JC

Dinner Improv

2008-11-11T12:27:40Z

We didn't do grocery shopping on the weekend. Such is our life on busy weekends. On the bright side....because there's a grocery store downstairs from our place, I stopped by and bought fresh produce to cook!!!

Sometimes improvising with cooking doesn't work. Which is not so good when you have to cook for two....but...tonight it worked!

First up - I felt like clean food. I felt like chicken...and anything but fried. I thought I could bake some marylands, but since I bought the barbie....roasting meat in foil is easier. I ended up with thigh fillets, because it's hard to go wrong with them.

For some reason I thought I'd try roasting the chicken with mango....I flirted with the idea of using pear for a moment, until I saw "cooking mangoes"....done.

I needed something to balance out the sweetness of the mango...so I bought prosciutto. I would usually buy bacon which is about $50/kg cheaper....but...since our shop sold proschutto...I bought it.

Finally I fried some okra, and some thinly sliced zuchini in oil, vinegar and sugar. I baked the chicken, mango and prosciutto on my barbie (love my barbie) with a wedge of lemon.....the mango and the lemon turned out jammy...mmmmm. Then I added parsley for faaaanciness. MMmmyyyyummmyyy.

There Mario. Time for your post now!

six of me by trish

2008-11-07T12:52:14Z

Trying to broaden her ability as a photographer, I modeled for Trish as she spent some time learning about what it takes to take a good portrait. The sort of portraits we see in TIME and Vogue and Rolling Stone (not-so-much).....we take for granted how difficult it is to uncover someone's personality - the core requirement of a good portrait.

Anyway....these six are not necessarily the result of an established journalist portrait photographer....but it's a start. Did she capture the essence of JC?

...and for 10 bonus points...there's this photographer who I read about. Celebrity photographer who ONLY takes standard half-body portraits. Takes photos of politicians and also famous world figures. I can't remember his name. Anybody know?

Anthea & Mike!

2008-11-01T02:34:16Z

So I don't usually post any of the stuff we get from weddings and engagement shoots....but I got a little experimental with Mike and Anthea's shoot.

Mike isn't your average guy. He loves basketball and he's played for the Mushrooms (that's my team) a couple of times...So I got a couple of shots, trying to channel the feeling of "~~White~~ Asian Men Can't Jump". The scene where the guy loses a game and retreats to the lap of his girlfriend is for some reason one of the only ones I remember. (The only other parts I remember are i) Woody Harrelson's girlfriend waking up in his basketball singlet...and ii) "What is a quince!")

For awhile we couldn't figure out how to make the basketball theme work. It's pretty hard to make an engagement shoot work with the guy in sports gear, so we kept Mike in his nice clothes. That meant that any jumping/aerials weren't going to be easy....so we managed to find a couple of moves that make Anthea actually look like she knows what she's doing!

Taronga Zoo (with Zac and Caleb!)

2008-10-22T12:35:06Z

So as I mentioned, I spent the morning at the zoo with Zac and Caleb and their families. As Caleb's mom Karen told me - the zoo is a magical place if you bring kids. Well despite going to the zoo twice in the last....um...7 years.....I've never been to the zoo with kids, so this was a first for me!!!!

Caleb and Zac can be hilarious when put together. They were both sulking when we arrived at Taronga...but the moment we got in the gates they both started stomping down the path with their vocal chord engines running and taking in every bump along the way!

We headed straight for the 11 o'clock seal show! The wait was accompanied by biscuits for Zac and strawberries and grapes for Caleb....waiting didn't go down too well with Zaccy though.

Finally....seals!!!! The seal show was awesome....but alot shorter than I remember. My attention span must have grown since I was a kid!

Zac loved the seals. Caleb's commentary was amusing and cute...."Nnnnnoooooo waaaayyyy!!!!"...."Ooooooh maaaaaaynnnnnn!!!!!". Yeah, I think he might have picked that up from watching his favourite movie (Cars) too often.

The day was filled with heavy lifting. (Lift me! Lift me!)

Curious Zac.

Curious Caleb.

I'll take this moment to share a funny moment about Caleb. You might remember the photos I had from Lauren's 21st birthday. Well, Jase (a.k.a evil-Spidey) freaked Caleb out of his nappies.....seriously. Anyway...at the zoo there was this muslim woman who had a full face covering, except her eyes. Caleb probably pooed his pants again. Funnily enough....in the photo above, I think Caleb is getting up close to a big spider.

Yup....whatever Zac does, Caleb does.....and what Caleb does, Zac does.

"Look! Elephants!!!"

Elephants.

We visited the sleepy wombat...

....and shortly after, it was halftime and Zac took a nap.

One cable car ride later, Zac was pumping again!

Pumping = running and climbing.

Thanks Zac and Caleb (and your mums and dads) for such a great day!

More than the sum of it's parts...

2008-10-18T11:53:35Z

The photo is Trish and my rings taken. Our rings symbolise our love. It looks like we've put our rings in the gutter.

Today was pretty much a perfect day. Not literally, but the sum of it's parts leaves me feeling - at 10:56pm, 18th October - as good as one should. I'm not so good with the prose, so I'll recap in my unrefined listed form, moving back into time....

10:50pm - scooped myself a HUGE cup of ice-cream. English toffee. There were other options in the freezer, but I thought I should finish the tub which was already open.

10:45pm - finished watching Season 1 of Californication with Trish. It's a great series if you can get past the first 4 or so episodes and the gratuitous t&a. The characters are deep, the social commentary engaging (and sometimes hilarious) and the acting is superb. Let me know when you've watched it, and then invite yourself over and we can talk it over a BBQ.

9:40pm - We finished dinner. Best meal we've had in a long time. Our balcony in the warm night air is beautifully relaxing.

8:30pm - We have no wine, so dinner is accompanied by the ruby port we bought in New Zealand. A few weeks ago when we opened the bottle, we thought it tasted toxically alcoholic. Anyway, since then it seems it's fermented in such a way that it's left with the sweetness. Trish gets drunk on half a glass which is apparently 2 standard drinks.

7:45pm - Ice-cream is majorly on special. Weis Mango Macadamia for $5. Connoiseur is $5 too. Trish wants Weis. I want Connoiseur. So we compromise and buy both.

7:30pm - We shop for dinner at West Ryde Woolies because our fridge is empty. Chicken Maryland for dinner, which we'll throw on the barbie. Trish buys the best Danish fetta for salad. We buy dips to use with the crusty Pane di Casa we have at home. Corn and asparagus to top it off. Oh, and some frankfurts too because I'm hungry.

6:15pm - We finish off a great "pre-wedding" portrait shoot....or whatever you call it when an Asian couple get in wedding gear for photos. We can't take all the credit, the light was as good as it gets in a Sydney spring.

4:30pm - I make it home just in time to accompany Trish to her second shoot of the day. The couple called to say they're running late....so I've got some time to take a breather. I slump on the couch, but Trish is happy because she's (more or less) rested. And our bathroom is clean.

3:00pm - I'm exhausted, but spending the day at Taronga zoo with Zac and Caleb and families was lots, lots, lots of fun. I'll start on those photos when I'm done with this post.

10:15am - watching an almost 2 and almost 3 year old run buckwild because of the excitement....awesome. I haven't been to the zoo with little kids before....it makes a lot of difference.

9:00am - I've woken up before Trish. This rarely happens. In fact, it's happened about 6 times since we've been married. Trish is exhausted after working as a photo+album-editing machine for the last two day. She decides she doesn't want to come to the zoo now. I'm a little sad, but Trish needs the rest. I think about resting too, but my family rarely gets together all at once....and I don't often spend daylight with Zac.....you gotta do these things now because kids grow up every time you see them!

Jager Bombonieres

2008-10-14T09:46:16Z

This has been the best bomboniere (for guys) at a wedding I've attended! It wasn't just something that guys would actually like....it was also a symbol to the groom's German heritage, as well as fitting in with the bride's ~~obsession~~ theme with the colour green. It could have only been cooler if all the men raised their bottles for a shot to the bride and groom. Even better, the bride and groom were kind enough to give us our own table with our own bombonieres!!! WOOoooo! (Trish only got an espresso cup and coffee beans....Haha!).

The only question is....jager isn't really a drink to be drunk alone. So...what does one do with a shot-sized bottle of jager?

Autotune is killin' my life

2008-10-07T23:29:55Z

Latest peeve: The wave of songs with the whole vocal distorted by autotune.

Neeerrrrdsssss

2008-10-07T08:14:47Z

First of all, Happy 21st Birthday Party to the sweetest cousin of all!!!

Lauren's ~~nerd~~ ~~cosplay~~ anime and cartoon costume party was heaps of fun. Themed parties are all the rage again! Most people didn't know who I was (L from Death Note) but it didn't matter because Lauren knew who I was!....and the rest were simply wondering why I was wearing eyeliner. (Not so secretly, I was pretty proud of myself because I had to do it myself in the car!!!).

Eyeliner was pretty fun and I briefly flirted with the idea with being a happy emo. I wonder if I could make friends with emo kid easier that way. Or if I'd be left out of the group because I wasn't genuinely emo. Or if they'd just get even more upset.

Sometimes I wonder where culture crosses the line from being part of an embracing community to being a set of odd principles just grabs you and sucks you in. Do you choose what culture you want to be a part of...or does it choose you? (Just like - does your personality determine what music you like...or...the other way around?)

Anyway....some of the groups I'm thinking about....
- Assorted nerd culture: Gamer nerds, techy nerds, Facebook nerds.
- The pro-Christian American football culture. Or is it the pro-Football American Christian culture....I'm not sure which.
- Oh....the Hollywood culture...that really scares me.
- Pageant culture in North and South America.
- Those weird Japanese subcultures....
- Thinspo groups. I think that's what they're called.
- Corporate greed.

I think that all culture is potentially bad.....but you can't ever be apart from culture, unless you go live as a recluse I suppose.

Zac In August

2008-09-14T12:30:31Z

I'm going to cheat and backdate posts, for the sake of keeping the internet up-to-date.
Anyway, this is what Zac was like back in August....he isn't quite as compact any more and he's alot more rowdy!!!

Snow Ninja

2008-09-01T13:13:44Z

Not that I've been thoroughly active in the past month with blog posts....but I'll be going ninja (i.e. away from the internet) for a couple of days....

Snow Skiing!!!

2008-08-26T12:24:30Z

In seven days I will be in New Zealand...woooo!!!! I've gone on another eBay binge which I'm SURE is good for my health. I've learnt to love the message "MAILROOM DELIVERY NOTIFICATION" at work. It's the best pick-me-up.

I picked up these SPY Orbit goggles....hot! So hot that they can be worn around the house! I've got a good feeling about these babies....but the real test will be when I take them into the snows!

I've also been doing my best to catch up to the other guys - I've been learning to snowboard on youtube and trying to teach my brain how snowboard.....you know...just like if you have to visualize making a free throw before you shoot it. Lynzy tells me that he tried to do this, and it turned out totally different...but that's probably because he visualized straight-legged snowboarders.

short happy list

2008-08-15T14:23:07Z

This week was a welcome relaxing contrast to the craziness of the previous one. I'm pretty much as happy as can be right now....yeah, in some ways we're talking fleeting happiness....but I'm enjoying it while it lasts.

Me enjoying the view while it lasts.

So - onto my happy list:

1. Clean streaks. From time to time I get these weird compulsions to clean. Wednesday night I windexed every imaginable surface in the kitchen and re-organised half our cupboards. A clean kitchen is a happy kitchen. And also a happy wife.

2. Extra minutes after work. Getting the 5:15pm train home means that cooking is relaxing rather than rushed and stressful.

3. Zac and lots of other little kids! Playing races or tip with 1-3 year olds is awesome fun. Also sharing first words like "wick-ed". And seeing Zac help out with changing his own nappy. And climbing Couch Mountain.

4. eBay. I've been eBaying all week! I got gloves and goggles for ski-ing....yay!!!! Now I wait and hope for them to arrive!!! I also talked myself out of buying walkie-talkies for our ski trip. For some reason I think they'd be cool....even though I know they'd be very annoying.

5. Playing. Around. Thanks Zab!

Speed

2008-08-09T02:14:35Z

I had the feeling this would happen. I had the feeling when I told my manager I would be driving into work instead of calling a cab. I had the feeling when I was driving on empty roads. But I still let my mind slip into cruise control.

So...heading into work at 2:45am, I cruised across Anzac Bridge. Near the end, I saw a cop jump back in his car, and glancing down at my speedo i was revving past 75 at the time. And Anzac Bridge is a 60 zone.

Cops tailed me for awhile until we got onto Bathurst St, then pulled me over.

"Do you know how fast you were going". He showed my his reading.

90.9.

I was shocked. "There's no way I was going that fast!"

Anyway, the cop gave me a ticket for doing 15-30km/h over the limit. That carries a $234 instead of $81.

The situation has finally settled in my mind. I spent last night wondering whether I should fight it but now I'm somewhere closer to resigning to the fact....so since I'm not sure I'll ask the internet (i.e. you). What should I do?
a) Pay the fine. It only equates to $24 per year I've been driving.
b) Fight the fine. The camera was more than 10% out, which is redonkulus.
c) See if I can reduce the fine to $81.

Key facts:
- I've never had a fine of any sort before.
- I was DEFINITELY not doing more than 80.
- The fine is technically correct. I wouldn't be writing this if is radar was in the 75-80range.

In a different gear, some slow-shutter picture I took on Obervatory Hill the other day...

Streets

2008-08-02T01:09:43Z

So as most of you would have read on Trish's side of this blog....part of the 2009 plan is to go and 'see the world'. At the moment our plans consist of "buy world ticket". My list of places I'd like to explore is sort of empty....while Trish's is too big, so she has to pick the few we'll see.

My deciding factor is that I'd like to do something on my travels that goes beyond checking out the airport, going on the tour, checking the retail, eating the food and buying the "I've been to " t-shirt.

Part of me want(s/ed) to go and learn Spanish for a month and then go visit Bolivia and other countries to use it. Plus I might be able to come back and sing is Spanish which would be a really sexy thing to be able to do. (Some of you are thinking "you could just learn to sing that stuff phonetically like Beyonce....you don't really need have a full understanding of the words....they're all love songs anyway, and love songs all have the same desperate semi-pained emotion...")

The other aspect that is pretty high on our list for this trip will be photography. Trish has had some pot-luck enquiries for shoots around the world....but as yet...nothing that will fit in the months we're scheduled to travel (July-August!). Anyway....welcoming suggestions!!! I need help!!!

Can anyone guess what city this is?

Looking Forward To List

2008-07-29T11:33:49Z

1. Spring weddings. Feels like ages since I've shot a wedding.
2. ~~Skiing~~ snowboarding in New Zealand. I've never snowboarded before and most people I talk to say that I'm going to withstand 2 or 3 days of wanting to go back to the comfort of skis.
3. Zac learning to say "Uncle Joel". For now he knows who Uncle Joel and Auntie Trish are. And he knows that if he runs to me he gets to do an anti-gravity lift. Tonight we watched Ice Age with him. (Want to laugh? Check this out)
4. Collabo with Joe on Project "Are you serious?!". We started this on the weekend and so far....we're on track for awesome.
5. Late addition: Updating the look of my blog, because Trish's looks so much better.

We had two attempts at the above image before a security guard scared us away....