That’s Hot.

As Melbourne continues to heat up for the sixth day running, I thought it was about time to vent again.

I like the heat. I like summer, sun, warm weather and everything that goes with it, including going inside where it is slightly cooler. Apparently our place isn’t like that, and summer is going to be quite uncomfortable.

This week when it rose to 35 degrees outside, our third (and top) storey apartment also rose to 35 degrees. With the curtains shut, windows open and fans running to try and move the air even a little, we might have got it down to 34 degrees. Even outside there was a slight breeze, but nothing inside. As I said, I enjoy the heat, but when it gets so that you can’t even sit still without sweating, it becomes an issue. Yesterday afternoon it was down to the early 20s by late afternoon, and I had hopes that this would transfer to our house as well. It dropped to around 29 degrees inside. Our place isn’t too old, I think from the 60s or so, but the insulation is non-existent. Of course, because we’re renting, the landlord and real estate agents have little care for our comfort, so it would be up to us to purchase air conditioning. Unfortunately, the portable air conditioning units are expensive to buy and run, and chew up electricity – which leads to a vicious cycle with climate change and emissions.

Now, obviously one early season heatwave itself doesn’t indicate climate change, the fact that it’s becoming more frequent, particularly in areas where it’s been unusual (far north or south of the equator), raises the questions of climate change and whether we are eternally doomed because of our pollution and emissions.

I believe that yes, there is such a thing as climate change and we are experiencing it, if only in the early stages. I believe we should be doing a lot more to stop the damage that is occurring and the irreversible changes. Just yesterday there was someone from a wilderness charity who stopped me in the street. She asked if I cared about the forests – and the obvious answer is yes, yes I do. However, if we’re going to save the planet, you’re going to have to do a lot more than tell us the forests are dying and can we please have a few dollars a month.

Every little bit helps, I believe that, but we’re at the stage now that without major support from the governments, we are in big trouble. A lot of the deforestation and water pollution that has occurred already is irreversible, and to prevent any more damage will take a huge amount of money and effort.

Moving and settling

So, the big move. It was all rather quick and we’ve only just caught our breaths now. It was less than two weeks of being offered the place to us getting the keys, and we started to move straight away. The Friday that we collected the keys, we did four or five runs with Kat’s car of the little bits – things I could carry up the (three flights of) stairs and that we didn’t trust removalists with. My legs held out and we were fairly successful. As we started to move stuff in though, we began to panic that all of our stuff wouldn’t fit. This was to be proven wrong the next day.

On the Saturday, we did a couple of runs (with extra hands of course) in the morning before the removalists came. Once they turned up, it was around an hour to pack up the truck, with all of us helping carry stuff out to the truck. I was predicting up at an hour per flight of stairs at the other end, but it was done much quicker than that. The plan to get removalists was a good one, as it would have taken hours (and days) for Kat’s back and my knees to get everything up here!

As it turns out, once there was furniture around and beds were set up, the rooms seemed biggeer. It was clear from the start that we were downsizing, but not by as much as we though. Everything fits, and we’re only clearing out stuff so that we can buy more (mostly in the form of books!)

I’m quite content at this new place. I’ve quickly adjusted to taking the train to work, but thankfully it’s never too busy (standing on the way in, but always get a seat coming home) and I had paid for monthly tickets at times when I was temping at the old place, so the cost wasn’t a shock. As the last boxes are being unpacked (or we permanently position them in corners of rooms), the place is feeling much more like home. However, if (and that’s a big if), we move again, the furniture is all staying up here. I’ll buy new stuff for the next place!!

On top of this havoc, my parents arrived in the country on the 30th. They’re here for a month, but only had 3 nights in Melbourne initially before going over to Adelaide by car. It’s certainly good to see them again, but it’s strange seeing familiar faces in place that I’ve never seen them. We caught up for dinner the three nights they were here, and will do so again at the other end of the trip when they come back before they fly out.

Other than that, it’s just been a matter of settling in and trying to get on with things. I’ve been knitting quite avidly for the last few months – first for my friend Kayleigh, then for my colleague who has just left on maternity leave, and now another friend has announced his wife is expecting, so I’m planning the next thing. On the wonderful Ravelry, I found a pattern for very easy booties, and I’ve done three pairs of these with leftover yarn which would otherwise be passed onto the Salvos or hoarded until I come up with a better plan. I’ve done a pair in under two hours, so it’s a relatively quick pattern (for my speed of knitting), and they’re easily done on straight needles. However, after two relatively plain baby jumpers, I’m about to branch out a little. More details as they’re decided!

Buzzing like a busy bee

As I’m currently looking for a new place, I’ve been trying to divide my time between doing that, work and taking/processing/editing photos. It’s a hard juggle!

So far no luck on the house-front, but am about to start looking with fellow housemate Kat for a two-bedroom place. It’s unlikely we’ll stay in East Melbourne, but we’ll hopefully stay in the inner suburbs as neither of us want too far to travel to work.

I rarely update about work, and that’s because I suppose there is little to update about. It’s the daily grind, which is rewarding and interesting enough to get me back there each day. As a colleague is leaving on maternity leave in a few months’ time, I will be taking over most of her work until we find a replacement. Although I’m not looking forward to the drastically increased workload, there are a few new skills and tasks to learn which should be interesting.

Photography, on the other hand, is getting interesting. I’ve just shot, processed and am now scanning my first ever roll of 120 film. I borrowed a friend’s Kershaw folding camera and shot a roll of Neopan 400, and processed in the DD-X I have at the moment. It’s come out relatively well, and despite high potential for light-leaks when it was taken out of the camera (it wound loosely), all was fine. Uploads to come.

Leading on from that, I used a small part of ‘Kev’s cash bonus’ (the $900 economic stimulus plan) to purchase my own medium format camera, a Dacora, which is also a folder. I only received it today, but with more manual settings I’m hoping to get some better results with it!

Since I’ve gotten into the swing of processing my own film, I’ve found myself to be shooting a lot more black and white just for the convenience of it. I have been quite ’snap happy’ with it, but I’m starting to settle and get more quality too.

Recently I also bought a 50mm f/1.8 lens for my 10D. I’ve only shot with it once, and apart from minor focusing issues, it’s a good buy (it was dirt cheap) and I’m glad to own my first (hopefully of many) prime.

This was from the shoot with the new 50mm. The video of Little Boris, created by the North Melbourne FC, provided great amusement for those of us who weren’t shocked and disgusted. Finding a rubber chicken in the following weeks was slightly difficult, but thankfully we managed and had a good shoot.

A toy panorama camera up the Rialto, with a roll of (ick) Tmax, is surely the best way to shoot cityscapes? I thought so at least.

Relaunch

As I don’t think I posted about this before, I thought I should get to it.

My original website design was getting tired and too cluttered, and the content was old. I asked my housemate Trav, the resident nerd, to design something simple and snappy for me to display a small range of my photos, and within a few weeks, he’d come up with something perfect.

Here stands www.blankroll.com!

As an aside, I also have the story behind it.

I originally bought the site about four years ago or so, at a time when I was shooting primarily digital and gave little thought to moving to film. As digital films have no film, it is a similar to a blank roll of film – hence the name.

Since then I have, obviously, given in to shooting film (and am loving it), so the name is little more than something short and hopefully stylish now.

When I bought all the new developing stuff a couple of months ago and started to develop my own black and white film however, the first two rolls that I developed were actually blank – I couldn’t help but laugh! Thankfully it was only because I didn’t load the film into my Olympus OM-1N properly – all those since have been fine, and the name remains in tact.

Rumble in Brighton

Wednesday evenings usually hold little excitement for me, but when my housemate called me (yes, we do live together and call each other) and said there might be a spare ticket to see the Stray Cats, I have to admit, I was excited!

I expressed interest but heard nothing until mid-morning Thursday (which was, coincidentally, the day of the show). My other housemate confirmed that we both had tickets and I was free to look forward to it!

I remember missing their show in London at Brixton Academy a few years ago – because of exams or age or both, so having another opportunity to see them was great. I hadn’t bought tickets when they went on sale because I was unsure whether I’d be in Adelaide or New Zealand or elsewhere globetrotting, and had regretted it when the date was approaching and I was just sitting in Melbourne!

The show itself was even better for me as The Living End were supporting. Having already decided I wouldn’t be seeing them on their tour this year as the cost was too high, I could quite easily justify more to see both the Stray Cats and The Living End. So being able to see the boys at least once this year was good, and I still get a hint of the giddiness from when I first saw them, despite having gone off their music for the most part (their newer albums at least). It was good to see them well-received by the crowd too, although a little scary as there appeared to be a boy on springs in the crowd (he just could not stop jumping.) The set list was different to usual, but not in a particularly good way, and although they were definitely enjoying it, I was only mildly impressed, perhaps because tension was rising for the main act.

Just enough to get a breath of fresh air, a drink, a sit down and some merch – we moved back in just as the cheers went up for the three boys we were there to see. We managed to grab a seat right at the back, but of course all the people seated in front of us wanted to stand. A precarious balance on the back of the seat worked out well for the majority of the show which meant my legs haven’t been aching since.

The show was simply amazing. Everybody there was ecstatic, dancing and singing and in great spirits. Sure, everybody was wearing the same style of shirt and had the same hairstyle, but when they launched into it, none of that mattered. The setlist wasn’t too much of a surprise, with all the classics and most of their bigger songs in the mix, and all songs were executed with a mass of energy and enthusiasm.

For the last encore (there were two), Setzer introduced Chris Cheney of The Living End as a special guest and no one was all that surprised – Cheney’s been a huge fan since he was a kid starting out with music. After seeing him on stage with his own band though, there was a huge difference to when he came out to play with his idols – he looked like a little kid! He had a huge smile on his face as he played a solo with his idol before sharing Slim Jim and Setzer’s mikes for ‘I Fought The Law’. It was certainly a good moment to see and certainly something that won’t be forgotten for most people who there. I could help but joke that Scott Owen and Andy Strachan were sitting side of stage pouting at the fact that they weren’t allowed to play with them! It was also funny to note that Cheney kept the guitar strategically placed over his crotch as he left the stage…

The best bit of the night though was realising that the main act was on stage by 9.30pm and would finish before 12am. In fact, I was standing outside about to go home by just after 11pm – fantastic for a weeknight because I could still get a decent night’s sleep! I’m not sure if that’s just how the Forum works or it was the Stray Cats decision, but either way, it certainly worked in my favour.

“Bit warm”

This week has been a bit warm. And by that, I mean stinking hot to the point where even I don’t enjoy it.

Usually I enjoy the heat and summer – sunshine and lollypops and whatnot. Sure you sweat a bit (or in my case, a lot) and you need to use a fan or aircon, but it’s just so bright and fun. No need to wear layers of clothes, it puts most people in a better mood (definitely true in my case) and lastly, it gives me a chance to wear a pretty dress.

However, when it reaches the stage that my bedroom is 35+ degrees and stuffy even with a fan on, the water coming from the cold tap is 32 degrees and public transport breaks down so much that I have to listen to people complaining non-stop anywhere I go – well, it’s not fun anymore.

I guess I’ve done not too badly. The aircon did go at work and most of the staff were sent home, but it was still bearable and we all coped; we have aircon in the lounge and so spent a little more quality time with my housemates; I did manage to sleep like a baby the first night before my room became a personal sauna and, most importantly, I don’t take trains anywhere. Sure, I’ve felt like I’m going to melt when I wake in the middle of the night for a fifth time drenched in sweat to move the fan closer to me, but now it’s comfortable 30 degrees (which has always been a good temperature for me) and I’ve stopped sweating out any liquid as soon as I drink it.

The bushfires were the main concern – we haven’t had any power cuts in my area thankfully, but once they started rolling blackouts in Docklands and Port Melbourne, and even Crown, I was feeling the pressure. Even more so when I read on The Age website that bushfires were threatening the powerlines which provide two-thirds of the power for Melbourne. Thankfully they’re under control, it’s cooled down and we’re nearly all still alive.

One thing I did notice during this ‘heatwave’ was that although it’s around the same temperature that it was at last year when I visited Adelaide (35+ for a fortnight I believe), I found it much more bearable there. The wind was either not there or cooler, so it didn’t feel like a fan-forced oven and the humidity was much lower. I find the heat here overbearing and suffocating at times, and, as disgusting as it is, sweat much more. Perhaps I should move to Adelaide?….Nah!

‘Tis the season to be social

The approach to Christmas has never been a particularly exciting time for me. Through the last few years of high school it was usually a time for revision for the January exams (yep, revision through the holidays..), last year I was simply wondering whether I would have work during the Christmas period and into the new year. Also, having never attended a work Christmas party, this year held a certain special appeal of actually belonging within a company and being included, rather than being paid for services via an agency (I mean temping, you dirty bunch!)

So, the past few weeks have been quite busy with birthdays and Christmas parties, as well the usual social outings. Our admin area went for a Christmas meal at Taco Bill in the city a few weeks ago, that was quite good. Being a big fan of Mexicali Rose in Richmond, I was worried to be let-down by the frozen margaritas and food but despite the food being rather small in size and slow in coming, it was actually very enjoyable. The decor is very cheesy, with multiple piñatas hanging from the ceiling, but the open, screening windows were wonderful after a few drinks and the need for air!

The second Christmas party for work was for the entire pathology department, which ended up with about 50 people attending. It was at a Greek restaurant in the city, called Kri Kri. Over the last few weeks, excitement had mounted over the calamari, dolmades and octupus that would hopefully be served – and they were, along with around 10 other dishes which by the end, were only being picked at! The food was hardly vegetarian friendly, and included booze was poor in quality but I was happy with the food served and generally had an enjoyable night photographing the merriment.

On Friday, it was also Kat’s birthday, which is ever hard to celebrate in the run-up to Christmas with everybody so busy, but we all managed to find time to spare last Friday to go to Mexicali Rose. Unfortunately, as I was getting ready, there was a phone call from them stating that there was a problem – it had been raining all day, and they’d had an electricity surge and doubted they’d be open. After a minor panic and several more phone calls/SMS’, we decided some would meet at our place, some would meet at Mexicali Rose and we would find somewhere once we got there. Friday nights in Richmond and 11 people to dine, how hard could it be? Hunger led us to the nearest place to where we met, a small cafe/restaurant called Red Lemon, which seemed to have a Polish background. It was a small place, but they were more than happy to cater for a large group at short notice, and most of us chose the Polish pierogi which they apparently specialise in. I’ve had them before in Vancouver, and remember enjoying them, so I followed suit and had them again. I can only compliment the place – the food was delicious, great choice of drinks and brilliant service. Good things can come from bad luck!

Another new experience was the Melbourne Silvermine Christmas party at a lawn bowls club. A small group of us met at a nearby pub for a few drinks before we headed over for the BBQ, camera comparisons and finally lawn bowls. The entire afternoon and evening was enjoyable, although I don’t think lawn bowls are my calling! Rude grumpy men provided some entertainment when our bad bowling wasn’t enough, and cheap jugs provided the rest. Thankfully, after 3 days of almost non-stop rain, the sun came out long enough to dry the turf and let us sit outside.

As well as of this, I’ve had work and general socialising, so it’s been a pretty busy few weeks! With no rest in sight either – working through Christmas and New Year, and seeing people on Christmas Day, a ‘family’ meal on Boxing Day (Trav, Kat and myself), New Year’s eve to be confirmed and friends visiting from other cities. Sleep is getting harder and harder to come by, but it’s all good fun, and hopefully I’ll get a rest in the early New Year.

I’ll update this soon with a year review and plans for 2009 (cheesalicious, but I’d like to make a record) – but I’m excited as I’ve just booked flights to and from New Zealand for a week in early March! Flying into Wellington and out of Christchurch, so I’ll get to both islands. Anyway, further updates to come.

“Our crapshack is going to hell!” (more so)

Now I’ve never denied that we live in a crapshack – in fact, I am quite vocal about it. It’s fun, unpredictable and most importantly, I’ve grown fond of it. The way you have to push the bathroom door to make sure it’s shut, or lift Trav’s door because it’s off the hinges. And I can’t forget the mould-cleaning that we go through regularly. Tonight though, we hit a new low.

So, Kat’s in the shower, sitting on the floor because of her heel, and her knee happens to touch the tiled wall. She notes the tile shifted slightly, and tries to even it again. Two tiles fall off, exposing quite a large and deep hole with a strong smell of mould coming from it. After bringing it to the attention of the rest of us, we laugh for a while and take a few photos to show our grandkids in years to come.

Coming to the conclusion we won’t be able to shower, I start making the call to our real estate agents. As usual, their phone system is most unhelpful and I end up disturbing the innocent plumber who probably wanted an early Sunday night. After confirming that this wasn’t a job for him, I finally navigate the phone system and leave a message for the maintenance girl tomorrow.

In the mean time, we just thank ourself it’s not the stinking hot summer yet.

Oh, and here’s the photo.