Digi manic

So last weekend. I thought I'd try out my new found digital photography "skills". Yes. I had completed my course and am now an official photo taking manic. Oh. oh!! AND! To celebrate my graduation. My hubby bought me a kick ass Canon 400D for chrisie!! Thanks Babe!!!!!

My weekend in a snap shot

Digital photography

I am excited. I am filled with so much life, energy, vision. Inspired even! The same type of adrenaline I always feel before I set off on a big holiday. It has been 2 years coming. Every since I started blogging and telling my little stories. A desire inside of me started brewing. Of wanting to showcase my thoughts, views, quirks through the eye of the lens. Having visual communication of what I see and feel of things, and stages of my life.

It has been way too many “Oh! If only I had time to do this.” Or “Man. If only I could take photos like that.” And. “Where the hell is Salem in this shot?!.. oh.. hang on.. yeah.. I see the black spot.” AND getting really sick of hearing myself say, “If only..!!”
*fist in the air*

So about a month ago, (despite my incredibly busy year end life) I took matters into my hands and enrolled myself into a digital photography course. And this week, I attended my first digital photography class! *BEAM*

In slightly over a month, I will learn;
- how to optimize my digital camera
- how to set aperture / shutter speeds / ISO
- how to freeze moving objects
- how to blur them out
- take black & whites
- photoshop for picture manipulation
- angle / artistic / close ups
- gone on a photo-taking expedition
- and other bits and pieces that will give you the foundation to take digital photography to the next level.

A resounding “WooHoo!”

So here I am, doing my first digital photography assignment. Experimenting with “White Balance”. And SO having a ball!!



Pic – its Salem’s string puppet toy sitting on a little vege pile. I used Picasa to grid the pics which cropped them up a little… ah well.. I’ll get fussy when I get better… hehe.

Surprise weekend getaway

It was Melvin’s birthday past Friday. I wanted to surprise him with a weekend getaway at The Rocks. So for the past week, I spent my precious lunchtime break, browsing through the web, making calls, plotting and planning for his gift.

Melvin was absolutely convinced that he was going to play lawn bowling that weekend. Even called a couple of friends and our neighbours to organise the game!

Can you imagine how stressed I was! I had to do a lot of lying [which I suck at] and whinging about how tired I am and really do not wish to exert myself over the weekend, to finally persuade him to [VERY begrudgingly mind you] drop the idea.

I somehow managed to bite my tongue through the week. And armed with a fake aloof demeanour, pretended to “play it cool”. I came this close to telling him the truth [well to be honest, mainly to shut him up].

And boy did he play the game. He whinged, he demanded, he threatened that he had to work over the weekends. All to force the truth out of me!

Soooo meeeannn.

Anyway. I managed to eventually pull it off. And on Friday, at dinner, while we were both devouring 2 mub crabs. I told him what I got him for his birthday.

My gift - A weekend getaway at The Sebel Pier One Sydney located idyllically at the water edge of The Rocks. A half-hour adrenaline heart pumping thrill ride on the Adventure Jet Boat at the harbour! And than off to watch the much anticipated AFL game at the pub with greasy pub food for lunch. [The Eagles were THIS CLOSE to wining the grand finals. Arg. It was so painful to watch. sigh.]

Oh. And a tie I bought from Melbourne.

I was beaming with pride when I saw a smile unwillingly creeping from behind his aloof face.

We checked in early the next morning. The Jet Boat ride was pretty good. We did several 360 degrees spins and saw many secluded beaches and huge [how rich are these people?!] mansions.

At the pub, Melvin ordered the largest beer he could find. 1 litres of gold liquid. It was so funny watching him drink from this huge mug, which literally was the size of his FACE. AND watching him turn redder and redder with every gulp.

It was a very good weekend. A couple of our uni mates joined us for the jet boat adventure and the game. Than Mel and I spent the rest of the afternoon lazing around the rocks, roaming through the markets and enjoying the beautiful weather. Dinner was at the much talked about restaurant called Wildfire just 10mins walk from our hotel.

I had a whole lobster for my main! Wok fired with chilli, salt and pepper, and black bean! Boy was it good. I did not care that I was the only one in the restaurant sucking and smacking away. AND eating with my fingers. YUUMM.

Mel had the duck. And a Very Good Duck it was. Double YUM.

Check out time was unusually late, at 12. So we did not have to rush the next morning, which was really good.

We felt so relaxed and pampered. What a stress free way to end a stress filled week. =)

Happy Birthday Honey!!!

Suburbia pleasantness

I am going to break the rule of real time blogging and back date to last weekend.

It was a beautiful sunny spring Saturday. I woke up to one of those mornings where you just want to kick back over a cup of tea, have breakfast in a local café, relax and sun bathe ALL day.

We rushed through our usual weekend house cleaning duties and were out of the door by 10.

Mel and I hardly ever go out for breakfast. I think it is because most weekend mornings are spent mucking around the house idling on couches and me fussing around cleaning and attending to the garden. So it is really nice when we actually get up to something in the morning.

We drove our little MX5, hood down, hair in the wind to our neighbour suburb Wahroonga. Found a nice cosy café and ordered our poached eggs and bacon on toast with mushrooms on the side. yum.

A couple of weeks ago, I received a pamphlet in the mail, sent out by our local lawn bowling club, offering a free starter lesson for beginners. We have been talking about giving lawn bowling a go ever since Mel came home one day [after a team building event] going on and on about how fun it was. Even got our neighbours to agree to give this predominately oldie sports for the retirees a go. But somehow, work and other social commitments always got in the way.

So I decided it's time to get my little bud down to our local lawn bowling club to check it out.

The atmosphere in the little unassuming club was refreshingly warm and friendly. A bowling session, which includes bowling balls, the lawn and a free introductory lesson, cost a mere $5 per person!! Wow! We are SO in!

On the drive home. We dropped by a garage sale from across our street and bought a microwave egg cooker for 50 cents! And some old antique looking napkins holders.

Back home. We popped in to the neighbours for a quick coffee catch up. Table conversation consisted of aqua aerobics, upgrading projects around home, lawn bowling, Thai tea, red bean paste, Japanese rice cakes and outdoor dining tables. I love how random the conversations went!!

Salem had been meowing from our balcony looking down at us the whole time we were at the neighbour's (we live in a low density apartment that has staggered balconcies). He always does that btw... The minute he hears us from over the "fence" he would jump onto the ledge and give us grief till we acknowledge his presence or till we get back home. The silly thing.

Anyhow, it was soon late noon and after a quick game of table tennis (oh yes, did I mention we bought ourselves a table tennis table a couple of weeks ago and have been table tennis crazy ever since!!). We showered and got ready to go to a house warming party in the city.

A friend of ours had recently bought himself a lovely terrace house in a happening and funky part of town. I am simply in LOVE with those cool colonial frontage houses. Everything from the oh so cosy fire place to the colonial visage and the narrow back yards and tiny balconies. I secretly wished I could buy myself one too. But a year ago, we opted for a brand new comtempo apartment instead, which I am ALSO absolutely in love with too... *silly smile*

Anyhow, the party was a dash but we knew it was time to leave when people started rolling up the “good stuff”. The unmistakable rubbery sweet smell of weed.

I [of course] was the designated driver. Almost stall the car twice on our drive home.

Damn those 5 gear manual transmission!

And with that, I end my (never ending) story of my day spent in a nice surburbia way... =)