Back on the treadmill

This weekend I was able to get back on my treadmill and go for a walk.  

Although my broken toe is sore if I kick something or wear tight shoes, it doesn't hurt to walk any more.  Today was a bit of an experiment because I feel guilty for not exercising each day; but afterwoods there was no residual pain at all.  But then there are always pain-killers and anti-inflammatories !

It's been a miserable weekend so far, with drizzle most of the day, so walking inside is the only option available.  Karyn's been painting doors, architraves and skirting boards.  I've been doing .... not much.  Supervising, really.

Penny's Birthday

On Sunday we celebrated Penny's birthday at our place.  She's got a few things in the pipeline at the moment so we thought that we'd hold her party here and give her a bit of a rest.

We had a BBQ and had a great time.  What could be better than good friends, good wine, and good cake?

Here's Penny and her daughter Catherine.

Once the thunderstorm passed, the day improved remarkably.  Here we are outside after lunch.

From the left:  Gabby (hiding from the camera), Catherine, Karyn, Penny, Peter, and Jill.

Half a day's racing at Braidwood

Today we went to the picnic races at Braidwood.   This is a once-a-year event run as a major fundraising activity for the local town's community services.  We love going to these races because they are a great day out.
There's nothing flash about the racecourse, but it was pretty good for somewhere that has races once a year.  And the atmosphere is terrific, with everyone out to enjoy themselves.

The course has a very "personal" feel about it compared to other courses.  There was little separation between the people and the horses.  In fact the horses were unloaded in the carpark, in between parked cars.   You got to stand within spitting distance of the finish line; so much so that I had to change to my 18-55mm camera lens because I was so close.

Our horse, Diamond Jay was racing in the last race.

In the fourth race, one of the jockeys lost his saddle near the finishing line.  Here is a quick shot I was able to get off as he went by.  You can see the jockey trying to stay on-board whilst his saddle was down past his left leg.

We were sitting next to another jockey's wife, and she was really upset that this happened, because it meant that someone (either the trainer or the strapper) hadn't done their job and the jockey could have been badly hurt.

The fourth race was actually declared a non-race because the starting gates had a problem.  After about an hour of discussion between the jockeys and the raceclub it was decided to abandon the rest of the races on safety grounds.  I wondered why they didn't revert to a standing-start so the races could continue.

So races 4 to 8 were cancelled and we got to go home without a trophy or prizemoney.

It was probably going to be Diamond Jay's last race for the season before a rest, so she might not run again now for several months.  We'll just have to wait and see.

"Just ignore the pain ..."

I saw the doctor today.  He says that my toe is broken but there's nothing that can be done with it except wait for it to heal by itself.

He said that I should just ignore the pain.

Easy for him to say.

Australia Day 2010

We had a great Australia Day this year.

Matt was in Melbourne for the "Big Day Out" concert,  so it was just Karyn and I.

We were invited to a friend-of-a-friend's for the day, starting with a BBQ and then continuing on for the rest of the day. There was mention of "games" as well.  We didn't know what to expect.

It turned out to be a fantastic day.  Well, sort of.  The BBQ was great, but while getting ready to go in the morning I kicked the architrave of a door with my little toe and broke it.  So for most of the day I watched my foot swell and go shades of purple.

Anyway, there were probably 50 or so people there, including kids.   And they were the sort of people that you can easily make friends with.  We seemed to have something in common with all of them.

The house where we went adjoined a local park, so the party extended there for most of the day.  There were a wide range of games to play, with formal medal ceremonies at the end of each.  A funny thing was that everybody seemed to end up winning a medal for something.  Karyn won the womens' egg-and-spoon race, while I won a third in the golf pitching competition.  Other games included gum-boot throwing, thong throwing, Crocs throwing, basketball shooting, and 20-a-side tug-of-war.  Oh, and egg-tossing.  Fortunately for me it was my partner that missed the catch.

The only time the pain in my foot got in the way was playing basketball.  I kept forgetting not to stand on my toes, only to be reminded by a sharp stabbing pain.

Matt got into University

We had good news last night.  Matthew found out that he was accepted into the University of Canberra, studying for a Bachelor of Information Technology.

He said "all that hard work finally paid off".

We laughed.

Trouble in paradise

Karyn sent me an SMS and a followup email this afternoon to say that Jessica's broken a bone in her foot.  Apparently she's now in a wheelchair that Karyn has to push around.

I bet it has nothing to do with the cheap alcohol onboard.

I tried calling her, but they must have moved out of range of a mobile tower.   Or maybe it's just that the mobile phone network can't find her.

Holiday time

Matt and I are having a holiday for the next week or so.  Karyn thinks that she's the one having a having a holiday but in reality it's just that we've got rid of her for a while.

We took her to Sydney so that she and Jessica could get on the Pacific Jewel.

As soon as they got onboard, Matt and I headed off to the Watson's Bay pub to wave them goodbye over a glass of ale.

And so we watched them sail into the distance.....  while we planned the upcoming fortnight.

We stayed overnight at Mum's place in Rose Bay while she is over in England.  Here is the night view from her place looking back towards the City.

More photography

I had a chance to do some more photography today.

Firstly, I went back to the Botanic Gardens where I photographed yesterday.  After looking at the photos on the computer last night, I realised that some of the photos showed too much light reflection off the leaves, so today I went back and took some more using a polarizing filter.  Unfortunately, even though the filter was effective, the afternoon sun didn't provide the same "fresh" green as I captured yesterday morning.  Oh well, I learn something each time.

Later on, I drove up to the top of Black Mountain to see what was available for picture-taking.  The Botanic Gardens are at the base of Black Mountain, so this involved driving out of the Gardens, turning right, driving about 100m, then turning onto the road that goes to the top of the mountain.

I didn't want to catch the lift to the observation deck as I expect to do that in a few days time when Fay's friend arrives to visit for a few days.  So I was content to just wander around and snap a few shots.

This was taken from a lookout, overlooking Lake Burley Griffin.  The Captain Cook water jet is to the left of the Commonwealth Avenue bridge.

This is the Telstra Tower at the top of Black Mountain.  The sky looks really blue because I was using a circular polarizing filter.

Here is a close-up of the tower, standing just outside the entrance at its base.

Sammy

My mother-in-law's new puppy has started to settle down and hopefully knows not to chew the carpet anymore.  She's also settled on the name "Sammy" after downloading pages of poodle names off the Internet.

I've always found it difficult to take pictures of black poodles because the pictures always seem to make them look like black blobs with no discernible features.  A flash only make them look worse because of the reflection off their coat.  Here is the best picture that I've taken so far.

I'll try photographing him again over the next few days to see how I can take better photographs.

Today I went to the Botanic Gardens to practice taking photos in dappled light.  I find this the hardest type of lighting, but one that I have to deal with a lot.

We saw Avatar 3D

Tonight Matt and I went to see the new movie "Avatar".

Fabulous.

We saw the 3D version, and after seeing this, I really wouldn't want to see the conventional 2D version of it because the experience would be diminished so much.

Christmas Day

Well, Christmas Day has started off differently from most.

4am:  Matthew was working last night and went out for drinks afterwoods.  He got home around 4am with a drunk mate in tow who needed somewhere to sleep.  So at 4am Matthew is organising a mattress and sleeping bag for him.  I was more concerned about his friend being sick during the night, but everything was ok.  Karyn got them up at 8am because we thought that Joel's parents would be wanting him home for Christmas morning.

9am:  Despite that fact that we are in the middle of a drought and that we've been suffering from 35 degree heat for the past few days, today we wake up to rain and 23 degree temperature.  We had been invited to a friend's house for Christmas dinner that was being held outside with lots of people invited.  Fortunately we had decided to have our lunch here first so we don't have to worry about the rain ruining our plans.

Matthew also left it to 4am to wrap his presents.  As you can see from what he handed me.  And yes, this is before I tried to open it.

Matthew just had enough energy to open his presents.  He then went back to bed.

We got to wear our matching Hawaiian outfits (her suggestion - not mine). Until Karyn spilt some beetroot dip down her dress.

Fay's new puppy that she bought as a Christmas present to herself.  Poor thing.










11:30am:  I've just had to stand in the rain to put the leg of pork in the barbeque.  Fortunately it's got a lid.

12:30pm:  It's harder than normal to get the barbeque to the right temperature.  I think the constant rain falling on the lid is causing it to lose heat.  I've just added a chicken to the barbeque.

1:30pm.  My mother-in-law's dog just chewed a hole in our carpet.

2:00pm.  Lunch.  I can't drink because we have to go to Penny's this afternoon and, as usual, I am the "designated driver".  This year I tried hard to avoid overeating.  I succeeded.  I had some of everything and not too much of anything.  The Christmas pudding was fantastic:  you can never add too much brandy.

4pm.  Off to Penny's.  Fay is having a nanna-nap instead.  Matt is playing World of Warcraft on his new quad-core, twin-screen computer - it would take the end of the world to get him off it.

6pm.  Back from Penny's.  Karyn and Penny were having champagne with raspberry liqueur in it. As the designated driver, I stuck to Pepsi Max.

6:30pm.  Dog has chewed a second hole in carpet.   May have fatal accident in the morning.

7:30pm.  Karyn & Fay were yawning and went to bed.

1:00am.  I went to bed.

3am.  Karyn went downstairs and told Matthew to get off computer and go to bed.

The return of the mother-in-law

Christmas is upon us and so is my mother-in-law.

Unfortunately the office where I work is closed for the coming week.

Matt's Year 12 Formal

The last event of the school calendar was the Year 12 formal.

Matt spent the day helping organise the after-formal party.  Their previous plans had fallen through because the venue they had booked couldn't cope with some of the guests being under the 18 year old drinking age.  Karyn said he got home, had a quick shower, got partially dressed, and raced out the door.

He said the formal was "no big deal", and he was going with a group of his mates.

I turned up, camera on hand, to see him arrive.

Here is Matthew with "his mates".

Her name is Melanie.

A win at Moruya

We went to the races at Moruya (on the NSW South Coast) the other day.  We decided to make it an all-day trip because Moruya is about 2 1/2 hours away.

We had Kevin Sweeney riding him, which was good; we have a lot of faith in him.  We don't have to give him riding instructions because we can leave it to him to find his way between or around the opposition, and he knows better than us how the other jockeys are likely to perform on the day.

Diamond Jay was last for most of the race, and then when they reached the straight, she just powered past the opposition.  It always makes the trip home more enjoyable with a trophy in your hand.

The downside of a win is the amount of time Karyn likes to spend celebrating in the bar afterwards.

Everyone else had left until it was just us, the bartender, and the police wondering why there were still people at the track.

Catherine's Year 12 Formal

The daughter of a friend of ours was having her Year 12 formal, and I offered to come over and take some photos.

I really had ulterior motives.  You see when I did a photography course a few years ago, we did a module on portraits.  Now to do take a portrait, you need a subject.  In my house, both Karyn and Matthew refuse to have their photos taken normally, so getting them to sit for a portrait shot was impossible. I ended up having to use one of our dogs for my portrait photo.

Catherine is extremely photogenic, so she agreed to pose for some shots before going to her Formal.  I took lots so that I will have plenty of material to practice my Photoshop skills in the coming year.  I learnt a lot from the process, including how difficult it can be to get a good picture during a social occasion with people all around, the problems of taking photos in the very late afternoon, the difficulty of finding a nice background, and how you can't trust some photo printing places to accurately print the right colours.

Anyway, it was nice of her to give me the opportunity to practice.