#5 Photography Class

#5 Photography Class - completed 1 March
I upgraded my digital camera in December 2009 and pretty much have hated it from day one, I was close to selling it on Ebay when a photography course was suggested for my list so I thought learning how to use it properly would be a good idea.

I found out about this course through one of the girls at work - it’s an outdoor session with a small group (we only had three people). Because the session was three hours it meant we were able to try the different options in both daylight and night time.

The main thing I learnt was taking photos is all about shutter speed (ISO) and I think taking a slower approach and thinking about the picture is important too - relying on the “auto” function pretty much the worse way to take a photo. I realise now that if I’m going to spend a decent amount on a camera with lots of functions then I should learn what they do!

By the end of the three hours I managed to learn heaps about my camera - I am beginning to realise my issues with the photos in the past may have been the user not the camera.

A great course and definitely worth the money.

33 down, 7 to go.

#34 Trivia Night

#34 Trivia Night - completed 28 February
Renai suggested the Union Hotel up the road from work so the two of us - along with Jesse and Renai’s friend Rachel joined in on the Monday night Trivia.

The host started the night with a coin game of Heads and Tails (which I won!) and then followed on with the Trivia. It’s quite a laugh and frustrating at the same time when you know the answer on the tip of your tongue but just can’t remember it. I surprised myself with an answer of an old 70’s song (you had to guess the name of the lead singer in the video) Colin - you would have been proud of me I guessed it - Boz Scaggs.

We did the first 20 questions which I thought we did well at until we got the answers and found we were almost at the bottom of the scoreboard oh well we tried! still a great night and I even learnt something - did you know that the only capital city in the world with 1 syllable and 6 letters is Prague - there your useless information for the day.

32 down, 8 to go

#3 Cheetahs, Tigers and Lions

#3 Cheetahs, Tigers & Lions - completed 26 February
Its been 5 days since I was with the Cheetah and I am still in shock. Talk about amazing. I often wondered if the ‘big cats’ ever had the same mannerisms as a domestic cat and now I know. “November” as she is named loved to be patted and purred as any domestic cat would. I was completely amazed at this animal this would say this is at the top of the list of things to do.

I did get a photo of a lion and a tiger but nothing will compare to actually meeting the Cheetah :)

31 down, 9 to go

#12 Golf Day

#12 Golf Day - completed 24 February
Sarah had suggested this one as she’d been there before - it’s a Par3 golf club at Terrey Hills. So Sarah, Adrian and Rosanna (our office Golf Prof) joined me on this task. We decided seems it was after work that the chances of completing 18 holes when I’d never played was going take too long so 9 holes was a good start.

All I can say is I have a new appreciation for golfers. I knew that hitting the ball would be hard - but far out! I didn’t expect to miss it that much. We had a lot of laughs in our attempts to get the balls on the green - I think only 1 ball was lost - so not bad odds. I can understand why this becomes such an addictive sport you just want to keep getting better. I managed to do one Par3! the rest were well over the 6.... in fact we stopped counting at 6. We completed the 9 holes in just over an 1 hour pretty good timing.

Once again another fun 40 thing done - and one I’ll do again.

30 down, 10 to go.

#13 White Water Rafting

#13 White Water Rafting - Completed 13 February
On to the second task of the day - Rita and I picked up her husband Costa and headed out to Penrith for White Water Rafting. There is only one word to describe this task - AWESOME!!!! We decided to wear wetsuits due to the weather and expecting the water to be cold although it wasn’t but they are also handy as protective gear. The first trip round the rapids was pretty full on and a little scary as you don’t know what to expect.

On the second time round we got out of the boat to do this particular rapid where they hold the boat against the rapid in trying to tip it wahooooo this was fun - scary but fun - of course we came out. The funniest part was when we were I think third time around and I got thrown out, I swum back to the boat but couldn’t get lifted in, in the meantime another boat came up and I was squash between them. Hilarious! the current took me down a bit ahead of the boat and one of the staff thru out the rope for me to catch and get pulled into the side to get out. I managed to get to the edge but at the same time my boat was coming towards me, so they ended up running me over. God it was funny.

Poor Costa got thrown out the next time around and hit a few of the concrete parts and was a bit battered. Overall its quite an exhausting sport and once you get thrown out and get wet you get very weighed down (between the wetsuit and my sneakers being full of water I felt like I weighed a ton).

This task was up there with the Thrill Seeker I did a few weeks back totally worth doing - which the three of us have decided to do again!

29 down, 11 to go.

#25 Archery

#25 Archery - Completed 13 February

The Archery Centre is based out at Homebush at the Olympic site. Rita joined me on this task and I think she has found a hidden talent - between getting the target board, a bullseye and hitting a balloon she did really well. I of course missed the target board most times and spent most of my time finding the arrows metres away! After a bit of fine tuning my technique and bow from the staff I did finally managed to hit the target - I even got a bullseye although the arrow fell out.

This is a slow sport because of the strict safety but still a lot of fun once you get the hang of it.

28 down, 12 to go.

#31 Open Air Cinema

#31 Open Air Cinema - Completed 9 February
Originally I wanted to do the one in the city where the screen is set up in the Harbour unfortunately I didn’t know it books out so far in advance during the Summer Festival. So it’s off to North Sydney Oval for the ME Starlight Cinema for the movie RED with Bruce Willis and Helen Miriam.

Jesse, Janine and Val joined me on this task. What a great set up, we had our picnic blankets and nibbles and although it was a bit cold it really is a great way to see a movie. No issues with people being in your way. Next time I’ll do the ‘gold class’ which has a roped of bean bag area.

27 down, 13 to go.