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.
I’d almost forgotten how lovely it is to smile at your neighbours!
It did feel a little strange walking Maggie without a face mask this afternoon. But I’m so happy outdoor mask-wearing restrictions have eased across Melbourne just before summer kicks in.
Photo of a medium sized red dog on a leash sniffing around a patch of white flowers next to a chain link fence.
We had heavy rain and seriously wild winds across Melbourne overnight and well into this morning.
Screenshot of a smartphone weather app showing a large band of heavy rain moving towards Melbourne from the west.
Luckily just three weeks ago our local council and the power companies that supply our side of the city had come through and cut down all the tree branches that were close to powerlines in our neighbourhood. They’d asked us to do the same with the trees in our front yard too.
Photo of a letter titled ‘Vegetation clearance responsibilities’ with diagrams showing how residents need to trim trees around power lines in front of their houses.
Not that this stopped whole trees and massive tree branches from falling across roads in and around Melbourne’s west, of course.
Screenshot of a smartphone app showing a continuing list of ‘Tree Down’ incidents across several suburbs in Melbourne’s west (including the suburbs of Brooklyn, Ascot Vale, and Maidstone).
Which inevitably led to a bunch of power outages.
Screenshot of an ‘Electricity Outages’ webpage from electricity supplier Jemena. The map on the screenshot shows several pockets of power outages across Jemena’s area of supply, which is mainly to the inner west and inner north of Melbourne. There are no outages at the bottom of the map – between Altona North and Williamstown – which is where the suburb of Newport is situated.
But we lucked out in our neighbourhood: we did have a couple of brownouts during the worst of the wind, but we never actually lost power.
This was the biggest branch that fell on our street.
Photo of a large branch that has fallen off a massive tree on the side of a residential street. The branch that has fallen off is as long as the house behind it is wide.
Fortunately most of the branches that did fall were thinner and leafier, like this one. (Medium sized dog for scale.)
Photo of a relatively thin tree branch that has fallen and is lying on the nature strip next to a residential street. A red dog on a leash is standing next to the branch on the grass.
So chalk one up for proactive maintenance from the Hobson’s Bay City Council, Jemena, and Zinfra!
There’s a first time for everything. Like today, when Nadia and I watched a movie at the Village Cinemas drive-in during a thunderstorm! Which is a lot less disruptive than you think it might be, by the way. As long as you’re not too fussed with watching a movie with the windshield wipers on :)
Also, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is a fun movie.
Photo of a large, outdoor cinema screen taken from inside a car at a drive-in cinema. Being projected onto the screen is the Marvel Studios opening titles sequence.
I’m not a fan of summer picnics, but spring picnics are most excellent – especially post-lockdown ones! And Newport Lakes Reserve is a great place for a picnic.
Selfie of a man and a woman in a large park on an overcast day. The man is sitting in a low picnic chair. The woman is sitting on the ground and is leaning back on to the man. Both have been caught mid-laugh.
(Don’t worry, Nadia and I only took our masks off while eating lunch, which was immediately before we took this selfie.)
And, since it was such a lovely day, here’s another selfie :)
Selfie of a man sitting in the share of a tree in a large park. The man is balk, bespectacled, and has a salt-and-pepper beard. He is wearing a black t-shirt that’s the original cover of the book ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ by Douglas Adams.
To beach, or not to beach, that is the question…
Definitely that kind of afternoon in Melbourne today.
Photo of a dog fast asleep on its die in a residential garden on a sunny day.
When you leave the bathroom door closed…
Photo of a dog sitting on a rug in a hallway that ends at a closed door. The dog is facing the door, ears perked, listening for what’s happening on the other side.
And when you leave the bathroom door open.
Photo of a red dog poking its head through an open door to a bathroom. The photographer has taken the photo from inside the bathroom.
Apparently it’s ‘Send Ameel spam text messages weelk’ here in Australia. Fortunately Android’s spam/phishing SMS filter is as good as Gmail’s corresponding email filter, so all this crap gets automatically blocked and reported.
Screenshot of an Android smartphone screen showing the SMS messages app. The title of the page is ‘Spam and blocked' and below this are several text messages from various Australian mobile phone numbers. All messages claim to be package delivery updates that trick unthinking recipients to click on a malicious URL.
For a whole week I’ve avoided starting any new book because I knew the latest Seanan McGuire book was on its way from the US – and now it’s finally here!
Sadly I have a lot to do today, so I’ll have to wait a few more hours before I can get into this. *sigh*
Point-of-view photo of a man holding a hardcover book titled ‘When Sorrows Come’ by Seanan McGuire. The photographer is on an outdoor deck and is holding the book in his hand above a red dog who is looking up at the photographer.
Hope folks in Melbourne are getting to enjoy the gorgeous day were having today!
Selfie of a man walking a dog on a residential street. The man is wearing a t-shirt, face mask, and cap. The dog is sniffing around the nature strip next to a parked car.
A mixed berry crisp is a great way to end a long weekend :)
Photo of a berry dessert in a baking dish lying on top of a cooling rack on a kitchen counter. The deep red berry mix has bubbled over on top of the golden-brown upper layer.
Living in Melbourne’s west you get a 10:1 ratio for Western Bulldogs vs Melbourne Demons supporters who have decorated their houses for the AFL men’s grand final match.
Collage of four photos, each showing streamers, balloons, scarves, and residential gates painted in the red-white-blue of the Western Bulldogs or the red-blue of the Melbourne Demons AFL men’s teams.
And then you get balloons after the Demons won :)
Photo of the front of a house. Painted on the gate is a large red and blue heart. Painted next to the heart in large red text is ‘Go Dees’ and, on the other side, a red trident. There are red and blue streamers tied to the sides of the gate. Tied above the garage door in the background is a Melbourne Demons scarf.
This is not a kookaburra post, this is just a post with a kookaburra in it.
Photo of a residential wooden fence. There is a thick wooden post at the end of this fence. Sticking out from this post is a flat metal sculpture of the outline of a kookaburra (a native Australian bird).
Nein, nein, nein. It’s not bin right tonight.
Photo of three garbage bins with the number nine written in large white text on each of them. The bins are lying tucked away in a line by the far wall next to a garage door at the end of a residential driveway.
The best way to make them most of a sunny day in spring.
Photo of a red dog asleep on the grass in a residential garden on a bright, sunny day. The dog’s head is resting on a paved path, like a pillow.
Yes, Maggie. Feel free to circle around me while I’m holding onto your lead. Our walk will go really well if you do that. *sigh*
Photo of the front a man’s legs with a dog standing behind him. The dog’s lead has been wrapped around the man’s ankles.
When life gives you lemons you make lemonade.
When life gives you leftover fruit — and you’re working from home on a rainy Friday afternoon — you make a mixed berry crisp…
Photo of a baked berry dessert with one portion scooped out. The dessert consists of dark red berries underneath a golden-brown chewy top layer.
And a pear crisp!
Photo of a baked pear dessert with one portion scooped out. The dessert consists of several layers of cooked pears underneath a golden-brown crunchy top layer.
Life can be good. (And delicious.)
Melbourne might be cold and super rainy the next few days, but at least spring is definitively here.
Photo of a red dog on a lead who is sniffing around in a patch of greenery with several flowering plants.
So the carrot cake I made yesterday turned out pretty great. (Carrot cake is always better the second day, isn’t it?)
Photo of a moist, two-layer, half-eaten carrot cake with raisins and cream cheese frosting.
Yesterday, of course, we lit it on fire and celebrated :)
Photo of a man leaning on a countertop with his elbows. On the counter is a home made cream-cheese-frosted cake with several lit candles on it.
And I made the most of the sunny day in Melbourne with the daffodils and jonquils that Nadia grew for me for my birthday! <3
Photo of a man on a paved section next to a residential garden. The man is crouched behind four large planting pots with yellow and white flowers growing in them.
So I was at a Tier 2 COVID-19 exposure site in Altona North last week.
(Night time texts from DHHS? Not fun. Would not recommend.)
Screenshot of a text message received at 9:49pm that reads: “This is a message from the Victorian Department of Health. You are receiving this message because you have been identified as a Tier 2 contact of a person with confirmed coronavirus (COVID-19) after recently attending Woolworths Supermarket Millers Junction, Altona North. WHAT YOU SHOULD DO: Get tested for coronavirus immediately and quarantine until you get a negative result. For more information on testing sites please visit” and then there is a URL.
I immediately checked the Victorian Government’s coronavirus public exposure sites page for confirmation of exposure and, sure enough, the Woolworths at Millers Junction in Altona North was listed as a Tier 2 site.
The exposure period was on 13 August from 6:30 to 8:15pm.
Screenshot of a website entry for Woolworths Altona North. The exposure period for this site is 13/08/2021 6:30pm to 8:15pm. The health advice listed is “Tier 2 - get tested urgently and isolate until you have a negative result”.
I then checked my Google Maps timeline to confirm that I’d been there at the same time. And, indeed, I had been there from 7:47 to 8:46pm on that day to do our weekly grocery shop.
I’d checked-in via the Services Victoria app, which is how they’d traced me. (Thank you contact tracers!)
Screenshot of a Google Maps timeline for Fri, 13 Aug 2021 that shows two entries. The first is for driving. The second is for Woolworths on Millers Road in Altona North in Victoria, Australia from 7:47 to 8:46pm.
I got that text last night, so early this morning Nadia and I went for a drive-through COVID-19 test in Newport.
Lots of other people were there to get tested too so the the whole process took us two hours! But we got through it in the end.
Photo of a large white tent set up in a parking lot with several cars queued up to drive through the tent. The car this photo is taken from is waiting behind an orange traffic cone well behind the queue that's in front of the tent.
Now normally COVID-19 tests take 24-ish hours to process. But given I’d been mandated by the Department of Health to take this test, it looks like they expedited mine.
So just before 1am tonight I was told that my test had come back negative. Yay!
Screenshot of a text message that reads: “Dear Ameel, Test on 20/08/2021. Result: COVID-19 virus was NOT DETECTED. Test performed by Aust Clinical Labs. Plus do not reply to this text message.”
So, phew!
Of course I do our weekly shop, well, weekly. And in Newport (which is the suburb where I live) there’s a sizeable COVID-19 cluster. Which means there’s a good chance this’ll happen to me again.
Fortunately, I’m careful, I’m fully vaccinated, and I wear a good quality face mask so the likelihood of me actually getting infected and then falling very ill is tiny. But, still, it’s not fun to be reminded (and then be able to document) your close calls.
This is personal website of Nadia Niaz and Ameel Zia Khan. Here we document our lives in Melbourne, Australia.
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia