I've been very busy with work and family over the last 5 mths since my last journal. I've moved to a new practice, and settling in has been pretty good. There are always hiccoughs, but generally it has been great. From January I'll be working in one place, about 5 minutes away from home; it's bright, modern, natural light. Excellent!

I'm definitely looking forward to a break from work though, since I've been working so hard. 10 days off isn't much, but it'll be a chance to get some odd chores done around the house, catch up on sleep, catch up with friends that we've neglected, and of course, do the whole "Christmas" thing. My brother and his wife will be staying with us, so that will be great.

Amongst all this stuff, I've barely had time to pick up a camera. grrrrr. Hoping to capture some nice pics when I visit Margaret River in late January. A friend is getting married so a few of us are taking some extra days to do some sightseeing, food and wine imbibing! If any Aussies have any suggestions on places to visit in the area, let me know. I would love to see that big ol' jetty at Busselton, and get some shots there. We'll see.

Anyway, for those that celebrate it, Merry Christmas, and a safe and happy New Year to all!

Well, as you may have noticed from the gallery uploads, I'm back from Japan.

It was hot and humid, which was a bit of a rude shock to the old body, after leaving an Adelaide winter.

I've always been very curious about Japan. So much culture, tradition, beautiful scenery, and yet high technology and metropoli. The Japanese people I met were INCREDIBLY polite. Right through from the maid in the hotel, to the professors I met at my meeting. And efficiency. I caught one train in 10days that wasn't to schedule, the rest, you could set your watch to! Everything so clean.

The language barrier was occasionally difficult, but everyone tried to be helpful. My partner D. ended up joining a random party, after a guy in the subway saw he was lost, and invited him along. D lost his mobile phone that night, but he had plenty of great sake, and even performed his first (and probably last) karaoke!

Sapporo in the north is well known for its snow and skiing, but in the summer it is a bit cooler, and in fact rained for most days I was there for my medical meeting. Such a lovely city.

Kyoto was hot, and gearing up for the Gion Matsuri. I'm sorry we missed the main parade, but we did manage to see the displayed floats downtown, which were hugely awesome. Kyoto has more temples than you can throw an incense stick at, and I'd love to visit again to see more. We did a zooming 2 hour walking tour through the Gion district, which was really interesting and a tiny peek into the Kyoto of old.

Nara, 45 minutes train ride out of Kyoto was incredibly hot the day we visited, but the Nara Park, with its tame deer, and amazingly giant Todaiji Temple was worth it. A deer bit D. on the tummy, but hey, you get that!

We then caught the shinkansen (bullet train) back up to Tokyo. After a few days we figured out the subway and trains, and did a bit of exploring. Unfortunately it was a bit too hot and humid for me, so we did a little less than I would have liked. Because it got bright so early however, it was really easy to get up at 5am to go to the Tokyo fish market (Tsukiji) which was fascinating. I love sashimi, and D. is a keen fisherman, so we really wanted to go here. The tuna auctions were exciting, and the wholesalers markets outside were an incredible array of all types of fish - tuna, prawns, crabs, eels, turtles, you name it! And because it was all so fresh, it didn't even smell fishy! I definitely recommend it.

Finally, on our last night, Mike (=rubberman542) and his lovely wife took us out for dinner. Some of the best food we had in Japan, and wonderful company! Mike and I have chatted here on dA for some 5 yrs, and it was great to finally meet!
This is one of the best things about deviantART...discussing art and life with people all over the world. I love Mike's photos. Some of my favourites are below.


Gotta love it.

Now excuse me, whilst I catch up on some sleep zzzzzzzzzzzzz

This dA journal skin feature is neat!

This design is by *sedART and *petercui What clever deviants they are! Thanks for putting this up. Very fresh.

So what's been up with me? Not much. Had two weeks off work to have some minor surgery on my ankle, which is healing up well. Still a bit swollen on the bit that got sliced, but at least I'm walking independently and wearing regular shoes! Crutches and big velcro boots are not a fabulous look.

I'm heading to Japan for a whirlwind trip in two weeks. Will be in Sapporo for a couple of days, then down to Kyoto and then back up to Tokyo. I hope I can handle the hot weather, since winter has settled in here, and I'm COLD! brrr


So how weird has the news been in the last day? Poor Farrah Fawcett dies from cancer after a long struggle, but the news is totally overshadowed by Michael Jackson dropping dead. I'm old enough to have had some of his albums on cassette! And to have watched him on the American Music Awards and the Motown reunion doing the moonwalk...

God I'm old.

Haven't really had much time to take photos lately, which is a sin, but will be taking lots of shots in Japan of course, so will definitely share them when I'm back.

Hope you're all well, and having fun with life and your art. Check out some sexy submissions from my devwatch...

Hello folks.

Well, I'm back a bit...well not really. Crazy busy with work, and definitely looking forward to a short break of 5 days over Easter!

I'm going to Kangaroo Island with D. and we'll finally get to spend some quality time just sitting on our backsides doing nothing!

Might take some photos I want to go to Little Sahara and play on the sanddunes!

Oh yes, some of you may have noticed I got a new camera. Canon 50D. Very nice feel, not much different to my 20D, but more megapixels, sensor clean, liveview on the monitor thingy (might be handy on the tripod), and very different "clunk" on the shutter sound. I think it performs not too badly on high iso either. Only hassle is that iPhoto on my old Mac PowerPC doesn't like the new Canon RAW files, so I have to convert them with the Canon software to edit. For some reason the iPhoto updates for the 50D don't work I need a new desktop!!!! nooooooo

Anyway, I'm getting a little tired of this journal CSS, bit too minimalistic for me now.

If anyone can make me a new one (preferably in the dA green would be nice...I'm still for clean and minimalistic!), or find me a good one on dA, I'll see about getting you something from my print account.

Any takers?

oh, and you'll have to be prepared to give me really really basic instructions on how I use it, since I have noooo idea.

Some parts of Australia have been doing it hard this summer.

You may have heard about the dreadful bushfires in southern parts of the country in the state of Victoria. More than 200 people have died, and there are still many missing. Hundreds more are homeless and have nothing.

If you are moved to do something, donate to the Red Cross appeal [link]

Ironically, the northern-east parts of the country are experiencing some of the worst floods ever. There are worries about dysentery in some areas, dengue in the far north, and so many farm animals have died.

Such disasters...makes me feel lucky to be alive and safe.



On a personal note, I've been super busy with work. To the point where I'm just hanging out for some time away, so my trip to San Francisco couldn't come at a better time. Hope to have some time to take some pics with my new 50D. And some all important shopping! Oh yeah, and learn some stuff at the conference...and eating! I'm doing a walking tour of Chinatown, which should be interesting, so hope to catch some cool sights.

Catch you later, alligator
(As you wish, jellyfish)
_{a kid said that to me a couple of weeks ago. Made me laugh!}