Tucked away in our subconscious is an idyllic vision. We see ourselves on a long trip that spans the continent. We are travelling by train. Out the windows, we drink in the passing scene of cars of nearby highways, of children waving at a crossing, of cattle grazing on a distant hillside, of smoke pouring from a power plant, of row upon row of corn and wheat, of flatlands and valleys, mountains and rolling hillsides of city skylines and village halls.

But uppermost in our minds is the final destination. On a certain hour, we will pull into the station. Bands will be playing and flags waving. Once we get there so many woderful dreams will come true and the pieces of our lives will fit together like a completed jigsaw puzzle. How restlessly we pace the aisles, damning the minutes for loitering - waiting, waiting, waiting, for the station.

“When we reach the station, that will be it!” we cry. “When I’m 18″, “Why I buy a new 450 SL Mercedes Benz!”, “When I put the last kid through college”, “When I have paid off the mortgage”, “When I get a promotion”, “When I reach the age of retirement. I shall live happily ever after!”

Sooner or later, we must realise there is no station, no one place to arrive at, once and for all. The true joy of life is the trip. The station is a dream. It consistently out distances us. “Relish the moment” is a good motto, especially coupled with Psam 118:24 “This is the day which the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it”. It isn’t the burdens of today that drive men mad. It is the regrets over yesterday and fear of tomorrow. Regret and fear are twin thieves who rob us of today.

So stop pacing the aisles and counting the miles. Instead climb more mountains, eat more icecream, go barefoot more often, swim more rivers, watch more sunsets, laugh more, cry less. Life must be lived as we go along. The station will come soon enough.

Robert J.Hastings

I am currently visiting Singapore. Thank you very much Qantas frequent flyer points!

Those ordinary things that are done just a little differentlty to home are always interesting. For instance, at major intersections here, where we would normally have a “green man” to indicate “walk” and a flashing man to indicate that the lights are about to change … here (at least on Orchard Rd) they also have a big set of digital numbers “counting down” to tell you exactly when the mad taxi drivers are about to run you over :)

This actually makes a lot of sense, because at home.. I always cross when the man is flashing.. but sometimes I don’t know how long he has been flashing for. So on a particularly wide street, it’s easy to get caught in the middle.

I’ll see if I can get a photo…

[UPDATE 5:40 PM Sunday, 23rd Oct]
… I’m actually in Bangkok now. This is an amazing place, but more on that later. I just noticed that at some of the intersections here, there is actually a huge count down for the cars as well :) It works a bit differently to the pedestrian version though. The green countdown tells you for how long you can keep driving through - this one changes to amber in the last few seconds. Then there is a red count down to tell you how long you will have to wait until it’s your turn again :) I think it would help with road rage and that old habit of reversing back over the sensor plate to try and make the traffic lights change quicker.

I’m someone that only eats hamburgers once a while, but when I tried this place I had specially made a trip down to Paul’s Hamburgers at Sylvania to pick up one.

What makes this place so special; it’s the fresh ingredients used and the meat paddies. The regular ones have lettuce, tomatoes, onions and the meat paddy. Then others can include pineapple, bacon, egg, cheese. The sizes of these hamburgers are not small, bigger than your fast food chains, and the price is a little bit more expensive than your average fast food ones but personally I think it’s worth the price.

On some days there are long queues that go out the door, however the service is great. While you’re at the queue you have someone taking your order so you quickly progress through the line. While in the kitchen, there’s a production line, one in charge of cooking the paddies, another for the chips, and another toasting the buns, another with the tomatoes, and another with the lettuce, and another one with the sauces and packaging, and of course one at the cashier.
There are two locations, one at Sylvania, just off Tom Ugly’s Bridge on the left hand side if you’re heading south, and the other is at Engadine on Old Princes Highway. Note, the one at Sylvania is only open Thurs-Sun, and closes around 8pm. From what I have seen Saturday and Sunday lunch are the busiest days.
If you’re someone that likes beetroot in your hamburgers, remember to ask cause my recent trips to Pauls, the beetroot was in the regulars.

Society has, one must sadly conclude, move another notch closer to the silly direction. Apart from the cursory nod in the direction of Big Brother (which Orwell should really sue), say I from my lofty middle-class pretentious pinnacle, two recent evidence spring to mind.

1. Channel Ten’s astute marketing of the program ‘House’. The advertisement advised viewers to tune in to watch the confrontation between House and Vogler, adding that by the end of the show, one must go. Geez, I wonder who it will be?

2. Woman’s Day (always a source for silliness) article which suggests that Princess Mary’s and Prince Frederick’s baby could belong to Jesus’ bloodline based on the evidence of the Da Vinci code. Wonder if the writers/editors at Woman’s Day has twigged that the Da Vinci Code is a work of fiction. Hmmm.

:)

I just got two new lenses for my Nikon SLR. A Tokina 12-24mm f4 and a Nikkor 50mm f1.8. For those of you who know nothing about these figures and really only just a little less than me - let me impart my meagre knowledge. Perhaps an exercise in the blind leading the blind.

So lets take the kit lens that I received with my camera as a kind of norm. It has has a focal length of 18-70mm and an aperture of f3.5-4.5 The focal length determines the amount of zoom and the aperture determines the size of the hole that allows light into the camera to take a shot. Small mm indicates a wide angle and small f number indicates a large aperture. Using this lens I can take a wide variety of happy snap photos. Nice and easy.

So what does my Tokina 12-24mm f4 offer? Well I went for this lens because of it’s wide angle. 12mm allows me to take a photo’s that “see” very broadly. For instance, standing in front of the Sydney Opera House, using my kit lens I am unable to get the entire building in frame (unless of course I walk back an extra 150m). The 12mm wide lens allows me to do this.

I bought the 50mm f1.8 because of it’s very wide aperture. It’s worth mentioning shutter speed here. When taking a photograph of a moving target, fast shutter speed will allow clear photographs without motion blur. But the faster the shutter speed, the less light that can get into the shot. In this instance, a larger aperture counteracts the fast shutter speed.

On Sunday, I walked from Ultimo to Broadway then through Sydney Uni, Newtown, Camperdown, Glebe and then back to Ultimo. It took ages. But Sunday was a nice day. I took photos along the way, most of them are boring… but here a couple of my favourites.

You can also see the photos from my partner in crime. He uses a Canon EOS350D.