December 31st... Manly pre-dawn and some final reflections

Admittedly I am going through some weird phase with my photos. I'm not sure where all this abstract colour/social-documentary/general randomness has come from. A had a (slightly less than sober) conversation with a friend on Christmas Eve and she questioned my lack of interaction with people in my photos at the moment. The weirdest thing about the 'critique' was that I always forget that this is actually being read by anyone! So thank you Ains for making me think about what I'm doing... I was thinking about you this morning whilst I was out and will face the challenge head on....tomorrow.



Every colour of the rainbow! Manly Wharf at 5.10am



So this morning I was a good wife and drove M down to Manly Wharf to go fishing. Did I mention it was 5am?! He better come back with dinner...

The lack of waves meant that Manly was pretty much empty, apart from a couple of stand up paddle boarders making their way across to Shelley Beach.



The long and dusty trail...



So after my ridiculously early start to New Years Eve, I went to a 6am yoga class. As much as I enjoyed it, and as nice as it was to walk out at 7.30 with a full day ahead of me, I couldn't help but wonder, 'what the hell am I doing?' I've become one of those crazy people.



Lake Manly

Like most people, I find that New Year is always a good time for reflections, reviewing your achievements for the year, redefining your goals for the next 12 months. I think I did pretty well this year, made some great new friends, built on the relationships I had with existing ones, did a half marathon, got engaged, got married, rekindled my love for photos and walked a bloody long way. 



So in closing for 2010, I'd like to share something I was told in a yoga class yesterday. Forgive me if this is slightly wrong, it's hard to memorise life-affirming quotes when you're standing on one leg, locking your knee, sweating profusely and wishing you hadn't placed your mat behind the guy with the shortest shorts who is also really good at doing the standing splits - sorry for the visual.  

"The past is in the past, the future is a mystery, now is a gift, that's why it's called the present."

Happy New Year everyone.

...the tropical north

I'm a fan or 28 degree water temperature. I'm not a fan of transparent, floating globules of jelly the size of my little fingernail that can kill you simply by looking at you. Conclusion, big fan of hotel swimming pools. You can drink gin & tonic there too.

A few piccies from my mini-moon to Tropical North Queensland. Highlights being diving with sharks, snorkelling with turtles and hot air ballooning at dawn. Due to a lack of water-friendly technology (or camera housing for my camera) my artsy-fartsy shots were somewhat limited to 'supremus humus'. That's 'above gound in latin for the uninitiated. Tourist note; if you want to go out to the Great Barrier Reef, do it from Port Douglas, not Cairns. Better reef, fewer backpackers.

No trip to the GBR would be complete without several hundred shots of the crystal clear turquoise water...believe me, there were lots. I won't bore you with them, instead I will recommend you visit Palm Cove yourselves. Very chilled out place, but word to the wise... eating isn't cheap!

While you're there, eat at Far Horizons... quite simply, yum. I know it sounds random but we met the best waitor ever, a South American who was travelling, had spent time in Mona Vale (random?!) and had started working at the hotel as a luggage porter.

When he hurt his back and couldn't carry bags anymore, the manager gave him a shot at being a waitor and has consequently become pretty much fluent in conversational english in about 6 weeks. Seriously impressive and a bloody good bloke.

He obvioulsy had a better grasp on this waitoring thing that we thought because he got us pretty drunk (becuase we needed encouragement) and we ended up tipping him something ridiculous.

Anyway, when you're there, say hi from us.

December 21st...a study in blue

I know you've all been devastated at the length of time I've been away and you've lives have felt empty and generally lack-lustre without my images... Fear not good people of the world, I have returned, and I bring with me a host of bountiful colour to once again, brighten your days.

Unfortunately for the water babies out there, I seem to have brought the surf-less calm if the Tropical North Queensland seas back with me. For this I apologise.

Its taken a few days to get back into the swing of things, early mornings suck, especially when you're not getting up to go hot air ballooning at dawn or diving to swim with sharks and turtles. Finally, this morning, I was able to drag my weary ass from my bed to the beach. Here are the results.

As you can see, blue seems to be the main theme. I was also banned from the actual beach by a certain someone who was back doing bootcamp for the first time in a while...

I seem to have grown very fond of the pool at Dee Why. I promise to expand my photographic subjects over the coming days!

I have also started working on the hundreds of images taken whilst we were away... no doubt a select few will make an appearance in the next few days, so keep your eyes peeled.

For now, I think we should all take a minute to look out of the window and appreciate the sunshine (depending on the hemisphere in which you currently reside!) and say a little prayer that it sticks around to see us through the festive season!

There's nothing quite like a glass of bubbles in the afternoon sun on Christmas Eve, so come on down to Dee Why Beach on Friday arvo, bring a bottle and come say G'Day and Merry Christmas! I'll be there from about 4pm...