Ah you guessed it. I am currently reading Scott Kelby’s Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 book. This is one amazing book and if you are anywhere halfway keen on good photography and or workflow like I am the technical inputs with save you precious time and headaches galore. Besides, after using Lightroom 1.x for over a year this book went out to say to me I was barely scratching the surface of Lightroom. Its written with practicality in mind and even if you have never used Lightroom version 2 or Lightroom 1.x you will be easily work your way through step by step in no time.
Monthly Archive for September, 2008
Realxing at Berry island. Photo credit: DS
Another beautiful Weekend… the good news more than anything else is that it has indeed started to feel like Spring. Finally! Unfortunately though, I have been down with a bit of hay fever and allergies. I took some medication off the counter to get rid of the hay fever but most non-prescription medications don’t seem to work well! I tried the non-drowsy Sudafed and that got me no where, then I tried antihistamine — Livostin worked only temporarily. By this stage – 3rd day by the way and I was fed up and feeling miserable I decided to go ask for the real Sudafed off the counter after explaining the conditions and an ID check. I mean the one that has Pseudoephedrine Hydrochloride in it, the only good decongestant at the chemists probably. We have had a busy week last week and the weekend was busy as well… of many things we did including catching up with friends at Amo Roma Italian, Sailors Thai, coffee at The Rock’s Cafe, Wall-e, T2 some home cooking and some yummy Ravani that D had baked… and to a lovely little picnic with the family down at Berry Island.
While this is the famous Lacemakers town in Belgium and often called the Venice of the North — Brugge is where we were very much planning to visit while in Paris earlier this year. But alas if only there was enough time… Apart from being all that Brugge, or In Brugges is also a recent film written and directed by Martin McDonagh starring: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson and Ralph Fiennes as the 3 main characters. Its a story of the likes of hit men and their daily tribulations when chores go wrong in a perfectly imperfect world. And when the jury is out on a job not done well, there is just one reply — one must mitigate and silence the past at any cost. There is no telling how ones life is going to end if they live by the gun… and In Bruges portrays that transient state of constant shuffle and disturbia and unsettled behaviour extremely well. The film keeps you on the edge of your seat constantly, with some emotions, limited humour, nihilism, a strong sense of amorality and plenty cocaine-talk. Fairly engaging but at times a bit dialogue heavy and with an overtone of xenophobia, In Bruges is one such journey where you get to see the very gritty side of life hit men often have but are not nearly exposed this openly.
The film bokeh in the movie scenes are to die for, especially those around the Gothic Bell tower. The cinematography is great and very real but its not without its share of follies too. Among the great scenes my picks are:
I have been wanting to do Sydney skylines from around the top of Mosman wharf for a while but up until yesterday it was only a wish. Having tried a few the result are far from perfect or even close to what I want the outcome to look like but here is a start at least.
We went down to the big smoke this morning. Since we didn’t have any particular plans for the morning, we strolled around and walked into the Queen Victoria Building and had lunch (more on that at D’s soon). Its not often I take my camera along with me these days but if you do have a camera in hand and happen to walk in QVB don’t they all look at you like a tourist? 
Funny that!
Continue reading ‘That beautiful old Queen Victoria Building’
Edited: The name of the thai place is Sumalee Thai in Bank Hotel Newtown. Thanks D.
As you would have figured Be like Others *was* depressing. Luckily D took me to a lovely Thai on King Street. Having a senior moment… the name escapes me. (will update tomorrow) I hadn’t been to this one before. The entrance is right from King Street and you go through the pub area down 2 flights of stairs it comes out into a whole different semi-outdoorsy feel sitting area with gas-heated lamps… Nice. Ages back as I was told by D one side of the building was oopen to the tracks where you could see the trains go past… Even though we were seated right in the heart of Newtown there was no noise, almost expcept for the ambient chitter-chatter. We had the traditional Green Curry. I *love* a hot and spicy Thai green curry I do! And also the traditional massaman. The food was really nice but we had to pay separately for extra rice — odd! And yes we didn’t get water. Not the best service but not bad enough to turn up our noses. Not yet anyway. We could have sat there for another hour and cogitated! but we had a show to catch.
Continue reading ‘Newtown Thai, Colbie Caillat and Nouvelle Scene Paris’
We were lucky to be in Vanuatu last month which collided with their last day of their political campaigning when parties take to the street to ask people to vote for them. Its mostly peaceful and fun and also a great experience. We were right in the thick of it having come out of the supermarket on the street where the motorcade passed us by shouting slogans and asking us to vote too. We’d love to except we’re flying back to Sydney the following day!
