2010

Well the new year here in Melbourne certainly went off with a bang, with thunder and lightning all through the evening and past midnight. A very impressive show.

I’ll just skip back though, as I had some time off work this year, which was quite pleasant. Although I did have to answer a few phone calls and emails during the three days, it wasn’t as bad as I had initially thought, and nothing that couldn’t be solved!

The main reason I was taking time off was that a friend of Jes’ was getting married on 27th December and although it was an evening wedding, I didn’t like to rush getting ready (or recovering!)

It was a beautiful civil ceremony at The Deck at the Prince Hotel in St Kilda. A fairly casual affair, but everyone made an effort, ourselves included. Jes had been asked to take the photos and he obligingly accepted, but then asked me to help out. I was only too happy to help, but mostly just took some casual and back-up shots on my Olympus OM-1N with Ilford HP5 Plus. Most of them were bit hit and miss (as film can be with larger groups – someone always blinks!), but I did manage to get a few keepers.

The next day I spent developing the rolls of film from that wedding, as well as some other outings from previous days. The temperature was warming up though, so after the tap water was too warm, I gave up on that and just tried to keep myself cool in my rapidly heating house!

New Year’s eve dawned hot and sweaty, but a fairly nice day besides. Jes’ friend, Jes and I were going out to shoot the family fireworks at Docklands that evening, hopefully before the storm came in. We had a few cool beers and something to eat then our friend arrived (with two young kids in tow) and we headed down to Docklands while a shelf cloud came in and the wind picked up.

The cool change came through on the way down there, but the storm arrived about an earlier than originally predicted – before the family fireworks. After dithering around a bit about whether I should get my camera out and try and shoot or protect the camera and just watch them, I did get the camera out as soon as they started and shot off about fifty frames or so. Of these, only ten or less are keepers, but it was still worth it. Unfortunately none of us managed to get shots of the frequent lightning down there.

None of our cameras are any the worse for wear with the water, and we spent midnight watching the fireworks from Jes’ balcony. We could see 120 Collins and the reflections of Docklands, all without getting wet (well, any wetter!)

Since the new year, I haven’t been doing too much. I made the snap decision yesterday of getting to buy some things for my approaching trip to Laos and Bangkok. I booked my tickets just before Christmas, seeing a good price. I’m flying out in March for nearly three weeks. Next I’ll start to book flights for Laos from Bangkok, and the accommodation in Bangkok, so I’m not stuck when I arrive!

I picked up a money belt, day pack and sleeping bag, all in a decent sale. The day pack and sleeping bag are both from Pinnacle Outdoors, where I bought my larger bagpack in March last year. The service has been fantastic both times, and this time the prices couldn’t be beaten either! I’ll be heading out again in my lunch break this week to see about a mosquito net and whatever else I have forgotten! I’m hoping to get most of it in the sales, being a tight-arse. There are some good bargains to be had, and thankfully I didn’t hit too many crowds.

Last night I had tickets to see Biffy Clyro at the Hi-Fi Bar, but coincidentally after walking past the venue and not seeing the show listed, I looked it up on the Hi-Fi Bar website and saw that it’s been postponed. Despite being frustrated about it being postponed, I’m frustrated that I didn’t find out until yesterday! I’ve written an email to the Hi-Fi Bar asking why they didn’t at least have a notice up on their door yesterday – if I hadn’t been able to check the website then I would have been standing there at 8pm waiting. Hopefully I can get the refund, but I’m still quite disappointed – I’ve been looking forward to it for months!

Christmas Time

Just like every year, Christmas has snuck up on us all. A few weeks ago we had our first Christmas party, which was dinner with the admin girls and the IT boys. Altogether there were eight of us, including our colleague who went on maternity leave in July. It was great to see her again, and I think she was just as glad to get away from the house!

On a Friday evening after work we went into the city to a place call Gaylord, an Indian restaurant in Chinatown. I’ve been there a few times and it’s been great, so I suggested it for our small group dinner and it was welcomed by most – and those that didn’t, didn’t say anything until it was too late! So that we could try different things, we each ordered a curry and shared, with rice, roti and garlic naan. The lamb saag, butter chicken and a prawn curry were the favourites of the evening. It was very enjoyable, mostly because it’s a relaxed atmosphere where you can be noisy and have a good time.

After dinner, my manager suggested we go to a cocktail bar she likes, called 1806. I’m not a big cocktail drinker – I enjoy a martini and a margarita sometimes, but mostly, they’re too sickly and too expensive! This place had a good atmosphere, pleasant and knowledgeable wait-staff and was quite quiet. We stayed for a few drinks (I enjoyed the martinis) before we both called it a night and headed out into the rain.

The next Christmas party was a lunch organised by the heads of the department. A larger group, of about 20 people, fit into the large and stylish Hu Tong Dumpling House in Market Lane. I hadn’t been there, but a colleague recommended it, and I was happy to try real dumplings as opposed to those as Shanghai Dumpling House! Sharing a banquet meal and some wine (for those that weren’t lab staff), we were able to try a variety of dumplings and meat dishes – including a Sichuan style chicken dish with plenty of chilli. All in all, it was an enjoyable meal, and because it was reasonably priced, I’ll probably be returning.

The last Christmas party was last night, and that was for the whole of the department. Altogether about 60 people has RSVP’d in the positive, but only about 50 went. It was held in the Fad Gallery in Corrs Lane, also in Chinatown (sense a theme here?)

As I know that just two doors down there is a delicious Sichuan restaurant, I tried to round up some people to come to dinner with me beforehand. Due to forgotten lunch parties and family illness, only one person actually came, but it was no less enjoyable. We shared the potato threads and tofu with leek (he is vegetarian, and those dishes are delicious), which filled us up nicely before we headed back to the party venue.

The Fad Gallery is an interesting place, with a variety of artwork throughout upstairs and downstairs. We had the upstairs are to ourselves (after last year where we shared a room with another group) and a bar too.

The music was supplied by ourselves, and games were played, with prizes, and then was the time to dance the night away. I headed off early, not feeling so great (the dizziness isn’t help by noise, alcohol and dark rooms), but I must say it was a good night. I managed to take a couple of hundred photos, as requested by the manager, which might be ready to go on the network on Monday. I decided to keep it simple with digital, and try out my new lens, the 28mm f/1.8. It’s fantastic, wide enough for confined spaces, without distorting. The speed was very useful in the dark bar too.

In the week coming up, we have our work Kris Kringle party, and then that’s about it until New Year. I’m looking forward to a quiet Christmas and a short break until the New Year.

Bodyjar and Beer Deluxe.

Friday the 13th was far from unlucky for me. Bodyjar are currently on their farewell tour (not a la John Farnham), and I had tickets to go see them at the Corner. A quick dinner at our regular spot Gigi in the city and Jes and I headed out to the Corner.

Supports weren’t off much interest, but we did see most of 28 Days’ set, as my friend recommended them from the night before. They weren’t too bad, but I was itching to see Bodyjar more than anything; it’s been a fair while since I’ve seen them perform.

The set was, of course, filled with their hits, as well as some of their older tunes. The crowd loved it, even if they were aging slightly. I definitely enjoyed it, especially as I had perched on the smaller stage and could still see.

I ran into a friend from Sydney I don’t see often too and now that I know he’s in town, we’ll arrange to catch up properly.

On Saturday afternoon, a group of us from Flickr met up at Beer Deluxe in Federation Sqaure to discuss an idea for an exhibition we have. The discussions were relatively productive and many ideas have been tossed around, but now we have to get down to work. Just as a side note, if one wants to spend an afternoon drinking, Beer Deluxe can get very pricey.

Beer Deluxe is a place that Jes and I have visited frequently in the past few months. It’s conveniently located near to ACMI, where we find ourselves every few weeks or so, and serves such a wide variety of beers that we are pretty much working our way through the menu now.

The beers aren’t cheap, but as most of them are imported or from microbreweries, one doesn’t expect them to be. There is an extensive range of dark beers, lagers, tap beers and trappist. One of these days I shall use the menu online and complete a list of those that I can remember having and what I thought of them. In the mean time, I’ve definitely tried these two.

As it comes into hotter weather, I often feel like a light larger or wheat beer. The wheat beers I’ve picked recently have mostly been too sweet for my liking though. The Erdinger Dunkel was a tasty, heavier version that I’m used to. On Saturday I also tried the Erdinger Weissenbrau, which is new on tap, and that was fresh and light, without being too sweet.

In the cooler weather, the ales and darker beers are to my taste. Again, I’ve had a bad run picking the sweeter ones, but there have been a few gems in the list. Birra Moretti La Rossa and Timothy Taylor’s Landlord have both turned out to be winners.

There will obviously be many more to come, and I will have to start notes on which I’ve tasted – a bit like with the books last year!

Talking and Comedy

On Friday 30th, after a sunny day off work, my friend Jes and I went to see our last event of the Hello Darkness mini-festival, a talk and slideshow by Ken Warner about his photographs of Halloween from San Francisco.

I hadn’t heard of him before, but a quick search online found some photographs of high interest and good quality. He visited or lived in San Fransisco for twenty-odd years, and photographed the Halloween street parties which were based around the gay community there. He discussed how the parties came about, what people thought about it and some of the experiences he had while there. He showed us colour photos, as he had published a book of black and white photos and felt that the colour photos were something new.

There were some very interesting images involving people with costumes that were certainly worthy of some analysis. The highlight I think was the man who, apparently year after year, wore a costume consisting of pads and tampons with blood-red paint (at least I hope it was paint).

The room it took place in was on Brunswick Street, in an upstairs open-plan place. It seemed like the ideal place for a party, and although we headed off early, it seemed that a party would go on into the night. I even managed to sit on the hard wooden floor for the few hours it lasted. The crowd was an interesting mix of friends of friends of people who organised it, artistic types who were interested in the photos and quirky gothic types who just wanted to go to everything Halloween themed. I’m not sure where I fit in, but I was wearing plastic mini jack-o-lantern earrings.

The longer weekend was fairly quiet and lazy. Saturday afternoon consisted of an impromptu pub crawl and the evening a delicious dinner at the old Dainty Sechuan in Chinatown. Sunday was again, lazy, and involved watching
Flesh Gordon 2: Flesh Gordon Meets the Cosmic Cheerleaders’. We’d seen the first earlier this year, and this was significantly worse, but still amusing and lightly entertaining.

Unfortunately I had to work Monday, breaking up what could have been a five-day weekend. However, Cup eve evening was spent eating good food, drinking good beer and watching good comedy. We had dinner at Red Pepper at the top end of Bourke Street, a tried and tested Indian eatery. At only $6 for a veggie curry, and slightly less for an alcoholic beverage, it’s a great bargain.

Next up we headed over to Spleen, where there is free comedy on Monday nights. Although I’ve had the intention of going many times, this was the first time I actually managed to attend. Adam Rozenbachs was acting as MC and there was a huge set of other small-name comedians. Adam used a lot of the material he had at the comedy festival and when I saw him at the Comedy Club, but had added some new bits and delivered the old stuff in different ways.

Otherwise, Sammy J was fantastic, Felicity Ward was great and Troy Kinne was fairly good too. They were the highlights, but the others weren’t all bad. I think I’ll have to make an effort to go again, but not when it’s too warm – the air-con wasn’t very good!

Melbourne Cup Day was an enjoyable public holiday, and to avoid the racing rabble we headed to the cinema. We saw ‘The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus’, which I suppose is also called the movie that Heath Ledger was making when he died.

Overall, I liked it. It wasn’t amazing, and Heath Ledger didn’t get much of an opportunity to show how great he was, but it was an enjoyable movie and done well, particularly when you take into account what happened. I understand that they had to re-write chunks of it to enable three other actors to fill in (Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell). I can’t say in comparison to how it was before, but the re-write definitely worked and the other three actors stepped up to the mark and did fantastically. Tom Waits also deserves a mention; I think I’m becoming a fan of his.

Otherwise, the movie is a long one, but doesn’t seem it. The story is interesting, if a little confusing. The special effects are beautiful and the costumes are especially impressive.

After that, it was all downhill and back to work today.

Of the four Death Sauces I bought two weeks ago at the Dutch weekend, I have only tried the Original (on baked chicken) and the Jalapeno (on baked beans). They were both fairly weak, but with a great flavour. The After and Sudden sauces are still to come, and I’ve been told that they’re the fun ones. Of course, the first thing I shall do is report to the Internet.

Over the last few weeks I’ve lost a lot of confidence in myself film-photography-wise. Loading film the wrong way, forgetting to cock the shutter, forgetting to use the ‘bulb’ setting…it’s all come together and helped me to revert to digital. I remember learning the manual settings of a camera on digital and how great it was knowing how I was changing an image with each setting. At the moment, I have three different cameras loaded with 35mm film, and yet I take out either my digital compact or the D-SLR more often than not, simply because I don’t want to waste or ruin any more film!

This weekend hopefully I’ll get out and get some decent photos with the digital camera and that’ll get me back on my feet to take more photos on film!

New toy

So a couple of weeks ago, I bought a Bronica ERT-Si and 50mm lens from someone I know through Flickr. It is my first trip into the medium format SLR world, and I was quite excited. Excited as I was, it took me until this weekend just past to test it and unfortunately, it didn’t go too well.

First of all, I had a problem with the battery, but after that was sorted, I thought all was going to be smooth sailing.

Get home with two rolls of film to develop, so I make a start on the first one – a single roll of a cheap black and white Chinese film I picked up for free. The roll came out with the text and some light leaks, but otherwise blank, so something had obviously gone wrong. As I finished and re-wound the second roll, some Neopan 400, I realised that it was the wrong way around.

As I all but concluded that this was the problem with the other film too, I decided not to waste the film and work out which way around the film went. I wound the film back onto another spool and loaded the Bronica in the light until I saw the film come through. I then closed and shot the rest of the film, just to check the shutter was firing well too. I developed that roll this afternoon, and all is fine.

The one thing that’s been frustrating with it though has been the waist level finder. I haven’t had a camera with a WLF before, but I’ve tried some at Flickr meets before and it’s not for me. I like the camera being at eye-level more. Now that I know the camera is working, I’ve purchased a prism finder (with meter) so that I can use the camera more comfortably.

All is well in the world of new-second-hand-cameras.

Second Anniversary

On September 1st it passed the second year I’ve been in Melbourne. As pointed out in my last post, I’m quite settled here and enjoying everything.

Anyway, the weekend before last, I took a day-trip out to Mt Buller to see Australian snow for the first time. After doing some investigative work, the best deal I could find was through the tourist agency ExtraGreen for a bus from the city and back. After a last-minute upgrade, we ended up on a good quality bus on our way out of the city at 6am. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t exactly pleasant, and as we headed to higher ground, the rain started to fall. It continued all day, and all but ruined the day.

If it hadn’t been raining, we could have hired some snow shoes and gone for a hike, or completed the Gnome Roam (as it was, I could only find one gnome on the clock tower before giving up), or even just had a better look around the village. Unfortunately, after some lunch and some more skipping between buildings, we headed up Summit Road to a pub and spent some time playing Buckhunter! The snow barely got a look in.

I was almost grateful to be on the bus going home after the wasted day there. As we pulled into Mansfield (where people had hired snow-gear), the rain cleared and there was some beautiful late afternoon light. As we had some time to kill, we went for a quick walk around nearby and took some photos before the clouds covered the rest of the sky.

Other than that, nothing too big has been happening for me. This Friday past, I had free tickets to the Comedy Club, where I got to see Adam Rozenbachs as MC, with Terry North and Lehmo. Terry North is an English comedian that I’ve seen on two other occasions, and he still has no new material. Thankfully Lehmo and Adam Rozenbachs both made up for this and it was an enjoyable night.

I’ve been quite busy at work recently, but I’ve also been to the movies a few times. I saw District 9 a few weeks ago. This was a refreshing movie. The fact that it was South African, with little American influence, was quite noticable. The acting was a little iffy at times – with the main character barely developing at all. Apart from that, the special effects and costumes were impressive, and I liked the movie.

The other movie I saw was Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds. Now this movie has had a fair amount of press, and I was looking forward to it. It didn’t disappoint. The violence was plentiful, and there was more than enough dialogue, but overall I felt that it worked. The in-depth dialogue and speeches were, at times, overkill, but added to the rest of the action, it was fantastic. The acting was fantatic, with mostly unknown (to me at least) actors. The character of Col. Landa, played by Christoph Waltz, was particularly impressive.

As the Melbourne Silver Mine’s Unsensored 09 exhibition closes on Wednesday, I highly recommend heading down if you get the chance. It sounds like it has been quite successful, with a number of people passing through and some of the pieces have sold (multiple times!) My image hasn’t sold, but I was aiming to bring it home to adorn our wall instead. It certainly would have been nice to make a sale, but after agonising over the images, I decided to hang them just for the sake of hanging, rather than to make money. This is the first time my work has been displayed in public, and I’m quite content just to be able to see my work large and on the wall!

While on the subject of photography, I visited Scienceworks Museum last weekend to see the Star Wars exhibition. Taking my camera and a couple of lenses was the easy bit, but with many of the displays poorly lit and behind glass smeared with children’s fingerprints, getting the photos was a bit harder. I took my still new-ish 40D with my 50mm f/1.8, and by using my adaptor, I also had two Nikon mount lenses – 85mm f/1.4 and 24mm f/2.8. Unfortunately the former of these was of little use in the crowded rooms, but the 24mm was useful on occasion to get some close-ups of pieces.

Unfortunately I didn’t manage to see any more movies at MIFF, but I did see the Whitlams playing at the Corner Hotel last weekend. Their show was quite extensive, with only one support and playing one album in full (Eternal Nightcap). It was a fantastic show with an intriguing crowd. Thankfully, MUFF starts soon, and I should be able to see a few more of those.

Just this weekend, I saw ‘Drag Me To Hell’ as it’s cinema run is finishing. I thoroughly enjoyed this, despite mixed reviews. There were moments where I momentarily cringed and thought it would go down hill, but it managed to redeem itself. The acting, for the most part, was very good, but I felt there were too many ‘jumps’ to be fun. It ended up distracting from the story and acting. On the whole though, it was fantastic. Hopefully this week I will manage to see District 9 too.

While I’m remembering, I never got around to mentioning the latest Harry Potter movie. As a movie, it was fantastic. The darkness, the acting and the effects were all very good and the movie moved along nicely. Obviously, as a comparison to the book, it’s disappointing. Many, apparently unimportant, aspects and scenes were left out, and there were huge chunks missing. Also, the scene of Dumbledore’s death, which could and should have been amazing, was a huge letdown.

So last month my parents were in the country – mostly in Adelaide, but flew in and out of Melbourne so there was a chance for us to catch up. I took them around to a couple of places and showed them the city. We had an afternoon at Fairfield Boat House, and I treated them to a dinner at Punch Lane Wine Bar. Both were delicious and I strongly recommend them if you have a chance to try either.

Other than that, it’s been the same old photography/knitting/reading/socialising mess for me! I’ve been knitting a cardigan for a friend who is expecting a new baby, and I’ve branched out a bit with a striped pattern and different stitches – it’s coming along very nicely and pictures will be posted once it’s completed. I’ve also been using a very easy bootie pattern and made a few pairs with leftover yarn. It’s very basic, but quite productive as you can do them almost with your eyes closed.

Photography-wise, as per my last post, there’s an exhibition of film photography next week run by the Melbourne Silver Mine group. I have a set of three photos displayed at this, which have been printed and framed but I haven’t had a chance to collect them just yet. What I know of the other shots are very good, if a little ‘Melbourne-y’, and I’d highly recommend you head along if you get a chance.

For my birthday I was given a Holga 120N with a small flash, and I eagerly tried these out at the last Melbourne group Flickr meet. Although I mixed up the film size without a mask, the photos came out quite nicely on Neopan 400.

Last night I managed to see the first (and probably only) movie of the Melbourne International Film Festival, a Norwegian one called ‘Dead Snow’. It was a story about Nazi zombies attacking a group of young, attractive students. I really enjoyed it; there were laughs and jumps, and the writer knew how to make fun of himself. It turned out very well, and it’s made me want to see more movies of a similar vein – many of which I own on DVD but haven’t watched yet. I’ll get to them!

I don’t know that I’ll get time to see any others, which is a shame as there seems to be a lot on (even with those pulled out for political reasons). I’ve heard good things about Tony Manero and Chocolate though.

Great Ocean Road etc (Part 3)

After raining all night, Monday was a little worrying to wake to. We had decided to head up to Hopetoun Falls, but there were two routes to get it. With one being labelled a track, we were unsure whether we’d be able to get through it in a Toyota Corolla, so we headed back to the information centre to double check what sort of condition it was in. Instead, she recommended that we go back the way went the day before and along the Turtons Tourist Track. This worked just fine for us, and Turtons Track was simply beautiful.

The small of the other track down to the falls however, was a little more worrying, and the turn off for the waterfall even more so. Taking it nice and slow, and seeing virtually no tourists, helped us to arrive in one piece. Still raining, we headed down into the rainforest to the Hopetoun Falls, which were worth the walk down (and the fear of having to get back up the hill). Again, photos to come.

Next we decided to head to the Triplet Falls, but getting lost and having to do a u-turn when we realised we were heading back towards Apollo Bay, we decided to stop for an early lunch instead. Kat and Trav discovered the small area of Redwoods just near the Hopetoun falls, and we went exploring. The area is simply stunning with the towering Redwoods and beautiful stream running past.

By this time we deemed it late enough that most tourists would have left and we could go to the Otway Fly – something Kat had really been looking forward to. It was still raining, and at the bottom of the rainforest, we might have stayed slightly dry, but 27m up, there was no chance. Still, the views were something different, and the 47m tower was fun (if only to see Trav so scared!) The walk back to the visitors centre wasn’t quite so fun, but headbutting the dinosaur at the end of the walk was worth it.

After that, we decided to take the same route back to Apollo Bay, along Turton’s Track and through Skene’s Creek, wanting to stick to roads that we knew while it kept raining and was getting darker.

Again, we had to dry out all of our clothes, and decided to have another lazy night in with ice cream, nachos and the projector.

The next morning we started our way out of town. We came back along the Great Ocean Road again, wanting to have another burger and chips at the same cafe! Between Lorne and Geelong though, we headed inland and came in through Geelong and back to the city. The rest of the afternoon was a chance to dry off and catch up on washing before we all went back to work.