Diversionary Daily

Distractions

So, yeah.

It’s been a while.

I’ve been lazy with the camera and not taking many photos this year, but I dragged the camera out for some climbing last weekend at Palm Beach and also this week at the letterpress short course I'm taking with Eric, Tim and Carla.

There’s also a roll of film from my Lomo Fisheye sitting at the local shop waiting to be developed.. I’m hoping they turn out.

Posted on Saturday, September 20, 2008 | 3 Comments

Meanwhile

I should at this point throw a link in to Mot and Ness' travel blog, One year. No work. All play.

Not content with the three or so months we spent meandering around Europe on the Hilarity100 almost two years ago, the two of them are now heading off to cycle around the Med for the rest of 2008.

Life really is tough.

Posted on Friday, May 16, 2008 | 2 Comments

The view’s not bad

The view from our climb in Blackheath... not altogether bad. Judging by the shapes of the dams, I’m guessing we were somewhere around about here on a map.

It’s strange seeing farmland out there — most of the mountains are national park and look more like the view near the famous tourist lookout at the Three Sisters, just a few minutes drive away from where we were climbing.

It’s worth the trek out to the mountains for the space and clear air. It feels like a world away from inner-city Sydney where I spend most of my time, and it’s good to be reminded that under all the concrete, bitumen and brick we’re actually standing on a giant bit of rock.

Posted on Tuesday, May 6, 2008 | 0 Comments

Excuses

Speaking of climbing, that’s Matti, the guy who first dragged a few of us from work climbing. The current climbing addiction is mostly his fault.

I should also mention that aside from the fact updates have been sketchy at best lately, they’ve been even worse than usual while we’ve been living without net access at home for the last month or so.

We made do by jumping on a neighbour’s open wireless connection, but it’s unbelievably slow (by my reckoning, borrowing someone else’s wireless is just balancing the karma for the free open wireless that we’ve got running from our place).

The good news is that our connection’s back, so at least I have the opportunity to post more. Whether I actually do update or not we’ll see (I’ve also got to try to take more photos so I’ve got something to post).

Posted on Monday, May 5, 2008 | 0 Comments

Sydney distractions

I’ve managed to keep myself occupied with a few different things since landing in Sydney (which was almost a year ago now).

Lately it’s been rock climbing that’s been keeping me distracted and away from the keyboard outside of work hours. Along with a gang of mates from work I’ve been climbing indoors a couple of times a week, and now I’m taking my first scary, scary steps into the world of outdoor climbing.

I’m not sure how much longer the weather’s going to hold for climbing day trips out to the Blue Mountains. There are a few photos from last weekend’s trip to Blackheath, the climbing mecca of the Blue Mountains, including one of my first lead climb (apparently I did okay).

Posted on Sunday, May 4, 2008 | 0 Comments

Behind Kings Cross

One street back from the lights of Kings Cross, it's all either rundown old buildings or ultra-modern apartments.

In this case it's very much the former.

Posted on Sunday, March 30, 2008 | 1 Comments

Plenty on

I've been my usual slack self with the camera lately, so here's one from a while back. Actually, it's from just near the crazy graffiti in Newtown from last October.

I did manage to take a few shots while camping near Jervis Bay over the weekend, while I'll get around to posting at some point soon.

Posted on Wednesday, March 26, 2008 | 0 Comments

Down by Bronte

One from the archives, when a gang of us were heading down to Bronte beach for Sculpture by the Sea last November.

Posted on Sunday, February 17, 2008 | 0 Comments

It’s Party Season

I'm slowly getting back into the swing of taking photos after a bit of a break the last couple of months.

The fresh start is also a good excuse to start from scratch and really mess with manual settings, something I stopped using while I was traveling last year and wanting to worry more about framing and timing than getting exposures and apertures spot on.

I'm also counting down the days until I wing my way back to Perth for Christmas and a chance to catch up with family and friends I haven't seen in a long, long time.

Posted on Sunday, December 9, 2007 | 3 Comments

More scooter

One more photo from the scooter garage in Newtown, then I’ll move on to another random photo subject.

Posted on Tuesday, October 9, 2007 | 1 Comments

Scooter People

It’s been a good ten months or so now since I last drove a car (from memory it was driving from Brugge to Calais in December).

In Sydney I don't particularly miss the car — I live close enough to walk to work, and generally try to walk or make the most of Sydney's feeble public transport system — but I think I might end up getting a scooter at some point. I’ve had friends recommend them and I can't be bothered with a car in the city, so it’s a tempting option. I found this one outside a scooter garage in Newtown last weekend and took a bunch of photos.

I think part of my problem is that if I bought a scooter I’d have to get a beautiful retro Vespa (and ride around saying ‘Ciao!’).

Anybody else here a scooter person? Any tips?

Posted on Wednesday, October 3, 2007 | 11 Comments

Meanwhile

If you need me, I’ll be sitting soaking up the sun in a park somewhere with my iPod, a good book and a coffee.

Posted on Saturday, August 4, 2007 | 0 Comments

Winter sun

I’m posting this photo (taken in last Saturday’s glorious sunshine) because just looking at this makes me feel warm.

That said, we’ve hit some sort of mid-winter warm spell with plenty of sun and days creeping into the low twenties, making the short walk to work in the morning much less of a frostbitten experience.

Posted on Wednesday, August 1, 2007 | 2 Comments

A word about the view

Pyrmont, the area of Sydney where I live and work, was once home to a series of quarries spreading right across the suburb and into neighbouring Ultimo. The three quarries were named Paradise, Purgatory and Hellhole, apparently by Scottish workmen. If I remember rightly, that's a giant block of Paradise sandstone in this shot, lit dramatically by the dying afternoon sun.

The entertaining part of all this means that my lounge officially has views to Paradise.

Well, at least one of the walls of what remains of Paradise quarry.

Posted on Tuesday, July 31, 2007 | 0 Comments

I may disappear for two weeks

Kicking off this Saturday is the 2007 Sydney Design Festival, with plenty of exhibitions, talks and walks around the city.

I’m going to have to check out some of the architecture walks, and given my well documented recent photographic fixation, that list will have to include the Jørn Utzon walk.

Posted on Monday, July 30, 2007 | 0 Comments

Icon tiles

As much as I knew the Sydney Opera House’s famous roof was covered in white tiles, just how this actually worked in reality didn’t really hit me until I was here in Sydney and had a chance to get right up close to the thing.

The sails (I think they’re officially called shells) are actually covered in over a million ceramic tiles arranged in patterns of gloss white and matte cream — you can see the difference in this shot.

The way light plays on the iconic curved roof is I think the most captivating part of the building — the colour, reflections and shadows from the other peaks and the bridge as the sun sets — are always changing and I’ve resigned myself to the fact that photos will never really capture it.

That doesn’t mean I’ll stop taking photos though. I just know they won’t really do it justice.

Posted on Saturday, July 28, 2007 | 0 Comments

In someone else’s wing mirror

The northern side of the Sydney Harbour Bridge caught in a Vespa’ wing mirror, outside the North Sydney swimming pool. I’m not sure there are many other pools with quite such an arresting view.

I’ll have to head back and go inside on a warmer day.

Posted on Thursday, July 26, 2007 | 0 Comments

Oh yes, there was hot chocolate

I’m back from the Aroma Festival at The Rocks, buzzing quietly after — and this is only a guess, I lost count somewhere around 2.30pm — three coffees and four hot chocolates.

I sampled every European-style thick hot chocolate on offer, I think prize for thickest goes to the website-less Gourmet Beverage Company's hot chocolate (pictured). Granted it’s a sissy purple plastic spoon, but it stood standing unassisted for at least thirty seconds while it was photographed from every angle.

That’s worryingly thick.

I’m a simple man so I stuck with the original chocolate version, steering clear of flavours ranging from chilli pepper (chilli and chocolate being a match made in heaven, as evidenced by the sadly discontinued Dangerous Liaisons Tim Tams) to the slightly disturbing sounding Yellow-flesh peach and chocolate.

On an unrelated note, my vote for best coffee was hands-down Toby’s Estate. That’s a tasty, tasty coffee.

Posted on Sunday, July 22, 2007 | 2 Comments

And so it goes

I think I’ve found a solution to my internet woes. More on that soon.

In the meantime, I’m heading down to the Aroma Festival in The Rocks tomorrow, and aside from tasting a lot of coffee, I plan on reporting back with any hot chocolate based findings.

Posted on Saturday, July 21, 2007 | 0 Comments

One other thing

One pitfall of my current net-less situation at home is that I'm way, way, way behind with all the blogs and news sites I read.

I'm currently denying the situation and trying to slowly work through the items in my feed reader rather than click 'mark all as read' and reach some kind of self-induced informational zen.

I'll let you know if I cave.

Posted on Monday, July 16, 2007 | 0 Comments