Wombat Stew

Wombats taking shelter from a Melbourne day full of on-off rain and wind. They all looked so cute snuggled up together underground in their burrow, not that the sand and ground looks very comfortable but at least it's dry! My boyfriend played the role of my photography spotter, pinching my arm and pointing out interesting things for me to shoot. What a sweetheart. I did take some nice photographs of the wombats here but I missed the one on the far left rolling over and scratching itself and the flash gives a very different colour of the fur of the wombats compared to those taken without the flash. I always have a lot of fun with him when we go out to tourist places and I get to bring my camera along and he doesn't mind. What a shame he doesn't like to be a show pony and pose for me.

A city full of light

It may not be the city of lights Paris itself but when we travelled around by limousine and stretch hummer around the gorgeous city of San Francisco on our last day of staying in America and stopped at a few different places to swap vehicles, a few trees were strung up from root to branch full of gorgeous fairy lights. There were more decorations of them then a Christmas tree set up in the city for the Myer windows back home at Melbourne. 

A water fountain light up by lights brought a lot of attention to the dare devil boys among the group; daring to run across the width of the water feature and risking getting soaking wet for the next hour and so and putting up with the shame and soggy trophy of wrinkled clothes.

Furball

It was pretty difficult to take a picture of the lions with the many metal grates in the way but thankfully for digital cameras using automatic zoom and focus it's just a matter of holding your finger over the shutter button and being patient! Since patience is a virtue I'm thankful that it payed off for me and I have a lovely photograph of a lion from the Melbourne Zoo.

One Eyed Monster

I didn't realise until I uploaded these photographs that the poor leopard only had one eye and that it's eye socket appears to be healed shut :(
I thought it was just a little squinty on that day or maybe it was just trying to save some energy and relax.

Moving at the speed of light

That's why they call me Mr. Fahrenheit! I love how low security is to keep the giant tortoises inside, since they move so slowly, are too heavy to lift and cannot be possibly stolen from their exhibit without anyone noticing that a.) one of them is missing from their enclosure, and b.) that the person who lifted one is probably suffer from acute hernia and they also have a rather lumpy parcel concealed under their trench coat. I did originally plan to go to the zoo and use my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles backpack since sometimes the giant tortoises do coast near the fence of their enclosure but I used a canvas backpack instead and they were in the middle of the enclosure or sitting under the heat lamp anyway so there was no loss there.

Butterfly Effect

The best parts of the Melbourne Zoo to hide in when the whether becomes cold and wet and horrible is either the Butterfly House or the Reptile Enclosures. A lot of people tend to prefer the butterflies though because the humid temperatures are a little higher than the heat from the lamps used to make the cold blooded reptiles a little more lively. Also the elephant and orangutan enclosures have been revamped so there is a greater focus on Asian animals. Some of my favourite photographs were taken inside the butterfly house on my zoo trip with my boyfriend but I didn't end up taking that many since the whole place was so crowded and the butterflies weren't landing on anyone really. I sort of laughed to myself watching a little girl sneakily push her hand towards the edges of leaves where butterflies sat. And I felt sad seeing the beautiful insects with torn wings, wrecked from callous and disrespectful zoo patrons. They only have a week to live and people destroy the beauty of their wings. It's such a shame.

San Francisco Skyline

San Francisco, the city by the bay perfectly captured (if I do say so myself) in this neat little photograph of the city and all the skyscrapers as well as the harbour with a ferry boat as well as a sail boat down in the bottom right hand corner. Too bad the colours are a little dull and the docks can't be seen very well against the land and the city buildings.

San Francisco Cityscape

Since we were busy running around shopping and also getting a wheelchair down at the better shops in San Francisco there was little time for me to take pictures of the building and architecture of the area. The place was also packed with street performers and a drunken woman who one of the boys on the trip said he saw earlier that day; only the second time he was sore she had gotten a shiny new bruise all around her eye...

Sloping San Francisco Streets

America seemed similar to back home in a  few ways but the little things made a big difference. The supermarkets are just heaps bigger and everything is in bigger more sugary proportions, the land seems a whole lot flatter and the roads seem to be more good than the gravel rash inducing asphalt of Australian roads.

Good Will Hunting

I do confess that I have not visited the museum of my city in a number of years... the last being an instance in which I was either in primary school or in my early years of Secondary school.

I have been doing too much Literature homework today, and it shows. I can't exactly remember if I was at the museum in Year 7 or 8 because at the time I was depressed. I suppressed a lot of memories in circumstances where I should have been happy and excited. Instead I felt lonely and isolate because I had no friends.

Wah-wah sob story. I went for a date with my boyfriend last holidays to the museum and they changed the layout since I last went. I was a little upset that they shrunk the dinosaur exhibition and integrated it into the other displays in the museum such as the insects and marine exhibitions but the taxidermy section is a marvel. I couldn't help myself and had to shoot what I could subtly. I also took a few shots on my Diana Mini which I had around my neck but I'll have to finish the roll first and wait and see what they develop into.
Hugging your boyfriend with a camera around your neck is difficult, which leads me to the assumption that photographers are usually lonely people who generally don't enjoy human contact.

Josh Thomas

Walked down about six or seven ailes to reach my row from the top of the Melbourne Playhouse and already I was impressed just be the large stage presence of the decor, four large hedge letters. Maybe it's to make up for the dare I say, little confidence Josh Thomas seems to have as a comedian which is sort of his gimmick thing and works well for him since he does have the baby face to pull it off.

17th of April was the 17th birthday of my good friend Jasmine and to mark the occasions two of my other friends and her went to see Josh Thomas perform live comedy as part of the Melbourne Comedy Festival which happens each year and for a few years now my friends have always decided which comedian we would see but never had the organisational skills to pull it all together. I am very glad this year that we finally got our shit together and saw a comedian and had a great night out in the city.








Catherine taking a photograph using her iPhone, she's the one who organised and bought our tickets so I suppose I am going to have to thank her for the wonderful comic experience. She's a basketball referee like me and I chucked in my old shift so that life for her would be a little bit easier. We compete and see who can have the best watch tanline. I am always more naturally tan than she is but she wears a watch more than I do so she beats me every time.




It was entertaining to hear about his life and I really did like how he finished his show before we had 'question time'. Yes, you heard right. Josh said himself that comedian's usually close their act with a great piece of comedy or maybe some dancing or song to leave a lasting impression of how good they are at entertainment but instead he pointed out the above and let the audience take the reign. It was interesting but most of the audience was too scared to ask anything like me so there were some stupid questions asked as well as awkward silences which isn't what I would have liked to pay for.






I think the best thing about comedians is that they have the 'permission' to talk about taboo subjects as well as swear casually and everyone thinks it's fine and acceptable because they are in the mood to be entertained and laugh. If the audience was in a crap mood or something or each members thoughts were elsewhere I'm guessing a great many comedic acts would flop.








There was however one little lement I had about the show. Two years ago I got some Josh Thomas podcasts over iTunes and listened to them so much that I can still pretty much go over most of what it was about... and some of the material in one of those podcasts was recycled in his show. Pretty lazy writing. Just the one little complaint I had really just that it was boring to hear someone tell exactly the same joke in the same tone of voice just a few metres from you.










Melbourne at night lights up! All my friends as well as I had never been into the city so late at night especially on a Sunday night to enjoy the bright lights, advertisements contrasted against an inky black starless sky. No clouds out but since the lights of the city pollute the light not a star could be seen. We were also surprised when there were Metro train ticket inspectors doing an in uniform blitz of commuters.
And they fined lots of people too, excluding present company of course. I would have to be pretty dumb to be fined by the same body of inspectors twice.