Hello, my name is Sandy. I'm an artist in Perth, Western Australia.

Just got out of a brainstorm workshop. Felt a bit awkward being apparently the most introverted, least adjusted, at the table. I hope we’re not graded on external displays of participation; insta-fail, me. Much of my contribution was listening and processing, which I’m told can be misinterpreted as reticence in extrovert company.

I wonder if other people feel the same uncertainty after times I’ve been the one who’s had the most to say. I don’t know what the phrase is for when sometimes you have stuff done to you, sometimes you do stuff to other people, but if I say “swings and roundabouts” maybe someone will get mad and tell me the right one, so -

Swings and roundabouts.

Off home now to pat the cats and play some Avernum.

Permalink. Posted 11 May, 2012. Tagged: introversion, language, people stuff, thinking too much.

The problem is I spent the evening playing LoL and playing like crap cos I think I would rather have done some sewing or tv-watching. The problem was I woke up early for a weekend, which doesn’t usually happen, and had more hours in the day than I knew what to do with. That said, the whole kittycam thing has made me feel slightly more confident and purposeful, and I’d like to keep waking up early of my own volition.

It rained a lot in Perth last night. So much that everything in my backyard is wet – and my backyard is completely under cover. How exciting – zero garden maintenance required today! I’m a bit annoyed at the native plants that belong to this property – I have no idea what they’re called and thus no idea how to look up how to take care of them. Does anyone know the name of those spiky plants that sometimes make tall stems with white-purple-yellow flowers? :X

My beans and wheat have sprouted and are growing like mad. It will be nice to one day live a bit like L from 500m2 and eat a huge variety of fresh organic veggies all the time at a fraction of the grocery cost. Not really possible because I’m living on a fraction of the space she has, with most of the usable areas taken up by ugly decorative rental plants. Still, I think our little garden of potted crops is doing all right. We’ve only been able to harvest garnish amounts, but one day – ONE DAY – we’ll make a meal.

Have I mentioned lately how impressed I am with Camera 360 Ultimate? I first tried it last year when the interface was clunky and the photos came out a bit meh. They’ve since updated a couple of times and everything works so well now. The photos come out sharper and more intense, and the controls are no longer confusing and cheap-looking. Me likey. All it needs is a tiny speed improvement (or I need a better phone) and it would replace my use of all other camera apps. :]

Finally, the neighbours’ cats have been visiting us a lot. There’s no address on their tags, so I can’t tell how neighbourly we are, but these two come round all the time to drink water from our pond. I’m glad we only used algae killer once – it’s all home-made and organic algae removal now, for reasons such as this. Mona and Dora’s cat biscuits left over now go to a little dish outside instead of being thrown out. It feels a bit weird feeding someone else’s cats, but it’s good not to waste food, and I’d like to think we contribute to this pair being less inclined to go hunting.

I’m thinking of getting a bird feeder for our garden, so our inside cats have something to look at, and these two outdoor cats can sit and watch instead of getting in fights or disturbing birds in the nearby parks. If anyone out there knows of any good low-mess bird feeders or inexpensive bird houses, please let me know. :)

Permalink. Posted 29 April, 2012. Tagged: azuki beans, camera360, cats, gardening, kittycam, wheat grass.

Macca organised a FedEx Day for everyone at work. It’s where staff get a day to complete personal projects on company time – the catch being that it has to be delivered by the next day. For my project, I went to the Cat Haven to set up a live kitten video feed. Cos work is stressful and I always miss my cats. Nothing’s nicer than having a cat nap next to you while you get stuff done.

Lucky for me, my workplace does lots of video feed stuff, and one of my good mates works in the team that does the setup. So we spent a couple hours before lunch getting the cat run ready and duct taping things to other things. And now we have a video. :)

KittyCam in the iiNet Freezone

Available during daylight hours, Perth time. Kittens go to bed before Fatcat. :)

KittyCam is only gonna be up for a couple days – it’s all coming down after the FedEx Day presentations tomorrow. I’m hoping the company will see how much people love having a kittycam around and sponsor something more permanent. These guys are so cute, and it feels so good to hear people in the office giggling at kitten stuff.

My wish for KittyCam was to have something nice for people in stressful jobs – it borrows from the Japanese approach of integrating nice, cute things into the everyday to help combat the anxiety of working life. It’s also a big boost for the Cat Haven, who take care of abandoned kittens and cats that need rehoming – else do the heartbreaking task if no homes are found. Anyway, on a more cheerful note – cats are awesome. Watch them, adopt them, live a happier life. :)

Permalink. Posted 26 April, 2012. Tagged: cat haven, cats, fun at work, kittens, kittycam.

I’m at work right now, bout to head over to the Cat Haven and set up a webcam. So excited! We’ll get to watch live cats on video on the office telly. This is all part of our FedEx day – some staff extracurricular event that I’ll write more about later. Stay tuned for updates on how things are going.

I’ll be tweeting from @sandysandy and with the hashtag #kittycam.

Permalink. Posted Tagged: fedex day, fun at work, kittycam, work.

A simple recipe for making ginger beer. To illustrate how simple, we made it at work yesterday using stuff from Woolies. You’ll need a 2L container, a mixing bowl and access to hot water.

Ingredients are brown sugar (500g), powdered ginger, tartaric acid, cream of tartar, lemon juice, lime juice and bread yeast. Erm, we were really rough with our estimates, so not sure if we’ve done the right proportions of everything. I spose if you like your brew a certain way, you’ll want to experiment anyway. So here’s what we did for ours.

Half a teaspoon of the tartaric acid, quarter a teaspoon of the cream of tartar, four teaspoons of powdered ginger. Then the 500g of brown sugar, which conveniently comes in 500g bags!

Add a teaspoon each of lime and lemon juices, then about 1.75L of hot water. Give it a good stir, then leave for a couple hours to cool. It doesn’t have to get cold – cooling is more so you don’t kill the yeast when you eventually add that in.

Once the mix reaches a slightly less than warm temperature, stir in 1 teaspoon of yeast, and chuck the lot into your airtight jug. We got a jug with a valve, so we could easily let air out if it built up too much. The yeast metabolises the sugars and turns this sweet brown stuff into sweet ginger beery stuff, producing carbon dioxide in the process, which carbonates the drink.

We’ve left the valve open over the public holiday in case the yeast got crazy while we weren’t there. Tomorrow, we close the valve and leave it all sealed until Friday afternoon to let the drink go fizzy. Stay tuned for a future post on how it tastes. :)

Permalink. Posted 25 April, 2012. Tagged: fun at work, ginger beer, hobbies.

Officeworks have a tiny blackboard table and two stool set for $39 at the moment. It’s a clearance item, so stores won’t be getting new stock in. My local store was all out and I picked up the display set for $30. Lucky!

It’s now the centrepiece for my redecorated study room. I got a desk lamp as well, so I can finish my cross stitch and other bits in between LoL games. You’d think an lcd monitor with about:blank in the browser would be bright enough, but it really isn’t. This makes me very skeptical when Sash tells me she thinks she got sunburn from her computer screen.

Pictured here is Dora on the table, with shelf in the background and a daybed for cats nearby. Ahhh… My study is finally done. ^___^

Permalink. Posted 23 April, 2012. Tagged: cats, interior design, redecorating my study.

Konnichiwa~ Pictures from our Japan trip are now in my flickr.

I’ve been home a week now and it feels great. Except for the cold that followed me. I’ve been coughing like an old smoker ever since. :( Eating plenty of chilli, vitamin C, adzuki beans and other warming foods to boost my immune system. Warm Perth weather is helping. Not getting to sleep in everyday isn’t. :P

The trip has left me feeling a bit weird. Being surrounded by very dolled up Japanese girls, very tidy surrounds and the contrast between neon busy and eerily zen patches is quite surreal. Made me think of things I really love about my life, and things I’d like to change. Still refreshed from being away, I finally dismantled the daybed in my study, which I’ve been putting off since last October.

But you know how it is. The first few days after coming home are vital, because once you settle back into your routine, some of your intentions get lost in the everyday. We tend to make our lives comfortable – why wouldn’t you? – and it’s hard to want to change something when we’re comfortable. Luckily, we have a rent inspection next week, so we’ve spent today significantly uncomfortable, getting the place cleaned up.

After that, I intend to get my garden ready for winter, buy a picture frame for the lovely Yebisu coasters we saved from the beer museum, cull my wardrobe and buy Diablo 3. :)

Permalink. Posted 15 April, 2012. Tagged: holiday, japan, photos, redecorating my study, thinking too much.

Can’t sleep. Excited about flying home. Japan has been fun. Today, we went round doing epic shopping, visited a cat café, ate one last ramen and packed. Will flickr up photos of stuff when I’m home and settled.

Things I shall miss: Onigiri anytime, late night shopping and arcades, the many many outfits of Japanese fashion, street drinking, cheap drinking, easy public transport, premium customer service, cat-themed everything, HEATED TOILET SEATS, special toilet features, no touch handwash taps, super hot bath, cute paper and cute socks and cute knick-knacks everywhere, Tokyu Hands department store.

Things I shan’t miss: Severe lack of bins, nose sniffing all the time, storepeople shouting while we walk past, oppressive rainfall.

I’d love to come back again with a big group of friends. There were many things I didn’t get to do – Nara deer park, Imperial Palace, Cat Island, eating black eggs, eating strange meats, pachinko. Next time; there shall be a next time.

Thank you for following me on my holiday. Getting to blog it knowing you would read it made me feel like something meaningful to me could be meaningful to someone else, which in this case, was a nice feeling. :)

Permalink. Posted 6 April, 2012. Tagged: can't sleep, holiday, japan, tokyo, travel.

The sakura aren’t quite in full bloom, but many trees in Kyoto are already covered with flowers. This against the remaining Edo architecture can make the simple turning of a street corner feel like a leap back in time to the world depicted by movies and history books. But then you see the vending machines not far away and feel thankful for the conveniences of modern times, like heated toilet seats. Truth be told, that is what I’ll miss most about Japan.

It is grey and rainy and windy today, and I am sick :( I got over the sore throat is had in Melbourne only to let the chill get me at the shinkansen station. I’ve had three freakin HOT Japanese baths since getting here and it’s only helped a little. Hot tea and buns for me tonight.

We’ve eaten many lovely things in Kyoto. Yesterday, we bought fishcakes on a stick from a vendor in Arashiyama, while on our way to the monkey park and bamboo forest. Then we went to a little place called Daikichi, recommended by Lonely Planet, for yakitori.

This is chicken stomach and chicken heart yakitori. So tasty, best texture.

Many other tasty things. Soup with tofu, grilled rice, chicken and cheese, teriyaki donburi. So good. I love Japanese cheese.

A can of Slat, of course. Aloe sake mixer, I imagine. Tastes like icecream soda.

Niaal’s can of Dragonball. Read the review on his blog.

Permalink. Posted 3 April, 2012. Tagged: drinks, food, holiday, japan, kyoto, snacks, travel.

I found them!! Ever since watching that. Japan episode of Top Gear, I’ve wanted to try the little crunchy crabs that Jeremy Clarkson got for a driving snack. Happy to report they’re quite tasty and moreish if you’re into flavours such as ikan bilis and dried cuttlefish. Don’t think I can bring any home, but I’m satisfied now.

We just got into Kyoto today. Shinkansen ride was really smooth, I slept almost all the way using my new butt cushion as back support. Very comfy. Can’t wait to be the most comfortable person in economy class on the flight home.

My butt cushion, also known as the ‘Bagel Cushion’, meant for hip support, lumbar support or as a headrest as desired. It’s not exactly the same as the ‘Beauty Shaping Butt Cushion’ at the Japan Trend Shop website, but it was a quarter of the price and folds in half for portability. :D

Just enjoyed some takoyaki, made fresh at a cornershop a block from where we’re staying. There’s an udon place nearby too, a curry house, a ¥100 shop, a couple of general stores, a botanical garden and a tourist bus that does the rounds of the city. So far, I like Kyoto best. It’s quieter, cleaner, less crowded, pretty. I look forward to drinking Suntory and playing Oh! Edo Towns this evening.

Permalink. Posted 1 April, 2012. Tagged: food, holiday, japan, kyoto, snacks, travel.

Today, I have consumed:

• Some edamame
• Half a yakiniku onigiri
• A hot can of coffee
• A bowl of ramen with a soft-yolk hard boiled egg and pork belly
• Two ‘puri’ from Freshness Burger
• A MOS burger
• A sakura macaron
• Half a matcha tea latte
• A cup of sake
• A bite of space kimchi
• A cherry mocktail at a karaoke lounge
• A tall can of Suntory Jokki Nama

Tonight, I hope to also eat an ebi onigiri, a pot of cup ramen, more edamame and maybe some Pretz.

I love midnight snacks. ^___^

Permalink. Posted 29 March, 2012. Tagged: drink, food, holiday, japan, snacks, tokyo, travel.

We’re sitting in our little ryokan room chowing down on edamame. What a relief to be here, eating beans, hanging out with Niaal, all while the bright lights of Shinjuku promise to shine all night. Well, most of the night that would matter to us because omg so tired from many long hours of flying.

Pictured above is the amazing breakfast I’ve waited months for – one umeboshi onigiri, one whatever onigiri, and one HOT can of coffee. Heeeeee… It seriously made the 2 hour airport wait for Niaal’s arrival pass very quickly. Ish. Reading Game of Thrones helped too.

Our ryokan is a cosy little place not far from the nearest station. Our room is small, but really charming. “The prettiest room,” the proprietor called it. I’m struggling to get a good picture cos its quite dark and my hands shake, but will have another go when it’s daytime and I’m not so sleepy. OH – one thing you must know – THEY HAVE HEATED TOILET SEATS! <3

We are surrounded by vending machines, bars, karaoke places, HEAPS of little eateries, a sock shop, bag shop, shoe shop and god knows what else. But best out of all these places is 7-11. Wonderful amazing international corporation with ATMs that let me draw from my Australian bank account, and all the rice balls, snacks and pot noodle I could need. I really want to find those little crabs that Jeremy Clarkson ate in the Japan stint on Top Gear, but no luck yet.

Niaal’s dinner, which followed a pre-dinner of Freshness Burger burger, and preceded a second dinner of Clear Asahi, edamame and yakiniku onigiri.

Freshness Burger front counter. Burgers are the size of two of my fists, soft as kittens, tasty as deliciousness.

Surprisingly filling, but later snacking is advisable.

Not sure what’s in store for us this trip. Super keen on the Meguro Parasite Museum, something animal related (petting zoo?), karaoke, eating something weird, ninja village and taking some pictures of pretty things. I kinda wish I still had great enthusiasm for going out and getting hammered cos there are many, many cheap bars around the place. But just being in this city is relaxing, playing silly mobile games in a strange room with snacks makes me happy.

Permalink. Posted 28 March, 2012. Tagged: holiday, japan, snacks, tokyo, travel.

Time to say bye to Melbourne. I’ve had a lovely time full of food, lots of sleeping in; got to catch up with family, old friends. Now waiting for the choo-choo-plane to Sydney then onto Tokyo. Yay!

Still got a couple hours til boarding, so here are a few pictures from the last few days…

Yummy corn fritter breakfast (lunch) at St Ali in South Melbourne. It’s a neat little café decorated with recycled bits and living plants – very nice. The sort of place that would let its sneaker-clad patrons fill personal water bottles from the café jugs.

Dinner at the famous Sichuan House. By famous, I mean my friends who have been here won’t shut up about the damn place. Good food, though. Don’t let the hype get in the way – everything we had was super tasty – eggplant, kungpao chicken, cumin ribs, garlic cucumber and chilli beef tongue & heart.

Seriously mental typographic design on the little Bread Top bags. I’m particularly fond of what my brain reads as SWISS MUD ROLL CAKE.

These logs look like Minecraft logs!! XD

Permalink. Posted 27 March, 2012. Tagged: design, food, japan, melbourne, minecraft, tokyo, travel.

I am having a nice time here. I’ve caught up with family, friends; done some shopping and plenty of eating. In my head, this leg of the trip would be over so fast, but even my lazy days are full and the hours are in no rush to pass me by.

Right now, I’m waiting for my friend Chelsea to arrive. We’re going on a photo excursion. Nerd time! :)

Permalink. Posted 25 March, 2012. Tagged: holiday, melbourne.

Pleasure to make your acquaintance, little penguin. :)

Spent yesterday wandering around town. Had breakfast at a little café called Gianni’s, strong coffee, then to the aquarium. Many friendly penguins in the first exhibit. I wish they were viable pets – so cute!

Aaaaaaa~ I’m in love!

The Melbourne Aquarium is bigger than I expected. I haven’t been to Perth’s Underwater World in ages, but from memory you can be in and out in what feels like a really short time. I may have only spent an hour and a half yesterday, but I felt like a whole morning. So much to see and heaps of little sitdown areas to rest and absorb. Some creatures were getting fed as I walked past – watching the lunch punch on was pretty cool.

I love frog. I suspect this species is a standard guest at displays in Australia cos it’s native here. Another great pet, I reckon; one could sit on your shoulder at bbqs and eat the flies that come near.

A friendly swan at Melbourne Zoo. As I sat on the step next to the pond, this guy just hung around like we’re buddies. I didn’t know that swans grunted – it sounds like a half grunt, half snort. So I grunted back and we’d go back and forth mimicking the pattern of grunts made by the other. Talking to a bird felt pretty special. I probably looked a bit special to the people who walked by.

Cousin Daphne and I went to a place called +39 for pizza dinner. Clever name – 39 is the country code for Italy. The staff were good looking young Italian people, the pizza came super fast and tasted super boss. Super thin, soft, light base; delicious delicious topping. Yum.

And then dessert. Sweet pizza with warm, melty Nutella and strawberries served with side of ice cream; vanilla, I think, with maybe nutmeg. So good. So goddamn full after. I’ve decided it’s of utmost importance to eat heaps on this trip. Melbourne is cold, Tokyo will be colder. The best insulation is a coat of calories.

Brie on toast for lunch today. Then second lunch in a couple hours at whatever café looks nice. Then borscht dinner in Prahran (Preyan).

Permalink. Posted 23 March, 2012. Tagged: animals, aquarium, food, holiday, melbourne, tokyo, zoo.

Hello from Melbourne. :) Flying from Perth only took about 3 hours but landing in a later time zone makes me feel like it took ages. It’s nice to see my cousin again, and my old friend who I’ve not talked to in over ten years. ^__^

My airplane lunch was rad: braised beef in smoky tomato gravy, sauté potatoes and chopped beans. Later, we got strawberry ice cream with hibiscus and some jammy thing called quandong. I watched 3 fascinating documentaries on the personal tv – the joy of stats, one about stuff we know about the universe, and one about things the human body does to survive. As the plane landed, I listened to Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells. Yay Qantas!

Not sure what to do today. Aquarium and zoo maybe. It’s barely 9am but I think of how slowly I plan to move and feel like I’m behind schedule.

Permalink. Posted 22 March, 2012. Tagged: holiday, melbourne, qantas, travel.

Time has passed very slowly this week, but I’m now finally at the Perth airport, waiting for a plane. 8 mins to boarding. I am excited. :)

Will try to mobile blog anything interesting. Am using bitty again cos it’s easy. Email blogging ftw.

Permalink. Posted 21 March, 2012. Tagged: holiday, melbourne, travel.

I’m re-building my collection of dine-in & takeaway menus for Perth restaurants and cafés. Slowly, slowly since I’m starting from scratch. This is by no means a complete collection – just my personal list of links and files for making my eating life easier. Will be more relevant to you if you’re in the central metro area and need ideas for dinner.

• Blackbird Restaurant (web) – East Perth
• Cafe Italia (pdf) – East Perth
• Korner Kafe (pdf) – Perth
• PastaCup (web) – North Perth
• Play Wine & Espresso (web) – Subiaco
• Royal Siam (pdf) – East Perth
• Squire’s Loft Steakhouse (web) – Subiaco
• The Red Chair (img) – Crossways Shopping Centre, Subiaco
• Viet Royal (pdf) – East Perth
• Vinh Hong (pdf) – Northbridge

Permalink. Posted 14 March, 2012. Tagged: eating, food, menus, sandy's notes.

Let me tell you about this small bar in Subiaco. Tucked behind a little hippy art supply cum garden/homewares shop on Rokeby Road is a quiet establishment named Juanita’s, after the lady who runs it. It doesn’t look like much when you first arrive, but therein lies the charm.

Read the rest of this post…

Permalink. Posted 12 March, 2012. Tagged: drink, eating, food, perth, pubs and bars, subiaco.

I made terrariums last night. Some big, some small, some enclosed, some open. I’m reasonably happy with how they turned out; would love to have had more baby’s tears and just a little bit of cultivated moss, but alas. They look a little unfinished because of the exposed dirt, but I’m hoping they’ll grow into their containers. I’m less happy with how the photos turned out – everything’s so yellow! But I’m a little un-confident in general with my hobbies at the moment – ukulele is tricky, camera is tricky, garden is yet to grow into its container – you get the idea.

So, no moss, but I had plenty of river stones, sphagnum moss, potting mix, surface stones and charcoal. The charcoal provides a bit of absorption so the terrarium doesn’t stink. I bought a 4kg bag of charcoal on Thursday night because Bunnings doesn’t sell them any smaller, so… if anyone wants some charcoal for their terrarium projects, I have plenty to spare. You’ll need to break it apart, but you could probably make 20 terrariums with just one briquette.

I struggled to get a decent picture of the large open terrarium below, but none of the shots worked. It was blurry in all the wrong spots – I think the aperture was set too wide, but any smaller and everything got blurry because I have shaky hands. Even now, they’re shaking like mad because I just woke up an hour ago and haven’t had breakfast yet. :P

The last pic below is of a closed jar with sphagnum moss on the surface. I understand this isn’t typical, as sphagnum is meant to be the catchment & moisture retaining layer between the stones and the soil. But I don’t have any growing moss at the moment, and noticed that when I keep wet sphagnum on the surface of my plant pots, it goes green after awhile. I’m hoping that means it’s alive and growing. It’s not as attractive as carpet moss, but it’s not horrible and might grow in a nice formation in that jar. :) That’s my hope.

Permalink. Posted 10 March, 2012. Tagged: baby's tears, hobbies, sphagnum moss, terrarium, thyme.

Went to Danielle’s yesterday to make seed bombs – but we called them seed balls cos that’s how we roll.

Seed balls are a guerilla gardening/permaculture trick to make sure the seeds you sow can withstand time, weather and hungry creatures. Contained by a mixture of compost, clay and chilli powder, the crazy mix of edible ground cover seeds should last a few months out in the field.

Our mix was one part seed, 3 parts worm poo, 5 parts bentonite (with sand remedy) and 3 parts water. Plus a whole bag of cayenne powder to act as bug repellent. It took 3 of us 2 hours to measure, mix and roll 650 balls. :D

I got 4 to take home. How excite!

Permalink. Posted 6 March, 2012. Tagged: gardening, seed balls.

I don’t know why I’m nervous. I shouldn’t be; it’s just football. And I’m not nervous, really, not mentally. It’s just my tummy feeling strange before the game. Which it has no right to because I’m a bench warmer today, just a sub in case anyone comes off injured. Which suits me fine because I could run and mark happily in short bursts, but not play for ages because I’m nursing a pulled muscle.

This game, for me personally, is not a big deal.

My day so far has been filled with restful sleep, Downton Abbey, quality time with cats, testing out a lens my friend loaned me and a bit of ukulele practice. Now it’s time to get ready for sport. I’m glad I’m going, excited to simply be there and support the team, but can’t shake the tingles and ever so slight nausea. Strange, huh?

Permalink. Posted 4 March, 2012. Tagged: cats, football, hobbies, photography, ukulele.

I forgot to post this on the weekend. Last Friday, I harvested the bushy, bushy mint from my planter box for a round of mojitos. It felt pretty darn swell to make drinks for friends with garnish I had grown myself.

Wee! ^__^ Level up!

Photo taken by Chips.

Permalink. Posted 29 February, 2012. Tagged: drinks, gardening, mint.

Yeah, ok, it should be obvious but I never thought to associate green, crisp tasting stuff from health food shops with golden fields of grainy, bready wheat. Well, today I learned. Danielle gave Doug and myself a bag of wheat from Kakulas Bros, for trying microgreen desktop gardening with other flavours.

Must remember cream cheese tomorrow. Must.

Permalink. Posted 27 February, 2012. Tagged: gardening, microgreens, office garden, wheat.

A while back, I chatted to a friend about photography, who told me I had an eye for taking photos with a lot of feeling. Because it was MSN and we haven’t hung out in awhile, I wasn’t sure whether to read him as being heartfelt or just polite. But his words made me feel really good.

When I was younger, I asked my dad for a fancy camera. In return, he told me a skilled cameraperson could take good photos even with a crappy camera. I forget when that was. Let’s guess at least 12 years, since I’ve not been in school for at least that long.

It could have been nothing more than Asian dad-speak for, “No, I’m not buying you any more toys,” but it made logical sense. Every time I felt hampered by equipment or budget, I fell back on this thinking. Eventually, my desire for a fancy camera was replaced by a desire to take good pictures. I wish for a nice camera now, but with restraint. I want to be satisfied with my picture-taking on an average camera first before I will daydream about owning a fancy one.

How cheesy, right? I kind of like this romantic Cinderella-esque ideal of being somewhat poor but decent.

A couple years after uni, my dad gave me his old digital camera. It was a Minolta of some kind, but I forget which. By 2004, it was already a couple years old. Silver, squarish body, shaped like a DSLR, but wasn’t. By no means an amazing camera, but still quite nice. Definitely fancier, to my impressionable mind, than the compact cameras I was familiar with. I still had no idea what I was doing. This was during the era where I’d bring home pictures similar to the one on the left. To which Dad would exclaim, “What the hell is this?” because there were no subjects, nothing for the eye to be drawn to.

My proudest moment with the Minolta was the picture on the right – a very lucky one-shot out a bus window as I rode past The Quadrant on the way home from work. It’s not great, but I felt it was miles better than anything I’d taken before. It gave me confidence to reach for better pictures. I still don’t know why I liked that picture. I guess it was the way the creepy trees reached over a cold corporate building. The composition is crap, though.

Oh hey, hooray for emo self shots of the mid-2000′s – this is the Minolta! :)

I like taking photos that capture a feeling. I think that’s what I was clumsily trying to get at with those subject-less, direction-less shots. It’s like when you’re sitting in a waiting room, a train or a bus, surrounded by white noise and a million things to look at, but nothing you really care to see – or maybe one small thing that takes you away from having too many things to see. Pictures of nothing sometimes feel special to me because I regularly space out and look at nothing.

The first camera I bought myself was a Pentax Optio S5z. I was in love with it and grew to love it more as time went on. The colours were so vibrant, it would snap a shot so quickly, the super macro was super, and it had a slight fish-eye effect that forums and review sites looked down on, but I think it gave the pictures a bit of charm. Above is an extreme closeup of my pink clamshell mobile phone and its pet cladophora algae ball, taken with the S5z.

And here is me with my Pentax. I’m really glad now I was a narcissistic self-shot whore back in those days, because I have many fond memories of a stunning camera to look back upon. One of my friends got the next model up from this, but I much preferred mine. It was slightly heavier and bulkier, but the speed and interface of the S5z better suited my “just fucking take a picture” attitude. It was reliable, I guess, and easy to get a feel for.

My first mobile phone with camera was the Samsung E530 PINK CLAMSHELL <3 <3 <3 I was stoked at having a camera that fit in my pocket. When I figured out how to get pictures from that camera onto the internet, I felt like a god. Looking back, I think I took for granted how charmingly lomo the pictures were. I feel a bit silly now, forking out for a Diana when a mobile phone achieved the same effect.

Yeah, I did buy a Diana – how hipsterish. Well, I got some nice pictures out of it. Above are two from the medium format film roll. I got the 35mm backing too, but had no luck with those shots. Sold camera to colleague after only 2 uses.

I was impressed by the iPhone 3G camera and the multitude of apps that could help it along. Instagram and Hipstamatic were rad, still new by the time I moved onto a WinMo7. Whose camera was pretty good too. I liked it because the photos were huge.

The phone I have now, Samsung Nexus S, saves smaller pictures. Still good, possibly a little better now with the Ice Cream Sandwich OS, or maybe I’m just more used to its quirks. The digital compact camera I use now is a Nikon Coolpix of some kind, which I struggle with. It takes good pictures, but I don’t feel I’m using it right. Maybe I’m just not over the death of my Pentax.

I feel pretentious writing this post, as it makes me sound like a serious photographer, when in reality, I’ve not given a shit about this for years. But it’s been on my mind lately. I want to take this hobby a bit more seriously – or at least, see what I can learn from a whizzbang camera with detachable lenses and stuff. Still with dad’s cameraperson advice in mind, of course.

Eventually. This seems like an expensive hobby and I’m not cashed up. If you’ve got a DSLR, ping me your make/model, what you like about it, what you dislike about it, what sort of photos you take and what made you decide to get it instead of all the other similar looking cameras out there.

None of the pictures in this post have been Photoshopped, by the way, except to resize and arrange – save for the ones processed by mobile phone apps. Now that I think about it, this kinda makes all the cameras seem nice and a bit fancy – which I guess is relative anyway.

Permalink. Posted 21 February, 2012. Tagged: cameras, hobbies, photography, thinking too much.

This is the first Capsicum flower in the planter box next to my desk. Quite pleased we’re seeing progress as I was worried the UV tinting would block out too much light. The temperature in here is about 24 degrees C, varying by a degree or so every now and then. The internet reckons this is decent growing temperature. My window gets afternoon sun.

Permalink. Posted 20 February, 2012. Tagged: gardening, hobbies, office garden.

Today, I harvested a Sugar Baby watermelon planted back in September. I’ve spent the last five months watering, fertilising, training and protecting this little one. It’s been through a repotting, a super-hot Christmas with no water, a slug invasion, and possibly a slow execution by the other melon plant sharing its pot.

Notice how the vine on the right is dead while the vine on the left is flourishing? I’m pretty sure that’s not just a coincidence. These two watermelon plants have always shared a pot. Growth of both of them had plateaued during the heatwave at the end of January. After adding fertiliser, I noticed the one on the right looked lively again, while the one on the left had stopped. Then the vine started turning brown. I thought pruning it would help, but it seemed to only hasten the inevitable. Lucky Leftmelon was choking out her sister.

So I harvested the sister, who was a little smaller than my fist. Not sure where all the scratches came from. Maybe a bird or a neighbour’s cat had come to inspect. No sign of pestilence or disease.

Got Niaal to cut it for me cos I was too excited to do it myself.

BEHOLD MY WATERMELON!! :)

Not as sweet as I expected from a variety named Sugar Baby, but it was okay. Tastes like melon, is juicy, full of seeds for next year’s crop. I have the one remaining melon still growing. Gonna let that dry out a bit before we harvest – that supposedly concentrates the sugars inside to yield a sweeter fruit.

I am happy with my garden. ^____^

Permalink. Posted 15 February, 2012. Tagged: gardening, harvest, hobbies, watermelon.

Doug is my deskmate at work. We’ve been trying to level up our gardening skills because plants are cool and working with computers is soul-sucking if you don’t have other hobbies to keep you sane. Inspired by the cress postcarden from Swee, we took to growing microgreens.

Microgreens are germinated seeds that are allowed to grow a few centimeters before harvesting. They can be grown from the seeds of any edible plant – most common are salad type plants like lettuce, basil, kale, mustard, garlic and so on. Presumably because they are delicious. ‘Microgreens’ is a fancy word for sprouts. I promise we’re not being wanky, calling it that. The internet reckons that the word ‘sprout’ has industry obligations around it, so commercial types have to call them ‘microgreens’ because that’s a silly made-up word that isn’t likely to attract a lawsuit.

Scatter your seeds densely in any shallow grow medium – soil, blotting paper, kitchen paper, whatever you have on hand. Shallow is fine because you’ll be eating your microgreens before they require space for extensive root systems. Densely because these plants won’t hang around long enough to weed each other out of the competition.

I’m not sure if we did it wrong, the harvest. Doug washed the scissors with hot water, then with boiling hot water, to make sure we didn’t accidentally eat germs from weird stuff that scissors often find themselves cutting. It was a pinch-and-chop deal, which seemed to work okay. Felt surreal cutting and eating something just like that. We didn’t wash the greens before eating – I’ve been spraybottling the shit out of these things while they’ve grown, and not used any worm tea on them, so as far as logic reasons, they were clean enough.

Microgreens on cream cheese and crackers! :) Can I recommend the light Salada crackers cos they feel less oily/creamy. The extra dryness of the cracker goes well with the cream cheese. I like to think these sproutlings had a flavour – a lettuce flavour. But it could just be enthusiastic thinking on my part. We’ll be looking for greens with stronger flavour next time: mustard, radish and garlic.

This is what remained after our delicious deforestation. This afternoon, I tilled the stumps back into the soil and re-wetted the mixture. Will leave it for a couple days then plant some more seeds in preparation for another snack. Sown more densely next time, maybe with some kind of cover to keep the moisture in.

Would totally recommend this office passtime to anyone. Best part is that you don’t even need natural sunlight. The sprouts presumably grow from the energy contained in the seed. This is pretty sweet if you’re into the raw diet thing, or at least the healthy snack thing. And it’s so, so nice to have something ALIVE at your workstation.

Permalink. Posted 8 February, 2012. Tagged: desktop garden, food, gardening, microgreens, snacks.

Went with Sasha for ramen yesterday, then we spent the whole afternoon at the Free Range Gallery on Wellington St., making zines. I was nervous beforehand cos I’m not much of a scenester and don’t know a lot of people in my city’s arts crowd. I found out about the Perth Zine Collective‘s zine-making event through my friend/ex-housemate Miko, who’s super community-oriented and pretty much the only person I knew, so I ummed and ahhed a bit before deciding to go.

The event was part of Processed!, which is a subset of the Fringe World Festival going on in town at the moment. It’s a 24-hour thinger, spread over 2 days, in a little room full of stuff you can use to make zines. It was so peaceful, no obligation to chat to people, but after about an hour of sitting in the same space as everyone, you can’t help but feel comfortable and used to their presence. Talking, listening, eavesdropping, speaking up – it all felt cool and totally not awkward. A very nice change from an office environment where from the outside, it looks like the same kind of motion, yet any kind of noise or overhearing is like a disturbance.

Best way I can label the afternoon would be as an “introvert party”. I’m glad I went.

I made a zine called “Thoughts That Changed My Life” – you can see it at my portfolio - but the pictures I really want to show you, the part I’m most proud of, is my little sister’s zine. Sash came with me blind, never having seen a zine before, then proceeded to make a beautiful piece of art. Here be pics:

My talented little sister. ^___^ She wants to design t-shirts in her spare time. I’ll keep you posted on her artistic journey.

A nice day. Relaxing and fun, zero pressure. Would totally do again.

Permalink. Posted 5 February, 2012. Tagged: art stuff, hobbies, perth, zines.

I had a nice time at training last night. Unlike usual, my head didn’t run its anxious post-mortem of things I said or did that might be totally stupid. I’m getting comfortable with saying and doing stupid things; I mean silly little things, not like property damage or endangering other people. That’s beyond stupid.

Today was nice too. I bashed out in 3 hours  a flyer design that I thought I’d get stuck on for days. Then played support for a winning team with awesome teamwork in a ranked LoL game.

I have a little desktop and windowsill farm at work, noticed some lettuce seeds I sowed for microgreen experiments have started to peek out their sprouting faces. The capsicum plants in my windowbox are responding to sunlight. Do plants respond to all light or only light that gives them food? Well, I’m hoping it means they’re not being deprived of precious UV by the window tint. They get full blast sun for about 5 hours every day.

Can capsicum thrive indoors? We’ll find out. More to come as things progress.

Permalink. Posted 1 February, 2012. Tagged: football, gardening, hobbies, lol, thinking too much.

We were surprised a couple of weeks ago to find four little tomatoes growing on the vine. This is an heirloom variety known as Tigarella, which we picked up at Bunnings last year. I don’t know much about heirloom veggies other than not being able to get them at the supermarket. I feel pretty special eating something not found in a shop. :)

It tastes salty, doesn’t have the sour tang of shop tomatoes. Wonder if it’s the breed or our garden. We’ve treated this plant organically with lots of runoff from the worm cafe. I was worried it wouldn’t have enough room in its little pot (5L, I think?) but looks and tastes like it’s happy.

I learned that tomatoes don’t need to be hand pollinated – just give them lots of fertiliser and it will just happen. Yay!

Permalink. Posted 28 January, 2012. Tagged: gardening, hobbies, tomatoes.

Gong Xi Fa Cai, everyone!

Today was busy. Wonder if it’s foretelling the new year. I do like getting 2 new years. It’s like the first few weeks of the western new year is just a practice run for the real one. If this weekend is anything to go by, I can look forward to good times with friends, fun projects and more food than I can imagine. ^___^

We woke up early this morning for a mate’s baby shower. I don’t enjoy this sort of thing,but as far as family friendly parties go, this was okay. Nice and relaxed, participation in organised games completely optional, bacon and egg rolls.

Terrarium workshop in the afternoon at Mr Sparrow in Subiaco. The pic for this post is my terrarium – minimal. It’s a “tiny house in a landscape” like on Tiny House Blog. The class was so much fun. I wanted to get to know some of the other terrariers better, but after two days and an early morning of socializing, I’ve used up all my chat.

Will post more pics later. And I have to tell you about this cosy little bar that only just opened up recently. Later.

Permalink. Posted 22 January, 2012. Tagged: hobbies, terrarium.

Chinese New Year is this Sunday. Usually, we have noodles, meat & rice, low hai and sometimes shark’s fin soup. But my family are umming and ahhing this year because of the sad, sad shark video we saw today. Not gory, but – wow – how difficult to watch. Even if you try not to think about how much it suffers, seeing a shark without its fins just looks so wrong. :(

Controversy over shark’s fin soup has been going on for years. Giam Choo Hoo made good points about the public seeing selective imagery of mistreated animals and assuming the industry is lax and corrupt. At least, that was my assumption when I first saw the video.

Shark’s fin soup is delicious – taste and texture – and always served at happy occasions. Growing up eating it as the norm, it’s difficult to associate this meal with cruelty and suffering. And you know, when you learn about industry and practicality, you can pretty much figure it doesn’t make sense to do this kind of thing.

But it still happens. You see evidence of it happening, even with laws and regulations. What can you do?

Earlier today, I thought I would stop eating shark’s fin soup made with real shark’s fin (you can get gelatin-based imitation stuff) until this kind of thing stops. But will it stop? Even with more vigilant patrols, harsher penalties, stricter regulations, you still have to catch the culprits first. And if demand does drop and shark cruelty does stop, would it create a diminished industry with fewer jobs to offer hungry people? Could that be incentive for other bad stuff happening elsewhere?

As a consumer with very little control over how the rest of the world operates, I have no idea how to approach this in a right and meaningful way. I feel anxious that I don’t know what to do, and maybe even a little desperate to pick a side so I’d at least have something fixed to use as a reference. But there’s just so many uncertainties.

Maybe it’s all just Western propaganda. Maybe we Chinese have evil diets and superstitions. Maybe this is the nature of a dominant species. Maybe intelligent sharks are plotting against us and this is all part of the conspiracy. Maybe things just are what they are and all we have are equally correct and justified points of view. Maybe none of these things.

There’s still have half a packet of shark’s fin in the pantry. If all is as we hope, it is a genuine discard of a good fishing industry and okay to eat. If not, throwing it out would only add insult to injury. Many facts, many claims all over the world and the internet – but no way of knowing for sure.

We’ll probably eat what’s left over and not get any more. Forgetting right or wrong for a moment, it’s just hard not to associate it with sad things and maybes. I imagine this may be the unspoken topic at our dinner table. As an individual, perhaps the most meaningful thing I can do for now is consider and appreciate.

Image source: chee.hong

Permalink. Posted 19 January, 2012. Tagged: chinese, food, terra serenus, thinking too much.

A dinner at Lapa, as we would learn, consists of meat. Lots of meat. Joe told us about this place just before Christmas, selling us on their $49 all you can eat deal. Yeah, you heard me. I was skeptical at first, picturing a Sizzler-esque buffet chamber – or maybe $49 was a special Scoopon offer that applies only to grey lamb and expiry-date mince. Lapa is none of these things.

In a nutshell – Lapa is amazing. Lapa will make you look down your nose at ‘food & wine’ steakhouses and novelty smörgåsbord dining halls. Lapa is… well, this…

In the beginning, there was sausage. Meager on the plate. In our naïveté, we chortled at the sight of it. Little did we know that the menu’s description of an “endless feast” really does mean an endless feast.

Lapa’s endless feast comes in two phases – the first is the twelve course introduction to their wonderful, wonderful meat; second is the choice to order more of any dish on their endless feast menu. Sorry for the blurry picture, I got a bit excited.

As the first phase progresses, waiters bring round skewers and trolleys of meat that they slice or tong onto your plate. They ask you before serving whether you are interested in that particular dish, so you always have the option to refuse, but unless you’re a Lapa veteran or are there for a specific meaty purpose, you wouldn’t feel like refusing. At least not for the first six or seven courses.

Steak at three different levels of cookedness. This one’s a team effort – waiter slices, you tong. In this photo, Joe is tonging while Chips spectates with lust. See that little green coaster off to the side? That’s not a coaster, it’s a sign – green side up if you want more food; other side is red for when you need a break.

Well, in theory. The staff here are really happy to see you eat, and look very proud of you when you accept their food. So, you can flip the sign red side up, but you will cop a ribbing (GET IT?) when the next delicious meal comes out that you very reluctantly try to decline.

Don’t mistake the waiter’s expression for surliness. This is a look of concentration. At the time of this post, all the staff we met were passionate about the food and passionate about giving it to you. When you smile at them, they smile back. They joke, they flirt with the table. It is wonderful and we felt very special. This kind of proactively friendly service transforms the humble all you can eat gorging into even more of a dining experience.

It would have been about round 7 that my food coma started to come on, so memory gets a bit fuzzy. I think this is a piece of beef rib with crackling. Not sure, though. Everything began to look the same at this point. My forehead was radiating with warmth and meatiness. I accepted this bit of pasta-less eggplant lasanha from our vegetarian escort only out of curiosity and needing something to assist with meat digestion.

One of our lady friends has limited space in her pregnant belly, so she ordered a tasting plate à la carte. Lapa doesn’t usually offer the menu option if the table is going for the endless feast, but they very kindly gave us an exception for both mum-to-be and vegetarian. The taster looked awesome, had almost all of the dishes we had in the feast. This would be a very good value meal.

Close up of the yes/no signs.

Lapa interior vista.

And that’s it. No one left hungry, felt sated until the following morning. All went home happy because of the cheerful, friendly staff.

Aaaah, thinking about this place makes me smile. I’m already planning to go again.

Permalink. Posted 18 January, 2012. Tagged: food, perth, sandy's notes, subiaco.

It’s beautiful! (Photo by Doug)

But I didn’t water and then it went flat!

We were cressfallen. :(

But then we put a bit of water in and now it’s picked up!

And then we tried eating it and it was gross. Not delicious at all. This was fun, though. More desktop gardening to come soon, I hope. :)

Permalink. Posted 17 January, 2012. Tagged: cress, gardening, hobbies.

Cress sprouts showing green bits. This stuff does not smell nice at all. Hopefully will smell fresh and tasty when it’s grown up a bit. Sorry the picture’s so blur, I used Camera360 again, which doesn’t seem to handle macro shots very well. Or maybe I’m just not very good at using it.

I meant to post this on Thursday, but must have forgotten to come back to it. There’s also a Day 5 picture that was meant to go up on Friday. Slow me. Here it is:

Hyper growth overnight. I’m stoked these seeds grew under office lighting conditions. If the sprouts are good to eat on Monday, I might look for more cress and chia seeds online for more office desktop garden experiments.

Permalink. Posted 12 January, 2012. Tagged: cress, gardening, hobbies.

For Christmas, Swee furnished me with a cress postcard garden. As per instructions, I scattered the seeds and wet the paper, and sure enough, SPROUTS! As far as the eye can see. The picture above is day 2. Literally, overnight, young cresslings grow, reaching ever upward to a delicious end.

Permalink. Posted 10 January, 2012. Tagged: cress, gardening, hobbies.

I played like crap tonight. Two weeks off for Christmas and my football skills have worn down to a nub. Ow, and my callouses have become tender, ow ow ow.

For football – competition in general – I’ve decided I don’t mind losing, so long as the game was good. By good, I mean good sportsmanship, fair play, human concern for teammates and opposing players. Better to lose clean than win dirty. I decided this last year after observing people who behave in all sorts of ways, and myself experimenting with behaving in all sorts of ways.

Read the rest of this post…

Permalink. Posted 5 January, 2012. Tagged: chillies, football, gardening, thinking too much.

Today has been super productive and I am happy. ^__^

Read the rest of this post…

Permalink. Posted 4 January, 2012. Tagged: animals, drink, dunsborough, food, gardening, holidays, wa.