Friday was the last day of my old job. As with most of my jobs, I was sad to say goodbye to the people I worked with but not that sad to leave the crappy stuff behind! No more dealing with an interstate head office, and definitely no more sales…thank God! I was sorry to say goodbye to the guys at the workshop, especially…I had some good times with those dorks. And one of the guy si having a baby! He’s going to make such a great dad (because he’s already a big kid anyway) so that was pretty exciting news.

I also went to check out to Fringe opening night that Friday. (Way to celebrate my last day!!) The city was PACKED!! It was nuts! Dappled Cities Fly played in the park but unfortunately we missed them because it was raining and we were too chicken to go out in it. We did make it in time to catch the Presets and it absolutely WENT OFF. I got a bit ambitious and squeezed up to the front of the crowd on my own, but to be honest it was so crazy that it was a bit scary out in such a mad crowd with nobody looking out for me. I caught ‘My People’ then left before I got squished.

These… devine shots are from my poor, half-dead Ixus, which worked sporadically but never when I wanted it to. It’s kind of like a Lomo camera now…I never know what’s going to come out of it!

The streets were soooo crowded after the concerts finished…in fact half the crowd stood around in front of the stage, mesmerised by the DJ set, long after the Presets finished. Then again, there weren’t that many other places to go – the bars were all packed out, and the Garden of Unearthly Delights had a queue about an hour long just to get in. I don’t think Adelaide was really ready for such a mega turnout….in the end we decided to go home rather than line up to get in anywhere, but ended up waiting 2 hours for a taxi with a crazy guy called Mick. Fun times!

I know I give Adelaide a lot of stick about being a shitty place to live with nothing to do. (And I maintain that this is true.) But today I did something a little different for Adelaide — I went and watched roller derby!

 Any kind of skating is always a big fat winner in my book, and roller derby was no exception. I’d never seen one before and to be honest it was a little bit of a headf*ck at first – two teams of 5 cruise around an oval track, smashing into each other while trying to overtake each other. It looked crazy confusing for the first few games, then we started to get the hang of it. Before long Kate and I were talking about ‘calling off jams’ and stuff like nobody’s business! Haha.

Adelaide player The Claw gives her signature pose.

Adelaide’s Vaderella. (I know it’s part of the act but DAMN she looked mean!)

One of the many (many many) tumbles of the day.

Melbourne celebrating their (narrow )victory :(

I don’t really shoot a lot of sport and it kind of showed in the pictures. It was really frustrating being so close to the action and not being able to do justice to what was going on! I’ve done a bit of reading tonight and I’m thinking the problem was probably that I was only using the centre focusing point (no particular reason, I just prefer it out of habit and usually leave it on). Seems like that might have not worked will with AI Servo…next time I’ll try a few different things and see if that helps.

What I did have fun with today, photography-wise, was panning! Since I’m not really a sporty person it’s not a technique I get to practice too often. I still had a ton of dud shots today using it, but I got more than I was expecting (and more than last time I tried it) so it wasn’t a wasted effort. It’s not as hard as I used to think.

The crowd was also really interesting at this thing…a really odd mix between families, parents and friends of players who clearly had no idea, and indie punk kids. I kind of wished I could’ve taken some of the crowd but it was a little, uh, crowded…and the 70-200 is not so conducive for crowded sometimes.

PS. I’m tagging this entry under ’sport’, which makes me giggle, because it’s probably a tag I’ll use like…once a year? Hahaha.

Just when I thought Summer was on its way out…I should have known better than to get my hopes up! I spent the weekend trying to stay cool at my cousins’ shack, paddling around in the river with my family.

Even though these particular cousins have always been my closest family, it’s only in the last few years that I’ve really started to spend a lot of time with them. Being an only child, having that kind of family feeling is still kind of a novel concept for me, and I really get a kick out of that whole family bonding thing that a lot of people probably take for granted.

Anyway, I still didn’t learn to waterski this time…it just doesn’t have enough appeal for me to risk going out there and embarrassing myself by half drowning trying to learn…but I did spend a little time on the boat taking photos!

My cuz is getting pretty good, I’ve gotta admit. He went out for one particularly good ski late in the afternoon and the light was just brilliant!

Despite what these photos imply, Menzel is actually a decent wakeboarder. I just find the stack shots more interesting :D

My Aunt Jacki…her ability to avoid/foil photos is legendary, but the 70-200 makes life easier. Anyway, I like a challenge!