Nothing like banging your head against a brick wall

For once I am going to blog about chemistry. I have spent the last couple of bloody days trying to make the image below. Looks pretty doesn’t it?

Olympic Park

After spending far too many hours at work over the last week I decided to have a day off so Aleisha and I headed out to Olympic Park. We had been there before but had never really had a good walk though the whole area. It was a rather relaxing day and we were both surprised by the number and variety of birds in the area. Of course I had to take a few photos while we were there.

Superb Fairy-wren

Yellow Thornbill

Coldplay - look no hands!

Aleisha and I went to the Coldplay concert on Monday night and well to be honest it was average at best. After queuing for almost 2hrs (in the rain for some of it) we were finally allowed in and managed to get a great spot with only one person between the stage and us. The warm-up band, Youth Group was pretty boring but the screaming 13 yr old girls seemed to love them. As an aside people really need to understand mosh pit ethics, either be tall, arrive early or be prepared to fight for your place in the pit. The 2 foot tall midget school girls were not too happy about having to see over me, I felt so sorry for them! Anyway after Youth Group finished we waited for ~ an hour before Coldplay started. Chris Martin managed to screw his voice on the first song, but it did improve during the evening. He must have had a rough day as he forgot the lyrics to a number of songs and had to improvise with "Oh S#%T". The most disturbing part of the night was when Chris was on the piano but when took his hands off, it kept on playing! I knew Chris Martin was a musical genius but to be able to play a piano with no hands puts him up with other musical greats such as Ashlee Simpson who can sing without opening her mouth.

Then there was the fact that Aleisha nearly fainted (it must have been the effect of seeing god playing the piano) and I had to take her out of the most pit, much to the satisfaction of the 2 foot tall midget school girls. Aleisha recovered and we joined the concert again but from the back of the standing area. So all and all an interesting night and summing it all up, I like Coldplay but they suck live!

The long awaited purchase has finally occurred... no Simon did not get yet another lens! I have finally enriched my wardrobe with a long sleeve icebreaker top (Coronet, greyplum). My wallet will never be the same but a trip to Africa would not have been right had I not taken this poor little finely woven, delicately designed, piece of New Zealand merino.

Getting in some practice

Well before I try my luck photographing African critters I decided I should get in some practice. The botanical gardens were full of critters and gave me a good chance to try getting birds in flight, with limited success. All photos were taken with my new Canon 70-300 IS lens.

Buff-banded Rail

Sulphur-crestered Cockatoo

White Ibis (not the 6 legged type)

The Real Beautiful Game

While the Australian media was focused on grossly overstating Australias chances against Brazil they completely forgot about the truly epic game being played right here in Sydney, I am talking about the Australian Netball Idles vs. F11 in the USYD indoor netball comp. It was a game of two halves and Netball was the winner at the end of the day (in other words we lost 24 - 12).

Our star striker Scott

Mark outstanding in defence

There wasnt much Mark and Christine could do against the "Monolith"

Jarrod putting his body on the line

Im not trying to compensate, honest!

Well the arsenal has finally been completed as my Canon 70-300mm f4.5-5.6 IS USM lens arrived yesterday. This completes my camera lens kit so all I need to do now is to figure out how everything works before we head off to Africa. I havent had much of a chance to try it out as of yet but hopefully this weekend I can spot some critters. One downside of such a long focal length is the lens size but as it is built like a brick I can also use it as a club to beat off any baboons that give me any jip.

When the lens is fully extended it becomes quite large.

New Lens - Sigma 17-70mm f2.8-4.5 DC Macro

Today I picked up my Sigma 17-70 lens which will replace the kit lens that came with my camera. I took a few photos around Uni to try it out and I must say I am very impressed. It is slightly wider (17 vs 18mm), significantly longer (70 vs 55mm), almost a stop faster (f2.8 vs f3.5) and a hell of a lot sharper than the kit lens. It also has a very nice macro function which will allow me to get some nice critter shots in Africa. So the kit lens will now go to where all useless thing go, to eBay.

Trying out the macro mode

A random, pointless and abstract B&W image

Sydney Uni

Poliomyelitis in Namibia

Just a day after wondering if it was really necessary to get vaccinated against the various diseases found in Africa I discovered that there is a serious outbreak of Polio in Namibia. Luckily Polio was one of the diseases that we are now vaccinated against. Let’s hope this keeps the tourist numbers down in Namibia.

Protected against everything but Ebola

Well today Aleisha and I went to the Travel Doctor to see what vaccinations and drugs we needed before venturing off to Africa. So we are now vaccinated against Typhoid, Hep A, Diphtheria, Tetanus and Polio. We also have a few months worth of anti-malarial drugs, some broad spectrum antibiotics and various other drugs to help with stomach "problems".

Unfortunately there was no vaccination against Ebola, I guess will just have to take that chance.

Another Flogging at Netball 22 - 0

Last nights game was a complete flogging but for once we were not on the receiving end,we actually beat a team 22 to 0. Hopefully this form will carry on and we can finish in the top half of the competition this season.

Canon EF 50mm f1.8

Well I picked up this lens a few weeks ago but havent had much of a chance to play with it yet. At f1.8 it is very fast and gives a very shallow depth of field, something that was never possible with my FZ10.


Here is an example of the shallow depth of field at f1.8.

You know you have really made it in life when...

You become a member of the royal family.

Group Lunch

Karena (an ex-group member) and her partner Pete are back in Sydney at the moment for Karena’s graduation. To mark this exciting occasion we went out to the extremely classy Royal for lunch. Life must be getting pretty boring when all I have to Blog about is a group lunch.

Karena and Pete

The group

My photographic skills leave a lot to be desired as I managed to not get Karena into this photo.

The new lab

I managed to get into the room that will become our new lab today and get some photos for some before and after shots. The new lab will be ~10 times bigger than our old lab and we will have a office right next door as well.

Out and about with the 350D

Had a chance to have a bit more of a play with my new camera today and even managed to try out Jarrods 70-300mm lens which gave some alright results.

First photos with my 350D

Since I have a shocking hangover I decided to can the idea of working on a Saturday and take some photos instead. It is going to take awhile to get use to using a SLR camera as what you see in the viewfinder is not what the image looks like. But other than that I have been very impressed with the camera and it certainly is a lot better than the Pansonic. All I need now is a couple of nice lenses as the kit lens is a bit nasty.


While playing with the camera I took a few photos of the blinds and though it looked kinda interesting.


The kit lens is 29-90mm equivalent which gives a bit more room to move at the wide end compared to the 35mm of the Panasonic.


One of the real advantages of a dSLR is the decreased depth of field allowing you to isolate the subject a lot easier, look at that creamy bokeh.

Canon 350D

Just picked up my new camera this weekend, a lovely Canon 350D. I got the cheap and nasty kit lens with the camera which is a 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 (29-88mm equivalent). I have a great prime 50mm f1.8 on order as well which I plan to use for my night photos and portrait work. Then in the not too distant future I plan on getting the Sigma 10-20mm f4-5.6 (16-32mm equivalent) for landscapes and funky wide angle shots. Now all I need to get is a memory card so that I can actually take some photos!

THE CRATER

Over the long Easter weekend Aleisha and I went for a bit of a hike to Wollangambe crater. It was a short hike (only 3 1/2 hours in) but the camp site is rather nice so we stayed for a couple of nights. The Sugar Gliders were out again but were too high in the trees to get any photos. There were fresh signs of Wombats but unfortunately no sightings.

The Campsite

There is a lovely stream that runs through the campsite.

Of course it wouldnt be a trip away without some lame attempt by me to make a photo look artistic in Black and White.

It is also a way to spend the ~2 hours we had to kill at Bell station while we waited for a train.

Blue Gum Forest Photos are up

I know you have all been waiting anxiously for these so sorry for the delay.

Bridal Expo

Well there is no turning back now as today Aleisha and I went to the Sydney Bridal Expo. There were plenty of fancy dresses but just as many fancy chair covers. Apparently chair covers are very important, heck I didnt even know about chair covers.
We managed to enter a few hundred competitions and score a whole heap of free stuff as well as look at fancy chair covers. We did get some good ideas and also saw some not so good ideas such as wedding toilet paper (only $15 a roll). Maybe it was the cost of chair covers but I now have a cracking headache (It could also have something to do with giving blood today).

A letter from the Australian Government

For those non-Sydney people out there I have been getting rather annoyed with the pathetic student union movement at USYD. My main issue is the ridiculous fees that you have to pay to enrol every year, $450 in my first then $350 in my second and third. While VSU (voluntary student unionism) will be coming in next year I decided to try my luck and vent some anger by writing to the Minister of Education regarding the legality of compulsory student unionism. My main argument was that as stated in the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (which Australia is a signatory) compelling people to belong to associations is illegal. Therefore compulsory student unionism is in direct violation of an UN covenant.
Well today I got a letter back from the Minister of Education (well not quite, it was from one of his staff) basically saying it is a State government problem, so I need to take up the issue with them. What I did discover is however, is the University allows you to transfer your union fees to the Jean D Foley Bursary Fund if you object to paying your union fees to the Union. I am not exactly sure what the "Bursary Fund" is but I assume it helps pay for our Chancellors drinking habits.

Blame religion on Altitude sickness

It all makes sense now after a study done by some Swiss and Israeli scientists.

There could be a straightforward medical explanation for at least three of the world's major religions. Moses, Mohammed, and Jesus all experienced revelations on mountains, but they were probably just suffering a form of altitude sickness, say a group of Swiss and Israeli neurologists, casting doubt in the process on the very existence of God.

Blue Gum Forest

In the weekend Aleisha and I managed to tear ourselves away from the incredibly exciting Commonwealth Games and go bush walking. The trip we did was from Govetts leap to Blue Gum Forest and back to Govetts leap via Perrys Lookdown. It was 20km all up but the second day started with a 700m climb which was a bit of a gut buster. Here are a few photos from our trip but I will be putting more on my website in the coming days.

A panoramic view taken from Govetts leap.

The mighty Blue Gums were actually a bit of a disappointment, but it was still nice down in the valley.

Some random small caterpillar that is probably highly toxic but looked cool.

A Cunninghams Skink (Egernia cunninghami), one of the largest species of skink in Australia.

Blue Gum Forest is notorious for its leeches but we only had one leeching incident which was quickly dealt to by some Starbucks salt.

Commonwealth Games

Well it has finally arrived, the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games. I personally cant wait to see great sporting nations such as Nauru, Brunei Darussalam, Jersey, Belize, St Helena Anguilla, St Kitts and Nevis, Malawi and Seychelles competing against each other. I can really see why all Australians must be so proud when their athletes beat others from countries whose GDP is lower than the budget of the Australian Institute of Sports. It will be so exciting that I might not be able to stand it, I may have to go tramping this weekend instead.

More on Africa

Below is a rough map of the route we will be taking on our 25 day safari. We start in Jo'burg and head to Kruger National park for a few days before going up to Victoria Falls. I am not sure if we will be on the Zimbabwe or Zambia side, I guess it all depends on what Mr Mugabe is up to. From there it is off to Chobe National Park and the famous Okavango delta for some serious critter watching. Hopefully we dont run into the same Hippo as a Australian did a few weeks back. From there we cross into Namibia and to Etosha National Park. We then drive through the Namid desert (300m high dunes) before returning to South Africa and Cape Town. We cant wait!

Stink Bug

I believe this one is Morna florens, but there are so many bloody species in the Stink Bug family that it is near impossible to tell.

Why Holdens are useless

Australians have an obsession with driving useless cars just because of the badge they have on the front. Holden was smart enough to exploit this and simply rebadged the Korea made Daewoo Aveo as a Holden Barina and then shipped it to Oz.
Today the NCAP crash results came out and surprise, surprise the Barina/ Daewoo Aveo scored two stars, which basically means its a coffin that you can drive on the road. Some selected quotes.

"unacceptably high risk of life-threatening injury to the driver's chest."

"The driver was found to be at severe risk of injury at just 64km/h" This quote surprised me as I never realised any Daewoo could actually reach that speed.

Mardi Gras

Well after being in Sydney for two years we figured it was about time to check out the famous Mardi Gras. Apparently over 500 000 people came this year. It was an interesting evening and certainly not the sort of thing you would ever see on the streets of Dunedin. It was very entertaining and well worth going to, although seeing old men in leather G-strings is never a pleasant experience (luckily there were not too many of those).

New pair of Binoculars

Well today we purchased our first pair of binoculars (an engagement present from Aleisha's folks). They are a lovely pair of Pentax 8x40 PCF WPII. They are fully waterproof and nitrogen purged so we could even go swimming with them! On that note when we went to another store (I wont mention names) and asked if they had any waterproof binoculars they responded with; You dont want to use them under water do you? I some times wonder how some people manage to get through life when they have to ask questions like that.
Hopefully we will go tramping next weekend and get to try them out, but until then we will have to resort to spying on our neighbours.

For the full specs click here

Africa here we come!

Well it is official, we are off to Africa in July as today Aleisha and I booked our Southern Africa tour. We are doing a 25 day tour through South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia and maybe Zimbabwe. We cant wait!

Check out our itinerary here