Random tangent (blog)
Ameel Khan's personal blog. This is a blog about life, technology, photography, typography, the internet, science, feminism, books, film, music, and whatever other random stuff I come across or happen to be interested in today.
Perfect timing with the delivery! I’m heding into the long weekend in Melbourne with the latest Seanan McGuide book :) #WinningAtLife
(Not that it'll take me the whole weekend to read it, of course.)
Photo of a man holding up a paperback book titles ‘Calculated Risks’ by New York Times bestselling author Seanan McGuire. In the background of the photo is a red dog, sitting on the grass, looking up at the photographer.
Given the year we’ve all had, our annual Australian Open (tennis) selfie is a little different this time.
Our round 3 tickets got cancelled because of the snap five-day lockdown in Melbourne, so we just went to the women's singles final instead :)
Selfie of a man and woman, both wearing face masks. They have their backs to the Rod Laver Arena tennis court, which is about half full of spectators. On the tennis court itself is Naomi Osaka, winner of the 2021 Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup – which is awarded to the winner of the women’s singles tournament. Osaka is holding that cup and is getting her photo taken by a large group of photographers gathered at one end of the court.
Rod Laver Arena is such a gorgeous venue to watch matches in. And even at 50% capacity we managed to make plenty of noise.
Wide angle photo of Rod Laver Arena, a tennis arena with a rich blue playing surface. The seats, which are also in shades of blue, are about half full with spectators. The sun is setting behind the photographer so there is a golden glow on the seats on the far side of the arena.
Speaking of venue capacity, it was super strange seeing Grand Slam Oval so empty! But with only two matches tonight, and the whole place strictly divided into zones anyway, it makes sense.
Selfie of a man and a woman, both wearing masks, with a mostly empty food and retail sports tournament space behind them. In the background is a building a smaller tennis arena.
Give this was a finals match we got to watch a short musical pre-show, complete with bisexual lighting.
Photo of a large tennis arena with its roof closed. The arena is bathed in blue and purple lighting while a trio of singers perform from one end of the court.
As for the match itself, well here’s Naomi Osaka’s serve in slow motion.
For the match itself, will here's @naomiosaka's service in #SloMo. pic.twitter.com/nevzjM9Sbx
— Ameel Khan (@ameel) February 20, 2021
Of course at any modern sports venue the Spidercam is da real MVP.
Photo of a Spidercam camera mounted on a 360-degree gimball that’s attached to the ceiling by wires. This lets the camera zip around above the heads of the players, capturing the action from lots of different angles.
And even though we didn’t need these this year, Nadia is still a big fan!
Photo of a woman hugging a large metal fan that’s mounted on a wide cylindrical pedestal. Combined, the pedestal and fan are 50% taller than she is. On hot days these fans spray a fine spray of cold water over people passing by.
Kicking of our anniversary week with brunch at our local café. Of the seventeen years Nadia and I have been married this last one has been the strangest, but also the best.
Selfie of a man and a women in front of a tall wooden fence. The two are wearing almost identical straw hats and are smiling at the camera.
That feeling when you’re in the same field as you parent (in this case, literally) and you have to lean farther and farther away to get out from under their shadow!
Photo of two trees growing in a field behind a residential property. The younger tree is growing too close to the older one, so it has had to bend its trunk and extend its branches sideways to get the best direct access to sunlight. The end branches of the younger tree have bent so far away that they are literally touching the ground several metres away from the root of the older tree.
Wednesday sunset behind the massive gum tree in front of our house.
Photo of the sun setting behind a massive gum tree in a residential neighbourhood. The sky is bright blue and filled with broken, puffy clouds illuminated with golden yellow light from the setting sun.
The blackbird that keeps trying to steal Nadia’s cherry tomatoes can only get at the fruit lower down on the plant so the tomatoes in the upper branches are coming alone nicely!
Close-up photo of a tomato plant branch laden with cherry tomatoes at various stages of ripeness.
Close-up photo of a backyard cherry tomato plant with three bright red cherry tomatoes on it, along with a couple of smaller, greener ones.
Nadia’s first (baby) tomato harvest is here! (Update to this post from earlier in the month.)
She would’ve had a bigger bunch to show off but the neighbourhood possums ate the tomatoes that were ready to pick yesterday. (Ah well.)
Close-up photo of a hand holding four baby tomatoes.
Don’t miss the great conjunction, they said.
Jupiter and Saturn will be the closest together in the sky since 1623, they said.
Just look west after sunset, they said.
Meanwhile, in Melbourne…
Photo of a sky completely filled with grey, fluffy clouds above residential roofs.
That 'COVID normal' train life in Melbourne.
Selfie of a man wearing a hat, eyeglasses, and a large face mask. The man is seated on a train that’s stopped at a train station. There is a long instructional sticker on the inside of the train window that says: Keep your distance where you can.
Do you have a favourite tree on the street that you live?
We moved to the suburb of Newport, VIC last month and I've narrowed my list down to four…
This first one is a big broccoli. Well proportioned, nicely filled out, and colourful. But basically just broccoli. And I love it.
Photo of a paperbark tree on a residential street. The tree is shaped like a single branch of broccoli.
The second one is spade-shaped broccoli. It is massive, with a good solid trunk, and is arguably majestic.
Photo of a tall paperbark tree on a residential street. The tree is shaped like the spade playing card symbol.
Number three is a big boy. Both tall and wide, it provides plenty of shade and sounds lovely in the wind. This is a tree you'd want to hug.
Photo of a gum tree on a residential street. The tree is massive.
Number four is a spindly specimen. A tree from a lighter weight class than the others, if you will. But it has a strong zig-zaggy aesthetic that I find pleasing.
Photo of a tree on a residential street. The tree has distinct, zig-zag layers of branches.
I’m sure almost no one else is interested in what my favourite local tree is (currently leaning towards #3 btw). But, hey, if you can’t talk about this stuff on your own blog, then what even is your blog for? :)
Dramatic skies on a Sunday evening in Melbourne, Australia.
Photo of a partly cloudy sky at sunset. The colours of the clouds range from white and grey to bright yellow and golden. The light blue of the sky peeks out from between the gaps in the puffy, many-layered clouds.
Wearing sunglasses and a rain parka, I was prepared for both rain and shine when I walked Maggie this morning. (Melbourne’s weather is more unpredictable than usual this time of year.)
Selfie of a man in a baseball cap, large sunglasses, and a rain parka walking a dog along a residential street.
I’m glad I was prepared. Because here we are, 20 minutes after that first photo, sheltering under a large tree during a blustery rain shower!
Selfie of a man in a baseball cap, large sunglasses, and a rain parka with its hood pulled over the man’s head. The man is walking a dog on a leash.
And ten minutes after that we were being toasted by the bright sunshine again.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Selfie of a man in a baseball cap, large sunglasses, and a rain parka as he walks a dog along a residential street. There is bright sunshine on the pair.
Don’t get me wrong though: I love Melbourne and wouldn’t want to live anywhere else. You just have to be prepared for all that this city has to throw at you :)
What better way to return to the cinemas in post-lockdown Melbourne than by watching TENET at IMAX Melbourne in the original 1570 film version?! That was so worth it.
Selfie of a man standing in front of the IMAX cinema building in Melbourne, Australia.
I must watch that film again soon too. TENET is one of those juicy, complex, adult science fiction storylines that genuinely warrants a re-watch (plus a Blu-ray purchase).
There’s so much happening both story- and film-making wise throughout that you don’t want to miss anything. Overall a superb filmmaking achievement!
Last week we moved house. If that sounds like a stressful thing to do during a global pandemic, let you tell you: it is. But, we made it. And we’re now all settled in the suburb of Newport – about a fifteen minute drive from where we used to live in Kingsville.
One of the best things about our new place is the large garden at the back. Maggie took a couple of days to settle in and thoroughly mark her new territory, but even on moving day she found herself a nice spot to roll in.
A red heeler dog rolls around on her back in a patch of grass in a residential lawn. In the background you can see a garden shed and a swing.
Which she was immensely pleased about.
A red dog lies comfortably on her side in a residential lawn. In the background you can see part of a garden shed and a fence.
I guess dogs donna dog, and Maggie is making the most of it :)
Happy birthday Nadia!
I’m glad we could celebrate the day with flourless orange cake…
Two-thirds of a flourless orange cake that’s decorated with almonds, orange rinds, and creamy frosting.
And with your very first drive-in cinema experience!
Nighttime selfie of me and Nadia, dressed warmly, sitting in the front seats of a parked car.
That too by watching E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, which was fun trip down memory lane to the early 1980s :)
The outdoor cinema screen as seen from the front seat of a car that’s parked in a drive-in cinema. The 1980s version of the Universal logo is showing on the screen.
And outside was all dull green and grey
A dreary, overcast sky as seen through a window from inside a house.
Gorgeous skies in Melbourne today, with bands of rain clouds coming through in waves over the course of the afternoon and evening.
Cityscape from a tall building, showing a dark band of low-lying clouds in among lighter clouds higher in the sky.
This year’s ICC Women’s T20 Cricket World Cup was hosted by Australia and the final was held at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground on International Women’s Day (8 March 2020).
Nadia couldn’t make it (she had a deadline), but I was there with 86,173 other people to watch Australia and India compete for the trophy. (Australia won their fifth title.)
Crowd inside a stadium. A massive screen in the background says: “Attendance 86,174. Australian record!”. A spectator in the foreground has their arms raised as they cheer this announcement.
The MCG is such a fantastic venue for both live sport and music. I enjoy myself immensely every time I go there. (Also, yay for wide angle lenses for smartphones!)
Wide-angle view of the cricket pitch at the Melbourne Cricket Ground from just behind the seats on the lowest level.
At this match I happened to be seated behind the hundreds of girls who danced with Katy Perry in her fantastic pre-game performance. They were a fun bunch to sit behind: not tall, not rowdy, very enthusiastic, and very dancey. Even if they do look all composed and sober during the national anthems!
A view of the cricket pitch in a stadium. Everyone is standing at their seats while the national anthems play. The seats in front of the photographer are occupied by hundreds of young girls wearing all-purple sports/dance outfits.
My favorite nearby spectators, however, were these siblings. The little girl was particularly thrilled with Australia’s batting performance, pumping her fists or raising her 4/6 boundary sing every time a batter scored a boundary. In the second innings her brother joined in on the standing-and-cheering action as well.
The section I was in was mostly full of Aussie supporters, but there were a few pockets of India fans dotted about the place as well. We also had the inevitable Indian-Aussies who’d brought both flags with them.
There are pros and cons to watching a match at the venue as opposed to on the TV at home.
One of the pros of being at the stadium is that you get to see all the behind-the-scenes stuff. Watching the Spidercam zipping around doing its thing, for example. And checking out the staff as they do their jobs: like these security guards (who didn’t have much to do since the crowd was so fantastic) and the crew pulling advertising decals off the ground while Katy Perry’s roadies prepare her stage in the background after the match was over.
Arguably the best thing about watching a match in a stadium, however, is that you get to participate in a Mexican wave with eighty six thousand other people :)
Last year Nadia joined the fantastic Barbell Babes Brigade: a powerlifting training centre run for women, by women.
Not every member joins BBB to compete, of course, so every few months they organise their own ‘lifting party’. This is an event that gives all members an opportunity to come together in front of a hugely supportive audience of trainers, peers, and invited friends and family while they attempt personal-best lifts.
The assembled crowd cheers and celebrates a successful deadlift. Those are Nadia’s upraised arms in the foreground :)
This is the second lifting party that Nadia has participated in (and that I have, therefore, attended) and they’re always so much fun.
Nadia watches someone off camera attempt a deadlift. Nadia is wearing her BBB top with their ‘just strong’ tagline written in large, bold capital letters across the back.
Also, it turns out pigtails are super handy when you’re a strong badass who is lifting heavy weights in her shoulders :)
Nadia warms-up before her squat attempts.
This year Nadia managed a 75kg squat (up from 55kg last year!), 47.5kg bench press, and 65kg deadlift. Click those links (to Nadia’s Instagram account) to watch videos of her doing to those lifts.
If you’re a woman who is interesting in powerlifting and wants to be trained by (and train with) a fantastic bunch of women, I cannot recommend Barbell Babes Brigade enough.
Group photo of the participants at the March 2020 lifting party.
When you’ve found the brand that reflects your outlook on life, you might as well tell the world about it :)
A silver car is parked on the side of the a residential street. There is a sticker on the left rear window with the Mitsubishi car brand logo and text that says: miss-a-bitchy.
This is personal website of Nadia Niaz and Ameel Zia Khan. Here we document our lives in Melbourne, Australia.
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
