馬馬虎虎

2009-07-05T08:09:00.001+10:00

Well, I have not removed these posts, but my blog site is now on a friends server.

the last trip in the Prius

2009-03-28T19:13:00.003+11:00

Well, the time had nearly come for the lease to end. So Keat and I headed off to Kanarga Walls for the day. We drove down a good road from Oberon to find a large number of cars and people at the lookout.

Unfortunately the view was somewhat obscured by the smoke from about three bush fires.

Going back into Oberon, we again saw that footpath. So this time I stopped and took a photo.

We then headed back into Oberon. Keat had gone there on family fishing trips when she was young.

We had missed lunch, so stopped in Oberon for afernoon tea.

And then had dinner back in Petersham at a Gloria's Portuguese Restaurant.

an exploration of Kurnell

2009-03-21T19:18:00.001+11:00

Well, I suspect when anyone thinks of Kurnell, they think of oil refineries. But there is more to the place. It is also home to Royal National Park and some Nature Reserves.

Off the coast of the national park they have the inlet for the new desalination plant.

And then there is the town of Kurnell.

and a map of where I went.

dhbc second ride

2009-03-21T11:59:00.004+11:00

I went on the second bike ride with the dhbc. I have since joined. I was greatly improved after my previous ride and I actually managed a full lap of centennial park and did not crash with any other cyclists this time. I was very pleased with my improvement in fitness.

and I just found this movie on you-tube!

SPB Photomeet

2009-03-19T04:07:00.000+11:00

Well they have been getting farther apart, but I went to this one the sanctuary hotel in town. The food I had was passable but some of the food the others had was not so good.

In this photo (left to right): james, sydney walker, kent & ?.

Return trip

2009-03-15T09:15:00.003+11:00

On the way home, I stopped down by Lake Burrenjuck ad

and arrived home to a balcony flooded with water.

In search of a blue tongue

2009-03-14T20:28:00.001+11:00

Well, I headed off in search of a blue tongue lizard. They are impossible to get in NSW, because of stupid laws relating to native animals, and eventually I worked out I should look in Canberra where they are much more liberal and sensible in their approach to life. Though I had done the correct thing and purchased a licence to keep such animals. I found a place looking on the net.

Canberra Exotic Pets
1 Samson Place
Kambah ACT 2902

So I headed off to Canberra as my car lease will be running out soon. I was surprised to find myself on a suburban street. It is a backyard and garage operation. But I have to say, I was very very impressed. They were helpful, very knowledgeable and good at assisting me with my unusual requirements. Unfortunately, it turns out blue tongues are very short sighted and will fall off things. As I live on the third floor of a building, this would be fatal. So I left without a blue tongue and instead with a set of requirements I needed to meet. To do this I need to talk to my body corporate, as I want to put a fence around the planter box to protect the little animals from falling and this will impact the appearance of the building.

The trip down to Canberra was very fogy. It was one of those thin fogs, so you find yourself wearing sunglasses but with the fog lights on.

&

I spent the night with some good friends and the next day headed back to Sydney.

Juniper training, house issues and a night walk

2009-03-12T07:02:00.004+11:00

Another Juniper training course in North Sydney. This one was very busy and for 5 days. I learned a lot. I have to say I have a personal preference for Juniper over Cisco as the command line is much easier to drive.

Then when I came home, the builder had finally started on the planter boxes. He had to remove the plants, which he replanted in the garden and in pots, air conditioner and dirt, to try and find the two leaks in the planter box. Unfortunately he caused a earth leakage fault which meant that I could not run more than one light and the mobile phone recharger. The food in the fridge was lost. I first knew when the alarm company rang and said there was a loss of power on the alarm unit. However, the battery lasts a long time. I was impressed. The builder fixed the power problem the next day. I could not have a shower as the hot water, though gas, needs electricity to work.

So in the evening I did another of my weekly walks. This time I discovered a cliff in Sydenham and suffered vertigo. But otherwise I was fine.

Barrio Portuguese Festival

2009-03-08T10:04:00.004+11:00

I spent a few hours in the morning in the Barrio Portuguese Festival in Petersham. I walked up the hill to the festival.

On the way I walked through Henson Park for the first time.

And then some images from Marrickville and Petersham.

Finally, I reached the top of the hill and found the food festival. Some of the stalls were the same as the Marrickville Festival and clearly there are stalls that follow the circuit of street festivals around the state. However, there were also some stalls from local restaurants and these are the ones I tries. I had a chorizo roll and Brazilian banana desert for lunch.

I spent some time watching the live band and dancing.

And finally I went home. I took a detour as I was just wandering the streets and found much good architecture and street art.

slowies ride

2009-03-07T19:49:00.012+11:00

Today I went on the slowies bike ride with the Dulwich hill bicycle club. We started at Macs Bicycle shop on Marrickville road at 6:30 AM and rode to Centennial Park. Unfortunately I forgot to turn on the GPS so I only have the return trip. The others spent time riding around the park for 45 minutes. I stopped and rested. We then returned back to Marrickville and had breakfast at the wonderful Marrickville Road Cafe. I will certainly be doing more rides with this club.

I also experimented with taking a video. The mobile phone is in the clear plastic part of the handle bar bag.

I have downloaded the Prune program to draw my map. It shows the route and the altitude which is cool for a GNU free program. The ride is from right to left on the map, but left to right on the altitude.

16.4 kmh is a bit abysmal and I struggled on the hills to keep up. In fact I was dropped from the pack on every hill. But I caught up again. Still, once I am going well I should be able to manage 25 kmh on average.

Now I need to do the ride to work and back to show the map, also into 400G in the city.

Succulents

2009-02-28T21:14:00.001+11:00

When I was last down in Melbourne, I was given half a dozen succulents with some instructions that some needed repotting soon. With all the rain, one of them has taken off, doubling in size over a week or two. So I repotted the two bigger ones. I need to get some dirt to repot the rest.

Dinner in Eastwood

2009-02-28T08:37:00.003+11:00

My father and step-mother came up to Sydney as Stephanie wanted to see some old school friends visiting Sydney from the USA. So we met up with my uncle and his wife and had dinner in Eastwood. The restaurant was good, while not great for the price they charged.

Cisco QOS training

2009-02-26T08:33:00.003+11:00

I did my first ever Cisco training, a five day course squeezed into three on Cisco QOS. This was not enough time. It needed at least 4 days. But I learned a lot.

First ride on my bike since 2000

2009-02-22T14:49:00.003+11:00

Well, the bike has been sitting in the underground garage for 12 months in this place. Looking sad with it's flat tyres. I decided last December that I should start riding into George street but needed to get the bike going. Also, I have decided not to get a new lease car, so at the end of March I will have no car. I have no intention to get another one in the immediate future, but I have some longer term plans. So from April, I will ride to Paddington. It is a short ride with no hills of significance. If it is raining I will catch the 355 bus.

But I had a problem. The bike was locked. An hour of searching found lots of old keys to who knows what, but no bike lock key. So I had to take the bike up to the bike shop (Mick Mazza Cycles) with the back wheel locked. I got one comment form a Greek man on the way. In the shop, the assistant thought I was a bike thief and wanted nothing to do with it. But the owner cut the lock off, sold me a new one , replaced the rubber liner for the front wheel and cleaned and regreased the bearings. I can't believe am so slack I did not do this myself. In the future I will do it myself again.

Yesterday I walked around looking at the other local bike shops. The one in Marrickville Road is good but it had a very limited selection of add-ons and did not have what I wanted. I found that a shop on Kings Road (king street cyclery) was excellent and had the things I wanted (clip on pedals/shoes and a handle bar bag. I forgot to ask about racing handle bars. But I did not buy any of this. I'll have to get the bag first.

Today I purchased a pair of black dunlop runners so I have shoes that fit in my existing toe clips. They will do for now.

I did not go for a ride yesterday as I was not completely set up. Today I did. I rode around the cooks river and past the airport. All in all about 6km. I feel really good for the exercise. Though my left arm is hurting while I ride. I will have to see the doctor about that. I think I might had RSI. But I do not know.

I took a few photos and one movie with my mobile phone. When I get the bag, I'll have to connect the phone to it so I can take movies while I am riding.

N95 bluetooth troubles

2009-02-22T14:21:00.003+11:00

For the last month or more, the N95 has refused to send bluetooth files to the mac. it will synch. the mac can browse it all using blue tooth. But send a file from the phone and the connection failed. A quick look on the internet discovered the problem. Probably with one of the last mac updates there was a new preference for file sharing for bluetooth devices. It was turned off. Turn it on and hey presto! the bluetooth file send works again...

elvis festival - gospel slide show

2009-02-15T17:59:00.005+11:00

This is a slide show of all of the Parkes Elvis festival 20009, but the sound track is from the gospel service. Mostly the sound is ok, but for one song there is a lot of distortion. The photos are from my collection on flickr. I did the slide show on full auto and some of the cropping is not the best... oops.

Other posts on The Parkes Elvis Festival 2009.

Elvis Festival - Getting there

Elvis Festival - First Impressions

The parade at the Parkes Elvis Festival

Elvis Festival - Staying in Forbes

Chinese New Year Parade, Sydney 2009

2009-02-01T21:12:00.003+11:00

Well for the second year in a row, I went to the new year's parade. Though I have something else in mind for next year. Unlike last year, this time the parade was held at dusk and this time I went with the SPB.

We met at Central Station and then headed to the Edinburgh Castle for a late lunch/early dinner. Even though James had said otherwise, the kitchen was closed when we arrived and we had to wait 45 minutes till it opened.

We then headed down into China Town and picked a spot along the parade route to spend the evening. It was an hour and a half before the parade started.

The parade got off to a slow start. There was some problem that we could not see and a fire truck came trough the crowd and went up george street. A while later the parade started to come down to where we were.

The first part of the parade was local groups. They came with the floats from last year, but now lit up for the night time.

Some people took the higher view of the parade.

And then came the professional groups from China. One woman from Anhui provice spoke with me during the parade. She was very proud to be here and of her troupe. And I think I played the drums with one of the drummers when I was in Harbin a few years back.

Some more photos of the crowd.

And the police.

The end.

Juniper training

2009-01-30T05:29:00.003+11:00

I spent three days in North Sydney at the Juniper Office doing training on Juniper Routers. It has severely impacted my very poor knowledge of Cisco commands as Juniper has a much better and very similar command structure.

And I bumped into Stilgherrian, met Kate for the first time and then Pong over lunch and by chance.

Yass Junction

2009-01-27T18:28:00.001+11:00

The next day I drove back to Sydney. I started earlier than I would normally as Jeremy and Elisse work morning shift. So I arrived at Yass a few hours earlier than I expected. Cathy was still at lunch. It turned out when I did meet her that Ingo and the kids were in town. Frank, Mietta were also passing through. While I was waiting I headed out to Yass Junction Station and took some photos.

Wikipedia says: The station is in its situation due to the refusal of the former Engineer-in-Chief of the New South Wales Railways, John Whitton to build the Main Southern Line through the middle of Yass itself. After a visit on 8 December 1871, to investigate possible routes for the extension of the line from Goulburn, Whitton remarked that "to bring the station to North Yass would increase the length of the line by about three quarters of a mile; that the cost would be considerably more than I had recommended, probably £30,000 or £40,000 for works alone; and that in an engineering point of view [a] divergence to North Yass could not be entertained. Despite continuous objections, none of Whitton's working plans or other Government surveys were not able to find a suitable route for the railway to pass through Yass. Instead, the present route from Gunning to Bowning was chosen which passed several miles to the north. After a Government Bill was passed "to authorise the construction of tramways along certain streetts and highways in the city and suburbs of Sydney and elsewhere", a tramway was built from Yass Junction to Yass Town to convey passengers. The trams departed from a small dock platform behind Platform 2 (the Melbourne-bound platform). The line opened on 20 April 1892.

Australia Day 2009 - a day for catching up with people

2009-01-26T20:42:00.002+11:00

Australia day was also a day of meeting people and eating. I met up with Rodney in the morning for Breakfast on Brunswick Street in Carlton. I was a little early as I had misjudged the time to drive to Fitzroy from Werribee. So I took a few pics.

In the afternoon I went around to visit Helen and Monica Morgan and share in their Australia Day family BBQ.

And then in the afternoon I met up with Mike and Jess at the Melbourne Flickr Photo meet on a roof top in Melbourne.

I did not end up going to Arcanacon for the post arc party as I was felling very tired after all the exertions and had to drive back to Sydney the next day.

A day with the family

2009-01-25T09:40:00.001+11:00

The 25th was the day for visiting the family. There had been some infighting, but in the end more people met each other that would otherwise have happened.

At the start of the day, I had bacon and home grown eggs with Jeremy and Elise.

Then I picked up Alicia in Gisborne and headed out to my mums place in Seymour. We saw her shiny new car.

And then in the evening I picked up Chenaye and we went to my step mother's place for Chinese New Year dinner.

Arcanacon

2009-01-24T19:50:00.002+11:00

Well I spent one day at Arcanacon. I had last visited in 2006. This year I played three sessions, but did not take many photos. As usual the place was efficiently run.

The first game was based on Ghost Busters. It would have been good if I had watched the movies again in recent memory. But we managed to save the world and sink our cruise liner in the middle of the Hudson River in New York. Quite a good days work.

The second was a AD&D by Gary Fay. It was a bit long, but I think in the old days we would have romped through it. I always like Gary's modules.

The third was a side adventure to Peter Strong's now complete anime inspired Japanese 14 part game. It was a bit weird know what would happen in the future but the team an module were good. We managed to completely destroy the opossing companies research facility and grab their artificial intelligence creations.

driving to Melbourne

2009-01-23T07:24:00.001+11:00

I drove down to Melbourne for the long weekend and stayed at my brother's place in Werribee. I spent the day eating. First was a cheesy toasty for brunch...

Then a chicken burger in Holbrook for Lunch.

and then dinner at Baffetti a Ristorante éBar at 106 Watton Street Werribee. A surprisingly good meal. I had the mixed platter of kangaroo, lamb, and spatchcock.

Danni's going away

2009-01-16T22:00:00.002+11:00

Had a dinner in the Cricketers Arms Hotel for Danni's a-going to Deutschland.

Dinner in Penrith

2009-01-14T20:34:00.003+11:00

Well I had dinner at Penrith, in what is turning into my 6 monthly visit to the Penrith Flickr group. They are still having dinner by the banks of the Nepean River at the Log Cabin Hotel. Now that it is summer we sat outside and were treated to quite a nice sunset. The food is moderately priced and reasonable for the cost. I was lucky and got in just before about 30 teenage girls turned up to order their meal.

Borenore Caves

2009-01-11T16:00:00.002+11:00

My interaction with Borenore goes back a long. way. My Mother lived there for a while before she was 10. When we came back to Australia for a short while in 1964 or 1965, we stayed for a while at the neighbours place in Borenore. Since then we visited occasionally, and it is one of the places that is part of my soul. I do not remember it, but my mother thinks we went to the caves as children. She had been there, but at the time it was private property. The caves are now opened to the public. I did not have my torch, but was still able to wander through the lime stone karst.

Gospel Service at the Parkes Elvis Festival

2009-01-11T13:00:00.001+11:00

It has been a long time since I have been at a church service. Given the photo opportunities, I could not turn down the chance to go to this one, also I have never been to a gospel service. As you can see, it was a service with a distinctly Elvis bent, and I have recorded much sound so I can make a movie out of it. But that will take a lot of work and will have to come later. The service has lots of dancing and singing.

Of course, there was Elvis and many other singers.

And then the churches. I suspect that both the Catholics and uniting church were represented but there was a third woman. I did not know where she fitted in. The movie will tell much more. Just let me say that I thought they handled the tensions and contradictions as well as I have seen it done. I think there is hope for them yet. But then I am an optimist.

Wandering the streets of Forbes

2009-01-10T20:16:00.001+11:00

Before the others got up I went for a walk around the streets of Forbes. I did not see a single prad. We stayed in the old grandeur of the Albion Hotel. Though the rooms were spartan and cheap. On the first night we had managed to score two rooms, so I had one to myself, but owing to a miss-communication, which I put down to country town style organisation, we only had one room for the second evening.

Forbes was once the collection point for the gold from the district. So it has some very grand buildings. One friend pointed out that it is like Bendigo. I guess it is the local equivalent of Bendigo. Though buildings are nowhere near as grand they are still very impressive. It also has some more modern buildings.

Also, I went down by the Lachlan River. It is very pleasant down there in the early morning light.

We had dinner that night in Forbes at the Wan Wah Chinese Restaurant. Billy has quite a write up about it. I actually thought it was better than he did. It is good for Australia-Chinese country style food and I loved the decor.

Parkes Radio Telescope

2009-01-10T13:58:00.002+11:00

Well, it would be sad to visit Parkes and not go to the radio telescope. So that is just what we did.

The Parkes Radiothermal Telescope, completed in 1961, was the brainchild of E.G. (Taffy) Bowen, chief of the CSIRO's Radiophysics Laboratory. During the Second World War, he had worked on radar development in America and had made some powerful friends in the scientific community. Calling on this old boy network, he persuaded two philanthropic organisations, the Carnegie Corporation and the Rockefeller Foundation to fund half the cost of the telescope. It was this recognition and key financial support from America that persuaded then Prime Minister Robert Menzies to agree to fund the rest of the project.

The primary observing instrument is the 64-metre movable dish telescope, second largest in the Southern Hemisphere, and one of the first large movable dishes in the world (DSS-43 at Tidbinbilla was extended from 64 m to 70 m in 1987, surpassing Parkes).[2] After its completion it has operated almost continuously to the present day. The dish surface was physically upgraded by adding smooth metal plates to the central part to provide focusing capability for centimetre and millimetre length microwaves. The outer part of the dish remains a fine metal mesh, creating its distinctive two-tone appearance.

More on Wikipedia.

The parade at the Parkes Elvis Festival

2009-01-10T12:00:00.001+11:00

Heading into Parkes we were now ready for the main event of the Elvis Festival, the parade down the main street.

It was very well organised with plastic fencing along the route. Apparently there were no fences the year before and it was a bit of a schmozle. The crowd only built up at the last moment.

Of course, the star of the parade was Elvis.

And then there was Pracilla.

And a host of others.

But wait, did I not say that evlis was there?

And after the parade there was the main stage in the park.

Elvis Festival - Staying in Forbes

2009-01-09T22:21:00.003+11:00

We had left the booking too late and ended up staying in Forbes. It is only half an hour down the road so this was not a big issue. We stayed in the Albion Hotel, which must have been very grand when it was constructed in the 1890's. We visited the cemetery during the day, the home of Ben Hall and Ned Kelly's sister Kate.

But I cannot include a post on Forbes without including the words to the song:

Come all you Lachlan men, and a sorrowful tale I'll tell.
Concerning of a hero bold who through misfortune fell.
His name it was Ben Hall, a man of good renown,
Who was hunted from his station, and like a dog shot down.

Three years he roamed the roads, and he showed the traps some fun;
A thousand pound was on his head, with Gilbert and John Dunn.
Ben parted from his comrades, the outlaws did agree
To give away bushranging and to cross the briny sea.

Ben went to Goobang Creek, and that was his downfall;
For riddled like a sieve was valiant Ben Hall.
'Twas early in the morning upon the fifth of May
When the seven police surrounded him as fast asleep he lay.

Bill Dargin he was chosen to shoot the outlaw dead;
The troopers then fired madly, and filled him full of lead.
They rolled him in a blanket, and strapped him to his prad,
And led him through the streets of Forbes to show the prize they had.

Elvis Festival - First Impressions

2009-01-09T20:00:00.006+11:00

It is unusual to see major traffic jams and crowds of people in a country town. The number of visitors I head from different sources ranged from 8,000 to 20,000 and the population of the town is somewhere between 10,000 and 15,000, so lets say, there were lots of people. But I have to say, I was impressed at how the town took the whole thing in its stride. I'll say more about the organisation of the festival itself, but there was definitely a festive spirit in the air.

The first thing of note is that Elvis was every where, often wandering around in larger gracelands of elvii. He also comes in all ages, sizes and sexes.

Even Pricilla was there. I have to say that the couple are good singers for ones so young.

The shop fronts were decorated as there was a prize or something for the best shop front.

And then there was the organisers and to finish off, some more images.

In the evening we had dinner at Rice, a Thai place in Parks that was quite good.

Elvis Festival - Getting there

2009-01-09T18:45:00.002+11:00

Last year Pete and Billy went to the elvis festival and returned with lots of great photos. This year, they invited several more of us to go to the festival. I went, along with Wing and Kate. We drove out separately.

I stopped in Glenbrook for some breakfast.

On the way I realised I had not taken my recharger. So I stopped in Orange to buy a new one. Harvey Norman and Dick Smith did not have ones that suited my battery, but the camera house had this generic one what is very clever. Thought the first one I purchased emitted smoke, the replacement worked great. It is an Inca Universal Charger. A bit fiddly in the design, but very flexible and very clever.

After this, I popped over to Mount Canobolas.

Before heading off to Parkes for the Elvis Festival 2009.

Hot Chocolate Fire in Marrickville

2009-01-02T19:07:00.020+11:00

Well, I woke up early in this morning. I opened my eyes and was annoyed by the flashing lights. Wondering what my neighbours might be up to I looked out my window and saw the flashing lights of a police car on Marrickville Road. I considered going back to sleep, but thought, now that I am up, I'll have a drink. Going out to the kitchen I saw many very low black clouds going past. For a moment I marvelled at the sight. I pored a drink of water. I thought, I could take a photo and wondered that it is not normal that my unit is at the same level as the clouds. I turned on the light. The switch did not work. Annoyed, I tried a different switch. That did not work either. So I went out onto the balcony. The whole suburb was dark. Only the distant light from the CBD lit the scene. I looked to the right and could see the strange glow of the fire. Fire?

So I went back inside, lit a candle and in the dim light found some clothes grabbed my camera and mono pod and headed outside. As I opened the door I was in a pool of light. I looked confusedly at the light. I had not turned it on. Oh? The emergency lighting system had kicked in. Well at least it works. I headed down onto the street. They had closed Marrickville road east of Victoria Road. I asked the police man if I was able to go down there. He said yes. So I headed down the road. There were very many fire engines and other support vehicles.

I looked at my mobile. The time was 2AM. I joined a group of about 12 people watching the proceedings. I took some photos. I was still too asleep was struggling to get the camera settings right. My brain was not working.

I then headed off east to see if there were other vantage points. The fire was on Meeks Road. On Sydney road I found two men. You could just see the back of the building. There was a fire truck directly behind the building. We were still a block away. I took some photos there too.

Then I wandered over to Sydenham Road and up to Vincent Street. Here I could again see the fire over some buildings. I then went out to Meeks Road again, and this time took some photos from the other side of the fire.

I headed home to get my longer lens. But by the time I returned they had mostly put out the fire. I spoke with a man in the crowd on Marrickville Road. He said that at it's height the flames had been leaping out of the top of the building.

The next morning, I caught the train to work as I do on Fridays. On the way past I visited the fire scene. The damage to the factory, a chocolate factory, was extensive.

On my return from work, I again headed down there and saw that they had again blocked off the road. They are now starting to demolish the building. There is still smoke poring from the building.

Just a moment ago there was a burst of smoke and the sound of water on metal from the factory. I guess that while they were removing rubble, they had caused the fire to flare up again.

Timeline:

1 Jan 11:00 PM - Fire Starts.
2 Jan 2:00 AM - I go out to see the fire.
2 Jan 5:00 AM - Fire is mostly out.
3 Jan PM - They start demolishing the factory.

Apparently this is the second time the business has burned down in 5 years.

In the morning I posted 2 photos before I went to work and another two as I went to work. Some are doing well on the google search:

3 Jan Update: The demolition continues.

Woo hoo! number one in a google search! ;o

A you tube video by a person who lives across the road of the beginning of the fire.

4 Jan: the demolition continues. The road is still blocked off. There is now a permanent police man on duty. I will have to walk the long way round and take some photos from the other side.

6 Jan: I expect that this will be the last of these updates. The fire is over. The factory demolished. I expect that in a while they will clean up the site and build a new factory. So maybe next time I will get some better photos.

A BBQ in Yarramalong

2009-01-01T22:20:00.005+11:00

Well, I did it last year, and I did it again this year, headed off to Big Dave's Mansion for a new year's day bbq. Billy also has a blog entry for this lunch.

photos from James.

And from Peter, they are watching for snakes.

New Year Eve's Fire Works 2008

2009-01-01T04:09:00.002+11:00

This new year I again stayed on my balcony. I had been planning on inviting a few people over, but was totally disorganised and in the end only invited Keat. However, on the photography front I was very much more prepared than last year and had purchased a tripod and remote control so I could take good photos. But I did not have the 2x extender I had previously borrowed. At some stage I need to get the 1.6x (I think) extender. Also, I have learned how to edit the photos more effectively by editing the raw import parameters into Aperture.

China: New legislation enforces quake-resistant buildings

2008-12-31T21:42:00.001+11:00

One of my photos was used on a UN web site for earth quake prevention. How cool is that! ☺

A walk around Sydenham, Alexandria and Newtown

2008-12-30T15:33:00.006+11:00

I did one of James' photo walks around the inner suburbs of Sydney. It was good as I walked to the start and walked home. Everything was very close.

For the start I walked down from Marrickville to Sydenham station. This is the station I use to get into the city.

Wikipedia: Sydenham developed after the Illawarra line came through the area to Hurstville in the late 1800s. It was named after Sydenham, a suburb of London, similar for its close proximity to the city and a railway junction. The station was originally known as Marrickville when it opened on 15 October 1884. It was changed to Sydenham on the 19th March 1895 when a new line was being built to Bankstown and the first station was to be called Marrickville. The post office opened in April 1899 as Tempe Park and was only renamed Sydenham in 1964.

We headed off down Unwins bridge road to walk past the Brazilian Shop. Turned left by the goods railway line into Par Road and then up Henry street to the park where the houses used to be before they were bought by the state government and demolished because of noise from the 16R runway at Sydney Airport.

I was walking with 4 others, James, Yacinta, Jashil and Claudia.

The park itself is a memorial to the Airport causing the destruction of the houses that were once located here. ~~The church stands abandoned, though there are some who are trying to have it reopened as an art gallery.~~ There are clearly some homeless people who have got in through a hole in the fence and are living there.

We then headed off north through the suburb of Sydenham along ~~Harry~~ Henry Street. An old couple were watching us, so james was waving to them. The suburb has a surprisingly large number of thing to photo. We stopped at the milk bar for some ice creams before walking on past the hells angels.

After the Milk Bar we were in St Peters.

Wikipedia: St Peters was named by its association with St Peters Anglican Church, which was consecrated in 1838. St Peters is the third oldest Anglican church in Sydney and has been claimed to be the first church built in Australia using non-convict labour.
The first large land grant in the area was made in 1799 to Provost-Marshal Thomas Smyth. His 470 acres (1.9 km²) stretched from the Cooks River to the present Campbell Street. After his death in 1804, the land was acquired by Robert Campbell (1769–1836), a wealthy merchant who built some of the early warehouses along the Sydney Cove waterfront.

Alexander Brodie Spark (1792–1856), was a wealthy merchant who named the suburbs of Tempe after his mansion Tempe House that he built at what is now Wolli Creek and the suburb of St Peters that developed around the church. Barwon Park House was a large residence erected by Spark in 1815 on land leased from Robert Campbell and was demolished in 1953. He sold his property in 1830 but reserved land for the church. St Peters was described in the 1840s as one of the most fashionable and aristocratic suburbs of Sydney.

St Peters was a separate municipality from 1871 to 1949 but now falls under the governance of Marrickville Council. The town hall in Unwins Bridge Road was built in 1927 and now houses the St Peters branch of Marrickville Library and acts as a small community centre. The railway station opened on the 15th October 1884 and the post office opened in October 1851.

At the end of ~~Harry~~ Henry Street we turned right into Mary Street, which becomes Canal Road on the other side of the highway.

We cut through behind the factories via Robert Street and then went out onto the Pacific Highway.

Up on the hill here, hogging the high ground is an abandoned church.

We then walked along Campbell Street...

...to Sydney Park in Alexandria.

Wikipedia: Alexandria was named after Princess Alexandra, wife of King Edward VII. The name was also used for the surrounding parish. In 1868, the Borough of Alexandria was formed, after separating from Waterloo. The former Alexandria Town Hall is in Garden Street.^[2]
By 1943, Alexandria was the largest industrial district in Australia, and known as the "Birmingham of Australia", with everything from bricks to aeroplanes manufactured in 550 factories in just 1,000 acres (4.0 km²).^[3] The municipality was abolished upon merger into the City of Sydney in 1949, along with Darlington, Erskineville, Newtown, Redfern, Waterloo, Paddington and Glebe.

In 1968 the boundaries were changed again and Alexandria was part of a new municipality, South Sydney Council. South Sydney was brought back into the City of Sydney in 1982 and then became separate again under the City of Sydney Act of 1988. In 2004, Alexandria moved back into the City of Sydney, when the City of Sydney was merged with the City of South Sydney.

They have mostly finished the new play ground.

We now walked up King Street Newtown to our final destination, Kings Pub for a somewhat late lunch.

Wikipedia: Newtown was established as a residential and farming area in the early 19th century. The area took its name from a grocery store opened there by John and Eliza Webster in 1832, at a site close to where the Newtown railway station stands today. They placed a sign on top of their store that read "New Town Stores". The name New Town was adopted, at first unofficially, with the space disappearing to form the name Newtown.
The part of Newtown lying south of King Street was a portion of the two estates granted by Governor Arthur Phillip to the Superintendent of Convicts, Nicholas Devine, in 1794 and 1799. Erskineville and much of MacDonaldtown were also once part of Devine's grant. In 1827, at a time when Devine was aged about 90, this land was acquired from him by a convict, Bernard Rochford, who sold it to many of Sydney's wealthiest and most influential inhabitants including the Mayor. Devine's heir, John Devine, a coachbuilder of Birmingham, challenged the will which was blatantly fraudulent. The "Newtown Ejectment Case" was eventually settled out of court by the payment to Devine of an unknown sum of money said to have been "considerable". The land was further divided into the housing that is now evidenced by the rows of terrace houses and commercial and industrial premises.

Leaving the others, I then walked home back down the hill through Enmore.

SPB Christmass Picnic

2008-12-14T15:37:00.002+11:00

We had the annual SPB Christmas picnic at Rose Bay with a Pinata supplied by Kate and lots of food.

Full Moon Rising

2008-12-13T22:49:00.002+11:00

I looked out the window to see the full moon rising, raced over to get my camera and tripod. It turns out that the moon was the closest it has been in years and also that the size is an optical illusion of the human vision system and on camera you see it at the real size.

Reach's Christmas Dinner

2008-12-09T21:13:00.001+11:00

Well we went out onto the harbour as is the tradition at Reach. This year's event was a complete turn around from last year. Good weather, a nice boat, no danger of drowning and good food. I ate mostly with the accounting section, they are good company. I did not remember to take my camera, which was sad. So there are just a few snaps from the mobile phone.

Addison Road Markets

2008-12-07T17:32:00.001+11:00

I headed off for the second time to the Addison Road Markets. They are small but good. There is a variety of stalls and the usual denizens of the Addison Road Centre such as Reverse Garbage and the local Mrrickville council nursery. The meat vendors are good and I have tried the salt bush lamb, which was good with a mild flavour. The vege shops suffer from the same blight as every vegie place in Sydney, the quality is abysmal. You really need to leave Sydney to get good vegies. The food stalls I have tried are very good.

Edirol UA-25EX

2008-11-30T18:21:00.009+11:00

Today I purchased a Edirol UA25-EX by Roland to connect the computer to the keyboard using MIDI and USB. It worked on the first test. This is the track I laid down in Garage band. One take, and I was not really focusing on playing as I was working on making sure that technically everything was correct.

Aunty Jack

Edit:

Here are my two first compositions:

BVYY 1.1 - yewenyi

bvyy 2 - yewenyi

And now the third:

SpanishLadies.mp3 - Brian Yap

and a fourth:

the Bushfire random verses - yewenyi

but wait, there is more!

The Team Part 2008-12-28A - Brian Yap

Spanish Ladies and variants - Brian Yap

Summer Storm

2008-11-29T18:55:00.001+11:00

In the summer the big storms form in the north east and roll down into town.

Tillman Park - Sydenham

2008-11-29T12:12:00.003+11:00

I decided to do some exploring in the local area and found Tillman Park. It is a nice park wedged between two railway lines, the main south line and the goods line that heads into the airport. There are some council facilities, a toilet and community centre. A small dogs grave is set up near the storm water gulley and in the far right corner some old home made bongs.

400 george street

2008-11-28T21:33:00.001+11:00

I have started working with Telstra at 400 George street one day a week. Normally I'll be there on Fridays.

A weekend at Wangi Wangi

2008-11-23T21:02:00.004+11:00

I had been invited a long time ago up to Lake Macquarie for the weekend. So I took up the offer of a visit. They day started out with drama. My mobile phone, which has been playing up for as long as I had it, gave up the ghost. It looked like the SIM card had finally spat the dummy. So I had to delay my departure to go into the shop and get a replacement. Since I had the card replaced, it has worked properly. But this meant that I was late for the protest march I was going to photograph. As I was there after the time allocated, the police would not let me in to join up with the others. Clearly they had also massively overreacted to the protest and there were so many police there on motor cycles and a massive temp fence erected around the power station. Really they could be spending their time and money more effectively fighting crime.

Having some time to kill I decided to drive around the lake. I have never really explored this part of NSW before. I stopped in Warner's Bay for lunch. The place was good, but overpriced.

I then headed around to Swansea Heads.

I then joined up with the others. I went out on a walk around the shore at Wangi Wangi.

After a pleasant dinner, the next morning, we went down to the try out the new cafe.

There was a bower bird nest in an empty house block. I think they must love the arrival of blue plastic.

Later went for a walk at the point.

Centenary SPB Photo Meet

2008-11-21T21:21:00.007+11:00

Well, I was not there for the first one, but I was there for the 100'th. Sadly, no all the original crew were there, though some people we had not seen for a while made an appearance. We met at the Colombian on Oxford Street then dinner at Mad Mex. I quite like max mex, and my American friends assure me it is the best Mexican Food they have had in Sydney.

The next set of photos are by others at the meet.

Meroogal Garden Day

2008-11-18T05:40:00.002+11:00

I headed south to Nowra for the Meroogal Garden Day as hosted by the Historic Houses Trust (HHT). This was a small affair. I am learning that you need to get there at the minute it opens. This is because they have very small hourly tours of these houses. If you are not there early you will have to wait for several hours to get on a tour. Twice I have not had enough time to wait for the tour of one of these houses. There were a little over half a dozen stalls and they were doing hourly talks. I listened to one about their renovation of one of the houses in Western Sydney.

On the way back I stopped at Seven Mile Beach National Park and Gerroa.

Continuing on the return trip, I stopped at the Nan Tien Temple (南天寺) for lunch.

Photo shoot at Tomaree National Park

2008-11-15T19:57:00.004+11:00

It is strange that when I stayed at Anna Bay, I never really went to the beach. But we headed north to do a "desert" theme photo shoot. We ended up in Tomaree National Park. Unfortunately the rain meant that the last thing the beach looked like was the desert but it did not stop the photography.

2008 trip day 13 - Western Plains Zoo and return home

2008-11-07T18:33:00.005+11:00

For my final day,I started off from my hotel and spent the morning at the Western Plains Zoo. They insist you use the tongs as the Sumatran Tiger may bite off your fingers.

I then returned to my place in Sydney.

2008 trip day 12 - The slow trip to dubbo

2008-11-06T21:31:00.004+11:00

The next day I drove to Dubbo.

I seem to have visited Dubbo a few times. This was no less than my third visit in the last two months. I started the day in Lightening Ridge. Again I did a morning walk around the town as I had to see a play that started at either 9AM or 10AM. I have forgotten.

The show itself was a somewhat indulgent but very interesting play in three parts about some people of the town. It ended with what must be one to the most impressive lamp museums on the planet.

Then a quick bite to eat at a good cafe in town.

Before heading off down the highway. I ended up stopping at this road side stop with an interesting and clever design feature. To light the toilet at night they have placed a large metal mirror in front of the toilet. You leave you car's high beam shining on the mirror and leave the door to the toilet open and you have light.

Farther along the road, I was stuck at some road works.

I stopped in Coonamble for a break and saw the above ground side of the underground Castlereagh River.

I stopped for a moment to take a photo of a tree.

Before arriving in Dubbo. I visited the tourist office and they gave me great touring map that was actually designed for bicycle touring and I found a motel room.

Touring around I visited some aboriginal sites, the Tralbragar river and some farmland.

2008 trip day 11 - Off to go to a mining town

2008-11-05T20:15:00.001+11:00

First things first. I spent the morning wandering the streets of St George and the banks of the Balonne River before checking out of the motel.

I then headed south.

Again I stopped a few times on the way past.

I had a rest break in Dirranbandi.

In the afternoon, I arrived in Lightening Ridge. The people at the tourist information were very helpful and suggested a few places in my price range. Though I would later find that the actual things to see were mostly closed.

2008 trip day 10 - Zooming Inland

2008-11-04T20:39:00.003+11:00

Day 10 was a transport stage. I needed to get inland and get there quickly as I had spent more time in QLD than planned. So I departed from Kangaroo point and headed west.

My plans for Toowomba did not work out as I had not really left enough time to organise anything so I ended up heading for Warwick. The first stop was just past Amberly Airbase where someone had left a couple of old canberra bombers.

Continuing along the road, I took a break from driving by visiting a lookout.

And then a stop at Aratula for brunch.

Then it was up the climb to the cunningham gap. Usually I have done this from the other direction. At the top I stopped and did the rainforest walk. As usual I was the first person and had to clear the spider webs. But about 3/4 of the way around I met three female park rangers who had kindly cleared the remainder of the path.

I stopped in some small town to have beef cannelloni for lunch. Though I cannot remember which one.

And then a couple of times along the road to take photos.

Before reaching St George to stay for the evening. The motel had wireless internet, but charged me $5 for unlimited usage. The woman at the motel was very helpful and suggested that I go to a local dam (the E.J. Beardmore Dam) to take some photos.

Then I headed back into town for the sunset. But I was there a little too late.

2008 trip day 9 - Back to Brisbane

2008-11-03T19:58:00.004+11:00

The next day I headed back to Brisbane for a lunch and dinner appointment.

Driving south along the freeway, I stopped at Wild Horse Mountain. I have never stopped here before. It has the best views of the glass house mountains.

I arrived in Brisbane a bit early as I allowed more time to find parking and to get where I was going. I was having lunch with my cousin, rebecca. Parking is easy in Brisbane. On a monday, I was able to find street parking a few blocks from the post office fro $1 per hour. So I took some photos while I was waiting.

I then headed to Kangaroo Point, though I think it used to be called East Brisbane, to take some photo there while I waited for my evening appointment.

With still more time, I headed down along the river and somewhat randomly stopped at Hawthorne.

I then had dinner on the river, but did not take any photos.

2008 trip day 8 - The Sunshine Coast

2008-11-02T11:10:00.001+11:00

I stared the day up on the Blackall range and headed inland.

But first, I stopped by at the Kondilla National Park and Lake Baroon.

Passing through Malaney, I stopped at a cafe at Witta to have some lunch. A group of local vintage car enthusiasts turned up add added their vintage cars to the queue.

After a brief stop in Kenilworth, I continued around the loop tourist drive.

Down in Tewantin, I was greeted by road closures by the dozen. Still I managed to get into Tewantin, which surprised a woman in the house of shells. I wanted to visit the house of bottles, with it's giant stubby, but she explained that it had been closed about a decade before and cleared for housing a few years before.

Avoiding Noosa, where it turns out they were holding an iron man rally, I headed back inland. I stopped at the top of Mount Timbeerwah, and disturbed an outside broad cast technician packing his OB equipment as the race was over.

I then headed south again, along the new road, to the budderium ginger factory, which owing to a lack of space in Budderim to expand is now in Yandina near Nambour.

I stopped for a short time at the Big Pineapple. It is sad to see how rundown it has become. It opened in the year before we first went to the sunshine coast.

After a detour to that scary place called Bribie Island, where when I was young you could be arrested by mysterious government agents, or bashed up by wild bikie gangs...

I headed off into Caloundra. I stopped at Dicky Beach to take a photo of the ship wreck and ended staying at Moffat Beach as there was a cheaper place there.

Unfortunately my grandparents old house is now a block of flats.

2008 trip day 7 - Sunshine Coast Bound

2008-11-01T19:36:00.002+11:00

I started the day heading North From Tweed Heads and finished in the Blackall range.

But first with a stop for breakfast.

Arriving on the freeway into the southern suburbs of Brisbane, I took the south moreton tourist drive. I stoped for a short while at the Koala Bushland Reserve.

This road then struck out for the coast. I stopped at this point with a light house. Strangely that night I would see it on TV.

I then headed up over the gateway bridge an up to the Sunshine Coast. There is much more freeway than there was last time, and the old bits of highway have been renamed. I stopped at the main lookout for the glass house mountains.

Up on the Blackall range the woman in the Tourist Information Centre was a great help in finding a reasonably priced place to stay, at Flaxton in the end.

At the end of the day I headed into Montville for the last hour of shopping. Unfortunately photographers are not very welcome in this place.

2008 trip day 6 - Around in A circle to Teed Heads

2008-10-31T14:23:00.005+11:00

I started in the morning in Potsville and finished it in Collongatta.

The balcony on the first floor in the far corners where about ten of us spent the previous night playing and singing jazz and old rock songs.

I headed inland to Murwillumbar where I stopped for breakfast at what I am reliably advised is is the The New Leaf Cafe.

Further up the road I came to a turn off to the Clarrie Hall Dam. Little did I realise just how dangerous a place it would turn out to be as I headed up the road.

I then headed back to Nimbin via Mount Warning. I sopped there for lunch and bought some hemp shirts and t-shirts. I need to buy some more, not only did they fit but they are very good.

Then it was back down to the coast via Ballina to Byron Bay.

I then did a quite transport section, stopping in the Gold Coast before staying the night in Tweed Heads.

2008 trip day 5 - A great Big Loop

2008-10-30T10:53:00.003+11:00

I started on a great loop around the rim. My intention was to get to and stay the night in Byron Bay, because I still have never stayed there the night. However, it turned out to be much further than I though and I did not have the stamina at the end of the day and bailed at the first place I could find.

But back at the start, I headed north from Casino. My first major stop, and this took hours, was the Border Ranges National Park. Here the Prius struggled a bit, though for an unexpected reason. Some of the roads were very steep and gravel with stones. As the prius has a very low ground clearance, I had to take it slowly. But at low speed, the electric motor is at its most powerful. As I was going uphill most of the weight of the car was on the back wheels. The Prius is a front wheel drive and so I was having great difficulty stopping wheel slip. The problem with that was, the traction control kills the power when the wheels slip, I'd loose momentum and then when the power came back, I had slowed a lot and the wheels would slip more. With care I never once stalled the car, but I came close.

I then headed up the road that followed the main interstate railway line between Sydney and Brisbane. I followed this as I wanted to see if I could get photos of one of the two railway spirals in NSW. I had travelled through this spiral when I once caught the Brisbane Limited.

I then came to what must be one of the most fortified border crossings in Australia. Only the Western Australians take their border crossings more seriously.

After some of the steepest roads I have encountered, but luckily only quite low hills, I found myself unexpectedly heading for Beaudesert. I was even now starting to feel tired. So I backtracked towards the coast. On the way I made a detour to Reilleys at Lamington National Park.

I then made a dash for Byron Bay, but I was very tired. So I ended up staying the night at a place called Pottsville. Most of the residents were small business workers. It turned out to be a good night singing and playing the blues (some of the others were guitar players) on the balcony of the motel.

2008 trip day 4 - casino bound

2008-10-29T19:16:00.004+11:00

I start the day in Coffs Harbour.

Unfortunately I did not get the message about my grand aunt's funeral until late in the night. The funeral was the next day at 10AM. As I had not paid, I could not check out before 7AM. Three hours was not enough to make it to Brisbane. I needed at lest 5.

I headed back inland. Being stuck behind a slow moving truck, I stopped at a picnic ground with a water fall called Newell Falls.

At the top of the climb, back in New England again, I stop off at the Dorrigo National Park and do two walks.

I then stopped at the Dangar Falls, just outside of Dorrigo.

Heading out of Dorrigo, I came across a yet to be opened railway museum.

Coming back down, out of the mountains, I crossed over the strange double storey bridge in Grafton.

Before ending the day in Casino.

2008 trip day 3 - back to the coast

2008-10-28T18:30:00.003+11:00

Heading out from Uralla, I stopped in Armidale for a good breakfast before heading back to the coast. Again a day of visiting national parks.

Back in Oxley Wild Rivers national park, I stopped at Wollombi Falls.

Continuing along the road, I headed in to a lookout, and stopped at the Dutton Trout Hatchery.

Continuing down the road, I arrived at point lookout.

Before finishing the day at Ebor Falls.

2008 trip day 2 - leaving the coast and heading inland

2008-10-27T18:08:00.004+11:00

This map covers part of the day before. I started the day in Port Macquarie.

I started the day in Port Macquarie. I had to wait for the supermarket to open, so I had a nice breakfast of fruit and yoghurt.

I then did a little tour of the town.

I then headed across the water on the ferry. However, my reading of the map turned out to be wrong and the only road out was dirt and lead 80km further north than I wanted to travel. So I headed back across the ferry (the one way price was $2.50) and then inland.

On the map, it said, historic bridge. So I stopped to have a look. I have not seen a bridge like it in Australia. It was a very interesting suspension bridge made of wood and steel wire.

Continuing to head up to the New England Plateau, I came across an area by the side of the road that had been recently burned. Some of the logs were still smouldering and I was quickly covered in ash.

As I continued up the Hastings river valley I made a few stops and short side trips.

Continuing, I saw a sign to a camp-site and thought it would be good to stop to have a look.

Then I was into waterfall country, the end of the Plateau, and visited Tia Falls and Aspely Falls.

As the day drew to an end, I decided to stop at Uralla rather than push through to Armidale.

2008 trip day 1 - leaving sydney

2008-10-26T15:28:00.004+11:00

I headed north from Sydney without much of a plan. I had been trying to organise to go to my great aunty's funeral in Brisbane. But apart from that, there was no plan. I had a vague idea of visiting Byron Bay and maybe getting to the Sunshine coast. For something different, I headed up The Bucketts Way.

My first photo stop was in Stroud.

Continuing up this road I had lunch in Gloucester and then stopped at the lookout just past the town.

Heading back towards the coast, I stopped at a bridge construction site at Burrell Creek.

Reaching the coast, I headed into Harrington.

And then along the coast road onto Crowdy Head.

At the end of the day, I stayed in Port Macquarie.

Bourke Trip - Day 2

2008-10-19T06:30:00.003+11:00

The next day we got up early to catch the morning sun, but probably needed to be out half an hour earlier to get the sunrise. Peter stayed behind to do the planning for the return flight. The town was very quite though we did have a chat with two middle ages aboriginal men who were walking through the town.

The local telephone exchange had its front door smashed in. Otherwise everything was peaceful.

We then flew the return trip. We departed Bourke Airport and flew back to Dubbo for fuel.

Again we refuelled at Dubbo. This time we had to wait as there were two aircraft in front of us at the bowser. While I was roaming around the airport waiting for the refuelling to take place a security guard drove up in a Ute and questioned me as to why I was at the airport.

And then we flew back to Warnervale.

Bourke Trip - Day 1

2008-10-18T22:32:00.000+11:00

After many discussions, I finally was able to go on a flying holiday with Peter and Billy. Peter is a pilot in training. I drove up on Friday afternoon for a Saturday morning departure. The traffic on the F3 was not as bad as I had been lead to believe it may be.

Prior to departure, Peter had to do his flight planning, which involved a curious mixture of internet connections, computers, printouts and slide rules.

We headed off to Warnervale Airport. While Peter checked the aircraft for flight worthiness and stow away bunyips, we watched a parade of about 5 aircraft doing their Saturday morning training. It was very busy and at one stage three aircraft tried to land at once. Though two aborted.

Peter is only allowed to fly when he can see the ground. Immediately over the airport was some low cloud. So we had to fly under this for a few km, before we cleared the cloud and had blue skies. We then had a fine and smooth run to our only fuel stop at Dubbo. On the way we flew over the hunter valley and just north of Mudgee.

When we arrived at Dubbo there was no air traffic. We flew over the airport to learn the wind direction, from the wind sock, a delightfully old piece of technology in the high tech world of aircraft, and had to wait as a commercial flight departed the airport.

On our way again we headed out along the very straight roads leading north west from Dubbo to Bourke. As is typical with my visits to the outback, there had been quite a lot of rain in the weeks before I arrived and the outback was at its usual green and muddy self. Luckily, Billy had the foresight to bring some in-flight munchies and drinks.

Arriving at Bourke airport, we again purchased some fuel and Peter and Billy tied the aircraft down for the evening. The unattended airport terminal was quite a pleasant place, to wait.

At the airport we were met by the town entrepreneur, a man who could have walked straight out of Crocodile Dundee. He brought us the hire car. After a quick trip to the tourist information centre, to complete the paper work we were free in the town with our car. We had just about missed lunch time (2PM) and made a mad dash to the pub to order our meal with only minutes to spare as the cafe we wanted to use had already closed.

We then did the tourist sights of Bourke. Starting with the cemetery, then the shuttered streets, and finally the bridge over the darling river.

Our motel had a strange purple glow...

Entry in Canon 5 photo comptition for 2008

2008-10-12T10:20:00.004+11:00

Last year I got the box, but being in the middle of moving house was never organised to enter anything. I am not good at this type of competition, but I managed one entry this year, an image with a tea light and the CBD of Sydney in the background to contrast the different amounts of light, 1 candle power vs a major City CBD. I am quite pleased in that the image worked out the way I intended it to, though I wanted to be able to see the flame clearly and for the CBD to be more sharply in focus. I probably could have acchieved this if I had spent time in Photoshop and an hour or two more collecting source images.

Entry in Canon 5 photo comptition for 2008, originally uploaded by yewenyi.

Colonoscopy

2008-10-10T11:50:00.002+11:00

I headed off to Hurstville Community Private Hospital for a colonoscopy. A long time ago my maternal grandfather died of bowl cancer, then recently my mother had a bowl cancer removed, they think that they got it early enough. So after talking to my doctor and then a specialist, I ended up booked into the hospital. The videos describe what happened, though unfortunately they did not supply the DVD from the camera used in the procedure. In the end, I had two pollyps with what looked like the very early stages of cancer. Kind of what you have that may in the odd case turn into cancer.

My specialist seemed to be ok, the person who actually did the procedure was much more friendly and I have to wax lyrical about the Hospital.

A day at the Zoo

2008-10-06T14:26:00.004+11:00

I had not seen Cath for a long time. Then I went to the National Folk Festival. I forgot my sleeping bag, so borrowed a blanket for the evening. The next day I headed into Belconnen mall to buy something for the next few days. While sitting there, sending a tweet to twitter, Cath walked up. Astounding really. So a little while later I stayed at their place. Then on the Labour day weekend they came to visit me. We headed off to the zoo.

We started the day by catching the train from Sydenham station to Circular Quay and then the ferry to Taronga Zoo Wharf.

We used the cable car to get to the top of the zoo and then wandered down, visiting the reptile show, live bird show and spider shows on the way back down

And then at the end of the day we wandered around the Sydney Opera House.

Sakura Matsuri

2008-09-27T20:13:00.004+10:00

Normally Keat and I meet to watch some Chinese soapies, but as spring is upon us I suggested to head out for a trip. Little did I realise when I suggested Keat pick a place, that I would be driving half way across the state. So with a late start we headed off to my Grandfather's birth place, Cowra, for the incorrectly named Sakura Matsuri at the Japanese Gardens. There are no photos of the trip out there as we needed to conserve all our time to get there before the gardens closed. We got there just before 2PM.

After visiting the garden, we headed over to Prisoner Of War Camp 12, which is famous as the one where the Japanese prisoners staged their break out in WWII.

And as dusk started to be upon us, we headed back to Sydney, stopping to take photos of some of the canola fields and the wind farm at Blayney. (And I got a new hat and icon on some of the sites I use.)

Hunter Valley Wine Tasting Trip

2008-09-21T06:36:00.001+10:00

Helen organised for us to head off to the Hunter Valley for a wine tasting trip with a bit of sight seeing on the side.

We meet early in the morning. We meet to head of to the hunter valley. Unexpectedly we get a very nice bus, easily the nicest bus I have ever used.

On the way there is a little drama when the bus is hit by a truck as we are stopped at the lights on Mona Vale Road, heading north, at Epping Road. We continue on to the Warnervale Service Stop to have a rest break.

Leaving the freeway we head along the New England Highway to Maitland.

We now stop at maitland jail. I find the whole deal too gruesome and want to leave. I think that the behaviour of the authorities is disgraceful and the inmates worse.

We head off to Morpeth for to see the historic buildings and taste the foods.

We stopped for the night in Newcastle as this provided cheaper accommodation than the Hunter Valley. We had a nice meal in the travellodge's restaurant and wandered around the next morning taking photos.

We head from Newcastle to Pokolbin

We visit three wineries in the Hunter Valley.

Strangely I have not posted any photos of the trip home. Unlike the trip up, it was uneventful.

Sydney midweek flickr 96

2008-09-18T06:31:00.001+10:00

The meeting of the SPB have become a little more irregular now that James does not work half days on Thursdays. So this was the first meeting in a while. There were several new members and now we have two xiaohan's (akida and cold sushi) though they use a different character for the Han.

For a change we actually did a photo walk. We started at Town Hall, meeting on the steps. We then headed via Circular Quay to the Glenmore Hotel in The Rocks where we had our meal.

Bush Telegraph and Picutre Australia

2008-09-16T20:36:00.007+10:00

Well today I was on Radio National on the Bush Telegraph radio show. It is an hour long show and I was second last with Fiona Hooton from Picture Australia.

It was quite an interesting event. Fiona contacted me a few weeks ago about it. Last Friday a woman from the show called and spoke with me for about half an hour. They pencilled me in for today depending on Fiona's availability. However, I never did get a confirming email. So I was sitting in my office, wondering if I would be on air. Of course, I got several phone calls just as the time was approaching and missed the land line call from the radio station. So I ended up doing the call on my mobile. This was good as I could go to an unused meeting room as Matthew was being very loud on his phone call. I was very nervous as I waited for the call to start and stumbled a few times with my words in the broadcast. By the end I was shaking like a leaf and had to talk to another work colleague for five minutes to calm down. But I think it went well.

The segment was about Picture Australia - Our Town, a collaboration between Picture Australia and Flickr. This surprised me a little as I expect it to be about people places and events as I had recently won the photographer of the month for this site. Fiona described the site and I described the input I have had into the content of the site.

"Rainbow" by yewenyi [?]

"Beer Garden" by yewenyi [?]

Mahratta House & garden open day

2008-09-14T17:10:00.000+10:00

I headed off to this Art Deco house. The open day was held by the Historic Houses Trust. I have to say, that the garden was good and the house somewhat of a disappointment in that it was very simple. I expected extravagance for this era.

Mahratta' is one of Sydney's finest examples of an Art Deco home and the Paul Sorensen designed gardens are amongst his most beautiful.

Once every few years this magnificent private property is opened to the community. You are invited to a rare chance to wander around the 1.6 hectares of gardens which include rare exotic and native Australian plants, laid out by the famous Danish landscape architect Paul Sorensen.

These gardens are lovingly cared for primarily on a voluntary basis by the members of the School of Philosophy, the current owners and stewards of this historic home, and the gardens have never looked better.

"Mahratta House & garden open day" by yewenyi [?]

How to vote

2008-09-13T18:48:00.005+10:00

Max ran for the Marrickville council and looks like he has won a seat. So I helped out by handing out how to vote cards. This is the first time I have had any involvement in an election to it was a new and novel experience. I had a good chat with the various people also handing out how to vote cards. It was very quite. All the people must have voted in the morning. When I voted I was the only voter in the booth.

One thing that did happen is that I went to the milk bar down the road and purchase an ice cream. When I came back I tried to take the shorter route, but in the interim, they had locked all the gates bar one. So I ended up having to back track and it took ages. At the end of the day there were just those of us handing out how to vote cards. The woman in charge came out and called out Polling booth is closing in 5 minutes in several different directions. She was unhappy that we laughed. Then at the end of the day she did the same but to say that it was closing. It was the funniest thing that happened all day.

Dinner at Eat At Home

2008-09-12T19:01:00.004+10:00

We had dinner at this place as it had a story. The food turned out to be good, plentiful and cheap. I had the Eat at Home burger with a can of drink and chips, though I would recommend you have the vegies rather than the chips. They also gave the option of no salt on the chips so lots of brownie points for that.

"Dinner at Eat At Home" by psinewave [?]

The metal mop handle he is holding is the one he broke in his altercation with the thief.

Eat At Home
Shop 4
5 Potter St
Waterloo NSW 2017

tortellini bolognese

2008-09-07T07:39:00.005+10:00

Last night I decided to make Spaghetti bolognese. I dug out the old CWA cookbook. But the version there was not the version I wanted to make. A quick search of the cook books revealed the recipe was not to be found. So I headed onto the internet. After a few minutes I discovered that in Italy there is no such recipe, even for the version in the CWA cook book. (Well I should have been able to guess that!). But I did find a traditional recipie for Bolognia. So I decided to make that instead. It is a bit more like a stew. I used pork and veal instead of pork, calf and chicken as I could get that in one packet in the supermarket. Here is the recipie:

Preparazione
Preparare un battuto col sedano, la carota e la cipolla tritati finemente e lasciarlo rosolare molto lentamente, col burro e il lardo, in un tegame scoperto (possibilmente di terracotta) per circa 30 minuti. Aggiungere i tre tipi di carne, il sale e il pepe, poi cuocere per qualche minuto, aggiungendo il vino, che deve evaporare completamente. A questo punto unire i pomodori e la conserva, continuando la cottura a fuoco molto basso e a tegame coperto per circa 80 minuti, avendo cura di mescolare spesso il ragù con un cucchiaio di legno, e con i rebbi di una forchetta sbriciolare con cura la carne. Quando il ragù è quasi pronto, lessare le tagliatelle in abbondante acqua salata. La pasta va cotta un poco al dente, scolata con molta attenzione e versata in una padella per amalgamarla al ragù. Durante quest’operazione aggiungere un poco di formaggio parmigiano reggiano, che servirà a farla amalgamare meglio al sugo.Variante: in stagione arricchire il ragù con dei piselli freschi. Vanno aggiunti a cottura quasi ultimata del ragù.

Ingredienti 300 gr di pomodori pelati, 150 gr di polpa di maiale, 100 gr di polpa di vitello, 100 gr di petto di pollo sminuzzato, 50 gr di vino rosso secco, 30 gr di burro, un cucchiaino di conserva di pomodoro, un cucchiaio di lardo, sedano, carota, cipolla, 300 gr di tagliatelle all’uovo fatte in casa, formaggio parmigiano reggiano, pepe, sale Preparazione Preparare un battuto col sedano, la carota e la cipolla tritati finemente e lasciarlo rosolare molto lentamente, col burro e il lardo, in un tegame scoperto (possibilmente di terracotta) per circa 30 minuti. Aggiungere i tre tipi di carne, il sale e il pepe, poi cuocere per qualche minuto, aggiungendo il vino, che deve evaporare completamente. A questo punto unire i pomodori e la conserva, continuando la cottura a fuoco molto basso e a tegame coperto per circa 80 minuti, avendo cura di mescolare spesso il ragù con un cucchiaio di legno, e con i rebbi di una forchetta sbriciolare con cura la carne. Quando il ragù è quasi pronto, lessare le tagliatelle in abbondante acqua salata. La pasta va cotta un poco al dente, scolata con molta attenzione e versata in una padella per amalgamarla al ragù. Durante quest’operazione aggiungere un poco di formaggio parmigiano reggiano, che servirà a farla amalgamare meglio al sugo.Variante: in stagione arricchire il ragù con dei piselli freschi. Vanno aggiunti a cottura quasi ultimata del ragù.

And the same in english - as translated by google.

Ingredients
300 grams of tomatoes peeled, 150 g of pulp pork, 100 g of pulp calf, 100 g of chopped chicken breast, 50 g of dry red wine, 30 grams of butter, one teaspoon of tomato preserves, a tablespoon of bacon, celery, carrot, onion, 300 g of noodles all'uovo home-made, parmesan reggiano cheese, pepper, salt

Preparation
Prepare a wrought with celery, carrot and onion finely chopped and let it cook very slowly, with butter and lard, discovered in a pan (preferably earthenware) for about 30 minutes. Add the three types of meat, salt and pepper, then cook for a few minutes, adding the wine, which should evaporate completely. At this point, combine tomatoes and preserved, continued firing at very low fire and covered pan for about 80 minutes, taking care to mix the sauce often with a wooden spoon, and with the prongs of a fork crush the meat with care . When the sauce is almost ready, lessare the noodles in salted water. The pasta should be cooked a little al dente, drained and very carefully poured into a pan for the sauce amalgamarla. During this add a bit of parmesan reggiano cheese, which will amalgamate it better to sugo.Variante: season enrich the sauce with fresh peas. Should be added to almost finished cooking of meat sauce.

Picture Australia's first ‘Outstanding Contributor’ award winner

2008-09-04T17:41:00.006+10:00

*Happy*

We want to recognise the outstanding contributions of Picture Australia’s Flickr members. So we are introducing an award. Once a month an outstanding contributor from one of our three groups will be selected and receive a gift in thanks for their efforts.

Our first ‘Outstanding Contributor’ award winner is Brian Yap (葉) , Flickr alias Yewenyi.

Yewenyi has made the most contributions to the Picture Australia People, Places and Events and the OurTown groups.
Check out Yewenyi’s images to see the great tags and caption he adds to make them searchable in Picture Australia. www.pictureaustralia.org/search/yewenyi

finding my great grand mother

2008-08-30T11:43:00.002+10:00

Annie Marjoram has been a great mystery in the family. My grandmother did not even know she had been nicked from her real mother until at about aged 60 she went to get her birth certificate. It turned out that she did not exist! After some questions were asked, the lies were revealed and she discovered who her real mother had been. She also discovered she had a brother.

I have been searching for some time for information on Annie. The family had her located in Rookwood. But when I visited the cemetery several years ago, with my mother and sister, we could not find her there.

Recently I found her suggested second marriage. This lead me to her death certificate, and with one in tow, I headed off to Rookwood. This time to look in the cremations and in the correct year. So it was with ease that I was able to find her.

"Annie Marjoram 1896-1961 in her early twenties" by yewenyi [?]

"Rookwood" by yewenyi [?]

50's fair (2008 edition)

2008-08-24T04:18:00.003+10:00

Again we headed off to the 50's fair. It seems like such a long time ago that we went there for the first time in 2006. I tried a few different approaches to the photography, but was not so happy with the results.

I also spent some time trying out the 3D lens. They are parallel images (not cross-eyed) and work better if you open them up.

spb saturday photo walk 25

2008-08-23T07:36:00.002+10:00

For this photo walk we started at town hall and then walked through Pyrmont, over ANZAC bridge, to Rozelle, Annandale, Glebe Point, Glebe, Sydney University, Golden Grove before finishing at Kings in Newtown.

First we walked from Town Hall over the Prymont Bridge Road Bridge.

Then we wound our way through Pyrmont from the Pyrmont Bridge Road bridge to the Anzac Bridge.

Then it was over the Anzac Bridge to Rozelle.

We walked through Rozelle.

We walked through Annandale.

On though Glebe Point.

And then Glebe, where we stopped for lunch.

The through the grounds of Sydney University.

And finally Golden Grove.

Pilgrims and Protestors the Movie

2008-08-17T18:38:00.001+10:00

It has taken some time as I had to learn how to use Garage band and iMovie HD. Really I needed to redo the entire section from the protesters, but I am getting weary of it and have posted it as is.

Creative Commons

2008-08-15T17:39:00.002+10:00

One of my images used in a slide show on the creative commons licensing system. (See slides 91 to 96.)

Creative Copyright: Copyright and Options for Creative Practitioners

view presentationtags: intellectualproperty creativecommons copyleft copyright