Day 323: Slow Trip Home

I made the decision this morning to tow the car home and after a little research I was able to find a ute and car trailer to hire at pretty short notice. The catch was that I'd have to bring the ute & trailer back tomorrow, no one would do a one way hire.

We were very fortunate that Belinda's parents didn't need their second car for a few weeks so Belinda was able to take the kids home in that while I fiddled about with getting organised to tow the BMW home. It was a fair bit of a palaver that consisted of picking up the ute & the trailer at separate locations and then loading the car up, tying it down with some ratchet straps that I conveniently had in the boot and then finally getting going.

The whole exercise saw me not getting on the road until after 5pm which should have had me home by around 8:30 allowing for a bit of a break. Unfortunately this wasn't the case either. Towing the car through the suburbs of Western Sydney was fine, a little sluggish with the turbo lag on the diesel ute, but still it was ok once it got going. The trouble started when I hit the highway. The trailer didn't tow so well with the car on it, it got the wobbles up as soon as got close to 90 km/h which is very disconcerting. What was even more disconcerting was not being able to control the wobbles and doing a 180 degree spin on the M7. I managed to stop the trailer from jack knifing and once the spin had stopped I was able to get both the ute and trailer that were facing the wrong way off the M7 quickly enough to avoid creating a massive traffic jam.

After taking a minute or two to calm down, I turned the ute around on the median strip and found gap in the traffic big enough to get going again. I couldn't travel at more than 80 km/h for the rest of the trip, as soon as I dared to venture above that I could feel the trailer starting to wobble again. In the end I made it home without further incident but it was close to 10pm by the time I got there.

This was by far the slowest trip from Sydney to Canberra I've endured and at the same time the most hair raising.

Day 291: A Welcome Sky

Last night wound up being a lot later than I had planned and it was followed by a full day of training and an early evening flight home. Today was a big day and I was very happy for it to be over.

Because I hadn't had a chance to take a photo during the day, I pulled up on the way home for this one just near Fyshwick. I thought the colour of the sky and how the moon looked was pretty cool, it was nice of Canberra to put on such a beautiful night to welcome me home. It was getting pretty dark when I stopped, so by using the door frame of the car to steady my camera I was able to hold it still enough to get the half second exposure without too much blur. I'm pretty happy with the result.

Day 290: Early Risers

I was up much earlier than I'm comfortable with this morning because we had an early start for the training course I'm attending today and tomorrow. My alarm woke me up at about 5:45 so I'd have plenty of time to get myself organised for the long day ahead. When I looked out the window of my hotel room I saw that there were some much earlier risers than myself, these guys must have been out there for hours already. I've never really understood the whole getting up early to go fishing thing... I mean I love to eat fish but there are much easier ways to obtain it.

I chose this photo because I liked the way the early morning light looked and also because it's not that often that I see the sunlight at this hour.

Day 289: The View From Here

I'm off in Sydney again for work, this time it's a two day training exercise which I'm hoping will be worth the two days away from actually doing my job. I guess the next two days will tell.

I arrived to the hotel at a reasonable hour so this time I could get setup in my room and make my way down stairs for dinner in the restaurant. I hadn't eaten at the Sebel's restaurant before and tonight I was impressed, the food was fantastic. The weather was fairly mild tonight so I had my meal in the outdoor dining area which produced the view you see in my photo for today. I do really like this hotel and that's certainly making the need to travel for work a little easier to bear.

Day 265: Travel Companion

This afternoon we headed off to Sydney to visit Belinda's family and help celebrate David's 35th birthday. Our travel was fairly peaceful and was done in one sitting, thanks largely to Belinda's iPad. Henry has an enormous attention span for the various kids apps that have been installed and they managed to keep him entertained for pretty much the full 3 hour journey.

As I was driving and also hadn't taken a photo of my own today, I've resorted to employing the services of a special guest photographer. Luckily, Belinda is quite good at taking photos, even on her iPhone, and her services were readily available.

Day 256: Not So Local Landmark 2

Last time I was in Sydney for work I forgot my camera and ended up posting a crappy photo of Luna Park taken with my iPhone. I hated not having my camera and swore I wouldn't leave it behind the next time I was away with work. I'm back in Sydney with work for the next two days and this time I came prepared.

My flight was a little late this afternoon and I didn't get off the plane until just after 8pm. I ended up catching a cab straight to a little restaurant with a couple of colleagues for dinner, If you're out around the Rocks I can recommend both the food and the service at Sailors Thai. After dinner the decision was made to walk from Sailors Thai to the hotel we were staying in and along the way we passed this little scene.

I really like this photo, there's so much going on in it: The bridge looks great from this angle, there's a cool starburst from the lamp on the left, the crushed car in the centre of the roundabout is different and the Australia Day flag on the right was being blown by a bit of a gust of wind which blurred its edge in the long exposure photo. Have I mentioned that I love my Nikon? So glad I didn't leave it at home this time.

Day 225: There You Are!

I left this behind in the boot of my car last Friday and had to make do with the iPhone while in Sydney... as far as a camera goes, the iPhone really sucks. I was going to take this photo with the iPhone as a reminder to myself not to leave the Nikon behind again, but the images were so crap I gave up and used Belinda's little Sony.

I just keep thinking about how much better my photos from Saturday night would have been if I'd had  real camera. So annoying... I'll do my best not to leave the camera behind again.

Day 223: Views of Manly

I don't get a weekend this week, the boss has arranged for us to spend tomorrow and Sunday in Manly for a branch planning session. We had the choice of flying up or driving in a hire car, I chose the latter with one of my colleagues and we left late morning.

At least the boss is making it worth while, we arrived at the Novotel Sydney Manly Pacific hotel in time to check in and head to the bar for a quiet beverage before being taken to Le Kiosk for dinner. The food was very good, so was the service and the wine. I'd happily dine here again if I'm out this way again.

I did have full intentions of bringing my camera with me for the weekend workfest but I realised about an hour out of canberra that I'd left it in the boot of my car at work. This means I've had to resort to the iPhone for my photo today and I'll have to do the same tomorrow. Tonights photo is the lovely view I have from my room, pretty hey? I seem to do these types of photos when I'm away for a night or two with work, I tend to forget about the photo until I'm heading to bed. I'll be away for a few days again early in September, although this time should present more opportunities for photos. Stay tuned.

Day 174: Zip It

We're off to Sydney again tonight and I didn't get time to take a photo today. To remedy the situation I thought a close up of my bags zippers was in order.

Why the zippers? Well... I guess just because is a good enough reason, but also because I've already done the full boot photo and I thought the detail of the zippers and the texture of the bags fabric made more interesting subject matter than the contents of the bag itself.

Day 148: May Task - Something Sweet

I discovered this flavour of Mentos a couple of weeks ago when I was filling the car up for the return trip from Sydney. I figured that since I liked Mentos and Mojitos I'd probably think that mixing the two together would be really yummy. I was right and I'l buy these again.

Day 13: Off to Sydney... again

Today's events were so exciting that I had trouble choosing what to put in my blog... I jest.

Another day at the office, another commute on the bike, another viewing of the boat by a prospective buyer and an early knock off to head back to Sydney. This time we're up here for a wedding tomorrow night, should be good.

It was odd though, I got home and Belinda had packed my bag (I still haven't looked in the bag to see what I'll be wearing for the next couple of days...) and then loaded everything into the car ready to get Henry from Day Care and hit the highway. The oddness for me was how empty the boot looked, normally when we're all loaded up it's an effort to close the boot without things falling out.

So today's photo is of the partially full boot. It's about as exciting as my day has been, I'm sure tomorrow will contain more blog fodder.