Recently in My Life as a Blog Category

Currently tuned into the United States of Tara.

Well tonight I had my first ever Gin and Tonic.. made it myself at home. A few years ago a friend gave me a bottle of gin in response to a favour I did for them - infact i cant even remember which friend it was or what favour it was. But i still have the bottle of Gin - the gin outlived my memories of the reason for getting it.

Anyway.. so tonight I 'cracked' the bottle and made myself a gin and tonic. Hmmm.. I wouldnt say that Im a fan.. infact I reckon that Im going to still have this bottle of Gin for years to come. I guess its an aquired taste.

When my brother in law temporarily migrated to Japan, one of the things he left me to play around with is his telescope. And I have to say its really quite amazing the detail you can - particularly on the moon. I have been simply blown away. I can see Astronomy becoming and addictive (and expensive) hobby. As soon as I saw the moon close up I knew I just had to photograph it. After all the telescope is a 900mm lens just asking to be connected to my camera!

Yesterday morning there wasnt a cloud in the sky so I went out and got a camera adapter for it (which wasnt too expensive) - of course as soon as the sun started to go down a storm front came through Sydney and destroyed any hope that I had of using it last night!! Grrr! Here is hoping for clear skies tonight though..

For no particular reason - whats currently on my ipod/iphone..

Cassette Kids
Cut Copy
Deacon Blue
Duran duran (of course)
Empire of the Sun
Keane
the Killers
Kooks
LadyHawke
Machines of Living Grace
Nick Wood 7 Simon Le Bon
The Presets
Sharleen Spiteri
TV on the Radio
Van She

Its pretty obvious from my most recent posts that much of my inspiration is coming via my camera. I dont have a heap of hobbies - just a few of them - and I usually spend my time jumping from one to the other. Sometimes leaving one for a couple of months and then going back to it later. Well its Photography time at the moment. I guess the birth of a few child in the family gives you the inspiration to drag out the camera - which is good because its inspired me to pick up this hobby again (leaving music and my PC behind for the time being).

Ifs often good to look at other photographers work - to give you ideas and to challenge you to take better photographs. Today I stumbled across this website Stuck in Customs. This site has some of the best photographs I have come across! Simply Stunning. Most of them are HDR - something which I havent really got into yet - and its inspired me to give it a try. So look out for some HDR images from me shortly.

So I have a flickr page. Why not hey.

My Neice sent me the following information about an apparent syndrome called "Gjessing Syndrome". Reference is made to it in "Campbell's Psychiatric Dictionary". Great! Thanks!

Here is an extract...

Here are some pictures that I have taken over recent weeks - but havent had the time until now to edit and upload them.

Im not a huge fan of Tennis or any sport for that matter, but I like to watch the big games, and i have to tell you, the current men's finals of the Australia Open is thrilling - its got me on the edge of my seat!

So I went into the city today to buy Annabelle a push present today and as I was walking past a book store this book was screaming out to me. I have no idea how I even noticed it - it wasnt as if I stopped to look in the bookstore window. Infact I walked straight past the book store and then something made me turn around and walk back to the window. And in the window was this book. It was very uncanny.

Its the story of "Willow - the fairy of bravery". I just had to purchase it.

We are at the hospital. It's 5.47am on January 20th 2009. We are about to have a baby.

It's estimated that by 2020, native English speakers will make up only 15% of the estimated 2 billion people who will be using or learning the language.

Watched "Burn After Reading" last night. I didn't realise it was a comedy - the title and the cast suggested it was going to be a drama. I knew it was a spy/espionage movie but didn't fully know what to expect. It was excellent - extremely funny and comes highly recommended.

When I sleep I sleep on my side with my top arm hanging behind me on my back so to speak. It's an odd position to have my arm in bit I find it quite comfortable. Annabelle says that I am strange.

The interesting thing is that Romilly likes to sleep in the same way. It's a very unconventional way to lay with your arm so I am quite intrigued as to why she sleeps like this. Is it because of me? Is it just a coincidence? Surely not as she lays like this regularly. Has she observed me sleeping like this? It's possible but I don't think so. Is it in our genes? May be. I mean surely we would like similar things like foods etc so why isn't it possible we would find the same positions comfortable. We share similar genes afterall.

Bokeh (derived from Japanese, a noun boke 暈け, meaning "blurred or fuzzy") is a photographic term referring to the appearance of out-of-focus areas in an image produced by a camera lens using a shallow depth of field.[1] Different lens bokeh produces different aesthetic qualities in out-of-focus backgrounds, which are often used to reduce distractions and emphasize the primary subject.

Example

Copyright Wikipedia.

As part of our 'nesting' moment, we are doing a major clean up at home. Culling books, Videos, PC parts and general house hold goods that we simply do not want anymore. So I organised with the council for them to come and collect all of our 'trash' (some of it we are taking to charity shops), and yesterday I put some 'trash' out on the sidewalk in preparation for it to be collected tonight.

Within a matter of a few hours most of it was gone though! Infact all of it was gone except for some off cuts of wood. It just shows you that one man's trash is another man's treasure.

I am nesting. Isnt that bizarre? Isnt that whole nesting thing hormonal? I dont have those hormones going around in my body. Why am I nesting? I am on a major clean up. I want to throw everything out - its incredible. Infact in the last few days I have completely overhauled my socks and undies. Yep! I knew you wanted to know about that. But rest assured - that whoever you may be - next time you see me; you will know that I have new socks and undies on and those some dodgy pair that I purchased in 1991!

The trifle has been made, the chicken & pork has been cooked, the ham is sliced, I've made my list and checked it twice. I'm ready.

I'm currently grooving out to Ms Kelly Rowland's "Work". Yeah I know it's not completely new but it still is a great tune and makes me wanna jive.

We are just the monkeys that fell out of the tree trying to fly.

You may not be aware - I cant recall if I have mentioned this elsewhere - but Romilly will soon be a proud older sister - its all expected to happen on the 15th January 2009. My bet is that it will probably occur about a week earlier then that though. Im thinking the 7th or 8th - dont ask me why, I dont really know. Its just a feeling.

Go the sleepless nights (again)..

I have rebuilt shallow.end. So it looks a little bit different - thats kinda obvious - and there will probably be small updates overtime (as I only generally have free time in small bursts).

But the main reason for this post is to say that I have re-enabled the commenting system. I had disabled it due to a heap of spam. But I have also installed some Spam filtering so that should hopefully fix that up. You should also be able to use your accounts from OpenID or Blogger or Wordpress etc to comment.

So it appears that I share my birthday with the mouse. Yep that humble pointing device attached to your PC. We both turned 40 on Wednesday.

It doesn't matter how many times I look in my bag for an umberella - I know I'm about to get wet

So I get to work yesterday and I patch into a phone hookup. As I enter the hookup some people are already on the line talking.. and I hear one person say "What about the result last night?" I immediately jump in and say "yeah! Fantastic wasnt it. First Black President of the USA". I then hear the same voice come back at me; "I was talking about the soccer.."

Enough said really.

Very soon America should have it's first black President. How do I know that? Well I don't actually but I am hopeful. And why am I hopeful or why do I even care? Afterall I live in Sydney Australia far removed from the affairs of the great US of A and their associated politics. Yeah right! If any one outside of the USA thinks they are untouched by their poltical affairs and policies then you only need reference Iraq and Wall Street.

So we have finally gone on a proper family holiday - it's the first one since Romilly was born - that's almost two years ago! So its been a long time coming. Its been planned to coincide with my cousin Matt and Karen's wedding. So we are headed up north to Byron Bay and then the Gold Coast and Tweed.

Day one, was a quick four hours drive from Sydney to Port Macquarie, helped along the way by a Navman courtesy of Annabelle's grandfather. We spent the night in "Port" before continuing the drive up to Byron Bay the following day.

In Byron Bay we are staying in a five star resort called the Byron at Byron which is extremely nice! Whilst the room we are staying in is a little on the small side, it has all of the mod cons and the actual resort is very nice.

So what are the highlights (and lowlights) so far.. we have been a little bit disappointed with Byron Bay itself, give me Port Douglas any time. And in terms of the beach we actually prefer Lennox Head. Whilst at Lennox Head Romilly loved spending time on the beach - running in and out of the water and chasing one unfortunate seagull on the beach. Infact I haven't seen Romilly run so much and have so much fun ever! She loved every minute of it. I can see the time on the beach is going to be a regular thing for us and Romilly - I don't know what she loves more the beach or the park!

We also have a spa bath in our room and on the first night I thought I would relax in it for half an hour or so.. Romilly quite likes her baths so she was intrigued that I was in this huge deep bath. Anyway, I turned the spa on with Romilly looking on, but I hadn't put enough water in the bath and a jet of water from one of the spas squirted up and got poor Romilly in the face - much to her distress but our enjoyment of course. Yes I know we are awful evil parents.

Romilly has also managed to not only count to ten all by herself on this trip but she has also been able to recite half of the alphabet (A to J). Not to mention all of the new words which she seems to come out with daily - including calling her mum "sweetie" and "Annabelle".

Yesterday I had my first ever encounter with a day spa - yes its all very metro-sexual I know isn't it. So I had a remedial massage (full body except for the bits which you wouldn't expect to be massaged by a professional, well not this type of professional anyway). And I have to tell you it was good.. I always thought that that sort of thing was just a waste of money, and which I do think it is a lot of money, heck we are on holiday and it was worth every cent.

Today we went for a drive to Nimbin. Wow. Within 5 minutes of being there I was offered drugs and within 15 minutes of that I was offered drugs again. And I guess that that sums Nimbin up. Its very alternative. And I have to tell you I really liked the village and the vibe. I have never come across such a happy and friendly place before. Everyone is so friendly.. but I guess if you spend most of your time on weed then you probably would walk around being happy. Eitherway, its only a small spot on the map but well worth a visit is you ask me.

Ok I admit it. Im addicted to Sex and the City - you know, as in the Television show. Why? I dont know.. I had managed to never watch a single episode until about 4 weeks ago. Now I'm totally addicted - what gives? Yes I know the show has come to an end, but Im watching re-runs on cable - and loving it.

Yes it must appeal to the feminine side of me. Actually I was kinda shocked at how rude it is.. I didnt expect it to be so, not that that bothers me, I just didnt expect it. And I now also have a new appreciation of Sarah Jessica Parker. I never really used to liked her. But Charlotte steals the show really doesnt she.