January 11th...cleansing

I'm posting this as a form of exorcism of my previous post.

This is a crazy storm we drove past in Queensland.

January 4th...Hello Sports Fans!



The Face of the Barmy Army



Firstly, I must apologise.

Those of you who know me, will know I am not the most avid cricket/sports fan...however on January 4th, I sucked it up and went to the second day of the Sydney test. I should probably admit I did try and get out of it...but apparently there weren't many Aussies around who really wanted to pay to go and see Australia get spanked by the English. Again.

So off to the cricket I went...(Vogue Magazine went with me), and although the cricket itself wasn't all that stimulating, the crowd was awesome. We were sat right next to the Barmy Army so by the end of the day had pretty much all their songs down pat, and stuck in my head for the next 3 days. A couple of my favourites being:



Live Commentary all the way!



"He bowls to the left

He bowls to the right

That Mitchell Johnson

His bowling is shite!"

and....

"With Strauss our Captain,

We'll take the Urn home"

Done

For more information, please visit www.barmyarmy.com (yes, its a real website!)

Some interesting facts I've just learnt about the Barmy Army...because education shouldn't be limited to the classroom. Facts and pretty pictures... cool huh?! 
 









The Barmy Army is apparently a limited company (Wikipedia), not just a bunch of crazed cricket fanatics. They claim they want to "make watching cricket more fun and much more popular". The group uses flags, banners, songs and chants to encourage the team and crowd participation in their activities. In contrast to the reputations of some sports fans for hooliganism, the Barmy Army organises actively discourages unsavoury behaviour engages in charity work.

   Although I did take a lot of photos of the cricket, I didn't really understand what was going on, so these are more crowd based. Check this guy out...class all the way!


Definition

Right arm, impressive muscle definition. That's all I'm saying.

There's always one....

Looking across to the Members Pavilion. I wouldn't have liked to have sat next to this guy.   

Catch?





You're gonna have to try a little harder buddy.




 

Photographing the Photographer






At least there was one Aussie smiling...



Young Sports Fan





















Is this not the cutest little kid you've ever seen?!


Head in the sand



Uh...dude...? Either this guy has a serious flatulence issue or is an Aussie cricket fan who just couldn't watch anymore....



The Lone Spectator

 















A bit of black and white just to mix things up a little.



Ready and waiting. Some cricketers, crouching or something.

 

In my humble opinion, I think Strauss should have kept Collingwood at gully, and Bell should have moved to a slightly more orthodox, silly, mid-off position. I also found it interesting (and slightly predictable) when Strauss took out square leg and put in a third man because he kept playing lucky, swiping shots.

Ok, so admittedly, I had to get my brother to text me that during the game in an attempt to look like I knew what was going on. So thanks Chris. Sadly, it backfired as I then got asked what square leg meant.

It's square of the batters leg, apparently. Whatever that means.

It took me ages to get the Swan reference. Seriously. I should not be doing this...

As I write this, I'm starting to realise how ridiculous this situation is. What the hell am I doing photographing and writing about cricket, or even sports in general??!

I think I can safely say, it won't happen again. 



Some people will do anything to get on TV

In closing, the highlight of the day; celebrity guest appearance by Danger Mouse.

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.