it was just one of those lazy loungin’ kind of mornings on a beautiful end-of-summer day…
look at this tired boy… he’s starting to give up his nap but he’s still getting used to not having his rest. all part of growing up i guess!
my friend dave from work organised a camping expedition to kanagra-boyd national park this weekend, so we left the bustle of sydney behind for our night together in a tent! unfortunately is was drizzling intermittently the whole weekend, plus it was rather chilly up in the mountains, but we still made the most of it by huddling around the fire and goofing around. the park is in the middle of the blue mountains, and the campsite is right in the middle of it. the whole area is forested with eucalyptus trees which make the air smell so nice. its always a treat to be taking great big lungfuls of fresh mountain air after being in our urban center!
nayou enjoyed digging around in the leaves and playing with the campfire. he was in good spirits the whole time, despite missing his naps on both days and being surrounded by a bunch of adults he had never met before. he slept like a log in the tent too which was great. actually all three of us did thanks to the most amazing air mattress that a friend of ours lent us. if we can find one of those, we’ll be sleeping in luxury anywhere!
it was nice to hang out with some colleagues outside of work too. much of the socialising in sydney centers around drinking, which i have been less and less interested in as time goes on. plus i’m more inclined to spend what little free time i have hanging out with brenda and nayou, so this was a good opportunity to shoot the breeze with them. i think there were ten of us in total, including nayou. jesse – who had me laughing so hard i had to leave the room the first time i met him – decided to blaze brave new paths in outdoor fashion when he couldn’t stand the cold anymore.
i would love to say that we went on long hikes and marvelled at the scenery, but we actually ended up just chilling out around the fire. there are some nice looking trails around, but the wet and the cold didn’t make it exciting enough to venture out. it cleared up on sunday and brenda got a nice morning walk in while nayou and i snored away, so at least one of us got out 🙂
the drive was quite long – about four hours each way due to traffic and road works! nayou was a trooper despite his eyelids being very heavy, although this was aided in a large part by brenda’s amazing entertainment skills. one of the funniest games was when brenda pretended to be nayou and nayou pretended to be brenda. i wish i had taken video of it, but i had to drive. i did get some shooting-blindly-over-the-shoulder shots though! we got home around 4 and nayou was asleep at 7 (normally he goes to sleep around 10pm)!
and now for something completely different – here is a photo and a video that i shot last thursday at our favourite cafe, room 10. nayou’s wearing a super cute shirt that brenda made and the smashing necktie from his grandma. super styleee! oh, there is a funny story about those blue shoes he is wearing. there was this really small stream next to our campground and nayou slipped into it within a few hours of us getting there. brenda put his shoes on a stick and dried them over the fire, but accidentally burned all the velcro off them as well! we’ve been duct taping them shut all weekend. hehehehe. oh well, they were on their last legs anyway!
when i was in university i really got into web design. this was during the heyday of people discovering the web as a new and interesting medium for visual design (1997-2001), and i was heavy into designers like kaliber 10000, joshua davis, yugo nakamura, erik natzke, and gmunk. flash was still a new technology then, and director (remember that program?) was also still a force to be reckoned with. i spent a lot of my free time playing with photoshop, and anything macromedia. most of the time i made these silly “toys” which were a way to try out new ideas, but sometimes i made fully fledged websites or interactive installations. one of the nice things about going to brown was that you could design your own courses if you had a passion, and i took full advantage of that to feed my enthusiasm for the technology.
when we unpacked all of our stuff from seattle i found a cd-r with most of my creations. unfortunately the disc is corrupted somehow and i am unable to get some of the data off it… which makes me really sad because i’ve thought about some of these pieces from time to time and wondered if i had backups anywhere. perhaps i’ll see if i can find some data recovery expert who can help me out. i did, however, manage to rescue some of the projects, which i thought i would share with you all. the bulk of them have audio so i’ve set them up to pop up in new windows. i like to think they have aged well, considering they are all over a decade old. i’d love to hear what you think about them, so feel free to leave a comment!
cubes – an experiment with z-sorting in flash. i remember this was a major pain in the butt to do at the time. (hint: click your mouse and hit the number keys to play)
jellyfish – i think i had read something about artificial life and wanted to see if i could create something like it. this is one of my favourite things i made. the only thing that bugs me is how the creature “bumps” into the edge of the frame… oh well.
fire – this was me trying out procedural textures in director. this thing used to run sooo slowly on the machines at the time. now it doesn’t look like much at all.
brickles – this was made during the time that me and my friends had started a video game company. i was so sick and tired of thinking about game design and playability, so i made a mean game.
particle – not sure why i called it that, but its an experiment with looping movies in flash… or something like it.
mondrian – another play with 3d using director. i love piet mondrian and thought about what his work would look like with an extra dimension. i also remember being really excited about the charles mingus loop too. i’m such a nerd!
that’s my boy!
and check out this amazing mat bag that brenda made me!
nayou got his second ever haircut yesterday. i was at work and when i came home i was greeted by the cutest thing ever. brenda had it cut much shorter this time which was a good idea considering how hot it is and how tangled his hair gets. his short hair reminds me of when he was much younger… its amazing to think back to those times and then see this articulate, chatty boy. his thing these days is to pee all by himself. he stands on his tiptoes and does it like a big boy (and yes, brenda and i are always there holding the seat up for him!). so cute.
and just for reference, here is a “before” shot.
we spent the whole day at manly beach surfing. our surf outings have been few and far between since we arrived in sydney, so it was great to get out in the water. there was a decent swell, shining sun and clear cool waters. then we went to dinner at andrew and caroline’s place. they are part of the “kings creche” crew that we met back in september when we first arrived in sydney. brenda and i are happy on our surf high, and nayou is happy and exhausted from playing in the sand and running around with his buddies. today was a good day 🙂
apologies for the poor quality of the video. i think i exported the quicktime with weird settings…
the main reason why i’ve been horrible with updates lately is because we haven’t been taking any photos! i know its horrible of us, but we just don’t seem to have a camera on hand when we want to anymore. its a bad habit that i am trying to break… in the meantime you’ll all have to suffer with these meager posts. sorry!
and its not like we haven’t been doing anything exciting either. this past weekend was especially exciting because one of my closest friends noa came down from brisbane for a visit! noa and i know each other from waaaaay back. like high school way back. we were close then and have kept in touch through the years. we’ve only seen each other a handful of times since i left sydney in 1995, but we always just pick up where we left off.
the last time i saw her was just after nayou was born, in new zealand. so this time she got to meet him, in all of his cuteness, and also spend some quality time with brenda. it was great to see her getting along with everyone in our tribe. not that i was expecting any other outcome!
it was a whirlwind visit but we already have plans to go up and visit her at easter. flights to brisbane are ridiculously cheap as they are desperate for tourism dollars so we would be mad not to take advantage!
and here is a random video of nayou playing in our de facto jungle gym. this sofa in the video is for sale, so if you live in sydney and need some furnishings, get in touch!
apologies for the long interval between posts. there hasn’t been all that much to report on the diaz-tanimura front except that life is chugging along nicely. this week we were hit by the mother of all heatwaves, with temperatures nudging 38C (100F) almost constantly. today is the hottest. as i am writing, it is about 40C (104F) outside. it is HOT. normally this would be the day to get to the pool or beach, but we decided to buck the trend and have a garage sale.
you see, two weeks ago we finally got all of our stuff from seattle. for those of you who might not know, many, many moons ago brenda and i moved from seattle to new zealand. this was back in 2004. we had intended to ship all of our stuff to new zealand, but got scammed by the moving company who took our money and left everything in the port of seattle. so we ended up taking everything and shoving it into a storage unit in seattle, where we paid ungodly amounts of money every month for the privilege. this went on for seven years, but when we decided to move to sydney we also decided to get our stuff shipped over.
brenda and i were not living together in seattle so even though we got rid of many things, we have still ended up with doubles of stuff – dishes, cutlery, chairs, lamps. you name it. plus of course we also had a medium sized shipment of stuff from new zealand, so our house looked (and still kind of does look) like a bomb went off in it!
we’ve gone through several rounds of sorting and shedding, but we definitely needed to have a garage sale to kick things into high gear. so today, despite the heat wave, we set up camp on the patch of grass outside our building. the great thing about doing a garage sale with brenda is that she can convince anyone to buy anything. its amazing to watch her work everyone as they preuse the wares. they probably came in just for a look, but end up leaving with a bag full of stuff. win-win.
this garage sale was a really fun one. not only did we sell most of our stuff within the first 90 minutes, we were also blessed with visits from friends and family. our neighbours clayton and jess were superstars and helped us set up, clean up, AND take care of nayou while we were out there. clayton and jess have a seven year old called alex who is nayou’s bff at the moment.
chris and stacy also popped in for a visit. they too, left with more than they bargained for… sorry for being so pushy guys! hehehe.
i also sold on my beautiful pink ladies that my mum sent me way back when. i was reluctant to sell them but couldn’t find a good place for them in our new house. better that they go to someone who will love them than keep them in storage. their new owner is really cool and i was happy to see them get a new lease on life!
brenda had a brand new pair of coach shoes to sell as well. many ladies came and tried them on, but none of them bought. it was starting to become a bit like waiting for cinderella when adele and bill rocked up. adele tried them on and they were perfect! they made her outfit look awesome. fabulous daaaahling.
we packed everything up just after lunch. it was getting too stinking hot. i really wanted someone to take the red sofa, but i think i will have to try my luck online. at least our apartment is starting to look respectable again. still got a ways to go, but we’re getting there! once nayou wakes up from his nap its going to be time to go to the beach! hope you’re all having a great weekend 🙂
are you getting yours?
this weekend we left the bustle of sydney behind and went up to the blue mountains. katoomba is the main town in the area, about a two hour train ride from sydney. its always been a tourist town, developed to lure the weary sydney dwellers away from some r&r. there also used to be a fair bit of mning back in the day but not anymore. i remember going up there when i was living here oh so long ago so it was cool to revisit with fresh adult eyes!
the weather was a bit iffy on the way up, but it cleared by the time we arrived. taking the train is definitely the way to go. it costs about $15 round trip each, which is probably cheaper and less hassle than driving! plus you can snack and play freely.
brenda organised a room for us at the katoomba yha, which was totally awesome. they are very family friendly, with big open spaces, a kid’s corner with toys and a huge kitchen. the rooms were simple but clean and comfortable. we’ll be staying there every time we go up, methinks!
i like the literal art in our room:
we spent saturday afternoon at scenic world, which is an area with all sorts of rides from which you can take in the views. they have a gondola with a see through floor,
the world’s steepest fernicular (52 degree incline!),
and a gorgeous walk through the surrounding rainforest.
here are some family portraits that we took on the fernicular. i was holding the camera at arm’s length so they are all a bit out of focus and weird, but i think they are cool. brenda is wearing a dress that she made just the day before. it looks like a designer dress… well, it is a designer dress but you know what i mean!
one of the most famous things about katoomba are the three sisters. the three sisters are a rock formation that looks like this:
aboriginal legend has it that an elder turned them into stone to protect them from a war between their tribe and another. unfortunately the elder was killed in the fighting and they haven’t been turned back. they had sculptures of the sisters and the elder outside scenic world, so brenda and nayou thought they should re-enact the whole thing… which i duly caught on camera. i love nayou’s leg lifts!
on sunday we took the hop-on-hop-off trolley to see the rest of what katoomba has to offer.
it was a pretty cruisy sort of a day, being that we were tired from a lot of walking and nayou was on his second day of no siesta. we ended up checking out the sights, having a bit of a play in a park and then catching the train back to sydney. it was really nice to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city and be in some nature again. the air is so much fresher up there and the general pace of life suits us all much better. we’ll definitely be going back up there soon!
