any setbacks and i heal well. lets just pray that when it happens, it is a success, and i get full function of the leg back again!

after picking myself up off the road and gesturing thankyou to the motorists who had to wait for me to remove myself from the middle of the street, peri and i walked to her place via a park (read; she walked, i hobbled). she had planned on feeding the ducks some stale bread she had left over, however the ducks werent hungry and turned up their beaks in disgust at the thought of stale bread. all i had were left over lollies, so i was never going to donate them to the cause. we gave up on the duck feeding idea after realising school children had offloaded bread during the school holidays and the ducks were probably incredibly full of bread and couldnt bear to stomach any more. we made it to her place were we drank cool liquid chlorophyll and gossiped about the pharmacy industry. ironically, not much had changed at the store since i had left.

peri and her partner matt decided we should do lunch, and so a quick drive for fish and chips at wellington point with intention of sitting by the water, was planned. execution wasnt to plan however; with many people having the same idea and all waterside views seemingly taken by other humans eating fish and chips purchased from the same store we visited which didnt take eftpos for some reason. upon receipt of our orders we found an amusing little area to sit and devour our lunch. peri for some reason, decided that sitting in the garden was a good idea, and so matt and i followed her lead. we ate and chatted until there were only a few chips left (which we may or ay not have raced down a stream). matt and peri kindly dropped me to wellington point station where i caught a shorncliffe train to roma street and changed to an ipswich. i rode the ipswich to ipswich then changed to a rosewood so karen could collect me from thomas street, making a four station journey, all of which were new stations. it was a fantastic day, with an awesome friend from ormiston.