Glen Coe, Jenny, Joanne and Dr Horton

After the 2005 World Dragon Boat Championships in Berlin, we travelled around Europe. We each picked a place we would like to go to then we worked out a travel plan to connect the locations in an ordered and logical way. Jenny picked the Cinque Terre, Joanne picked Chamonix, Mum picked Paris, I picked London (always will) and David picked Geneva and Scotland.

So off to Scotland we set - we caught the Train (on the route of the The Flying Scotsman) to Edinburgh from London and then hired a car which we used to travel a little wider a feild. David being a member of the Campbell Clan, was keen to get to the Campbell's ancestral home near Inveraray. On the way we stopped at Fort William which took us through Glen Coe, a place where the local pub has a sign saying "Dogs and Campbell's not Welcome". Glen Coe is the place where the Campbell's befriended the Macdonald's and then after a few weeks, were ordered to massacre the Macdonald's while they slept.

The photos below tell a story. The first one is one of my favourite photos of Jenny and Joanne. The bridge in the background takes you to Glen Coe a little further to the south and east. We had spent the night in Fort William and were up early to head to Inveraray. We stopped here to take some photos. It was low-tide and there was lots to look at along the exposed shoreline. Joanne is pointing out something to Jenny.

Five years later, I am struck by the similarity of the composition between the photo and the cover of Paulo Coelho's book, the "Manual of the Warrior of Light".

Dr Horton was the surgeon who performed Jenny's pleurodesis - a procedure to "glue" the lung to the cavity that holds the lung. This procedure would and did stop the fuild build up in the Pleural cavity. Jenny would spend about a week in hospital to recover and as always we put photos up in her room. One of the photos was the Glen Coe photo with Jenny and Joanne, below. We were stunned when Dr Horton came in and told us that he recognised the location and told us Glen Coe. We were impressed by this, and everything he did for Jenny.

Jenny and Joanne - Glen Coe / Scotland - Sep 2005 (picasa)

Cover of "The Manual of the Warrior of Light"

Jenny, Dr Horton and Joanne - 15 Feb 2007 (picasa)

Jenny - St George Hospital - 'We always made sure there was plenty of photos around - you can see the Glen Coe photo next to the Macau Dragon - Dr Horton easily identified the Glen Coe location.' - Mon 05 Feb 2007 (picasa)

Jenny and Geoff - 'We always made sure there was plenty of photos around' - St George Hospital - Mon 05 Feb 2007 (picasa)

Doing It - Writing a Novel - Marija Pericic / Linda Morris (Thu 27 Apr 2017)

Mirrors - Prague (Mon 31 Aug 2009)

Marija Pericic on Doing It:

I always wanted to write a novel, and then I just did and I didn't tell anyone I was doing it.

I did it alongside my work as an English language teacher. It took me about five years. I found it hard to talk about it, but I also didn't want to talk about it in case I never did it or I never completed it. I had a daily quota of 1000 words and I just did that and, after a while, I couldn't have stopped even if I wanted to.

via Marija Pericic wins 2017 Vogel Literary Award in a prize worthy of Kafka by Linda Morris.

A Familiar Path - "A Walk to Remember" ..

A Familiar Path by Doug Miller:

[..] A single step repeated hundreds and thousands of times would eventually arrive at the end. It did not take superhuman strength or a talent that most do not have. It took a steadfast commitment. Step by step as the miles added up and the challenges slipped by. Today just like those days on the trail, is another step. Tomorrow yet another. I walk this journey in anticipation of the end, but I also know that there is much to learn in the process. It is the process, no matter what the hardship where great beauty and adventure can be found.

Jenny and Joanne - Main Range Walk - Path to Blue Lake - 06 Jan 2002

Around New Year, each year for the last 10 years we have traveled to the Snowy Mountains area (around Perisher Valley and Jindabyne) to get away from the Christmas/New Year Crowds, to relax and take in the sights of the Snowy Mountains.

Each year we would take the opportunity to challenge ourselves to the 22km Main Range Summit walk, to not only witness the beauty of the mountains, but to test ourselves and to benchmark our fitness to the previous years effort. This was particularly important for Jenny. She and we could see what effect her cancer and treatment was having on her physical body, for the previous 12 months.

Wild Flowers - Snowy Mountains Main Range Walk - 29 Dec 2005

Some years were easy, while others were more challenging, particularly the long and steep uphill leg from the Blue Lake to the Summit of Mt Kosciuszko.

One of the more difficult years for Jenny was January 2008 when a side-effect from one her treatments, which caused soreness and tenderness of her feet (Hand-Foot Syndrome), made it very difficult for her to walk even a few steps. This did not stop her and she did the 22km walk, one painful step at a time. I was so proud of her, though, in typical Jenny style she thought it to be nothing unusual.

Snowy Mountains Main Range Walk - 29 Dec 2005

On the first day of this year, we did the Main Range walk, for what would turn out to be our last time together. While temperatures in Sydney were the typical balmy 30's, the weather in the Mountains had turned and there was a wind chill factor of -15 deg C. This was our last day to do the walk, we were prepared with Jenny and Joanne wearing seven layers, with beanies and gloves. We decided to at least walk the first 6 km to the Blue Lake and make a decision there whether to continue on for the next 16km or return.

For all of us, the conditions were challenging. However, for Jenny the extra challenges which revolved around dealing with the many issues relating to her cancer, the most obvious for this higher altitude challenge, being the tumors in her lungs. Little did we know at that stage the cramping in her stomach she had experienced a few times over the previous month or so, would be the early signs of countless tumors in her liver, which would be diagnosed in early March 2009. On top that, was also the embryonic stages of a tumor in her brain, which would manifest itself as a 4cm tumor in early June 2009.

Jenny and Joanne - Lake Albina - 29 Dec 2005

Needless to say, this was the most difficult Main Range Summit challenge for all of us, and for Jenny in particularly. She was short of breath, even on the small downhill sections. As we reached the Blue Lake, we waited quite a while and we left it up to Jenny to decide what we should do. Eventually, she said she felt she could do it, so off we nervously set, in very strong head winds, to the Summit. We stopped at Lake Albina on the way.

Jenny & Joanne - Lake Albina - Mt Kosciuszko Main Range Summit Walk - 01 Jan 2009

Every step was a struggle for Jenny and she did amazingly well to make it to the Summit. As usual we would take our Summit top photos - this time there was no one there (usually there would be 20-30 people) as we had taken twice as long as normal and we had reached the Summit hours after everyone had headed back to their starting points.

Jenny and Joanne at the Mt Kosciuszko Summit - Mt Kosciuszko Main Range Summit Walk - 01 Jan 2009

When I read the little story (it was a few weeks ago now) from where the above quote comes from, I thought of Jenny initially, and later Joanne and myself. I think it has helped me understand, that we were not only doing this walk each year (with each year being a "step") for the physical beauty and challenge of the Mountains, but also for the beauty that can be found in the "process" of doing something like this each year. I think it also helps me appreciate the difficult "steps" that Joanne and I take each day, without Jenny's physical presence in our lives - but knowing we are "getting on with life" with the support of our family and friends, and knowing many great experiences and adventures lay ahead for us and those in our lives. We know this to be true - we have already witnessed this in Prague in late August 2009 - "Touched by Jenny".

Joanne, David and I will do the Main Range walk this year, probably on the 1 January 2010. We know Jenny will be with us every step of the way.

Jenny and Joanne - Main Range Walk - 06 Jan 2002
Just another little story of perserverance and determination from Jenny.

Jenny near Mt Kosciuszko Summit - 06 Jan 2002

On Seeing - The Story of Telling (Fri 13 May 2014)

Eyes - Barcelona (Tue 06 Aug 2013)
The Story of Telling (*) writes On Seeing (*):

What if we stopped trying to be seen and learned (*) how to see (*) instead?

via Shifting The Focus From Results To Relationships (*) by The Story of Telling (*).

Love finding a random piece hiding away from the passing traffic.

What I think about when I think by the side of the River Charles - Boston (Mon 22 Aug 2011)

Jogging Path (1 of 5) - Charles River / Boston (Mon 22 Aug 2011)
Jogging Path (2 of 5) - Charles River / Boston (Mon 22 Aug 2011)

Jogging Path (3 of 5) - Charles River / Boston (Mon 22 Aug 2011)
Jogging Path (4 of 5) - Charles River / Boston (Mon 22 Aug 2011)
On a whim, I recently bought myself a copy of Haruki Murakami's (*) book, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (*). As I read it, I was quite taken by the following passage ..

It's been 10 years since I lived in Cambridge [Boston]. When I saw the Charles River again, a desire to run swept over me. Generally, unless some change takes place, rivers always look the same, and the Charles River in particular looked totally unchanged. Time had passed, students had come and gone, I'd aged ten years, and there'd literally been a lot of water under the bridge. But the river has remained unaltered. The water still flows swiftly, and silently, toward Boston Harbour. The water soaks the shoreline, making the grasses grow thick [..]

Maybe because it's the home of the Boston Marathon, Cambridge is full of runners. The jogging path along the Charles goes on forever, and if you wanted to you could run for hours. The problem is, it's used by cyclists, so you have to watch out for speeding bikes whizzing past from behind. At various places, too, there are cracks in the pavement you have to make sure you don't trip over, and a couple of long traffic signals you can get stuck at, which can put a kink in your run. Otherwise, it's a wonderful jogging run.

I sat beside the River Charles. It was late afternoon on the last day of our 4 days in Boston. We had arrived on the Friday from a week in New York. Here are a few photos from my time sitting by the River Charles.

We had already been away for a day short of 4 weeks and it would be another 3 weeks before arriving back home. I was enjoying the trip but was thinking a lot about all the changes that had been occurring in my life - I was without a car and I had moved back to Kirrawee while I waited for my house, I had never really planned or contemplated to live in, to become available while I was away. Tried not to think about these things too much from a far, as I had no control over them. Instead, I just sat myself down on a seat bench by the River Charles and tried to think of other things.

I sat there in the beautiful afternoon sun, I thought of many things. I thought of all the other times I had been to Boston, what took me there and what I did while I was there. I also tried to remember who I was and what I was doing in my life around the time of each trip.

September and October 1988 was the first trip, and it would be just under a year before I would meet Jenny for the first time.

I reflected on the two years since Jenny had left us and all the things that happened since that time. In some ways, it was just sitting there by the River Charles, that I finally stopped and had a chance to clear my thoughts and to really think about things.

I had really kept myself busy and distracted since Jenny's passing (*) - it was one way of coping with the enormity of Jenny's loss. In some ways, I was starting to forget things - who I was, the things that we had done and what I thought I was going to do with my life.

As I sat there by the River Charles, I watched the walkers, runners and bicycle riders go past. Their long shadows, created by the late afternoon sun, are what struck me and this is what kept me interested as I captured these photos. I wondered who these people were, what had brought them to Boston and whether one of them was the future creator of the next social media craze.

A couple of rowers set off from near where I sat and I wondered if they were the Winklevii (*) of Facebook fame (*).

MIT / TIM - Charles River / Back Bay / Boston (Mon 22 Aug 2011)

As I sat there I could see tiny sail boats, standup paddle boards and wind surfers. One wind surfer was fairly inexperienced and a more experienced wind surfer went to his aid, if only to provide advice and moral support, in the knowledge of just being there.

The small sailing boats were from MIT, which is just across the River, and it was only when I saw through the transparent sails, that I realised that in reverse, MIT, spells TIM, my late Brother's name - so I thought about him for a little while. He had been to Boston a few times also, so I thought about all the same things for Tim. Maybe he had sat here and pondered some of the same things, 25 years earlier? I also wondered why I had never made the MIT to TIM connection. Or thinking about it now, I think I may have thought about it a long time ago, but maybe I had forgotten remembering the connection.

Have been to Boston four times prior to this trip and I have visited it on each of my trips to the USA. The last time was just over 17 years earlier in April 1994, where I had hoped I might be able to run the Boston Marathon (*).

Now as I sit here and think about the things I thought about by the River Charles in Boston that late afternoon on Mon 22 Aug 2011, I can now see where Haruki Murakami's (*) ran along the side of the same river on the very path he captured in words above and I have captured in the photos on this page. I also now have an appreciation and can imagine where he found part of the inspiration to write What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (*), which I am now reading and enjoying.

That will do for now. Just leave it here.

Jogging Path (5 of 5) - Charles River / Boston (Mon 22 Aug 2011)
A bit of ramble to mark my 700th Post here.

Photos: Venice Graffiti (Sep 2009)

Red - Graffiti/Venice - Sep 2009 (picasa)

Wake Up Italy - Graffiti/Venice - Sep 2009 (picasa)

Recently noted that I was surprised by the amount of Graffiti in Venice. Did a little searching and found this post - Strange Geographies: Venetian Graffiti (30 May 2010) - by Ransom Riggs where he writes:

One thing that surprised me about Venice was that graffiti was everywhere. There’s almost as much art on the streets as there was in churches and museums [..] once I stopped being offended I started being fascinated. While the oil-and-canvas masterworks hanging in the city’s galleries may reflect of Venice the Renaissance era, it’s what’s painted on the outside of the museum wall that reflects what Venetians — at least the ones wielding cans of spray-paint — are thinking now.

Bloody Gum - Royal National Park (Sun 28 Jan 2001)

Bloody Gum - Royal National Park (Sun 28 Jan 2001)
I took this photo 10 years to the minute (Blogger's time is 19 hours behind Sydney time). It was the first photo that I took with my little IXUS that I thought was more than just a record of an event or a place (and BTW there is nothing the matter with that).

It was a Sunday, the last day of a long weekend (Australia Day was Friday). Jenny and I decided to do a Sunday afternoon drive down into the Royal National Park and end up at Stanwell Top to watch the hang gliders and to have an ice cream.

Along the way we stopped to look at various features and land marks, mainly the coast line.

For some reason I randomly pulled up into a small dirt parking area along the road in a forested area of the Park. I was drawn to the large Gum Trees at the edge of the parking area and noticed the sap oozing from the bark.

Looking at the photos I took that day, most were of the trees from a distance. The above photo was the only one I took up close to the trees. I set the camera to macro mode and I am pretty sure I would have held the camera about 15 to 20 cm from the side of the tree. I remember getting back to Sylvania and looking through the photos from that day and this was the one that caught my eye. It was beyond anything I had captured up til then.

Around the same time I found photo.net and this was one of the first photo's I submitted to my portfolio. Amazingly, I received a number of critiques which were very helpful and they helped guide me along my photographic journey, particularly this one:

this is a great piece. My only complaint is it's on digital. It would make a wonderful Ilfochrome if it were on film -- gallery quality.
Matthew Kees (22 Sep 2001).

In many ways the photo and the positive feedback I received help me explore photography in a way I had never expected when I first bought the little camera a few months earlier.

I have tagged many of the photos I have taken with the little IXUS, here. Many have become my Favourite Photo's, which I have randomly rambled about on this blog over the last year or so.

Makes me wonder where the last 10 years have gone.

Finally, if I have added up correctly this should be my 300th post.

The sweet taste of change ..

I recently had the opportunity to tell the following story between sets at a recent Australian Dragon Boat training session. It comes from the Novel By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept by Paulo Coelho. Here it is ..

The padre took a deep breath. He hesitated for a moment and then said:

"A scientist who studied monkeys on an island in Indonesia was able to teach a certain one to wash bananas in the river before eating them. Cleansed of sand and dirt, the food was more flavourful. The scientist - who did this only because he was studying the learning capacity of monkeys - did not imagine what would eventually happen. So he was surprised to see that the other monkeys on the island began to imitate the first one."

"And then, one day when a certain number of monkeys had learned to wash their bananas, the monkeys on all of the islands in the archipeligo began to do the same thing. What was surprising though was the other monkeys learned to do so without having had any contact with island where the experiment had been conducted."

He stopped. "Do you understand?"

"No" I answered.

"There are several similar scientific studies. The most common explanationn is that when a certain number of people evolve, the entire human race begins to evolve. We don't know how many are needed - but we know that's how it works."

Premier Open 500m Final - IDBF Dragon Boat World Champs - Sydney 2007 (Sun 23 Sep 2007)
A bit of a ramble to follow ..

Whenever I go to a Dragon Boat Regatta, I always look at the other teams when they are racing and I am always amazed at all the different techniques that are on display. Not one team is the same. I have seen so many variations on how to paddle, I know there is no one right way. The main thing is that a team and all its paddlers are consistent with their technique and blend together as a team. There are always slight variations between the paddlers, but overall everyone is pretty much doing the same thing.

How is this done? Firstly, a coach or coaching team will decide on a technique to be used. Most coaches are often learning and looking for new ways to make the team go faster. So from season to season you will see changes in technique that can go from subtle to extreme.

Once a new technique is decided upon it is a matter of the Coach and the Team getting down to business and putting it into practice through purposeful training. This will all take time as new physical and mental pathways are developed by the paddlers. Some paddlers will adapt to the changes quicker than others. Often video footage will help a paddler see what they are doing compared to what they think they are doing. At times the changes are made quickly and other times the changes seem to take forever to come through. One way or another, the changes are made and the team is paddling with tne new technique. What you see at Regatta's is proof of this fact.

Paddling is often about a feeling, be it the connection with the water or about what you feel and believe when you paddle. I have always believed that if you can think, visualise and feel it, then you are well on the way to making the changes needed to adapt to a new paddling technique (or for that matter, anything you set your heart to).

So for those working through change, make of it what you can from the above story. I think there are a few nice metaphors there to work with.

The keywords being: Learning, Training, Mimicry and Believing.

Senior Mixed 500m Final - IDBF Dragon Boat World Champs - 200m to go - "The Break" - "It was insane, but it worked" - It's not about the Paddle – Prague/Racice - Day 4 (Sat 29 Aug 2009)

Red - Hungry Jacks - Pitt Street / Sydney (Fri 19 Oct 2012)

Red - Hungry Jacks - Pitt Street / Sydney (Fri 19 Oct 2012)
Did a double take as I walked past this. Stopped me in my tracks and I took a few photos.

Lady in Red with Black Cat (1 and 2 of 4) - Bruno Dutot - Edgecliff (Fri 23 Mar 2012)

Lady in Red with Black Cat (1 of 4) - Bruno Dutot - Edgecliff (Fri 23 Mar 2012)
Lady in Red with Black Cat (2 of 4) - Bruno Dutot - Edgecliff (Fri 23 Mar 2012)
Had to go to Double Bay recently. Caught the train to Edgecliff and walked down to Double Bay. Took a detour on the way there and back to photograph this well known piece of Street Art by Bruno Duto. Got lucky with random pedestrians, one in a red blouse and the other in a blue shirt, both colours which fit nicely with the subject.

Wendy Matthews typifies much of what people think of this Sydney Landmark ..

"Every time I come to the city I drive past her, see if she's changed. Sometimes she'll have a cat or be standing in snow. Though you never see her face, she's come to symbolise Sydney for me."

The man in the blue shirt in the second photo stopped to talk to me after he realized what I was doing. He told me that me that he had lived in the area all his life and that as far as he can remember, Bruno Dutot, comes back on the 1st Jan each year to touch the piece up for another year.

More to come soon ..

On Photographic Projects - Trent Parke (Wed 27 Aug 2014)

Untitled - Milan Station (Aug 2005)
Untitled - Milan Station (Thu 28 Aug 2014)
Trent Parke (*) writes On Projects (*):

Most of my projects last for years. I don’t feel I can achieve anything worth saying in a few weeks in a place. I have always been interested in why I am drawn to something and why I eventually push the camera button. Most of it comes from memory, the subconscious and events I experienced growing up.

via An interview with Trent Parke - Try Hard Magazine (*) by Try Hard Magazine (*).

Both stops in Milan (*) were short (about an hour) and these were quick shots taken with baggage in hand, explaining the wonkiness of each photo. I always remembered the 2005 photo and see it often amongst my favourite photos (*) on Picasa.

In 2005 (*) were heading north to Interlarken (*) from Genoa (*) and Jenny was with us. This time we heading to Bologna (*) from Zurich (*).

The Canon Pro1 (*) I used in 2005 has always been my favourite camera and the sensor gave beautiful textured and coloured images [see here (*)]. It was definitely a quirky camera, but my favourite.

It stopped working in January 2009 on our last Main Range (*) walk with Jenny. An omen of sorts I should think. It's last few images were ghostly white with faint silhouette's of Jenny and Joanne at the Summit (*) of Mt K.

I have said it few times here over the years, when I have talked about past photos, I think I saw my photos better back then. I was less knowledgeable and more naive. In some ways it has helped me understand what Bono (*) was trying to say in front of large crowd of fans at the base of the Brooklyn Bridge (*) looking into Manhattan (*) when he said (*) it was about:

a time in our lives when we did not know how powerful it was not to know.

Finally, as Trent's quote from above mentions, I think these two photos are about memory (*) and the subconscious (*). They are also about change - even though nothing really looks that different about the roofs, nine years have passed and so much has changed. Maybe that's what I was trying to say here (*) about change (*) before we departed.

So, I am happy to have these two photo, the opportunity to make them and these random thoughts here now.

Happy 100th Birthday - Den lille havfrue / Copenhagen (Fri 23 Aug 2013)

Happy 100th Birthday - Den lille havfrue (*) / Copenhagen (Fri 23 Aug 2013)
We are in Copenhagen for the last stop on our Europe 2013 (*) Adventure. I wanted to come here because of the numerous Danish TV Series, Unit One (Rejseholdet) (*), The Eagle: A Crime Odysse (Ørnen: En krimi-odyssé) (*) and more recently Borgen (*), that are so well crafted and are shown on SBS (*) with excellent subtitles.

For some reason, I love the Danish accent and it is a language I like for some reason. It is very easy to identify and they all seem to have deep voices and it almost appears that it is spoken from the middle/back of the mouth and tongue.

Australia now has a close connection with Denmark, through Mary, the Crown Princess of Denmark (*), or our Mary, as we Australian's fondly refer. And of course, there is the late Danish Architect, Jørn Utzon (*), who designed the Sydney Opera House (*).

We learnt in Amsterdam that today would be the Den lille havfrue (*) (The Little Mermaid) 100th Birthday. A visit was always planned, but it would be a special visit. Joanne had first seen her in 1984 with Jenny on their first European trip, and Joanne and I had seen her in Shanghai in the Danish Exhibition at the 2010 World Expo (*), following the 2010 Asian Dragon Championships in Wujin (*)

Today Joanne and I rose early to see the sunrise on Den lille havfrue (*). It was quiet when we arrived following a short walk from our Hotel, which through good fortune was only a 5 minute walk. There were the street cleaners making sure she would look her best, which is something I am sure is done everyday.

A couple of local TV Crews were in attendance and preparations were underway to interview a couple of people.


We made a few photos amongst ourselves and couple of others who were randomly passing and offered to photograph us. Little did they know they would end up in the photo with us.



We decided to spread some of Jenny's Ashes in the water near the Statue. It was nice to see that a little bit of Jenny would remain here and that we can think of her here and the wonderful moments she had with Jo in 1984 as well as the time that Jo and I had today.


Shortly afterwards we were asked if we would like to be interviewed by one of the TV crews. We more than happy to agree and we gave our little story as outlined above. On reflection, I feel I may have given them the impression that we travel the world to see the Mermaid wherever she maybe. While we don't explicitly do this, maybe there is a connection, as Jo and Jenny are of Swedish descent, I would like to think that maybe it is just good fortune and maybe a special implicit relationship that draws us together for small meetings every now and then.

Geoff, Maree Louise, Kristian and Joanne - Den lille havfrue / Copenhagen (Fri 23 Aug 2013)
A couple of moments I will remember, and touched me, as they showed me the fondness that the Statue has to the people of Copenhagen.

The first was a local runner, a little older than myself, pulled up from his run, stepped down to the rocks we were standing on and then stepped across the watery gap to touch the Statue on her tail. As he passed us, he said with a smile on his face, "it is her 100th birthday". We smiled back and said, "yes, we know".

The second moment was a local rowing crew, who we had seen putting there boat on the water, on the our way to the Statue, passed her on the way out for their training session. They stopped and removed their oars form their rollicks and raised them to acknowledge her special day. They did same thing on their return.




I have another lovely story to tell in a later post, maybe tonight.

There are all kinds of celebrations today, including 100 Mermaids entering the water near the Statue at 4pm and fireworks this evening at 9pm.

Better get going. Last day here and for our trip (*).

On Photography and Ambiguity - Streetshooter (Thu 29 Oct 2015)

Shroud of Erskine Creek - Water - Erskine Creek / Mount Gower / Lord Howe Island (Mon 22 Oct 2001)

Streetshooter on Photography and Ambiguity:

The thing is, to have all three elements of the self - find and realize your intent. The Eye, Heart and Mind work together to find the subject and realize the intent. The entire process from start to finish is ambiguous and should be allowed to remain that way.

via Streets of Philadelphia … A Visual Diary … Page 28 … Street … Deciphering and Realizing Intent by Streetshooter.

Our group stopped here about half way up Mount Gower to rest and to refuel for the second and more difficult half of our ascent of Mount Gower. For some reason I made a photo of the water with the reflection of the over head canopy and shafts of light breaking through. It was just a photo of the water, I thought. When I saw this photo on my computer screen a few weeks later, I decided it would look better in Black and White and made the transformation. In doing so a beautiful women revealed herself out of the relections in the water. I hope you can see her. Not everyone can. For me I see photos and I see people in photos.

The words Ambiguity and Uncertainity are interesting words. Closely related but very different. I think I can understand and feel the difference. Hence I would like to substitute the word ambiguous above with uncertain. I'm not exactly sure as I feel the word ambiguity has quite a few shades of meaning in that it can be difficult thing or a good thing depending on the context of its application. Post inspired by a engaging discussion with Carla. Thanks Carla.

Tracks - Ceské Budejovice / Czech Republic (Sun 11 Sep 2005)

Tracks - Ceské Budejovice Home of Budweiser Budvar / Czech Republic (Sun 11 Sep 2005)

We were travelling by train from Cesky Krumlov to Vienna. The stopped on the platform for 5 mins and I managed to get this shot which has really grown on me as one of my favourites.

Favourite Photos - Berlin 2005 - Marie-Elisabeth-Lüders Haus

Marie-Elisabeth Lüders Hau - 'Betty, Jenny, Joanne and David' - Berlin - 09 Aug 2005 (picasa)
Just starting a collection of favourite photos.

It was our first free day after the IDBF World Dragon Boat Championships in Berlin. We were staying near the race course and it was our first chance to explore the City on our own. It was a beautiful late summers day and we stumbled across this scene just behind the Reichstag. While we all stopped to rest a little late in the day, I got up and walked back a few steps. Loved the architecture, and was taken by the scene and glass reflections - I was careful to line up the reflections on the right windows. I just like the light, colours and the way everything fell in this composition. I have this photo as my Wallpaper on my PC at work.

Some more details about the Marie-Elisabeth-Lüders Haus from here follow:

'The Marie-Elisabeth-Lüders Haus is home to the parliamentary library and was named in honor of a leading representative of the women’s movement. It is part of the overall urban design concept for the new parliamentary buildings in Berlin, that lie along the River Spree north of the Reichstag. The Marie-Elisabeth-Luders and the Paul-Löbe Haus are connected by a bridge above the river and were completed at the same time in 2001 under the direction of German architect Stephan Braunsfeld.'

Portrait - Jinbocho / Tokyo (Thu 20 Sep 2012)

Portrait - Jinbocho / Tokyo (Thu 20 Sep 2012)
He stopped to talk to us. He had spent a year in his school days in America and his English was perfect. He worked at a Lawson Store (*) and it was his day off. He told me about the Kinokuniya (*) in Shinjuku (*) near where we were staying - literally 5 minutes away. I would visit the book store a few days later.

I asked him whether I could make a photo and he kindly obliged. I regret that I forgot to ask for his name until after we had parted.

Realised it is going to take a lot of practice to become anywhere near as good as Shot by Shooter (*). The background is hard bit and that will come with time. Just happy to have made a start.

Natural light using my tiny Canon S95.

Street Music - Madrid (Sat 10 Aug 2013)

Street Music - YouTube (*) Madrid / Spain (Sat 10 Aug 2013)
We were just wandering the back streets and passageways of Madrid not far from where were staying and we could hear music.

It was hot and as we got closer the music got louder. It was coming from the open window of a top storey apartment.

Like a few others, we stopped in the shade to listen to the music. It seemed to be live and that there was a small group playing in the tiny apartment.

I have tried to decipher the lyrics but I can't determine the songs name. Will keep trying but at least I have this. Fantastic.

On Time and The Past - Tim Winton / The Turning

Geoff - "an early start for the first day of the rest of my life - 'where do you start?'" - Alexandria (7am Wed 01 Jul 2009)

Tim Winton on Time and the Past:

When a wave breaks, the water is not moving. The swell has travelled great distances but only the energy is moving, not the water. Perhaps time moves through us and not us through it ... the past is in us, and not behind us. Things are never over.

via The Turning by Tim Winton.

These words are so touching. Not really sure how to say what they make me feel - this photograph of me the day after Jenny died, might say it all? Maybe time did move through me and I am still there - I don't know really, but this photo makes it feel like it - one of those reference points in life. It also reminds me of who I was, who I have become and want to be, which when I think about is the same thing. Not sure what I'm trying to say or how (nothing unusual there). Gladly, it is never over. I have a past, it is who I am. And thankfully, I've stopped trying to be anything else.

GPS - A Dragon Boat Training Session - Thu 13 Aug 2009

I have used a small GPS for my paddling since February 2007. Started out with a Garmin 305, and following its failure in Nov 2008, I moved to a Locosys GT31.

Have found the GPS output to be useful in gauging what is happening with the boat during a session (stopped looking at it in the boat a long time ago). Also, when comparing with other GPS outputs, we can see the outcomes of the our training over the course of the season or campaign.

I have developed and refined numerous spreadsheets and programs to process the data, and present some useful information in the form of graphs and tables. Ultimately, I hope to have a web site - www.gpspaddler.com (have registered the domain name and have lots of python code already written) - up and running (by writing this here, I will hopefully find the motivation to finish the web site off).

The following is an example. The reason I show this particular session, is that it stands out in my mind and shows a breakthrough in our performance and training. We had come a long way since early May 2009. It demonstrated that we had blended together as a team and we were definitely a strong crew (both physically and mentally) with potential to achieve our dreams. Aim to make the Final and anything is possible ..

The 500m Sets were done at Level 4 (a couple of notches below race pace) with a soft 20 Stroke Start (114m at 30s - the high 120m's is where you need to be competitive in an international race) with both 500m Sets done in around 2min 3secs. Certainly not world record pace, but for a long and intense training session, very respectable. Actually, I had not recorded such numbers in any boat in training on the Bay and remember being very excited when I downloaded and processed the data.

Over the next week we would change and refine our starts to a 25 Stroke Start for the 500m and a 30 Stroke Start for the 200m. I always found the 30 Start better and hoped that we would move to a 30 Start for the 500m's at some stage. We did this in our last race as a Mixed Crew (as George called it - "The Rabbit out of the Hat"), the Final of the Senior Mixed 500m in Prague on Sat 29 Aug 2009. It worked brilliantly.

[No secrets here - every campaign, boat, crew, technique and waterway is different. What's done is done and hopefully we can learn from every experience. The GPS definitely facilities the learning experience for the current session and campaign as well as for future campaigns.]

Session - Australian Senior Mixed Dragon Boat Team Training - GPS - Blackwattle Bay - Thu 13 Aug 2009

Set3/Side 1/500m@L4 - Australian Senior Mixed Dragon Boat Team Training - GPS - Blackwattle Bay - Thu 13 Aug 2009

Set4/Side 2/500m@L4 - Australian Senior Mixed Dragon Boat Team Training - GPS - Blackwattle Bay - Thu 13 Aug 2009

Set10/Side 2/Broken 500m - Australian Senior Mixed Dragon Boat Team Training - GPS - Blackwattle Bay - Thu 13 Aug 2009

Statistics - Australian Senior Mixed Dragon Boat Team Training - GPS - Blackwattle Bay - Thu 13 Aug 2009

It's Official - Senior Mixed 500m Final - Prague/Racice - Sat 29 Aug 2009