With a big year ahead of us I thought a Project 366 would be the perfect way to look back at the way it was.
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Day 91 - Being cultured
Friday, March 30, 2012
Day 90 - Butterflies for shelter
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Day 89 - Healthy eating
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Day 88 - One for the road
Our last day of our journey is upon us and we are to head back home. After what has been a relaxing and enjoyable weekend away we decided to take one last walk up to the lighthouse after breakfast. As one would expect being on the top of a peninsula, the views are spectacular so today's photo is of the northern beaches. From this height you can see the schools of fish sheltering in the bay and the waves which look much more gentle to what they are from the ground. With this photo captured we headed back to our room to assemble our luggage and headed down the hill to the car. After heading back up the hill to fetch the car keys we were packed and on our way.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Day 87 - One year ago today
Monday, March 26, 2012
Day 86 - Lighthouse lodgings
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Day 85 - Picture perfect
For our second day in Nabiac after visiting the local town for lunch, I decided that yesterday's photography was unfinished business. I headed down to the dam with my camera in hand and set about getting a shot that showed off how picturesque their property actually is. After their border collie, Tiffany finished swimming across the dam and the ducks had cleared off I balanced myself over the waters edge and clicked.
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Day 84 - Forecast is for lemons
Friday, March 23, 2012
Day 83 - Exceptions to the rule
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Day 82 - Window shopping
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Day 81 - The next stage
Today was another milestone for our home. The bricks are now done after what has been a long weather-delayed process and we are now able to see the profile of our home taking shape. Today we had the internal scaffolding removed, window measurement and ground floor frame delivery. It has to be said that we have been very fortunate with the tradies that we have onsite, they are each very enthusiastic about their trade and are sympathetic with the gaps in my knowledge. I think it is great to see people enjoying their work and taking pride in the quality of their craftsmanship. As our home is a bespoke design, it is reassuring to deal with people like these.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Day 80 - Messy dinners
Tonight's meal was a classic Prawn Laksa. I use to have these quite often for lunch when I worked in Haymarket and the side effect was the increase in dry cleaning for my splattered neck ties. Trying to save preparation time we bought the shelled prawns only to discover the need for the shells to make the prawn stock. Luckily we had some dried prawns in the cupboard which were the perfect substitute. Once done we plated up and I ladled the soup over the noodles so the mess could begin. As the handling of noodle soup with chopsticks is splash prone, we did well to keep most of the soup off the table and our clothes as I was betting on another dry cleaner visit.
Monday, March 19, 2012
Day 79 - The best coffee of all
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Day 78 - Fair trade
After what was proving a whirlwind weekend our next appointment was with Dani's brother Steve, his wife Mel and daughter Bri. Steve had purchased a new computer and asked me to help set it up for him. They were well overdue for an upgrade and they chose a fancy touch screen all-in-one PC made by HP. It didn't take that long to get all the plugs in the right sockets and after a bit of mucking around the 3G internet connection was up and running too. Dani and I were then treated to a barbecue dinner with roast veggies and salads. This was topped off with a chocolate cake with chocolate flake decoration for dessert - my kind of currency :-)
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Day 77 - Reading everywhere
Friday, March 16, 2012
Day 76 - Friday get together
Since Dani and I got together she introduced me to her restaurant/dinner group. Every couple of months the emails are sent out indicating the venue and date, this month it was a small restaurant called 2060 in Waverton at 7pm. Given the distance I work from home I thought it would be better to meet Dani at Strathfield after work and drive direct from there. We arrived early so Dani suggested that we walk down to the harbour where this photo was taken. The meal? I tried the twice baked cheese soufflé for entree, Dani had the fig salad and for mains I chose a french dish called duck cassoulet and Dani picked the lamb on a bed of sweet potato. There was lots of conversation with the rest of the group from all things from My Kitchen Rules to how to track down hit and run drivers!
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Day 75 - Going wide
Today's photo has two noteworthy facts. The first is that it is at Sydney Olympic Park, which is where I work. It is much quieter than my previous city location, but is also a lot greener and modern. I often like studying the different buildings as they were built with the purpose to impress the tourists much like buildings in middle eastern countries, although in a less ostentatious manner and therefore far more tasteful. The other noteworthy thing about this photo is how wide it is. I stumbled across an app called Autostitch when trying to stitch together two photos for a previous posting so today I thought I would test its limits with a full panoramic photo. There is a degree of ghosting, but I think that has more to do with my photos, as they say - garbage in means garbage out!
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Day 74 - A collecting addiction
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Day 73 - It's chicken
Monday, March 12, 2012
Day 72 - Ticking off the list
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Day 71 - Living up to one's name
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Day 70 - Spectacular Canberra
https://picasaweb.google.com/dfreke/CanberraSpectacular2012
Friday, March 9, 2012
Day 69 - Operator faults
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Day 68 - The big wet
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Day 67 - Fast ambitions
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Day 66 - Sunday Night Eggs on Tuesday
With dubious worthiness of yesterday's post, I have returned to a safer subject matter today. Another recipe from Delicious Magazine, tonight's meal titled Sunday Night Eggs is all cooked in a frypan. All the ingredients are chopped so Dani and I set to chop up the spanish onions, tomatoes and red capsicums - all mixed with garlic, chilli and tomato paste. Once this mixture was cooked through small divots were created for the five eggs. They were poured in raw and cooked on top of the mixture, followed by the fried chorizo and garnished with oregano. Easy to make, tasted great and the washing up count was low to boot!
Monday, March 5, 2012
Day 65 - Bin night
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Day 64 - Winning the hard way
With the forecast of rain we packed our raincoats and umbrella for today's Tigers match at Leichhardt. The umbrella would be of use, the rest was a miscalculation. The sun was out in force, so we found some seats and while we waited for our friends Shaunah and Frank to arrive I got some water. With mobile phone issues Dani went to the gates to find them and the game started while she was gone. It didn't take long for the first try, just a couple of minutes which was soon followed up with another. It looked like a good day for Tigers supporters. In the meantime Shaunah and Frank arrived and settled in. In the second half the Tigers made some mistakes which saw the Sharks catch and pass their score. With less than 5 minutes on the clock the game came alive again with another Tigers try, the scores were now level. In overtime most fans were on their feet when a field goal was scored - by the team in orange and black which meant they won the game!
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Day 63 - Home mechanics
I'm an enthusiast for all things that have engines, but for much of the time I used to read about maintenance but pay others to do it. Since acquiring my club car I've taken on the maintenance myself with some help from friends. Today my motorcycle was on the operating table. I've owned the bike for about 3 years and only covered a measly 1250km, so it was technically overdue for its first 1000km oil change. I had bought the parts last year and decided that today was the day for action. I invited Jase over to help and when he arrived we got our hands dirty. Not having changed oil on a motorcycle before we worked out what all the drains were for and then new oil and filter were in. Now I need to build up those km's to a more respectable number.
Friday, March 2, 2012
Day 62 - The unexpected
I had never followed rugby league, I was so ignorant, I wouldn't have been able to tell you who the current premiers were. Where I am a Formula One tragic, Dani is a league tragic. So I have since learnt much about the Wests Tigers and especially how great they are. The opening game this year will be at Leichhardt and the Tigers were being coy about the availability of tickets to the general public. Eager to go, we decided that this year we would get memberships to the Leichhardt games to guarantee our seats for this Sunday. Now I only need to convert Dani to become the second biggest Mark Webber fan.
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Day 61 - I'm in a meeting
Much of my family might struggle to explain the detail of what I do; they know the role but the material runs dry soon after. My role as a Solution Architect is basically designing end-to-end computing solutions which involves determining which computer system will do what. It also involves a lot of meetings as this is the best tool at my disposal for finding out what needs to be done and then subsequent meetings for discussing and explaining how we will design the solution. The meeting in this photo was more of a presentation than a typical meeting where all the different architects from around the bank were finding out the latest news. Despite the role being rather esoteric, we are not a rare breed!