Congrats to the kids in Sydney Tsunami who came in 3rd in the Minor Final at the recent NSW State Dragonboat Championships!
ps: Oi, Wendy - camera's over here!
Mar 29, 2009
Hail Tsunami!
Congrats to the kids in Sydney Tsunami who came in 3rd in the Minor Final at the recent NSW State Dragonboat Championships!
ps: Oi, Wendy - camera's over here!
Mar 25, 2009
Seville
Back from Seville, gloriously happy with a perfect trip, stuffed to the gills with fried food and beer, and vaguely glowing with the beginnings of a tan...Does life get any better?
I'm also putting up, well, let's just say the usual amount of photos/videos on flickr. Hopefully I'll get that done by the end of the week.
I'm also putting up, well, let's just say the usual amount of photos/videos on flickr. Hopefully I'll get that done by the end of the week.
Mar 21, 2009
Happy birthday, mum!
Look, I'm not going to tell you how old she is, no matter what you offer me.
What's that? A lamborghini AND dinner with Daniel Craig (my mancrush)?
Well! In that case she's 21. No? 25? Okay - you got me - she's 26. There! Happy now?
Alright, alright. Enough silliness.
Happy birthday, mum!
Mar 20, 2009
I have really talented friends. Part 1
Lucy Taylor, take a bow
(ps: This was from March. It took me this long to remember to publish it. Can you imagine? Me - tardy! I know!)
Mar 12, 2009
Thoughts on Winter
As the temperature guage flies around like a crazy person (yesterday was cold, rainy and windy in the morning but then perfectly sunny in the afternoon - a trend that today has followed), I thought it'd be good to share some thoughts on Winter that highlight the emphasis people (me DEFINITELY included) give the weather here:
"When the thermometer bottoms out, I remember, again, that winter isn't a season, it's a place. Just over the hill is the 19th century, and somewhere beyond the river lies the 18th. Why winter should seem so much more continuous with the past than summer does is never clear to me. But this morning it's 3 degrees, and I can hear Melville, a few miles north of where I am, writing to his sister: "The weather here has been as cold as ever. Other than the weather I know not what to write about from Pittsfield.""
Courtesy of Verlyn Klinkenborg for the IHT. The full article is here.
"When the thermometer bottoms out, I remember, again, that winter isn't a season, it's a place. Just over the hill is the 19th century, and somewhere beyond the river lies the 18th. Why winter should seem so much more continuous with the past than summer does is never clear to me. But this morning it's 3 degrees, and I can hear Melville, a few miles north of where I am, writing to his sister: "The weather here has been as cold as ever. Other than the weather I know not what to write about from Pittsfield.""
Courtesy of Verlyn Klinkenborg for the IHT. The full article is here.
Mar 9, 2009
Mesmerising
"powerlineflyers" by Wes Johnson
You really must see this. At around 1.20 my jaw dropped.
His comments are interesting, too.
In response to:
"Great long shot - loved how you resisted temptation to move camera and let the birds do their thing..."
He said:
"That's a bit of a funny story, actually. Fate made me keep it static. I didn't have my tripod with, if you can believe, and I had to rig one from a light stand, a super clamp and a grip head. That it even worked is nothing short of a miracle--I had to block the wind from passing (and honking, of course) cars, because the stand was so unstable. To look at me making this film must have been a sight."
Now THAT'S the kind of photography I love - random, challenging and utterly beautiful.
Language
I'm sitting in the middle of an education fair (by Studyrama, if anyone's interested), representing the MBA Center by giving 12 seminars across two days on three topics: How to choose well an MBA; What language tests & levels are required by foreign MBAs; and How to make the most of your application.
But it's interesting at the moment as my little “room” (four walls, no roof) is next door to a much larger but similarly-structured conference room where, right now, there's an Italian man speaking in French, getting a little more animated than, perhaps, the French audience was expecting. I can just imagine them sitting there, stunned and probably a getting little concerned as he gesticulates, as Italians do, getting into his speech, speaking more and more quickly and at higher and higher pitch and volume levels. It's not that he's crazy – well, probably not anyway. It's just the way Italians speak – with a little more animation and passion than the French.
In that way, for me at least, the French usage of their language can be really boring and frustrating. There are very few stops for any reason in a sentence – you either breathe quickly or you make a sound like “ahhhh” or “uhhh” to ensure the other person either remains interested or at least doesn't get a look in - but the tone remains at relatively the same level, without the excitement given by the Italians. Additionally, if you're not a native speaker and if you don't catch the start of the text you're stuck for a while, swimming against the verbal tide.
It's made me think about how I'm going with learning and using French, and how it's interpreted by native speakers. The short answers are: I'm not, well enough for daily life, and probably with a mix of amusement and condescension.
I stopped taking French classes a long time ago. I couldn't afford it and couldn't ask B to continue paying for them for me, and I started working and found that to be an excellent excuse for not going to class. Also, I thought I'd learned enough of the fundamentals to allow my development to continue on its own.
Unfortunately, that development seems to be sideways and not upwards. I'm learning more vocabulary (slowly) and more ways of saying the same things, but I'm not utilising the full range of tenses nor engaging in more in-depth conversations.
And as far as my interaction with native speakers goes – I get by. It's not always easy and I still have times when I don't understand or am not understood but, generally speaking, I can express myself sufficiently to get what I want.
Sometimes, though, judging by people's faces usually, I get the feeling my attempts at French are confusing, to say the least. Other times, people have a vaguely amused look on their face, like “Oh, you think you speak French? C'est trop mignon! (That's so cute!)”
Occasionally, though, I get out-and-out confirmation that I still have a long way to go. Yesterday, someone standing beside me in another but sort-of-related conversation told me I spoke French reasonably well. A nice thing to say, I thought. But they were immediately sharply contradicted by the French person I was talking to who said, “No. You don't”. Thanks for the support, pal!
So, overall, things are going better. I don't feel weird trying to talk in French and I'm still learning, albeit at a slower pace. If only the French weren't so honest...
But it's interesting at the moment as my little “room” (four walls, no roof) is next door to a much larger but similarly-structured conference room where, right now, there's an Italian man speaking in French, getting a little more animated than, perhaps, the French audience was expecting. I can just imagine them sitting there, stunned and probably a getting little concerned as he gesticulates, as Italians do, getting into his speech, speaking more and more quickly and at higher and higher pitch and volume levels. It's not that he's crazy – well, probably not anyway. It's just the way Italians speak – with a little more animation and passion than the French.
In that way, for me at least, the French usage of their language can be really boring and frustrating. There are very few stops for any reason in a sentence – you either breathe quickly or you make a sound like “ahhhh” or “uhhh” to ensure the other person either remains interested or at least doesn't get a look in - but the tone remains at relatively the same level, without the excitement given by the Italians. Additionally, if you're not a native speaker and if you don't catch the start of the text you're stuck for a while, swimming against the verbal tide.
It's made me think about how I'm going with learning and using French, and how it's interpreted by native speakers. The short answers are: I'm not, well enough for daily life, and probably with a mix of amusement and condescension.
I stopped taking French classes a long time ago. I couldn't afford it and couldn't ask B to continue paying for them for me, and I started working and found that to be an excellent excuse for not going to class. Also, I thought I'd learned enough of the fundamentals to allow my development to continue on its own.
Unfortunately, that development seems to be sideways and not upwards. I'm learning more vocabulary (slowly) and more ways of saying the same things, but I'm not utilising the full range of tenses nor engaging in more in-depth conversations.
And as far as my interaction with native speakers goes – I get by. It's not always easy and I still have times when I don't understand or am not understood but, generally speaking, I can express myself sufficiently to get what I want.
Sometimes, though, judging by people's faces usually, I get the feeling my attempts at French are confusing, to say the least. Other times, people have a vaguely amused look on their face, like “Oh, you think you speak French? C'est trop mignon! (That's so cute!)”
Occasionally, though, I get out-and-out confirmation that I still have a long way to go. Yesterday, someone standing beside me in another but sort-of-related conversation told me I spoke French reasonably well. A nice thing to say, I thought. But they were immediately sharply contradicted by the French person I was talking to who said, “No. You don't”. Thanks for the support, pal!
So, overall, things are going better. I don't feel weird trying to talk in French and I'm still learning, albeit at a slower pace. If only the French weren't so honest...
Mar 1, 2009
Soleil
The sun came out today. Not in its usual way of late - peeking out from behind clouds, with the sky a dominant grey. No, today it was full-on, bright-in-the-blue-sky sunshine.
Paris seemed to finally throw back the duna, rub its weary eyes, take a full breath of the morning air and decide that, yeah, today was a good day to get out of bed.
Apparently, so did seemingly all of the city's population. It's like someone stepped on an ant's nest! I haven't seen so many people since the last of the sunny evenings last year. We even had fire engines - like, with the sun in the sky it's suddenly a good reason to have a BBQ in your living room where it's still warm. Good one, people.
Anyway, despite a very mild hangover from a fantastic champagne party last night (thanks Axa et les mesdames ambassadeurs!), the sun was all the encouragment I needed to go outrigging. I even got to use, for the first time, an OC1 without a rudder. A little tricky steering, I'll admit - people walking on the side of the Marne must've thought I was practising slalom without the markers - but heaps of fun. Until, that is, the last five metres before the pontoon when I got a little cocky, tried to do a tricky turn and - splash! - ended up in the river (the FREEZING COLD RIVER) in front of the rest of the crew (who were, as luck would have it, just coming in from their session).
Apparently, I gasped like a fish when my head surfaced - my mouth was all movement, no sound. All very funny for everyone else...and me, eventually, once I was able to breathe again.
So, farewell Winter!, you cranky, depressing old man. And hellllooooooooo Spring!
Well, almost.
Paris seemed to finally throw back the duna, rub its weary eyes, take a full breath of the morning air and decide that, yeah, today was a good day to get out of bed.
Apparently, so did seemingly all of the city's population. It's like someone stepped on an ant's nest! I haven't seen so many people since the last of the sunny evenings last year. We even had fire engines - like, with the sun in the sky it's suddenly a good reason to have a BBQ in your living room where it's still warm. Good one, people.
Anyway, despite a very mild hangover from a fantastic champagne party last night (thanks Axa et les mesdames ambassadeurs!), the sun was all the encouragment I needed to go outrigging. I even got to use, for the first time, an OC1 without a rudder. A little tricky steering, I'll admit - people walking on the side of the Marne must've thought I was practising slalom without the markers - but heaps of fun. Until, that is, the last five metres before the pontoon when I got a little cocky, tried to do a tricky turn and - splash! - ended up in the river (the FREEZING COLD RIVER) in front of the rest of the crew (who were, as luck would have it, just coming in from their session).
Apparently, I gasped like a fish when my head surfaced - my mouth was all movement, no sound. All very funny for everyone else...and me, eventually, once I was able to breathe again.
So, farewell Winter!, you cranky, depressing old man. And hellllooooooooo Spring!
Well, almost.
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