82.“Delhi Athletes” This was the first day in a while that I got the chance to wonder around the city at lunchtime. When I got to Forest Chase I discovered that the city was holding a “Welcome Back” event for the WA Athletes who had been to the Commonwealth Games. It seemed like an interesting shot – lots of colour, lots of people. A good opening shot for a new roll of film (#5). Somehow managed to take a double exposure…ghost in the machine?
83.“Roses in Sunset”. Another flat out day at work. I collected my previous roll of negatives from Fitzgerald’s just as they were closing and got home after 6pm. I had been admiring the beautiful roses in our neighbour’s garden, which were now in full bloom. So was a good “near to home” shot.
84. “Saturday Dress”. I was planning on photographing my hairdresser before she goes on maternity leave in December. But in my haste to make my appointment on time, I forgot my camera at home. Curses! All is not lost. I have one more appointment before she goes on leave. After my haircut, Janet and I did some shopping and then had an excellent lunch at the Greenhouse. I had a chicken and mushroom pastie in a wholemeal pastry and Janet had the ever delicious tasting plate. In the afternoon we ducked into our local shopping centre for some groceries and I spotted this cute dress outside a children’s clothes shop.
85. “West End Deli”. I was enjoying my Sunday morning ride until I punctured. That was OK. I found the responsible shard of glass in the tyre and changed the tube relatively quickly. But in my enthusiasm to pump up the tyre, I managed to snap off the valve. So I had run out of tubes and because I was cycling by myself had no buddies to bum another one from. Nothing else to phone Janet for help. I work her up from her Sunday morning sleep-in and she had to drive to Claremont to pick me up. A first in over eight years of cycling. As recompense I took her to West End Deli for brunch. And while we were there, I photographed the kitchen with the counter in the foreground. Note to self: include puncture repair kit in bag if planning to cycle solo.
86. “Adelaide Kangaroos”. I’m in Adelaide today, doing a presentation to members of our South Australian Office. On the way back to the hotel after work I spotted a large sculpture of two kangaroos in a park adjacent to the Aboriginal Cultural Centre. After checking in, I walked back the few blocks to the sculptures and took a double exposure – one photo from each side so that (hopefully) the kangaroos are facing each other. Then I wondered around the city taking photos using my i-pod and the Hipstmatic App. I got a couple of neat photos. I love the effects of the different lenses, film and flash choices. Notable was the wrought iron window grill of stylized roses (ala JH Macintosh) which would make an interesting gate for our Margaret River property.
87. “Flight to Jacinth”. I am visiting one of our minesites today and I decided to take this photograph of the turboprop aeroplane after we landed at the minesite. I wanted to get a good shot of the prop and the wing. Its interesting staying here out at the mine site camp. The people work between 10 and 12 hours shifts for eight days straight. I am here on their last night before the “swing” change so most of the people ate early and then retired. That left a small group of visitors talking in the dining room until it closed around 8pm. I went to my room and answered some e-mails and watch a TV program about Mumbai slums before falling asleep. Not sure I could this type of fly-in, fly-out job. Perhaps you get used it after a while.
88. 27th Oct. “Chinatown Reprise” I can’t believe they have started putting up Christmas decoration in Adelaide already. I mean, its not even November yet! I’m back here again on my way home after my minesite visit. I had spotted an interestingly looking tapas restaurant when I was here on Monday, but it was closed. So tonight I have come here. On the way I walked through Chinatown and it reminded me of one of my first photos taken in Melbourne way back in August. Bright lanterns and red gates marking the entrance. Chinese dragons gleaming at the front of the gates in the late evening sun. So I took a double exposure and photographed one of the dragon’s head up close. Adelaide – double exposure town. The tapas bar is Sangria Y Pintxos Bar (I think). Sitting there I have two revelations. 1. I am setting under a row of cured ham. 2. I need far more practice and training if I intend to improve both my writing and my photos. Janet gave me a book called the Leadership Dojo, which talks much about training and practice to hone skills and ability. And suddenly it dawns on me… duh. “we are passionate about what we practice if its relevant to the life we want to create” (R. Strozzi-Heckler)
89. “Mackey’s Sign”. There is a building in our neighborhood which was previously a corner store, then a hairdresser, then a number of other businesses. Recently it has been renovated and is now just a house. But the owners have hand-painted an old advertising sing on the front wall. It caught my eye the first time I saw the sign (riding home form work). So today on my way home I choose this as my photograph.
90. “Kitsch Wall”. I seem to have a bit of a painted wall thing happening at the moment. Yesterday it was the Mackey’s Wall. Today it’s the painted wall at Kitsch, the Asian Tapas bar next to the RE Store on Oxford Street. Yes, you read right – Asian Tapas Bar. We had our usual prawn crackers to start, then pork dumplings, followed by a spicy pork and octopus salad and stir fried greens. And the spicy salad was spicy! All washed down with a bottle of Rolf Binder 2007 Riesling.
91. “Janet the Smurfette” I popped into Distracted while Janet was having her hair done. It was during the blue dye stage so she had all this blue gunk in her hair and it was all standing on end. A photo opportunity that I could not miss.
92. “Sayers on Sunday. We slept in this Sunday and then decided to go to Sayers for breakfast. We walked down to build up an appetite. We managed to squeeze into a table as Sayers is always packed on a Sunday morning. I took this photo of one of the wait-staff as we were leaving.
Day 93. 1st November. “Monday Colour Boost”. We are off to Hong Kong tonight for a conference, where I am giving a presentation. It turned out to be a busy day, with lots of last minute tasks to complete before I head overseas for three weeks. I ducked out at lunchtime and took this photograph of the local Boost Juice stall near our office.
94. “Hong Kong View from Hotel Window”. Overnight flight from Perth to Hong Kong. Didn’t have too much to do today, so Janet and I went for lunch at a local noodle bar and then we had a massage in the afternoon. We are staying at the Intercontinental in Kowloon, which has beautiful views across the harbour to Hong Kong Island. I took this photo from our hotel window, which hopefully got the Junk looking boat in the foreground.
95. “Same view at night”. A very busy day with a number of meetings. The day just seemed to get away from me and before I knew it, it was dark outside. So I decided to take the same shot as the previous day, but with a long exposure this time.
96. “Hotel Room snap – in desperation”. Well if yesterday was busy, today was just flat out. I gave my presentation in the morning, which went well. Then meetings wall-to-wall during the day and a customer function in the evening. No time for Holga shots so I had to resort to a photo within our hotel room at the end of the day. It’s kind of disappointing that I haven’t had time to find time for some more interesting shots of Kowloon, but then I am here to work….
97. “Rob, Jason at Spoon”. The last day of the conference. The marketing boys had worked extremely hard over the last week and were having a quick celebratory dinner before flying out. I took this photo of them (and Janet) at Spoon, the French restaurant in the hotel while we had dinner.
98. “Umbrellas on the star walk”. I came down with a cold overnight and then woke up this morning feeling miserable. A mood to match the weather, which had been raining the last few days. Still the rain did not deter the people walking along the boardwalk below our hotel. The multiple coloured umbrellas caught my attention, so I took this photo. We moved across to Hong Kong Island today and after having a slight misunderstanding about which hotel we were staying at, we settled into Hong Kong “Central”, briefly catching up with our friend James in the evening. Note to unwary travelers, there are two Lang Kwok Fong Hotels in Lang Kwok Fong.
99. “James, Barry and Janet @ the Lamma Hilton”. The improved today as did my health and mood. We had arranged to go to Lamma Island for lunch with James and our Hong Kong friend Barry. We ate at the Lamma Hilton and got free T-shirts. The Lamma Hilton is all plastic chairs and old round chip-board tables. No prizes for décor, but the sea food is excellent and the wine really cheap for Hong Kong. I took this photo of James, Janet and Barry after our 3rd bottle of wine. And things only got worse after that. We got back to Hong Kong after that and continued eating and drinking in Soho and LKF. James fortunately had the sense to abandon ship early in the evening, but we pressed on and made the mistake of popping into the ice-bar, which is really just a big fridge where you get to wear fur coats and drink vodka. All downhill from there…
100. Monday 8th November. “Hong Kong girl”. Not surprising, Janet and I woke up feeling sorry for ourselves this morning after our Big Party last night. It was our last night in Honkers before she flew back to Perth and I flew up to Shanghai for a number of customer visits. We had coffee at Waygu in LKF before walking around aimlessly for a while. I took this photo as we were heading back to our hotel up one of the steep pedestrian walkways.
100 days! I can’t believe it has come around so quickly. Off to Shanghai.
101. “Beijing Model”. Got into Shanghai late last night. Up early this morning for a flight to Zhengzhou, then a two hour drive to a pigment factory. Quick tour of the plant, then lunch. Raced back to the airport and flew to Beijing. Exhausted after Day 1 of my China trip. Plus my cold has gotten worse. Lots of great photo opportunities, but not opportunity to take a photograph. So finally I resorted to a photo of a display window of the shop in our hotel in Beijing.
102. “Beijing International Hotel”. We traveled over a 1000km today via a combination of rail and road. Beijing to Jinzhou by train (3hrs) Jinzhou to Fuxin by car (1.5 hrs), Fuxin to Jinzhou by car and then back to Beijing by rail. Left our hotel at 6.30am and got back after 10pm. Completely exhausted but had a number of interesting meetings. Visited a Ti-Slag smelting operation, which looked like something from the mines of Mordor – dark and smoky, with molten slag and iron running from large furnaces. The most bizarre thing was seeing someone boil a kettle on top of a slag pile which had just been tapped and was still glowing red. Of course I did not have a camera of any description on me. So I had to take a photo of our hotel entrance when we got back to Beijing.
103. “Jinan Night Street” Double exposure plus extra shot of tree lights. Same again today. Up early – long train ride to Jinan, life threatening drive to a factory, meeting, banquet lunch, factory tour, life threatening drive to train station at Zibo to catch a train to Jinan. Arrived at the station early but in the confusion which is the Chinese railway station, we managed to miss our train and had to wait around Zibo station for another two hours. So we only got to Jinan after 9.30pm, exhausted and still feeling sick. I ducked out of the hotel after we arrived and discovered a street market happening on the pavement around from the hotel. I took a double exposure shot of a street vendor in front of a brightly lit doorway. Then I saw these tree lights and broke one of my rules by taking another photo.
104. “High Speed Train to Shanghai”. So today we left the hotel at 6.15am and caught a plane to Nanjing. Then a two hour (life threatening) car ride to Bengbu. Banquet lunch, followed by a 2 ½ hour meeting. Then a 3 ½ hour train ride to Shanghai. Still sick and predictably arrived in Shanghai exhausted – actually completely knacked! I took a photo of a high speed train as it stopped at the station. I wasn’t sure if the first shot came out, so I took another one. This is the last exposure of the roll (post note: turns out no photo of the train came out – bummer). Spending the weekend in Shanghai and I am so looking forward to a couple of days of rest.
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