Australian Open 2023

It’s time for of our annual Australian Open selfie :)

Selfie of a man and a woman in a tennis court. They are both wearing wide-brimmed straw hats, face masks, and black t-shirts. They have bright blue lanyards around their necks.

Here are some other nice photos I took at the Australian Open this year.

Though this one is probably my favourite :)

Black and white photo of a child watching a tennis match. The child is leaning back in his chair and has his feet up against the railing in front of him.

Walking around in Melbourne

My favourite type of photography is street photography. And, thanks to the excellent weather we’ve been having in Melbourne, I spent the last couple of days walking around the city taking photos with my new camera.

You can see all my Melbourne photos in the (appropriately titled) ‘Life in Melbourne’ album on Flickr. And you can see all my street photography photos in the ‘Out and about in the city’ album.

But here are a couple of my recent favourites.

Tram stops

People in black and white

Looking down

Cool truck

Black and white photo of a large, old truck cab with the brand ‘international’ in all capital letters affixed across the front grill.

Out and about in the city

Here are some photos I’ve taken with my new camera. They’re nothing particularly exciting, but taking them has given me a chance to play around with the camera and its settings.

Wide angle

Walking by platform 1 on a sunny day:

Photo of a suburban train station platform taken from the level of the platform floor. Across from the track are are row of tall trees. A sign on the platform tells you this is platform 1 at Gowrie Railway Station.

Burst mode

Pair of pushy seagulls at Federation Square:

Photo of two seagulls, walking forward side-by-side, eyeing something off camera.

Low angle

Watching a movie at Federation Square:

Photo of two people sitting in foldable deck chairs watching a movie being shown on a large screen in a public square. Behind the funky, off-angle building on which the screen is mounted you can see the tall buildings of the city centre.

Zoom

Letting the world pass them by:

Black and white photo of a couple taken through a gap in the trees. The couple are sitting on a park bench facing a river, while a cyclist crosses the walking/cycling path behind them.

Favourite mailbox

I didn’t think I’d ever have a favourite mailbox. Turns out I do, and it’s this one :)

Photo of a wooden residential mailbox installed atop a small mound of dirt in the front garden of a house. The entire mound of dirt is covered with pink coloured flowers.

Born in a barn

This house in our neighbourhood has no other Christmas decorations, just this nativity scene. Which I think is pretty cool, given the whole understated, born-in-a-barn origin story they’re representing.

Photo of a small Christmas nativity scene created using ceramic figurines that’s been set up in a residential garden.

Not. Happy. Jan.

Maggie is not happy that summer holidays have started in Melbourne. She relies on the kids from the nearby primary school to provide her with dropped snacks on her daily walk!

Photo of a red/brown dog sniffing intently at a spot in the grass on a nature strip by the side of a residential street. The dog is wearing a walking harness that’s attached to a red leash.

Waiting for a train

Waiting for a train at Yarraville Station in Melbourne, Australia.

Photo of an empty outdoor train platform, taken with the camera placed very close to the ground. The platform extends into the distance, and the bit of pavement the camera has been placed on shows cracks from years of use in the hot Australian summer. Across the train tracks you can see an out-of-focus train station build on the other platform.

Top-down photo of the edge of a railway platform, with the top half of the photo showing one of the train tracks and the bottom half showing the thick white line that marks the edge of the platform. The photographer’s white sneakers and the cuffs of his jeans are visible at the very bottom of the photo, with the front part of his sneakers on top of the white line. The edge of the platform and white paint on it is cracked and peeled from years of use under the hot Australian sun.

Hood art!

This is probably the coolest car hood that I have ever seen in my entire life!

Photo of the hood of an older Volvo car parked just off the street on a sunny day. The hood of the silver car has been hand painted to show an artistic depiction of a scene from the film ‘Alice in Wonderland’. The scene shows the yellow brick road making its way through some greenery. On the road are Alice, her dog Toto, and the Tin Man. The Tin Man is shown in the foreground, and he is holding a small hatchet. Toto is in the background and next to him we can see only Alice’s feet and lower legs under her blue, patterned skirt.

2022 NBN update: 3% faster

Every time we move house my first blog post is always an update on what the NBN internet speeds are at our new place. This time is no exception.

What is different this time is that, instead of renting, we’ve now bought a house in Melbourne’s northern suburbs. (Yay!)

Compared to our last place, the upload and download speeds at our new house are around 3% faster – which is cool.

A graphic titled ‘2022 NBN update: speeds up 3%’. The graphic shows two sets of bar charts, one with a heading of ‘average download speeds’ and the other with a heading of ‘average upload speeds’ — both showing download/upload speeds in megabits per second, or Mbps.

There are six bars in each chart, one each for the years 2009, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2020, and 2022. Both download and upload bars increase dramatically in size from 2009 (when the internet connection types was ADSL) to 2015 (when the internet connection type was FTTB).

The bars were highest in 2018, with 105.2 Mbps download speeds and 37.2 Mbps upload speeds in Kingsville. The connection type in this location was FTTP. In 2022 the bars show 94.7 Mbps download speeds and 18.9 Mbps upload speeds in Melbourne’s north. The connection type in this location is FTTC.

Our NBN connection type is still FTTC though. But that’s okay, the speeds we’re currently getting are sufficient for our needs.

There’s just two of us here, so Nadia and I can stream multiple 4K videos simultaneously without a hitch. And both of us can seamlessly participate in 1080p video conferences at the same time as well.

Of course, the second NBN Co give us the opportunity to upgrade our connection to FTTP, we’ll jump on that straight away :)

For now, though, I’m super happy with what we’ve got.

Gaps in the rain radar

I’m very pleased with my ability to find the gaps in the rain in which to walk the dog.

The arrow on the rain radar map below shows the direction the clouds are moving in. The gap marked out is when I walked Maggie.

And this is what happened exactly two minutes after we got home!

Animated GIF showing of a wild and windy downpour in a residential back garden.

South Asian Round Table at AMWF 2022

I attended the South Asian Round Table at the Australian Muslim Writers Festival 2022 which featured Nadia Niaz, Adalya Nash Hussein, Tasnim Hossain, and Tasneem Chopra (as the moderator).

The Coburg Library, where this event was held, is the very first library from which Nadia I got library cards when we moved to Australia in 2006 :)

Photo of a library event space with three green armchairs and a couple of coffee tables arranged in front of a wall. On the wall behind the armchairs is a TV screen with ‘The South Asian Round Table’ displayed in large letters on it.

The discussion was great!

The upshot was that we’re all excited about more (probably second and third generation) South Asians getting into the arts – both in front and behind the scenes. And though there’s been some representation in recent years, there’s still a long way to go and a lot more to do.

Photo of four women of colour sitting on armchairs, taking part in a panel discussion

Here Adalya is talking as a journal editor about making space at the table for South Asian writers.

Photo of two women of colour on a panel discussion. One of the women is gesturing with her hands as she makes her point.

Here is Nadia talking about how she built her own platform to showcase multilingual writers in Australia because nobody else was doing it.

Photo of two women of colour on a panel discussion. One of the women is gesturing with her hands as she makes her point.

And here’s Tasnim talking about creating safe spaces for minoritised groups in her role as theatre director.

Photo of two women of colour on a panel discussion. One of the women is gesturing with her hands as she makes her point. The other woman, who is the moderator, is listening attentively to what’s being said.

Finally, a big shout-out to Özge Sevindik Alkan from The Right Pen Collective for running the whole festival. (This particular panel discussion was organised in conjunction with the SAARI Collective, fyi.)

Özge is the festival director. And, as you know, a festival director’s job is never done!

Photo of a woman wearing a bright blue hijab. The woman is sitting on a chair with a laptop on her lap, while at the same time typing on a smartphone that she’s holding above the laptop.

It would’ve been nice to attend more events from this festival this year, but hopefully I’ll get to do that next year.

Food court, 4pm

I love a good liminal space, and I walked by one my way home from work today.

Overhead photo of a mostly empty corner of a food court. There are empty tables and chairs neatly lined up, with only one person sitting and eating and a couple of others walking by.

Also this café, that’s now closed till breakfast.

Photo of a food court café named Lily Li that’s closed for the day. The lights have been turned off and all the chairs have been placed upside down on the tables.

Neighbourhood buffet

Best. Walk. Ever. Well, at least for Maggie.

We found a pile of chips under a tree (which is what she’s being pulled away from here), a whole open packet of crackers, and two small orange and poppy seed muffins.

She managed to sample a bit of each.

Photo of a red/brown dog straining on her walking harness and lead as she tries to get at something at the base of a tree.

Happy birthday Nadia!

Happy birthday Nadia!

#StarOnAStick #PotatoQualityPhoto

Photo of a woman standing in a public park at night. The gardens behind her are decorated with lanterns strung on poles to illuminate walking paths. The smiling woman has long hair and is wearing a black puffer jacket.

We celebrated Nadia’s birthday with an evening at The Wilds, an outdoor festival of art, light, and performance that had food trucks, bars, and an ice skating rink.

We got a little wet – which we expected, given the weather forecast – but we had an otherwise lovely time.

Photo of a large, artistically swooshy, and brightly coloured wireframe sculpture bathed in strategically placed lights on a dark, overcast evening. People have gathered around the artwork, and some of them are taking photos. In the background is a metropolitan cityscape with tall buildings that have their lights turned on.

Of course we couldn’t bring a cake to an outdoor event, so instead we brought all the macaroon flavours for everyone to share :)

Overhead photo of a box containing fifteen brightly coloured macaroons of different colours.

For the record, those flavours were: French vanilla, Nutella, salted caramel, double Belgium chochlat, crushed pistache, original bubble gum, lemon meringue, crème brulée, authentic tiramisu, strawberry & cream, raspberry & white chocolate, and blueberry cheesecake. I got these from Antipasti Deli & Cafe in Yarraville.

High visibility

Me, from three streets away: “Why have they closed that road again? They finished all the road works here a couple of weeks ago.”

Me, after I got closer: “Oh, that wasn’t a line of bright orange traffic cones laid out across the street.”

#ChildCare #RoadSafetyLessons

Photo of a group of small children, all wearing bright orange high visibility vests, crossing an intersection in a residential neighbourhood under the guidance and supervision of several adults.