Bits and pieces

So I realised as I was writing my Movie Monday post yesterday that it's been a while since I gave you guys a general life update THING, because I've been distracted by writing about my past travels and posting pretty pictures that I took last year. But the more I thought about it, the more I realised that I didn't have anything to say that warranted an entire post. So here - have a pile of little bits of nonsense!!

• I'm dying of the plague sick and prone to hyperbole at the moment (URGH), and am coughing up a lung on a regular basis as a result. Apparently I sound like a seal when I cough. Awesome... Last night, I was coughing basically non-stop, so I went upstairs to check the basket of medicinal stuff for cough syrup. But all we had was a bottle of paediatric Dimetapp that's about six months past its use by date. I seriously contemplated drinking half the bottle anyway...
• I don't remember what I used to do for fun before Nikki moved to Australia and bought a mobile phone with the most hilarious predictive text/autocorrect function of all time. According to her phone, Spooks = Spoolp. Rocket science = pocket science. TARDIS = VASEIS. Stuttered = puttuesed. Tins = Thor. Soon = smoo. Flummoxed = flunonyed. 'Roast in the sun' = 'smart in the run'. Plate = slave. Needless to say, it's endlessly entertaining. (And if you know Nikki and I at all, you won't be surprised that our conversations include references to Spooks and the TARDIS!)
• I've handed in my first uni assignment, and am therefore having panic attacks about whether or not I did the right thing (it was a reflective thing, hence the stressing). Other than the stressing, uni's going well. Although the timetable is kicking my arse. 
• I've been watching far too much Dawson's Creek for my own good. It makes me feel better about my life, because at least there isn't readily available film footage of me wearing outfits like this:

You're welcome for the bonus Pacey. Also, source.

• When we were putting together a photo slideshow for my grandmother's funeral a few weeks ago, we needed to burn all the photos to a CD to take to the funeral home. Mum asked me to get one out of the top of a cupboard in the study. When I opened the cupboard, and reached for a CD, she suddenly said "DON'T KNOCK THAT BOX!!" in a really anxious voice. I was all "Um, okay. Why??" "*mumble mumble mumble*" "What?" "Because that's Domino's ashes..." Apparently when the parentals picked up his ashes all those months ago, they didn't want to upset me by discussing what to do with them. So they shoved him in the top of a cupboard with the blank CDs. It's kind of hilarious... (HI MUM!!)
• I caught up with my BFF Kat, who was in town for her sister's wedding last weekend. There was much drinking of coffee and eating of tiny cupcakes and marvelling over the fact that skinny ties are back in fashion #WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
• I saw a man wearing a shirt that had a BUILT IN TIE. It started out as grosgrain ribbon around the collar, and then gradually the ribbon wasn't sewn to the front of the shirt any more, and became a tie. It was horrifying.
• I finally got around to getting my student card, and can now get discount movie tickets until 2014. SCORE! Shame I look like a shiny escaped mental patient in the picture...

What's new with you guys?

K xx

Favourite photos of 2011: Volume 3

Today's instalment of my favourite photos of 2011 is 'Animals'. It seems like I went to a zoo or aquarium in every city I visited in the US last year. I think Washington DC is the only exception to that rule, and that's simply because we ran out of time. We DID see lots of amusing taxidermied animals though...

Speaking of which, I'm thinking of doing a series of posts about my favourite ridiculous museum objects. Because I have a TON of photos on my hard drive from museums and galleries of things that made me laugh/were really freaking awesome, and very little use for them. So I figured I'd share them with all of you!! (Aren't you lucky??)

Anywho. On with the show!

August - Domino. 

Yes, that's a slipper shaped like a koala.

I miss him every day.

August - Snake at the Shedd Aquarium, Chicago

August - Allosaur at the Field Museum, Chicago

Okay, I'm stretching the definition of animal. Whatever.

August - Major Mitchell cockatoo, Denver Zoo

I still find it amusing that I went half way around the
world to take a picture of something from Australia

September - Moss frog, New England Aquarium, Boston

September - Lion fish, New England Aquarium, Boston

I seem to take photos of lion fish at every aquarium I visit. It's getting ridiculous.

September - Lyndsy's cat likes suitcases, Denver

Does anyone else get home from overseas and find their memory cards filled with pictures of zoo animals and museum objects??

K xx

Memories

Yesterday afternoon, my grandmother passed away. It wasn't wholly unexpected - she was 87, and had been deteriorating slowly for a long time now. But it's still surreal to think that someone who's always been there, through your entire life, is suddenly gone.

Various old photos have appeared out of the woodwork last night and today. I seem to have inherited her hips, along with the gap between my front teeth, my inability to stop eating sugar, and my fussy food preferences.

As a child, I spent hours rummaging through the drawers in her wall unit, playing with magnifying glasses, loupes, and miniature screwdrivers. Quite why she HAD any of that stuff, I still don't know. I learnt to rollerblade (very gingerly) in her tiny back garden. And I spent what seemed like years playing the cassette of the Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat soundtrack in her living room when we moved back to Australia in 1995.

She never complained when I played with the bass pedals on the electric organ until the windows rattled, or when I phoned her in tears at the age of thirteen because the soup I was trying to make had boiled dry and burnt, and I didn't know how to clean the saucepan and hide the evidence before Mum got home. (It boiled dry because I was watching The X-Files on video, and forgot all about it) Or when Puppy Domino stole her bra out of her suitcase on the day she got remarried and ran around the house with it. (Although it's possible she didn't know about that one...)

She wore dresses with liquorice allsorts patterns on them, always sang On the Good Ship Lollipop at bedtime, and made the world's most amazing yoyo biscuits. In a childhood that was spent regularly adjusting to new countries, new friends and new schools, she was one of the few constants in my life. And I loved her dearly.

So goodbye to my darling Gran. Be at peace. I'll miss you forever.

K xx

PS. A massive thank you to all of you who sent love, prayers and thoughts on Twitter yesterday. They meant the world <3

30 Days of Photography - Day 9

The theme for today's photo is 'someone you love'. Obviously, if I had my way the post would be filled with pictures of Jake Gyllenhaal and David Tennant. But that would be cheating, because I haven't actually taken any photos of them. YET. *evil grin* (I'm sorry, was that creepy? My bad.)

Ahem. Anyway, you get this instead:

I took it two days before he died. And I miss him every day.

K xx

Domino

I feel physically and emotionally exhausted at the moment. On Friday, my beloved dog, Domino, had to be put down. And I'm heartbroken.

He would have been fifteen on Thursday. He was almost entirely blind and deaf, had dementia, was losing weight, kept walking into walls and could barely walk around the block before refusing to move. So I know that he's better off now - life can't have been much fun for him.

Ave et vale, my darling boy. Be at peace.

K xx

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday

Even dogs need a pillow sometimes! (It's an old slipper shaped like a koala, for the record...)

K xx

ABC of me

I've seen a few of these around the blogosphere of late, but I stole this one from Kat!

Age: 28

Bed: Double. I'm not a starfish-er, so it's more than enough space!


Chore you hate: Taking out the rubbish. It's just gross... Oh, and cleaning the shower.


Dogs: Yes!! As long as they're not little yappy white fluff ball dogs...

Domino as a week old puppy, 1996

Essential start to your day: Shower. If I don't shower in the morning, I never feel properly awake!


Favourite colour: Blue. I'm not fussy, any shade of blue.


Gold or silver: Definitely silver. Gold washes me out.


Height: 175cm (5'9")


Instruments you play: The clarinet and the piano. But I haven't played either properly since high school, so I doubt I'm any good any more! And I'm pretty sure I can still play "Over the Sea to Skye" on the recorder...


Job title: Curatorial assistant. Which makes me sound like I'm a curator's secretary. I'm not. They just couldn't come up with a better title for the rank under Assistant Curator.


Kids: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Good God, no. Never ever ever ever ever ever. I've been saying that since I was twelve and people STILL say "Oh, you'll change your mind..." Yeah, not so much. Little Miss A is more than sufficient!


Live: Canberra. But only for 26 more days!!! :D


Mum's name: Lorraine. (Not to be confused with this Lorraine)


Nickname: Kirsti is already a nickname. Well, an abbreviation of my full name. So I never really had many nicknames. KG in high school, but that's about it! Anyone calling me 'Kirst' is asking to be stabbed in the face...


Overnight hospital stay: When I was born, I assume? Other than that, no.


Pet peeve: Lateness, cyclists attempting to set a land speed record on the footpath, people who get to the front of a queue before searching for their money.


Quote from a book or movie: "Just because you've got the emotional range a teaspoon doesn't mean we all have." Hermione Granger, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (it's what I'm reading at the moment. Also? I just added 'Hermione' to my Chrome dictionary, because I'm sick of it having a wibbly red line!)


Righty/Lefty: Lefty!! As are my mum, my brother C, and Little Miss A.


Siblings: One younger brother (C), one older half-brother.


Time you wake up: 6.25am. Ugh...


Underwear: Not butt floss!


Veggies you dislike: Mushrooms, green beans, sprouts, eggplant, olives.


What makes you late: Checking my email on my phone before I get up! Also thinking "I'll just read ONE more chapter..."


X-Rays you've had: Teeth at the dentist, some fancy-pants full jaw thing to locate my wisdom teeth.


Yummy food you make: Just check the archives!! Or click here, here, or here.


Zoo animal: Red panda. They're just so cute and squishable! Plus, they're usually asleep, so seeing one moving around is a huge treat.

Canberra Zoo, 2010

K xx

Challenge recipe 2: Chilli, lime and chicken salad

It was stinking hot yesterday, it was even worse today, hitting 38 degrees in the 'berra. The trend is to continue for basically the whole week, with an increasing degree of humidity. Awesome... So I figured it was time to break out one of the salads that I'd flagged for my cookbook challenge. This is a crunchy, tangy salad that's a hell of a lot more exciting - not to mention healthier! - than my usual chicken salad. I made a couple of little changes to the recipe - I replaced watercress with lettuce, left out the two spring onions because I can't stand them raw, and made a little change to the dressing - but apart from that, this is as it appears in the book.

Speaking of which, this is the book:

It's one of the AWW's tiny cookbooks, and I think I got it at the newsagent for $5.00. Score!

Here's what you'll need for the salad:

Start by putting 1 cup of chicken stock and 1 cup of water into a saucepan. Bring it to the boil (and pay attention to it, or you'll find it erupting all over the stove like I did...), then reduce to a simmer and add 340g of trimmed chicken breast.

Simmer for about 10 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked. Cool for five minutes, and then dice.

While the chicken is cooking, julienne the carrot:

And slice the capsicum thinly:

Then slice up the Chinese cabbage (also known as wombok)...

...and the iceberg lettuce (or, if you want to do it by the actual recipe, use 100g trimmed watercress):

Then dump all the veggies into a large salad bowl that you gave your housemate for Christmas and are now taking advantage of, and add 1/2 cup of chopped coriander...

...along with 3/4 cup of bean sprouts:

Toss the whole lot together, and start on the dressing. Here's what you'll need:

I forgot to take photos of making the dressing, because I was trying to work out if the chicken was cooked at the same time, but I'm sure you can work out how to make dressing. Take 1/4 cup of lime juice (limes are easier to juice if you stick them in the microwave for 10 seconds first!), add 2 tablespoons of sweet chilli sauce, 1 tablespoon of soy sauce (technically, the recipe calls for oyster sauce. But it makes me gag, so I switched it out...), 1 clove of crushed garlic, and 1 teaspoon of sesame oil.

Add the chicken to the top of the salad, and drizzle on the dressing:

Serve and enjoy! (Oh, it serves 4, btw)

The verdict? This was delicious. I was somewhat sceptical, given that in my mind "poached chicken = what you give Domino when he's sick and won't eat his dry food". Plus, I wasn't sure about the raw Chinese cabbage part of it. But it's just crunchy and fresh, with the tang of lime and the sweetness of honey from the chilli sauce. To be honest, if I made it again, I'd probably marinate the chicken in lime juice, and grill it with a little bit of spray oil rather than poaching it. But other than that (and the other few changes that I made...), it's all good.

And given that it contains less than 200 calories per serve, I think I can deal with adding an extra few calories to the recipe in the future. It's surprisingly filling too. At least, it is when you follow it up with a serving of homemade chocolate mousse... But that's challenge recipe number 3!

Give this a try in stupidly hot weather - you'll be glad you did!!

K xx

Melbourne shenanigans

Well, I started writing a post about all the things I did with my weekend in Melbourne about two hours ago. But it came out REALLY boring. And stupidly, even though I carted TWO cameras with me, I barely took any photos, so I can't rely on those to illustrate my point... *sigh* So I'm going with the bullet pointed version instead...

• I navigated from the Hume to my parents' house without getting lost. Go me! A vast improvement on last time when I got us lost in the back blocks of Greensborough at 11pm. In the rain...
• We saw Hairspray live on stage. It was awesome. I'm pretty sure I had a smile on my face for the whole two and a half hours. And that's damned rare for me...
• The sets of Hairspray were intriguing - instead of the traditional wooden painted sets, they used big digital screens. It meant the pace of the show was much faster because you didn't have to wait for sets to change and props to be taken on and off the stage
• Because Hairspray was a preview showing (the premiere was on Saturday night), the program was only $10. Bargain!
• The Tim Burton exhibition is awesome. And features many many things touched/worn by Johnny Depp. Mmmmmm, Johnny Depp........... ;)
• I do have to say though, Tim Burton is one epically weird dude. Throughout the whole exhibition, I was reminded of that Stephen King quote about having the heart of a small boy. In a jar on his desk...
• I *may* have been to Salsa's twice *looks guilty* Mmmmmmm, burritos and Mexe-crinkle fries.......
• I discovered that I still classify as a Melbournian - I can stand up on a tram in 10cm heels without holding onto anything and not fall over. WIN!
• I went to a roof top bar that required walking up three thousand stairs (in 10cm heels - not fun) and featured a taxidermied ostrich wearing pearls. Weird...
• The time at said roof top bar was spent consuming cider by the pint and catching up with old friends. Good times...
• I got to see my BFF from kindergarten Char's new apartment, and cackle hysterically at the book she showed me - 101 Uses for a Bridesmaid's Dress. My personal favourite read "Wear it to jury duty. You'll be back at your desk in 10 minutes."
• I had dinner at one of my all time favourite restaurants - Jazz Ria. And I ordered exactly the same thing I do every time I go there. And it was AWESOME...
• I discovered that my dog now eats cat food (On the vet's advice, apparently). And that as a result, my dad has decided "The Dog Who Ate Cat Food" would be an excellent title for a childrens' book...

Basically, it was a great weekend. And I can't believe I don't get to do it all again until Christmas time. *sigh*

K xx

PS. A reality show's just started on TV following parking inspectors around. Who the hell would watch that crap??????????

Clown shoes (which in no way relates to actual clowns...)

I got home from the airport last night and, in typical fashion, bypassed my family members in favour of my dog. And my first reaction on seeing him was "Duuuuuuuuude... You need a haircut..."

Seriously. He bears a striking resemblance to an old man who doesn't know when to trim his eyebrow and ear hair (*cough* John Howard! *cough*). Or someone who's had a close encounter with an electric fence. He's like a cross between Doc Brown from Back to the Future, and Timmy from Jurassic Park...


Okay, so the first one might not have looked too bad, but check out the layer of fuzz here:


And yes, Domino DOES have a stuffed toy koala that he uses as a pillow...

How about a closer shot of the fuzz with a nice contrasting wall behind it?


Ridonkulous. And to make it worse, he has so much fur on his feet that he looks like he's walking around in GIANT CLOWN SHOES.


I swear his feet look about double the size they actually are. He walks like someone in flippers...

Part of me is tempted to steal Dad's beard clipper and go to town. But that would be wrong, I suppose... Maybe I'll just settle for leaving the dog groomer's number in strategic locations around the house instead...

Off to play with my clown dog,

K xx

Home alone

My housemate, D, left last night for two weeks in New Zealand. This is both good and bad. Good because I don't feel guilty about taking up the entire fridge or hogging the washing machine or subjecting her to watching Rush, solely because it's based in Melbourne and I get homesick for trams. Bad because I have an overactive imagination when I'm home alone overnight.

I think it started in about year 9 when I was home by myself doing homework in my room during winter. From memory, it was only about 6.30, but because it was dark, when I heard a noise, I automatically started freaking out. It sounded like someone was downstairs in the kitchen banging dishes in the dishwasher. I assumed that Mum or Dad had gotten home, but when I got to the top of the stairs, all the lights downstairs were out. So I grabbed my hockey stick (God knows what I thought I was going to do with it...), and crept downstairs.

And when I got to the bottom of the stairs, I screamed bloody murder and swung my hockey stick at a face in the darkness. Which turned out to be a noh mask that my brother had brought home from a choir tour earlier in the year, and which had been hung at head height on the hall stand... I did manage to avoid hitting it, which I was quite impressed with. And of course, there was no one in the kitchen or in the house, and the noise like banging dishes turned out to be the dog SNORING. Don't ask me how it sounded like the dishwasher being unloaded very loudly, I still have no idea.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaanyway, this unfortunate incident has been replicated numerous times over the years, although not quite in such spectacular fashion. I seem to have developed an unfortunate habit of watching things I shouldn't watch right before bedtime, and then realising that I'm going to be alone in the house overnight.

Last year, my old housemate went home for a month to do her teaching rounds. I watched Se7en at 10.30pm and then freaked out that Kevin Spacey was going to chop my head off and put it in a box. I actually built a barricade in front of my bedroom door to stop him from getting in.

Last night? I watched a Reaver heavy episode of Firefly, followed by the first half hour of The Exorcist. Champion work... Tonight, I have plans for pulling all the G-rated stuff out of my DVD collection - surely there's nothing in there to freak me out??? Dammit. I've just jinxed myself. I now have no doubt that I'll switch off the DVD player and the TV will flick over to a report on Tony Abbott running a triathlon, including stock footage of him in his budgie smugglers...

Screw it. I'm off to build another barricade.....................................

K xx

Birthday weekend!

It was my birthday last weekend. And here's what I did with it:

• I drove 1,300 kilometres from Canberra to Melbourne and back. Well, okay. I didn't *actually* do any driving. But I performed essential candy distribution and iPod playing/fast forwarding functions!
• I ate way too much. Including this:

It's upside down apple tart with butterscotch sauce and cream. And it was sooooooooooooooooo good. I swear, if I thought I had half a chance of replicating it, I'd be baking apple tarts every weekend. But there was something about the pastry that I could never recreate. It was like a cross between choux pastry and mille feuille pastry. And it was delicious.

• I got presented with this. It had far too many candles on it for my liking... And I forgot to bring a slab of it back to Canberra with me. Tear...

• I cleaned out my closets, now that I'm switching bedrooms with my brother in Melbourne. God, was that a horrifying experience... Bags and bags and BAGS of junk. My entire collection of Dan Brown books has gone on the scrap heap, as have five years worth of dancing costumes. Why I thought I'd ever need a gold spandex leotard with sequins that I wore for a tap routine of 'New York, New York' again, I have absolutely no idea. And yet, I kept it for ten years...
• I got attacked by a giant moth in Glenrowan. The whole town was FILLED with giant creepy moths. I've been told that they might have been these. Whatever they were, they were terrifying as hell.
• I made macaroni and cheese for a certain four year old who's been telling her mother for weeks that HER macaroni and cheese isn't up to scratch compared to mine. It probably has something to do with her mother regulating the amounts of cheese she uses...
• I got crowned the 'Birthday Macaroni and Cheese Hero' by the same four year old, and got to wear the pink plastic princess tiara all night. Shame it's designed for a small child with a tiny head and gave me a killer headache...
• I took my usual photos of dead trees out the window of the car. Don't worry - I won't subject you to them!!
• I got some seriously awesome measuring cups, which will feature in my baking for my Canberra birthday celebrations this weekend. Watch this space to see the awesomeness!!
• I got to watch my poor (mostly blind) puppy walk into furniture, courtesy of the house being painted and furniture being stacked in completely bizarre places
• I realised that I completely suck at navigating from the Hume to my parents' house in Melbourne in the dark and the rain without a street directory. Not really surprising, considering I've only really done that trip once before when I had to pay attention to where we were going!

So all in all, it was a good weekend. Although the paint smell and the dust from cleaning out the closets played havoc with the dregs of my lovely cold, which was less than fun. Oh, and I got to plan out aaaaaaaaaall the things I'm going to bake this weekend. So you can expect far more exciting posts shortly!!
K :) xx

Adventures with an SLR

So as you may remember, in early January I finally caved after a year of contemplating it and invested in a digital SLR. And while I now have to carry a gazillion cubic metres of camera bag with me, it was worth every penny. I'm even contemplating using forthcoming birthday money on a new lens! So anyway, in honour of my trusty Nikon, I now present some of the adventures my camera and I have had over the past couple of months.

Let's start with this guy:

You have nooooo idea how many photos of Domi I've accumulated over the past thirteen and a bit years. But I like this one. He may be mostly deaf and blind in one eye, but he's still happy to see me, even if I stick a camera in his face.

Next up, we have tree frogs at the Melbourne Zoo. They're so cute and squishy and in a row:

Here's a green basilisk, also at the Melbourne Zoo. I like taking photos in the reptile house. Things stay still in there!!

A koala. It was actually awake and moving and stuff. Go to enough zoos and you start to get a sense of just how uncommon this is!!

This is a bongo. It was staring at me through the hedge and the fence. It may be through a fence, but I really like this photo.

Aaaaaand here's the baby elephant again. This day, I was really glad I had the SLR, because it meant I could make use of continuous shutter mode!

I like giraffes. They're kinda funny looking, and they have purple tongues, which is just bizarre. But they're cool. And they're fun to take photos of cos they move in a slow, dopey kind of way.

*sigh* My favourite building... I saw a job advertised here today that I could totally do if I had a couple more years of experience. Alas................ *sighs again*

Cascade in Hobart. I like this one cos you can see that the right-hand window on the second top floor doesn't actually have any building behind it.

Here's a fern frond in the Cascade gardens. What can I say? I love macro shots. When I've got a spare thousand dollars, I'm totally going to invest in a macro lens...

Here's a couple of shots of Hobart from Mt. Wellington. In 1804, Colonial Surveyor G.P. Harris wrote to his mother about the new settlement in Hobart, and said that the Derwent Estuary was large enough and deep enough to hold the whole British navy. From up here, you can totally understand it.

This is at the Botanic Gardens in Hobart. I like the bokeh.

Here's the church at Port Arthur.

And here's the hospital.

This is Pirate Bay. I like how clear the coastline turned out in the left-hand foreground.

I took this out the window of the car on the way to Freycinet. I like how the tree turned out clear compared to the blurry foreground.

This is the beach at Coles Bay. I like the spray and the light.

This is Freycinet National Park. It was kind of hazy this day...

Here's Wineglass Bay. Even with an SLR, the photos don't do it justice.

This is Sleepy Bay in Freycinet National Park. The colour of the water was amaaaaaaazing...

Little Gravelly Beach, still in Freycinet.

The texture on the rocks was seriously cool:

Here's a bunch of photos from Cradle Mountain. Doing the walk around Dove Lake was pretty cool. You get to see Cradle Mountain from a ton of different angles!

Here's a lyrebird at Healesville Sanctuary. He found the camera intriguing.

More photos of reptiles, this time at Healesville. This little guy was so sleepy looking.

This photo may not be great, but the little Tassie devil was running circles in his enclosure. He was going so fast that this was the best photo I could get - he only stopped for a split second, and I'm pretty sure if I'd had a standard digital camera, I wouldn't have gotten the shot.

A kangaroo. This may not be a particularly exciting photo, but I like it all the same.

This photo just makes me laugh. This is at the Canberra Zoo and Aquarium. That fish stared at me for the longest time.

This guy was just cool.

These snakes were curled up in a ball. The one on the right sat up and stared at us when we got to their enclosure. It was pretty cool.

There may be snot marks on the glass, but it's not often you can get a photo of a brown bear that's only centimetres away from you! Plus, she's smiling.

More giraffe shots. The ones in Canberra come right up close to the fence because you can pay extra and feed them at certain times.

It may be leaning against a manky looking fence, but this eland had such a sweet face that I really like this photo...

More tree frogs. These ones were far less sleepy.

My all-time favourite zoo animals. I LOVE red pandas. And usually they're sitting in trees sleeping. So I was ridiculously excited when these ones were up and around.

Here's some shots from the Canberra Botanic Gardens at the weekend. As it's all native species, it's not the most exciting botanic gardens I've ever been to, but I still got some fun shots.

Like this one of the bark on a banksia tree:

And this one has absolutely nothing to do with anything, but it's of the Rooster Tree on the Hume Highway between Melbourne and Sydney. It's awesome:

Who knows what adventures my SLR and I will have next???????

K :) xx

PS. After my rant about Photoshop a couple of weeks ago, I feel the need to point out that all of these shots are straight out of the camera. All I've done is a bit of cropping.