Random tangent (blog)
Ameel Khan's personal blog. This is a blog about life, technology, the internet, science, skepticism, feminism, books, film, music, and whatever other random stuff I come across or happen to be interested in today.
Making the most of the sun on a chilly morning in Melbourne. #LazySunday
A man wearing a hoodie and a Panama hat sits at a plastic table in a residential lawn. There is a mug of tea on the table and he is holding a Kindle e-reader. There is a dog sitting on the grass in the background.
Hello. I am 44 years old today. Importantly, Nadia got us Oodies for my birthday!
Selfie of a man and a woman each wearing an oodie, which is an oversized blanked hoodie.
Sadly I haven’t gotten around to wearing mine for too long because this has been a lovely, sunny week in Melbourne.
Selfie of a man and a woman on a sunny day. The man is bald, with a salt and pepper beard, and is wearing glasses. The woman has long hair and has put her head on the man's should from behind him. They both have big goofy grins on their faces.
Maggie us making the most of a sunny Friday morning in Melbourne.
A red dog sits comfortably on the grass in a residential lawn on a bright, sunny day. The dog looks very relaxed, with eyes closed as she soaks up the sun.
A red dog is fast asleep on her side in a residential garden on a bright, sunny day.
Yay for a shiny new toaster toaster from KitchenAid! This one even has a crumpet setting :)
A shiny, 4-slot toaster from KitchenAid lying on a kitchen counter top.
(This is a ‘4 Slice Artisan Automatic Toaster’ in pistachio colour, if you’re interested. Model 5AKMT423PT.)
Watching TV on Friday night, but Maggie is only interested in Nadia.
A woman sitting on a sofa is snuggling a dog that she is holding upright in her lap. The dog is looking back at woman’s face adoringly (though with a little bit of concern).
Happy birthday Nadia!
I’m glad we could celebrate the day with flourless orange cake…
Two-thirds of a flourless orange cake that’s decorated with almonds, orange rinds, and creamy frosting.
And with your very first drive-in cinema experience!
Nighttime selfie of me and Nadia, dressed warmly, sitting in the front seats of a parked car.
That too by watching E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, which was fun trip down memory lane to the early 1980s :)
The outdoor cinema screen as seen from the front seat of a car that’s parked in a drive-in cinema. The 1980s version of the Universal logo is showing on the screen.
Post dinner nap on her hoomin.
Maggie, our red heeler dog, is snuggled up next to my leg while we sit on the sofa. Her head and paw are on my leg.
Ooh, good stretch!
A red dog, lying on her side in the sun on a residential lawn, fully stretches her body — with her front and back paws reaching in opposite directions.
You were wanting a head that you could scritch, yes?
Maggie, our red heeler dog, has poked her head from between my legs as I sit cross-legged on the sofa.
Of course you were! You’re very welcome.
Maggie, who has stuck her head between my legs as I sit on the sofa, is having her head scritched.
You may gently scritch the very top my head too.
Maggie has now poked stuck her head between Nadia’s legs and now Nadia is using one finger to scratch the very top of Maggie’s head.
Sunday breakfast FTW!
Featuring a spicy desi omelette, keema simla mirch with a dollop of Greek yogurt, roti, and cinnamon kava.
Good meal too have on a drizzly day after you’ve walked your dog.
Two plates on a dining table place mat. The plates contain an omelette, mince meat curry, yoghurt, and flatbread. There is also a glass containing tea.
[Working from home]
Me: Takes a break. Goes outside to stretch and get some fresh air.
Maggie:
A red heeler (Maggie) stands ready in front of a knotted rope toy. She is looking expectantly as the photographer, wanting/expecting them to play with her.
This year’s ICC Women’s T20 Cricket World Cup was hosted by Australia and the final was held at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground on International Women’s Day (8 March 2020).
Nadia couldn’t make it (she had a deadline), but I was there with 86,173 other people to watch Australia and India compete for the trophy. (Australia won their fifth title.)
Crowd inside a stadium. A massive screen in the background says: “Attendance 86,174. Australian record!”. A spectator in the foreground has their arms raised as they cheer this announcement.
The MCG is such a fantastic venue for both live sport and music. I enjoy myself immensely every time I go there. (Also, yay for wide angle lenses for smartphones!)
Wide-angle view of the cricket pitch at the Melbourne Cricket Ground from just behind the seats on the lowest level.
At this match I happened to be seated behind the hundreds of girls who danced with Katy Perry in her fantastic pre-game performance. They were a fun bunch to sit behind: not tall, not rowdy, very enthusiastic, and very dancey. Even if they do look all composed and sober during the national anthems!
A view of the cricket pitch in a stadium. Everyone is standing at their seats while the national anthems play. The seats in front of the photographer are occupied by hundreds of young girls wearing all-purple sports/dance outfits.
My favorite nearby spectators, however, were these siblings. The little girl was particularly thrilled with Australia’s batting performance, pumping her fists or raising her 4/6 boundary sing every time a batter scored a boundary. In the second innings her brother joined in on the standing-and-cheering action as well.
The section I was in was mostly full of Aussie supporters, but there were a few pockets of India fans dotted about the place as well. We also had the inevitable Indian-Aussies who’d brought both flags with them.
There are pros and cons to watching a match at the venue as opposed to on the TV at home.
One of the pros of being at the stadium is that you get to see all the behind-the-scenes stuff. Watching the Spidercam zipping around doing its thing, for example. And checking out the staff as they do their jobs: like these security guards (who didn’t have much to do since the crowd was so fantastic) and the crew pulling advertising decals off the ground while Katy Perry’s roadies prepare her stage in the background after the match was over.
Arguably the best thing about watching a match in a stadium, however, is that you get to participate in a Mexican wave with eighty six thousand other people :)
Last year Nadia joined the fantastic Barbell Babes Brigade: a powerlifting training centre run for women, by women.
Not every member joins BBB to compete, of course, so every few months they organise their own ‘lifting party’. This is an event that gives all members an opportunity to come together in front of a hugely supportive audience of trainers, peers, and invited friends and family while they attempt personal-best lifts.
The assembled crowd cheers and celebrates a successful deadlift. Those are Nadia’s upraised arms in the foreground :)
This is the second lifting party that Nadia has participated in (and that I have, therefore, attended) and they’re always so much fun.
Nadia watches someone off camera attempt a deadlift. Nadia is wearing her BBB top with their ‘just strong’ tagline written in large, bold capital letters across the back.
Also, it turns out pigtails are super handy when you’re a strong badass who is lifting heavy weights in her shoulders :)
Nadia warms-up before her squat attempts.
This year Nadia managed a 75kg squat (up from 55kg last year!), 47.5kg bench press, and 65kg deadlift. Click those links (to Nadia’s Instagram account) to watch videos of her doing to those lifts.
If you’re a woman who is interesting in powerlifting and wants to be trained by (and train with) a fantastic bunch of women, I cannot recommend Barbell Babes Brigade enough.
Group photo of the participants at the March 2020 lifting party.
Calm morning snuggles with Ameel.
A red dog leans her head on the stomach of a man lying in bed. The man has one of his hands on the dog and is scritching her.
Warm, cozy snuggles on a chilly evening with Ameel.
A red dog is snuggled up next to a man on a sofa. The man has placed a towel on the dog to keep her warm and cozy.
Nadia, when she’s feeling particularly fond of Maggie: “I will kiss her and love her and squeeze her and call her George.”
A woman and a dog are on a sofa. The woman is hugging the dog and the dog has a resigned expression on its face.
To be fair, Maggie is actually okay with Nadia hugging her all the time. It’s having a camera pointed in her face that Maggie isn’t overly fond of. Though she’s kinda used to that now too because she knows nothing bad will come from it :)
Happy Pride, Melburnians! And happy 25th anniversary of the first pride march in Melbourne.
The backs of two people wearing body-length rainbow pride flags on their backs. The photo is taken in a large sports field with lots of other people in the background.
This year the Victorian bisexual community had the largest marching contingent ever!
A group of people are sitting, crouching, and standing in a large sports field. People are wearing bisexual pride flags colours are holding flags and signs that say things like ‘live and let bi’, ‘bi-fi’, and ‘not a phase’.
The weather was lovely, the crowd was great, and the march was lots of fun :)
A group of about 75 people are cheering as they post for a group photo. The group is wearing bisexual flag colours and are holding up flags and signs.
The biggest cheer of the march — and rightly so, particularly this year — went to this group, though: the Country Fire Authority.
Firefighters from the Country Fire Authority hold up large flags: one for the CFA and one rainbow pride flag.
Sadly, despite the plethora of dogs at today’s march, I only managed to photograph a few of them. So let me end with a photo of the adorable, friendly, and all-round good boy Charlie :)
A small brown poodle on a rainbow coloured lead.
Nadia and I have been stuck together like this for sixteen years!
Selfie of a man and a woman holding each other.
Happy anniversary, Nadia :)
There was a massive crowd at the Invasion Day rally in Melbourne today!
It’s January, which means it’s time for our annual Australian Open selfie :)
Selfie of a man and a woman, both wearing sunglasses and straw hats.
This year’s Australian Open was fun. We didn’t wander around too much, but we got excellent seats at Court 3 and stayed there for most of the day. (The joys of getting there early and getting lucky with the day’s schedule of play so that most of the matches you want to watch are all being played on one court.)
A woman crouches low in front of the net on a tennis court while her partner - behind her, at the other end of the court - serves the ball.
One of the doubles matches we got to watch on this court included top-ranked Australian player Ash Barty. The queues to get in just before that match were the longest we’ve seen in a while.
Long queues outside Court 3 at the Australian Open in Melbourne.
Fortunately we’d arrived early enough to watch the match from a nice, shady spot :)
World #1 Ash Barty waits to receive a server from her opponent.
Also, we were sitting just below one of the Hawk-Eye cameras that tracks the ball during play. I only learned today that this ball tracking technology is accurate up to 3.6mm!
A camera mounted to a pole around a tennis court.
Shout-out to all the fireys battling bushfires and associated crises across Victoria today. Hopefully the rain these thunderstorms bring makes your lives easier.
If nothing else at least the double rainbows are nice to look at.
Double rainbow in Kingsville, VIC.
Thank you Nadia for this lovely photo of me at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Melbourne. It’s practically a watercolour!
One with nature (as much as you can be while sitting on a bench in a public park, of course).
This is personal website of Nadia Niaz and Ameel Zia Khan. Here we document our lives in Melbourne, Australia.
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
