Just checking in

I'm fine. But I'm finding that I am crashing into bed after the kids go to sleep. I've survived a bout of the cold but the kids are having round number two of it. Big bummer! Zach seems to be recovering really quickly this time around which is good but Amelia coughed pretty much all night last night. Poor thing.

Anyway, I'm just hanging in there until this cold front passes and the rain starts so it can warm up a little!!

Extraordinary Mondays - Zach's drawings

Zach's drawing skills have been improving in leaps and bounds. It is pretty amazing what he is drawing at his age. Okay, so I know that there are other kids his age who can draw way better. I'm not delusional but I do think he is not bad at all!



Zach drawing cars. The completed drawing had loads of cars. He said that it was traffic jam. It even had overhead traffic lights!


The dinosaur drawing above he drew today at school. You can just make out the Stegosaurus and the Tyrannosaurus Rex.

There's more but we'll have to wait until he brings his craft home from school.

Hmm...oysters!

What could be better than a quiet night with my favourite man and a plate of oysters kilpatrick? Nothing much, really.



If you are wondering, the kilpatrick recipe is simple. Mix one part Worcestershire sauce and one part tomato sauce. Drizzle on oysters in shell and top with bacon pieces. Stick it under a grill until bacon is cooked and slightly charred. Enjoy with a squeeze of lemon juice. YUM!

Extraordinary Mondays - Point clouds!!

At the start of this year, I was introduced to the wonders of 3D laser scanners and its associated terminology. I was impressed to say the least that a 3D scan could record the most intricate details of a building to a negligible error margin. Can you imagine how much this would change the architecture conservation with such technology if it was readily available? (It is expensive for the time being.) It would be easy peasy to reconstruct a ceiling rose or a delicate column capital if a 3D scan existed for the building.

Anyway, so I was browsing YouTube and chanced upon Radiohead's House of Cards video and immediately, the voice inside my head screamed, "Point clouds!!" (That's what the data is called from a 3D scan.) Take a look.

We'll be OK

Khoa and I have been reduced to spluttering fools. We have been under the weather for the past week. The kids too. Poor things. Bummer!

What do you do when you simply have no inspiration to sew, paint or craft? You sit back and enjoy a good bowl of yummy hot soup or congee and listen to your favourite tunes. My favourite at the moment is Ingrid Michaelson's Be OK. Hope you are fairing better than me.

I have gone lomo

I don't really understand the craze with lomography. BUT I do so like the random colour saturations it produces. However, I don't own one and probably wouldn't go buy myself one.

A few days ago I decided to have a go. I experimented with some apps I found that claimed to produce digital lomos. Here are some of the shots below:



















I do like how they all turned out. The reds a little brighter, the blues a little...um...blue-er. Take a look at the before and after shot below.

Before:





After:






You must say that the transformation is pretty amazing. So, am I going lomo? Maybe... I'm still unsure about it all. If you are a fanatic, I wouldn't mind being convinced.

Extraordinary mondays - Breaksea Island

If you haven't noticed, I've been rather irregular with my updates. As you would probably have guessed it, life is sure busy right now. Work particular sucks me dry. But you know why I love my job so much? Well...in the last two days, I got to go on a boat, a plane and a helicopter, all to access places that not many people can go to. I feel special to say the least. I thought I'd share with you what I experienced on Friday.

On Friday, I flew down to Albany, jumped on a helicopter and flew to an island in King George Sound known as Breaksea Island. Its current inhabitants are mainly birds, a few penguins, a seal colony, an infestation of rabbits and a small group of stone masons, builders and carpenters. There is a total of 7 structures on the island: two lighthouses two cottages, two outbuildings, one jetty. The original lighthouse on Breaksea Island was built in 1858 to improve navigation into the harbour of Albany. Another lighthouse was built in 1902 which you will see in the photos to below. On the island there are two cottages which were built in 1902 and 1908. The 1858 lighthouse and its associated keeper's quarters are currently in poor condition. So were the cottages but you will see that they have been slowly conserved.

The island is beautiful. The buildings sit within this picturesque setting that speaks to you of the early rugged colonial life in what would have seem to be the most isolated landscape in the ocean. Anyway, I'll shut up now and let my pictures speak: