HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS

It's been sometime that I have driven alone on a long journey. After I retired I promised myself that I would visit my Mom more often. Initially I thought taking the bus on a weekly basis was a good idea. I could sleep and let someone else worry about the traffic. And I can avoid the speed tickets as well.

After a few months of the weekly routine, my body cried for help and I had to change my schedule. A monthly week long trip instead of 3d/2n weekly affair may be kinder to this booty-not-so-licious. Mind over matter does not work when you reach a certain age with an unfit body to boot. 

And instead of attempting to reach the destination in the fastest time possible, I have decided to change the pace. And enjoy the drive and the view. I am not exactly a speed demon but I do enjoy the adrenaline rush from fast driving. It was almost an hour longer than the average driving time between KJ and BP. But I did not feel it. Its amazing what can be achieved once you set your mind to do something. I was never pressured to speed up or overtake. Even when I was going 40 km/hour while driving on the country road, behind a lorry loaded with a recently harvested bananas. I was happily trailing behind while munching on a packet of chips loaded with carbo. 

Oh. By the way, do you notice the myriad of colours in the middle of the highway?Sometimes I have to suppress the urge to stop and take a closer look and a closer shot of the beautiful flowers. Especially on a bright and sunny day like today, the blooms look so cheerful against the blue sky. Makes me feel so good and blessed to be alive and well. 

The slow drive has also given me time to fill my head with all kind of thoughts. Its the perfect time to let my thoughts wander and wonder. I am one of those who prefer the peace and quiet during my solo drive. Come to think of it, that is something new too. I used to need a chirpy song to accompany my driving, even better a sing-along tune which just may turn out of tune. It would help to keep me awake. Surprisingly, I was not sleepy at all today. May be the tripple shot large latte did the trick! 

Anyway, somehow my thought today has pleasantly put me in a greater perspective of life and has put me at ease and made me feel happy inside. I am at peace with myself. There were times when I felt inadequate and a little helpless but the drive on the open highway with what seems to be the whole world spreading wide in front of my eyes has helped me to bring me back to my humble beginning. 

Alhamdulillah. Allah is the Greatest. 

And now all that I have to do is to brace myself for this week challenge! How not to eat too much of the oh-so-good food whenever I back in my hometown. 

Cheers! 

Travel tips 101 Part 1

I have finally gotten over the fatigue from my short vacation down under. Although it was just about  a week's  holiday, a lot of walking was involved which means tired legs and cramped muscle. A sure sign of an unfit me, I have to admit. Other than that it was a wonderful journey with memorable experience and great bonding time with my baby girl. Both my trips this year were in the same country albeit different cities and with the same travel companion. And I guess that completes my quota of travelling for the year. 

During my recent trip, I promised myself that I must share with my friends my own personal travel tips which I have garnered with my own personal experience. 

Most travel tips would focus more on the big ticket items like accomodation and weather check and plug points. And the usual advice would also be the right attire for the different countries and weather down to the list of toiletries to be included. My recommendation below may seems to be of lesser priority nevertheless just as important. 

1. First of all, top in my list would be a pair of comfortable walking shoes. Especially when there will be lots of walking which usually happen to me as I love to visit galleries, zoos and gardens. It would certainly damper the pleasure of seeing colourful flowers and exotic animals if your feet hurts too much to walk another step forward. In addition, it would also be handy to carry plasters or band aids for your heels and toes when they get chaffed even before the blisters occur. They would surely safe the days ahead.

2. Always pack foldable umbrella no matter what season of the year it is. It will be useful during summer showers and even freezing winter rain. A raincoat may be handy to have too in spring, summer and autumn.

3. I am also a person who never travel without a pouch of tablets for headaches, flu/cold and tummy ache. Nothing is worse than being sick during a holiday and prevention is definitely better than cure. So when you start to sniffle a quick action is need to snuffle it out! Before it gets any worse. On top of that I always have with me extra supplements and multivitamins to give my antibodies a boost.

I think I shall stop at 3 for now. I shall share more tips in another post perhaps. Insya-Allah.

A DAY AT THE ZOO

The zoo has always been our favourite place as a family. And we never miss a chance to visit one whenever the opportunity arises. And the visit also gives me plenty of opportunity to test out my photography skill. 

With a point and shoot camera there is not much skill required as long as we know the features that the camera has to offer. All it takes is to learn the technique and apply your talent in composition.

Take photos below for example. (A single photo would be much clearer but there are just too many that I love to share that I don't have the heart to leave them out)

         

Waiting for the right moment is the essence. Take as many shots as possible as it doesn't cost a thing. One may be just turn out to be your favourite photo. In the photos above, it was no use to wait for the lion to wake up and stand up so thats the best that I can do. But that picture, don't it just remind you of a movie and a song? My daughter almost burst out singing when she saw the lion on the rock. Hee...

Anyways, for the rest of the photos I had to wait patiently to get the animals to turn just right before I said "cheese"! And while using the zoom lens I had to make sure that the camera did not shake when I press the button. There are a few tricks to that. You pay the coffee and I shall divulge my secret.

The animals below were pretty much easier to photograph because they were pretty much static except for the bird. Having said that though, you just have to get lucky that they are facing you while "playing dead" like the koala bear for instance. They can stay in the same position for hours on end with their face hidden away.

        

My favourite photo from above is the baby hyppo. From far I could not tell if its awake but from the photo I realised later that it was. And it was in the right spot at the edge of the water for me to catch its relection. Its such a beauty. The baby hyppo I mean. You just feel like you want to hug that cute little thing. Well, the photo is too. Its one of my favourite shot. By the way, the mother was not too far away. There was another shot with the mother but thats another story. 

I also had fun taking photos of the flowers found along the track and around the zoo. I really must look up for the names of the flowers, weed or otherwise.

        

        

Aren't they just pretty?

All in all, it was a marvelous day yesterday. Although it started to be a little chilly and wet, the day turned bright and sunny later on in the afternoon. 

We ended the day with a walk in the park before heading to the skydeck to watch the sunset. After a short rest that is. 

 

 

Alhamdulillah. It has been brief but filled with new memories. I had fun testing out my new camera, renewing my experience in Melbourne and spent quality time with my baby girl. Priceless moments.

See you back in PJ! Insya - Allah.

OH WHAT A JOY!

As promised I am sharing some photos which I am rather pleased with, with what the camera can do. So here are some photos taken with my new Sony compact camera and what features it has. 

First of all close up photos came up pretty awesome. Like the photo below. This feature is important to me as I love to take shots of the beautiful flowers found in the foreign lands. Don't ask me what'sthe name   of the flower below though. I have no clue whatsoever. They are probably weeds as they are found by the roadside. Colourful weeds are still pretty even though they can be a nuisance at times. (Much to the chagrin of my friend in Canada when I was busy taking shots of the yellow flowers on the grass. She was annoyed when I said that the weeds were pretty). 

And then there is the zoom or telephoto lens. Its darn good I tell you. Beats carrying a heavy telephoto lens with my DSLR. See how sharp the kookaburra in the the photo below on top of the tree. Honestly, no editing done at all. Pretty good, eh? Can you see me grinning with happiness?

And it also has the panaroma feature. Which is awesome to have when you have such splendour of a sight like below. 

The 3 photos below are a show off of what the zoom feature can do. How close it can get. Can you see the rocks underneath the water? Can you feel the cold water crashing on the rock? Super awesome! Are you jealous yet?

Well if you are not, the flipable viewing screen may be just the ticket. With everyone doing the selfie and wefie or whatever you call it, this is good to have when there is no one to help you to take your own photo. It comes with a timer so you can place it on the rock or bench, press the button and pose! Easy peasy!

The other feature that I mentioned is the wifi feature. The sole purpose is that it enable me to download or upload the photo to my phone or iPad anytime and post it to my instagram or send the pretty pictures to family and friends. You may say that you can easily do the same with your phone cameras. But are they as awesome as the photo above? Hee...

Seriously, the photos are sharper than the phone photos and of course better quality.   May be I am one of those who appreciate quality photos and often I am so jealous to see good photography features in instagram especially travel photos in foreign land. Now I get to do the same. And share the pictures of joy and happiness. 

Thats it for now. We are going to the zoo today. We never miss the zoo when we are on this side of the world.  Lets hope that they weather is good to us. InsyaAllah. 

See you.....

P.S. I just remembered something important. Another good feature in this camera is the pop-up viewfinder in addition to the on-screen display. This is really useful on a bright suny day when the screen is rendered useless with the bright light. Cheèrs!

AS LIFE GOES BY (Part 3)

One thing lead to another, I find myself sitting in the kitchen cum living room writing this post. My temporary abode for a week minus a few hours. Flinders Lane. Melbourne. Ahah! Finally! You may say. After much ado about not going anywhere as I so wished. (Read: Life goes by Part 1 and 2)

Yeah well. After considering a few options my baby girl decided that Melbourne will be the destination for recuperation. He he. Recuperating from stressful final year. And I am more than happy to go on a trip at last. Even though I have been here a couple of times. I thought its a good destination too as at this time of year it will be warmer as its spring/summer time. But lo and behold, the sky was gloomy and downcast on our second day here and later on it rained almost the whole afternoon. Albeit its not the kind of rain like back home. The kind of rain where we can get drenched even after only one minute under the downpour. The rain here is soft and gentle. But mean. What do I mean by mean? (No pun intended). Because its chilly. And its suppose to be summer. And I had to retrieve my fluffy jacket out of my backpack. And the umbrella too. Oh well. No point in ranting and raving. Thank goodness I came prepared. Foldable warm jacket and foldable umbrella. Never go out without them. No matter how sunny the day was to begin with. 

Anyways, today looks kind of promising earlier but now the sky looks kind of suspicious to me. We have made plans where we want to go and what we want to do today and for the rest of the days. But the holiday is an easygoing kind of holiday. So we are not rushing anywhere. We certainly do not want to take a few days off after we are back from a holiday with hectic iteranary and long flight. My kind of holiday, the free and easy and go as you please. 

I shall share some photos later on. Insya-Allah. Oh! Talking about photos. I got myself a new compact camera just as I wanted. With wifi feature and flippable viewing screen. Awesome possum! A good opportunity for me to test out the camera during this journey eh? 

Okie dokie. Will catch you later....

A testimony of the kind of grey sky it was yesterday. The picture would be perfect with a blue sky. And a puffy cloud or two. On a happy note, here is the bokeh effect that the camera can do :^)