Karyn's Birthday crystal

The hard thing about being talented is that people are always wanting you to prove it.  Like Karyn did today. 

You see it was her birthday yesterday, and I got her a piece of Swarovski crystal as a present. An elephant. Don't ask me why someone would collect crystal; after all there's not much you can do with it.  You can't drill holes with it or load games on it.

Anyway, she's been nagging me to put a light in her display cabinet to show off the crystal.  So today I did it.  I firstly tried LED lighting, but it wasn't bright enough.  I had seen some nice lighting in the display cases at the Swarovski shop, but I couldn't get anything close from the lighting shops.  We finally decided on a flat compact fluorescent light that would illuminate not only the crystal figures at the top, but the rest of the glassware as well.

The installation was tricky as well because the Parker furniture is very solid and the internals fit pretty tightly, and with all the glass and mirror around, you have to be careful not to shatter it with a misplaced drill bit.  In the end I was able to find a 5mm space that I could drill a hole through to get the power in.

I also took the opportunity to try and photograph some of her Swarovski pieces in the cabinet.  It was a lot harder than I thought and in hindsight I would have been better taking them outside the cabinet rather then through the glass doors.  It's just that the crystal looks much better when directly illuminated.

I really needed a macro lens for this, because I had depth of field problems with these.

I also found it hard to isolate one image from all the light reflections around it.  Maybe it would be better isolating each one on a dark background.   Maybe I'll try it again on some future rainy day.

Heaven knows what Karyn will do next.  Probably use the new cabinet lighting as an excuse to buy some more crystal.

A great weekend in Sydney

Karyn and I went up to Sydney this weekend.

There were a couple of reasons for the trip. Firstly, we wanted to give our old TV to Jessica because her son has moved out and taken the TV with him; and secondly so that I could go to Mark & Cherie's place and set up a wireless range extender so that James could use his laptop from his bedroom.

It was a great weekend.  The weather was perfect and from Mum's balcony you could see clearly across Rose Bay to Potts Point and the city centre beyond.

On Sunday, before we went out to brunch, the local sailing club was in full action, and it reminded me of when I used to sail out there in Rose Bay myself in a boat not much bigger than these.

Here you can see some beginners being towed out to the starting line.

The moves that the government have made over the past few years to reduce pollution in the harbour seems to be paying off - the water seems crystal-clear, with a lovely colour.  The sailors don't know how good they've got it - when I sailed out there we had to watch out for huge Sunderland flying boats landing or taking off and heading out to Lord Howe Island.  These guys were so powerful that if they turned and caught you unawares, the backwash from their engines would capsize you in a flash.

Fiji Holiday - Overview

Matt and I spent 10 days in Fiji this winter.  It was great.  In Canberra, the daily temperature ranged from about 1 to 10 degrees - while in Fiji the temperature ranged from about 21 to 29.

We spent part of our time at the Sheraton Resort and part on a Blue Lagoon cruise.

I must say, however, that the cruise was the highlight of our trip.

We cruised around some of the 300 Fijian islands, stopping off at a few of them.

While the resort was very nice, its beach was no substitute for the crystal-clear waters surrounding the islands, teeming with fish, and bordered by colourful corals.

There wasn't a log of shopping, because we were in a very tourist part of Fiji, so most of the shops nearby were devoted to souveniers.  However, Denarau Marina was within walking distance, so we did our shopping there.

2 Chances, but no success

We went to the races today.  It's never happened before, but both of our horses were running at the same race meeting.

The races were scheduled for Queanbeyan, but because of heavy rain during the week the track was too wet.  So they switched the races to the synthetic track at Canberra.  From the photo below you can see the synthetic track inside the grass track.

Diamond Jay ran first in race two.  This was her first run after a spell, so we weren't expecting much other than to be competitive.  She did keep up with the leaders, but got trapped against the rails and couldn't get a clear run in the final straight.  In the photo below she is at the back of the pack (in pink and blue check colours) and a bit obscured.  It looks worse because the horse in front slowed right down at the end and she had no option but to slow down as well. The jockey said she had lots more energy in her, but nowhere to go.  Maybe next time.

Hot Eyed Glare ran in the last race and was a disappointment.  But consistent with previous form.  We had a jockey who's ridden for us for many years and he said that he just didn't want to run and probably never would.  So we'll have to get rid of him and find a replacement.   Coming down the final straight he just slowed down and everyone passed him.  We've tried various distances and track conditions, but nothing has made a difference.  In the photo below he is in the pink and blue checked colours second from last.

On the betting front, I came out $1 ahead on the day.  Big punter that I am.

Winter + night photography

This weekend I decided to practice some night photography.

Firstly, I drove up to the Mt Ainslie lookout that has a great view over Canberra.  As you can see from the photo below, the planners of Canberra worried a lot about symmetry. The picture shows the War Memorial in the foreground, with Anzac Parade heading down to the lake.  On the other side of the lake is Old Parliament House, with New Parliament House behind it.

One thing that I learnt is that I need to take a small torch on expeditions like this.  It's hard to set up a tripod correctly when:

• there's no moon
• it's so cold you can't feel your fingers

 Here is a picture showing the city centre (which locals call "Civic").

I then headed off to New Parliament House to take a few pictures.

I found it difficult to capture a good image of the giant flagpole.  Because the forecourt is so well lit with floodlights, it tends to hide in the darkness.  I probably need to come at dusk.   I picked this time of night so there wouldn't be anyone else around.

I was just setting up my tripod in front of the building when a policeman hurried out.  He told me that I couldn't set up my tripod in front of the building because there is an aboriginal mosaic in the paving stones and the aborigines don't like people putting tripods on it.  It's ok to walk on it, spit, and probably urinate on it, but apparently not stand tripods on it.  If that is the case, I reckon they should dig it up and put something else there, I mean, let's face it, its just some decoration added to the paving stones. I bet that one day some polically-correct committee will put a fence around it and declare it a sacred site.

Some Winter photography

Most days when I drive to work I see a very picturesque scene off to one side.  It's a view across the lake to some trees on another bank, with a rippling blanket of fog as the sun heats up the surface of the water.

So this weekend I decided to try and capture it with my camera. Epic fail.


I got there early to be sure to catch it, but I arrived to see total fog.  This was the place I had selected.

I decided to wait until it cleared.  It took 2 hours, so I just walked around a waited.  And took pictures.

This is where the really nice scene should have been. But alas, no nice carpet of mist over the water.  I did see a giant water rat, though.

 Maybe another weekend.

There were lots of budgies around, but I couldn't get one to pose. The little buggers fly away as soon as you approach. I had to take this on maximum zoom.

Winter has set in

Nothing much is happening at the moment.

Winter has arrived with a vengeance.  Yesterday it reached about 6 degrees duing the day.  Today is a bit better, and at least the sun is shining.  Despite the sunshine, the garden is looking a bit bleak.  We've just had some of our trees cut back because they were reaching the powelines so things look even worse.  Because we've had it done before we know they'll recover OK.  The two photos below show how much we had the trees lopped and how boring the back yard looks.  Even the pool looks a bit murky.

I took these photos with my new phone that I got last week.  My phone plan finished months ago, but I've been holding off to see what the new iPhone was like.  Instead, I decided on an HTC Legend phone running Android.

The phone is really great, but it takes a while to set it up in the way that you want it.  I've been using a Palm Pilot for many years and I hope to be able to set the phone up as a replacement. However, from what I can see at the moment, no phone will be able to fully replace the great features of the Palm Pilot.  But then the Palm Pilot wasn't a phone either.   So I hope to get close, at least.  One of the good things is that we are now all on Vodafone, so all calls between us are totally free.  I got a message from Vodafone during the week that they've now merged with 3, so all calls to and from Mum are also free.

Matt is on holidays from University.  I don't know if I mentioned it before, but he got a Distinction and a High Distinction for his two subjects.  We are very pleased and hope that he keeps it up.  He even remarked that maybe his high school (Radford College) wasn't so bad after all.

In order to earn some money, and to stop himself from being bored, he's taken a job as a casual labourer.  His current job involves relocating furniture at one of the universities.  He seems to be enjoying it because it is such a change from his usual part time job of waiter.  He says it good not having to be polite to customers.  Because it's Saturday he's getting $30/hour, so we reckon that he's late home today to get extra money.

Oh, yes.  The tickets for our holiday to Fiji arrived during the week.  I'm really looking forward to it.  I can really use a holiday after the past 12 months...

Hmm .... despite what I thought when I started this blog post, there have been things happing after all.