I am so awesome.

Earlier this month I went to a sewing workshop organised by a university club that I've been a member of since, well... University. It was meant to be a cloak making workshop, but you could make anything you liked, really.  So, I made a lining for my front basket!

This is the view from above.

This is from the back. I used twho ribbons to attach it to the hooks that go over my handlebars. The drawstring is theaded through the lining which folds over the top. Because the basket is narrower on the bottom, this will help keep the lining in place all around.

You can see here what I mean about it folding over. The drawstring is at the base of this flap. The shoe in the background isn't mine, by the way.

Of course, this being Winter, there's the slight issue of rain. I don't particularly want the contents of my basket getting soaked, nor do I want to risk it filling up with water. So, I decided that I need a lid, and I made one a few days later:

This is the view from the top. How pretty is that fabric! Got it on sale at Spotlight.

This is from the front, and those are my knees at the bottom of the picture. As you can see, the lid is made from fabric that is slightly wider than the top of the basket so it wraps around. I also used a drawstring to hold this one on:

So I now have two drawstrings at the back, and both the lid and the lining tie onto the hooks of the basket.

This is the view from the top, with the lid up. I used the same yellow fabric for the underside of the lid as I did for the bottom and outside of the lining, so it all matches nicely!

It's also waterproof! I did that by sewing a layer of tarp between the blue and yellow fabrics.



I did this without a pattern; I just used a measuring tape and my own genius brain ;-) And I now have a much prettier basket! My next project will be to make a matching lining for the basket on the back of my bike. That one will be a little bit tricker because of the shape. And yes, I will put up pics of my bike with the basket at some point. Once I've taken them :-)

A personal challenge

My housemate and I are involved in a mutual challenge. Every week, we try to cook a recipe we've never done before. It's pretty good because it's helped to reinvogorate my interest in cooking, and I'm thinking that it might be a good idea to do something like that with photography, now that I have my new DSLR. There are, however, a few modifications I would make:

Firstly, I think that it should be fortnightly or monthly. The recipe challenge can be weekly because I can afford to just pick a night of the week when I have a few hours free and spend maybe 10mins choosing a recipe before I go cooking. With photography, I need to give myself enough time to factor in changes in my workload, other scheduling and weather. So I think I'll make it monthly, and put up a few photos I'm particularly proud of for that month.

Secondly, I've realised that my first challenge has already started: getting to know the camera. So this month, I'm learning about how the camera handles light. My goal is to be able to consistently get photos where it's clear what the subject is. I need to learn how to balance the shutter speed, ISO, and the F-stop (how open the shutter starts off being).

It's not as easy as it sounds, mainly because a DSLR is a bizarre mix of the SLR film cameras I once used and the point-and-shoot cameras I've recently become used to. For instance, on this DSLR I can't see how the photo's turned out until I've taken it. I don't have to wait for it to be on the computer, but what I see through the view finder isn't exactly what I end up with.

With the SLR camera I once had, I'm used to controlling the shutter opening by rotating part of the lens casing and I can't do that here. I also have to push a button to see roughly how much light is getting in at that diameter. Of course, that won't tell me how the shutter speed will affect the image.

I'm also really not used to ISO, and I don't really want to use it if it can be avoided because it results in photos becoming noisy.  This means I have to focuse mostly on the other two, and on using the flash.

Hopefully I'll have fewer shocks when I go into Playback mode, like today when I went to look at my shots and saw nothing but black...

Stuff for sale!

Oolon and I are in the process of massive lifestyle changes. So, we're selling two bikes and a car.

Bike 1: My Apollo. It's in good nick, recently serviced.
Step-through frame
7 gears
RRP $349 without things like the rear rack ($50), lights ($30) or mud guards ($60).
I want to sell it for around $350 WITH those extras.

Bike 2: Oolon's Canondale, also in excellent condition, also step-through. Has more gears. Contact him for details.

Car: Nissan Pulsar, 2003 model.
5-door hatch
Just under 120,000km
We're asking $7990 ono

So, if you live in Melbourne and are after a bike (or a couple of bikes) and/or a car, please get in touch!

So. PRETTY!!!

I need to stop looking at bike porn. I've been reading Lovely Bicycle, and it's got me dreaming of my own vintage-look, Dutch-style bike.

I did a bit of an Internet search, and found this Melbourne-based shop. Pretty bike!!!!! Thank goodness they're out of stock until May, or I'd be in major impulse-buy trouble right now.

I've also visited this shop in St Kilda and found their bikes to be unbelievably gorgeous. Not to mention that Gazelle Bikes also seem to be retailing in Australia.

The biggest problem when it comes to buying a bike like one of those is the money. I ended up shelling $AUS 440 on my bike, including the mudguards and rear rack, and that's the most I could afford. If I got one of these, I'd have to buy the bike and then also upgrade all the gears (I can't do hills without gears), which will cost even more.

So I'm very much just stuck looking, dreaming, and drooling :-p One day, when Oolon is rich and famous, I'll have all the bikes I want!

Snapshots of my world (part 1)

I'm not dedicated enough to do something like Project 365 or A Day in Pictures, but I do want to show  you a bit more about the world I live in, so I'll be taking and posting pictures of various parts of it. No idea how many pictures, no specific deadline.

So, here is the first one: My desk at work.

It includes:

• My Dr Who lunch box
• My personal electric fan
• My laptop and its accessories
• Stationery
• Teacup, coffee mug, tea
• Sunglasses
• Safety goggles

It doesn't look very neat, but this is actually after half an hour of tidying and rearranging. The textbooks are on a shelf which is on the adjacent wall, as is more stationery. I don't have a lot of room for it, because directly above where the photo ends is a window looking into the classroom, which I can't obscure.

This is my basket:

I use it to transport stationery to class. I got this big basket because carrying everything in a smaller basket last year didn't work. So, I'm trying something different! I consider this to be part of my never-ending quest for neatness!

More bikey goodness!

So as part of a more complete lifestyle change, I've been kitting out my bike a little to make myself as likely as I can possibly be to take it instead of the car.

To begin with, I got mudguards, a rack, and a basket. Basket is excellent as far as carrying my little backpack/handbag thing, or the cross-bar converter thingo if I've driven it to the park and forgotten to take it off before getting from the carpark to the bike track (I also got the converter thingo, in case you hadn't guessed).

So that's recreational riding taken care of. Now, I also need my bike to be something that is useful to me in more domestic circumstances. For instance, if I either want to buy groceries to begin with or remember that I need them in a very sudden and unplanned way as I drive past the shops. Under such circumstances, I'm less inclined to have brought a backpack with me purely as a just-in-case measure. I just don't think in those terms.

So, I got myself a set of fold-out panniers which start off looking like this:

They sit nicely on the rack on the rear of my bike, and don't get in the way while I'm cycling. In the central compartment I have a few protein bars (in case of rides that are unexpectedly long or vigorous), a first aid kit (in case of sudden crash, which is more or less inevitable given that this is me we're talking about), and a puncture repair kit. I can also fit my wallet, phone, and keys in there in case I don't want to carry my handbag thing but don't want to be without keys and ID. And in case I don't want them rattling around the basket on the front of my bike.

When unfolded, the panniers look like this:

Heaps of space for stuff like groceries or a change of clothes (if, for instance, I'm cycling to my Oolon's place).

I am now set to cycle for any reason other than incredibly large distances.

I finally found a water bottle with a cap that covers the mouthpiece and which fits in the cage thing (being a ladies' bike, there isn't a lot of room for large water bottles, but panniers and basket will take care of that on planned long trips) as I'm stupidly paranoid about putting things of questionable cleanliness in my mouth (infer from that what you will), and today I bought a mini pump in case I get a flat tyre. It also has a pressure gauge, which is kind of cool.

I still need a rear light that can be seen past the panniers and some reflective clothing so that I can ride home from Oolon's place after dark, but that will hopefully happen before days get too short. In the mean while, the worst case scenario is that I leave my bike here and ask for a lift home so that I can get to work on time the next day.

So yeah! I have now set my bike up so I have very little excuse for not taking it places :-) Hooray!

Quincy's Confessions: I am a geek.

Yes, that's right. I am. The proof is right here, in this entry.

Last week, I went into an ABC shop and spied this lunchbox:

How could I not buy it?? It's Tom Baker! As the Doctor! There's a Dalek and a Cyberman! This thing is so uncool that it made the universe fold around on itself to make it cool again!

So, I decided to put it to use:

See, I have my Very Australian "Meat Pie", I have my Very Healthy "Apple", and my other Very Healthy "V8 Juice"! In a little juice box! Any kid one would be proud to take this to school work!

Now, here is the truly shameful bit:

My Dr Who gets pride of place on my passenger seat!

Meanwhile:

My trusty school bag has been shunted to the back seat. But hey, it's still smiling, so that's good, right? :-)

So, there you have it. My Deep Dark Secret, finally revealed! Until I get a new one.