Plans change.

You’re probably wondering why I have a picture of the inside of the Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute (The Peter Mac) on a blog post titled “Plans change”. Let me tell you why…………

I had plans. BIG plans. Seven weeks overseas visiting Ireland, Scotland, England, Wales, France, Germany, Italy, Austria and Greece. I have had to adjust these plans a little bit.

According to Encyclopedia Google the quote “The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry” is the modern translation of “The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men / Gang aft a-gley.” from Scottish poet Robert Burns’ “To a Mouse.” I always thought it was written by John Steinbeck, but he only pinched a teeny bit of it to use as the title of his famous novel ‘Of Mice and Men’.

Cancer will make you change your plans. My dad has cancer. Lung cancer. He was diagnosed about 2 months ago. This is not his first cancer. It started with the melanomas. Then there was the squamous cell carcinoma on the left side of his neck a few years ago. Every visit to the Peter Mac had the family on edge. What was going to be cut off today? What else had they found?

The relentlessness of a post-cruise bout of pneumonia led to the doctors taking a lung x-ray which revealed the cancerous tumour on the left lung and subsequent testing led to the discovery of the bonus little tumours on the right lung.

Last week things got life-threateningly scary for dad. We were at the pointy end of things and the point was pressing into him pretty hard.

Packing a suitcase and boarding a plane that was going to take me thousands of miles away from my dad and my mum was NOT an option. I knew where I had to be and on a plane to Dublin was not it.

So I changed my plans. A postponement. Nothing a few phone calls and emails couldn’t sort out.

Unbelievably my dad was discharged from the Peter Mac today, a week after we were gathered around his bedside trying to bring him comfort in what we honestly thought were going to be his last hours. The team at the Peter Mac had only one option available and they gambled on it. The gamble paid dividends. But I don’t think they took into account the stubborn nature of my dad. He wasn’t ready to go yet. You don’t fuck with my dad.

He had better keep this fighting spirit going. The new flight is booked for the 31st.

 

 

 

 

 

The tap

One of my nearest and dearest is achieving a lifelong dream. She has always wanted to own her own home and she is finally on the road to seeing that dream come to fruition. The best thing is, she is building her home. Getting to choose bricks, tiles, windows, flooring, cabinets, fittings, lights, garage door colours…………everything.

It has been an insanely slow process getting the land titled and the building actually started, but it has begun and it is going full steam ahead.

I’m going to try to get up to the block every week and take photos of the progress and try to be a little creative in the process. She is going to have THE best and most creative record of her house being built. No phone snaps here ladies and gentlemen. An artist is at work.

 

You just have to keep believing that it will happen.

You have to keep believing that it will happen.

And that belief must be unwavering.

You cannot allow doubt to enter into the conversation.

If needs be, keep your dreams unto yourself.

Make the changes necessary to allow those dreams to have a path on which to tread.

Rejoice when the dream is realised.

 

OMG!!! Someone LIVES here!!!!

I have to tell you a funny story that happened to me on my holiday.

I had stopped for a toilet break in some town somewhere between Napier and Wellington and I noticed a fantastic derelict building on the opposite corner to the park that had the toilet block. As I do like a good derelict building for photos, after taking the time to make myself comfortable, I took the time to snap away.

This place was gorgeous. Broken windows with weather-damaged plywood replacing the broken panes. Water stains down the exterior. Rotting timbers. Broken gate. A washing line on a serious lean. Dangerous and crumbling concrete steps. A pile of old magazines could be seen through a window from the outside boundary.

My mind was alive with the possible stories of the past inhabitants.  A hoarder who lived a hermit’s life, talking to nobody, surviving on cans of baked beans served atop thin slices of stale white toast served on cracked china plates. Living off the grid by rising at dawn and going to bed as it got dark. Dying alone and not being discovered for months.

A lonely old man with no money and in frail health living his last days in the house he moved into with his long dead wife. Unable to afford basic home repairs. The house crumbling as rapidly as his bones.

As these wonderful stories about this derelict, vacant house danced in my imagination I snapped away.

Then as I made my way towards the rear of the building, where the rot was clearly visible at the back steps, I looked up at a window and nearly had a heart attack. There was a bloody cat sitting in the window frame, inside the house, just looking at me.

OMG!!! Somebody LIVES in this house!!!!

This house that looks as though it has been abandoned for the last 5 years has a human occupant. And a feline one.

Holy shit!!!!

Suddenly I was terrified that someone was going to step out of that back door with a shotgun yelling at me to get off of their land. So I very quickly took my photo of the cat in the window and got the bloody hell out of there.

I am still amazed that anybody would be living in the house. It is well past the term ‘renovators delight’. More like ‘demolition dream’

 

 

I pulled out the ball tonight.

It has been a big day. I have walked more kilometres than my feet are willing to admit, all whilst carrying my weighty camera bag, tripod, raincoat and umbrella. By the end of it, a rather high percentage of my willpower was saying, “Go up to your room. Have a shower. Put your pyjamas on. Turn on the television. Rest these aching feet.” …. but I couldn’t. Not until I had taken a night shot of the Auckland Sky Tower.

So, after a relaxing feed of fish and chips in the hotel bar (because I couldn’t cope with the thought of walking another 2-3kms to an eatery downtown), I geared up and went in search of the ‘shot’.

I had already scoped out a couple of possible sites from which to shoot the tower this afternoon so my task was made much easier. (That makes me sound all professional and organised doesn’t it? Reality is, I saw the tower as I limped, exhausted, back to the hotel this evening and figured that they were pretty good spots)

I shot the tower from five different locations and was at the packing up stage when I remembered the crystal ball. Just another thing I have been lugging around with me all holiday, but I knew that I would have regretted it had I not brought it to New Zealand.

Quick change of camera settings, because the crystal ball is not a lightweight, it was dark and therefore you need a fast shutter speed and “Bob’s your uncle”…….. Auckland Sky Tower through the crystal ball.

NOW I can have a shower, get into my pyjamas, make a cup of tea and turn the television on.

Somebody in Council approved this.

 

I believe that I may have seen one of the world’s ugliest buildings tonight.

Standing defiantly on an Auckland corner in the restaurant district is this………….thing… that has absolutely no redeeming features. So revolting is it that it has become ‘residence’ for the lowest of the lower class of Auckland.

This is the lowest rung on the accommodation ladder. Barely one step above the streets. The residents are the alcoholics, the drug addicts and those with mental illness. As I walked past, a half naked man could be seen wandering around the lobby. It came as no surprise to see a strip club open just next to it, because a bottle shop and a TAB were not far away either.

What I find intriguing is that there was a paper trail of officials who approved the building of this ugly thing. Council planning departments saw the plans. Some architect actually designed it with pride and a sense of achievement.

But it’s hideous.

Presenting it to you in black and white is actually making it look 1000% better than it really is.

Photography challenge: Let there be light

The basic principle of photography is about how much light gets onto the film/sensor and the length of time said light is permitted to make contact with the film/sensor. Without light there is no photo and by the same token, too much light also means that there is no photo.

The type of image you are trying to create is all tied to the light. We crazy photographers will wake up early to get the perfect dewy light of dawn. We crazy photographers will wait for hours for the sun to set. We completely insane photographers will travel for hours into the pitch black of the countryside to shoot astrophotography that is not compromised by the light pollution of the big cities and suburbs. A beginner photographer is quickly informed by the more experienced photographers about the magical ‘blue hour’ and the ‘golden hour’. Terms that mean absolutely nothing until you stand in the same place for a few hours watching as the world around you is transformed by blue and golden tones as the sun sets.

**If you are still unclear as to these changes in the light take yourself into an open city-scape with your camera, stand in the one area and take a photo of the buildings in front of you every fifteen minutes for two or three hours in the late afternoon/early evening. Upload your photos at home on your computer and look at the changes in colour and tone. Impossible to miss and, once you become aware of it, impossible not to notice.

Photographers purchase flashes to compensate for the times when there is not enough light and we have a collection of neutral density filters to help when there is too much. We make adjustments to our camera’s ISO settings to allow more or less light onto the sensor and/or we adjust the f-stop for exactly the same reason.

It is all about the light.

The photo above was taken from on-board a boat in Docklands in my marvellous Melbourne. I could see the shot before I took it. I knew that I just had to wait patiently for us to sail to where the sun would be peeking out from behind the apartment building. I was hoping for a nice starburst effect……the double halo was a very pleasant bonus.

It IS the night before Xmas.

 

My marvellous Melbourne in her Xmas colours.

I must get to bed. Santa will be here soon. And if you believe that, I’ve got a bridge in Sydney that I’d like to sell you.

Hahahaha!!

Even though I am not a religious person, I do appreciate the holidays that Christianity has given me. Out of habit I put up a Xmas tree. Out of habit I watched Carols By Candlelight this evening. Out of habit I wore my Xmas t-shirts and Xmas hat to work for the week leading up to the holiday.

One day I might manage to break these habits. (But I don’t want to give up my days off.)

Ho Ho Ho everyone. 🙂

 

A room with a view

 

There are reception venues and then there are reception venues.

Many venues fizzle out behind closed curtains as darkness descends because there is nothing to see. For some venues there is nothing to see in daylight either. I was guest at a wedding on Sunday where the night time views are at their best and those views have been used to enhance a magical experience.

At night the lights of my marvellous Melbourne add that extra special something to what has already been an extraordinary day. The bride in her simple elegance had provided a wow factor that took my breath away, but her choice of reception venue put the exclamation marks at the end of the wow.

A rooftop venue in South Melbourne that had views from Port Melbourne to the Arts Centre and allowed the natural light to spill through the 20 foot tall windows as the sun set was the perfect place to celebrate in elegant style.

I don’t imagine that I will have the opportunity to enjoy an event at this place again but my goodness am I delighted that I had the chance to experience it once.

I’ve said it once, but I’ll say it again.

FYI…….the white dot in the middle of the photo is not a speck of dust, it was the first star of the evening…………and I made a wish.  🙂

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I love my marvellous Melbourne. She is pretty, she is dirty, she sparkles like a diamond and she smell like a cesspit. She is warm and welcoming one second and cold and heartless the next. The sun will shine and then the rain will fall. One minute you’re wearing your warmest jacket and ten minutes later you find yourself taking it off.

Goodness! When I read that back to myself it doesn’t inspire me to ask people to visit, but Melbourne is the most wonderful place in the world. It is her unpredictability and her diversity that makes her unique and so very liveable.

I was so happy to be back out on her streets on the weekend.   🙂