The key to a successful blog, so they say, is regular updates.  “Regular updates” probably means at least a weekly blog post, so not doing anything to this site for more than a year, isn’t really good form.  Back in April I realised it had been 12 months since I’d updated the blog, and started to think about what I should do.  Do I do a big catch-up post before getting back into regular blogging, or should I just shut down the site?  I couldn’t decide, and did nothing at all.  A few weeks ago, the web hosting renewal popped up in my inbox, so it was time to make a decision about the future of my personal blog and website.  I  paid the invoice, and here we are.

Lets catch-up, what’s been happening since April 2017 ?

Before I start regular blogging again, I should update the site with what’s happened in my life since I lasted updated my personal blog.

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We lost a friend – Ken Rich

Ken was a veteran police officer, but we knew him as a swim coach to our boys.  Ken founded, and was President of, the Cardinia Piranhas Swim Club, where Josh and Brad swam squad.  Mandy and I volunteered on the committee of the swim club, so we got to know Ken well.  Tragically he was hit by a ute while cycling with his daughter on April 14, 2017.

Hundreds of people farewelled Ken at his funeral on April 26, held at the Victoria Police Academy Chapel.  RIP Ken.

https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/cyclist-killed-in-pakenham-crash-near-princes-highway-20170414-gvkwwq.html

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I made a short movie!

Using only my iPhone, I set out to make a one minute movie.  Yep, one minute!  It’s was a simple plan, compile various short clips from taking the kids to school on a rainy day.  This included stuff you wouldn’t normally think about, like flicking on the wipers, to help tell the story.

Looking back, this was really early in my video making hobby.  It was filmed on a phone, edited with free software and uses copyright free music.
It’s had over 1,000 views on YouTube, and even got a few “likes”.
I’m happy with that!

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Karla’s YouTube

I’ve written in a previous blog post that I thought I had the YouTube bug, well so has my daughter – Karla.

Over more than two years, we’ve filmed more than 90 videos together, which equates to hundreds of editing hours for me.  It’s no wonder I haven’t had much time for blogging and updating this website, but I wouldn’t change a thing.  Not only has it been a lot of fun working on these projects, it’s great to have a video record of Karla growing up.
www.youtube.com/KarlaAgain

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The Learner Driver

Since Josh got his Learner Driver permit in January 2016, we’ve been encouraging him to drive as much as possible.

There’s been long and short trips in both my Mazda and Mandy’s Kia, but for some reason kids these days don’t seem to be in any hurry to get their driver’s licence.  Sometimes we can’t drag him away from whatever else he’s doing to go for a drive, so after more than two and a half years he still isn’t close to the minimum 120 hours required to go for his “P” plate licence.

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A new job

I was contacted, out of nowhere, from a manager I worked with 8 years earlier, asking if I’d be interested to work with him again.  He had just joined a family transport company, and wanted to bring me on board to help improve the business.

Sure, it was a bit risky, but I resigned from the company I’d been working with for more than five years.  Thankfully they said I’d be welcomed back if the new job didn’t work out!

Now I’m a morning supervisor, opening up and helping get drivers out on the road, before heading out in a truck myself.  Just like most work places, nothing is perfect, but I’m happy I made the move to a small family business.

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My Mother-in-Law passed away

In September 2017, my Mother-in-Law, Bev, lost her battle with cancer.

At the time I wrote on Facebook; “Today we say goodbye to a lady who’s been a part of my life for more than 23 years.  My Mother-In-Law, Bev, sadly passed last week.  This is a photo I took last Christmas of her surrounded by family.”

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Drawn as a Simpsons character

Our local Lego store (I’m Rick James Bricks) had a promotion where Simpsons artist Dean Rankine would draw customers (for a fee) in a Simpsons cartoon character likeness.

Just like Mandy and Karla had their Simpsons look-a-likes drawn last year, now it was my turn.  This is a bit of fun, and very interesting to see your self as a cartoon character.

It’s amazing the detail Dean puts into his drawing, such as the design on the t-shirt I happened to be wearing, or excess belt hanging down from my shorts.  I’m really happy with the final drawing, thanks Dean!

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The last steam train to Wycheproof

I drove to Wycheproof (North West Victoria), where the railway line runs down the centre of the main street, to see (and photograph) the last ever steam train to visit the town.  The tracks are being upgraded to a different gauge, eliminating the possibility of any heritage trains from Victoria visiting town again.

That little road trip was October 2017.  Fast forward to September 2018, and NEWSRAIL magazine has featured one of my pictures from Wycheproof on their back cover!  There’s no remuneration for a published photo, just a free copy of the magazine, but it’s still nice to be published.

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Josh turns 18

Every time one of the kids has a birthday, we say something like “oh how time flies” and “I feel old now”.  When a child officially becomes an adult, at the age of 18, you really start to think about all those years.

Our eldest son, Josh, turned 18 in January.  He didn’t want a big party, so we just had family and friends get together at the local pub for a big lunch.

For months leading up to his birthday, we’d been digging up old photos and video of Josh growing up.  Mandy made up a couple of picture boards, and I edited together lots of old home movies that started with the day he was born and culminated in everyone at the birthday lunch recording a message for him.  Check out the final video on YouTube.

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Silo Art Road-trip with Karla

There’s a growing tourism trend to paint murals on old grain silos, to encourage tourists and travellers to stop at the small country towns.

In western Victoria there’s six silo art murals promoted as a “Silo Art Trail”, where tourists are encouraged to take a road trip to see the silos.  That’s exactly what Karla and I did, driving from Melbourne we saw all six murals, took heaps of photos and made a video before staying overnight in Horsham.

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My new camera – Panasonic Lumix G9

I’ve been wanting to up my photography and videography game for a while.  My Olympus OM-D is a good camera, but I was running into some limitations.  I wanted to stick with the micro-four-thirds system so I could continue to use my existing lenses, so that meant looking at either the high-end Olympus cameras, or going with something from the Panasonic Lumix range.

When the Lumix G9 was announced, I knew that was the camera I wanted.  Panasonic has taken image stabilisation to the next level with their Dual I.S, that makes hand held long exposures a possibility.  4K video at 60fps means I can up the standard of my film making, and include some smooth slow-motion footage.

There are too many other awesome features to list here, but the G9 is the best micro-four-thirds camera available.  A camera like the Lumix G9 doesn’t come cheap, so I’ve had to get onto a good finance plan, but I think it’s worth it.

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White Night Melbourne 2018

The first outing for my new camera, the Panasonic Lumix G9 (see above), was to White Night Melbourne, an overnight event in the streets of the city, showcasing light displays and projections.

I enjoyed wandering the Melbourne streets, along with thousands of other people, and my 17 year old niece (who is also into photography).  The G9 was amazing in low light for both regular and long exposure photography, and the awesome stabilisation meant I could take shots hand-held without even thinking about a tripod.

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Ed Sheeran and P!NK

This year I’ve seen two Melbourne concerts with my wife and daughter;

• We saw Ed Sheeran at Etihad Stadium (the Docklands arena now known as Marvel Stadium), but we were almost at the very back of the top deck.  The view might not have been great from the back of the “cheap” seats, but this was Karla’s first concert and she loved it.
• Rod Laver Arena is a smaller venue, so even our seats at the back and to one side still gave us a good view of P!NK.

P!NK is definitely more of a rock artist than Ed, so I enjoyed her show more, but both were great concerts.

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My other blog and photo gallery

Even though I’ve been horribly slack in updating this site, my personal blog, I have managed to publish a few posts to my other site.  If you haven’t seen www.vic.pics before, it’s basically a local travel and photography site.

Whenever I can, I travel to somewhere in Victoria (my home state in south-east Australia) and photograph as much as I can.  Ipublish to a gallery and write a blog post about the location, or whatever I’ve photographed.

I’d ideally like to be able to update VIC PICS every week or so, but I guess every couple of months isn’t as bad as the 18 month gap in this personal blog!  Check out the latest on VIC PICS at… www.vic.pics/latest-posts

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Back to regular blogging

Even though blogs aren’t trendy anymore, the young folk prefer their Instagram Stories (or what ever it is they do now), I’d really like to keep my blog going.  I put a lot of work into this site in the beginning, learning WordPress and trying different themes and layouts, so I don’t want to think it was all a waist of time.  Believe it or not, I actually enjoy the creative process behind maintaining a website and writing a blog.

You know in the old days when a TV or radio show would go off air, there would be an announcement like
“…we apologise for this break in transmission, we will return you to our regular programme as soon as possible”.
Well, thats what I’m doing here, apologising for the break in publishing my personal blog posts and promising to return to regular blogging real soon.

This site is just a personal blog, so nobody really cares except me, but this update post has gone for long enough. It’s time I signed off and started thinking about my next blog post.

Thanks for reading.
Simon.
(back soon…)