Royal Melbourne Show 2008

Today Mel and I decided to visit the Royal Melbourne Show with our friend Jennifer.  This was to be Jennifer’s first Show (she is American studying in Australia) and our second show in two years.  Last year however, Mel and I both were sorely disappointed by the lack of sheep memories and also, last year our show experience was spoilt a little by the outbreak and subsequent containment of the horse flu meaning no ponies at the Show last year.

So this year we had two main aims; see sheep and see ponies.  Jennifer is a chicken fan so her aim was to see chickens.  Well … BOY did we see sheep and ponies and chickens - and then some.  Here are the photos that I took.  Some are blurry, some are crap but some are keepers.

The best part for me was the petting zoo.  Ideally designed for children under the age of 5, Mel, Jennifer and I all got into the spirit and petted, cuddled and photographed some of the cutest baby animals around (especially the sheep).  It was tough getting photos of the animals without having other kids in the frame and harder still to stop my hands from wobbling and stopping the blurry shots.  But on the whole we came out with some lovely photos and even more wonderful memories.

Keep your eyes out for the mule, the baby goats and the absolute joy you can see in Mel’s face when cuddling with a lamb.  I love her so.

If you are also interested you can see the two videos that I took here.  One is of crazy baby emu’s just learning how to run and the other is of the lamb who refused to move.  Through all the hustle and bustle of the petting zoo he stood completely still just gazing around at all the silly pigs playing tag.

Mel’s photos start here.

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Design Folio - Cherry Blossom

Inspired by Mel’s favourite Louis Vuitton pattern, the Murakami Cherry Blossom, I have made a prototype web layout.  The cherry blossoms can be moved around the screen and content boxes popup when you click on the blossom.  I don’t know if this has any real application but it works as a proof of concept.  It is easy to add new content boxes and the users can arrange them as they wish.  The one improvement I would make is to have a cookie remember the location of the blossoms so each users ‘design’ remains the same on future visits.

Mel has also made some wallpapers using the vectors created to make this page. Feel free to use them.

Engagement Party Photos

Here are some photos from our party. More will be added when I get them. These photos aren’t my camera work so some are blurry and not worth looking at. Others are best viewed as thumbnails only and others are just great photos. If you have some photos to share, please email me.

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Another Engagement

Last night Mel and I went to her cousin’s engagement party at their home in the (somewhat local) road next to mine. Despite initial reservations it turned out to be a good night and it was good to see Mel’s extended family again as I hadn’t seen them since Mel’s birthday party. Now I’m even more enthused to get our engagement party on the go so I suppose we’ll have to finally get off our asses. But maybe my motivation is to show Mel’s family that we can put on a better party than her cousin.

Keep an eye out for invitations - coming soon to a mailbox near you.