Impressive Pixel 6 Pro camera performance

Whoa. The Pixels 6 Pro’s forward-facing camera really is excellent!

This photo was cropped slightly, but is otherwise completely untouched.

Selfie of a smiling man standing on an outdoor deck on a sunny day, with a residential garden behind him. The man is bald and has a trimmed, salt-and-pepper beard. He is wearing glasses and a t-shirt with the original book cover of Phillip K Dick’s book ‘Do Android Dream of Electric Sheep?’ printed on it.

Also, compare these two untouched (again, only cropped) selfies.

The Pixel 6 Pro (right) does a much better job than the Pixel 3XL (left) that I just upgraded from.

Collage of two selfies of the same man in the same location. The man is bald, has a salt-and-pepper beard, and is wearing glasses and a pair of black wireless headphones. He is standing in a residential garden, with the sun behind him. The photo on the left, captioned 'Pixel 3XL', clearly shows the bright environment he’s in, but his face is shadowed and the clouds in the sky aren’t well defined. In the photo on the right, captioned 'Pixel 6 Pro', his face is well lit and you can see some of the details in the clouds.

Oh, and in case it isn’t bleedingly obvious by now, I bought Google’s latest and greatest smartphone: the Pixel 6 Pro :)

Smile!

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.

Battered, but not too bruised

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!

Drive-in movie during thunderstorm

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.

Spring picnics FTW!

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.

Maggie and the bathroom door

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.

So much SMS spam!

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.

When Sorrows Come

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.

Living in Melbourne's west

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.

Nein, nein

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.

Wrapped around

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.

Lunchtime baking on a rainy Friday

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.)

Carrot cake!

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.