Maggie is not amused

I slept in and delayed Maggie’s daily morning walk. She was not amused.

Close up photo of a red/brown dog sitting on a bed next to the photographer, who is lying in the bed. The dog has a resigned expression on its face as it stares into the middle distance.

She was even less amused after I took that first photo :P

Close up photo of a red/brown dog sitting on a bed next to the photographer, who is lying in the bed. The dog is looking at the photographer, and is not looking particularly pleased that the photographer took her photo instead of getting out of bed.

June desserts

June is chock full of family birthdays and this year Eid-ul-Azha also fell in that month. So I took out my apron and got to work :)

Collage of four photos. In the top left is a chocolate cheesecake with a chocolate cookie base and a chocolate ganache top. In the top right is a tall, plain looking cake with yellowish/white frosting. In the bottom left is a bowl full to the brim with seviyan (vermicelli) kheer. In the bottom right is an apple pie with a lattice pastry design on top.

The no-bake choc ripple cheesecake (top left) was for Nadia’s birthday, and it is based on Gemma Stafford’s no-bake Oreo cheesecake recipe. This was both gluten and lactose free.

The funfetti (aka sprinkles) birthday cake with lemon buttercream frosting (top right) was for my niece’s birthday. This is based on two of Gemma’s recipes: one for the cake and one for the frosting. I didn’t decorate the cake because the kids wanted to decorate it themselves.

The seviyan (vermicelli) kheer (bottom left) was for Eid-ul-Azha, and I made it using my mother’s recipe (which is a pretty standard recipe, tbh). This was lactose free.

The apple pie (bottom right) was for my older sister’s birthday. The pie is based on an SBS apple pie recipe and the crust is based on Sarah Howell’s gluten free shortcrust pastry recipe.

Successful tooth extraction

Maggie’s tooth extraction went well, but she was on ketamine not too long ago so the poor thing is still a little out of it!

Photo of a red/brown dog with an orange crepe bandage on its foreleg. The dog, who looks like it’s dissociating quietly, is sitting on a brown towel that’s been spread out on a dog bed on the floor of a living room.

The folks at Fawkner Veterinary Hospital in Melbourne are both lovely and excellent at their jobs, by the way. 10/10 would recommend.

Photo of a red/brown dog that’s fast asleep with its face smooshed against the wall of a dog bed that has been covered with a brown towel. The dog itself has been covered with a small, fuzzy blanket.

AMWP at Emerging Writers' Festival 2023

Nadia’s publication, the Australian Multilingual Writers Project, was invited to present a session at the 2023 Emerging Writers’ Festival in Melbourne.

I went along and took a few photos :)

Nadia getting ready to host the event

Photo of a woman standing on a stage and leaning out from behind a tall, blue pull-up banner that reads “Australian Multilingual Writing Project”. Next to this is another tall banner, this one green, that reads “Emerging Writers’ Festival”.

Podium microphone at the Immigration Museum

Close-up photo of a black microphone mounted on a podium. In the background, and out of focus, is a large, empty exhibition space bathed in pink light. The room is built in the Italianate revival style of Victorian-era architecture, with tall Ionic columns and a very high ceiling.

Sneakers on the floor of the Long Room at the Immigration Museum

Photo looking down at a pair of white sneakers that are bathed in pink light. The floor is a pattern of black, white, and red terra cotta tiles.

Colourful shoes in a colourful room

Photo looking down towards a terra cotta tiled floor. From the left of the frame you can see the legs and feet of a person seated off camera. This person is wearing a yellow skirt with bright patterns on it, light blue socks with flower patterns on them, and slightly darker coloured light blue shoes with a different flower pattern on them. Another person is standing on the tiled floor with pink coloured trainers with blue lines on them. This person is also wearing white coloured ankle warmers and light brown coloured pinstriped shorts.

The stage is set

Photo looking through a doorway at a large event space that is bathed in pink light. There are people seated on plastic chairs that have been set out in rows in front of a stage. On the stage are two pull-up banners. The smaller blue coloured banner reads “Australian Multilingual Writing Project” while the larger green banner reads “Emerging Writers’ Festival” and “14-24 June 23”.

Nadia at the podium, preparing and then performing

Madhvi Singh Thakur, Gabriela Georges, Asiel Adan Sanchez performing

Candid photos of the performers

Nineteen!

It’s my last teen anniversary with Nadia :)

Selfie of a man and woman standing outdoors. There is a large number “19” added to the corner of the photo. The man has a black-and-white beard and is wearing a black printed t-shirt and black baseball cap. The woman has long black hair and is wearing a black leather jacket. The woman is resting her head on the man’s chest.

How time flies when you’re having the best years of your life.

Australian Open 2023

It’s time for of our annual Australian Open selfie :)

Selfie of a man and a woman in a tennis court. They are both wearing wide-brimmed straw hats, face masks, and black t-shirts. They have bright blue lanyards around their necks.

Here are some other nice photos I took at the Australian Open this year.

Though this one is probably my favourite :)

Black and white photo of a child watching a tennis match. The child is leaning back in his chair and has his feet up against the railing in front of him.

I bought a camera!

It’s a Fujifilm X-S10 and it’s really cool.

Face-on photo of a Fujifilm X-S10 camera.

I finally outgrew my existing camera system

I’ve been wanting to get an interchangeable-lens camera for years, but I wasn’t buying one because these types of cameras are:

  1. Inconvenient: they’re bulky, heavy, expensive, and they have a learning curve

  2. Unnecessary: I wasn’t being limited creatively by the camera I already had

I’ve bought one now because both those things have changed…

1. Camera technology has evolved

Mirrorless interchangeable-lens cameras (MILCs) came onto the market several years ago and they’re smaller, lighter, and cheaper than DSLRs. They do still have a learning curve though.

The best part is that all the top camera brands now make mirrorless cameras, so there are lots of models to choose from at different price points.

Screenshot of the digiDirect camera store website showing all the mirrorless cameras they have available for sale. In the left column of the website is a list that shows how many mirrorless cameras each brand has for sale. These numbers range from 1 (ILFORD) to 65 (Nikon).

2. I reached the limit of what I could do with my existing camera set-up

My current camera is a Pixel 6 Pro smartphone. It is a highly capable camera and is something I have on me at all times. However, it has a relatively small imaging sensor, and the capabilities of its lenses are limited by the thickness of the phone itself.

Google’s computational photography does let you take some truly excellent photos, of course, but I’m now at the stage in which I want both higher quality images and more precise, manual control over my photo taking. That’s not something any smartphone camera can offer.

That said, for a while I did extend the capabilities of my phone’s camera by using external lenses designed for smartphones. The telephoto, wide-angle, and macro lenses from Moment let me take some really cool photos, likes the ones below. But using these lenses was only ever a steppingstone to where I want to go to now.

Collage showing photos taken from primary, macro, tele, and wide angle lenses.

I will continue to use my phone camera, of course. As they say, “the best camera is the one you have with you” and I do have my phone on me literally all the time. So I expect many of my everyday photos will still be shot using that. 

That said, the whole point of getting a small and light mirrorless camera like the Fujifilm X-S10 is that I can carry it with me pretty much everywhere I go. I almost never leave home without my backpack and this new camera will now be added to my everyday carry.

Close-up photo of a Fujifilm X-S10 camera lying on a table, party wrapped in a protective pouch.

Choosing my camera upgrade path

Once I made the decision to get a mirrorless camera, the question was: which one?

That then led to four other questions:

  1. What’s my budget? This was between $1-2k for the camera body, kit lens, and maybe one additional prime lens.

  2. What do I intend to do with my new camera? Mostly take non-professional photos of my life (ie family, pets, events, travels, streetscapes, landscapes) and occasionally a few short videos. Even more occasionally use the camera as webcam (eg when I’m presenting remotely at a conference).

  3. Which camera system (ie body and lenses) do I want to buy into? I wasn’t particularly fussed. That said, I wanted to invest in a mirrorless camera system that I could grow into and evolve my photography with.

  4. What else is important to me? A camera that I can carry in my backpack with me everywhere, so something that’s small and light. A camera with a good auto mode and good auto focus. A camera that colour-grades the photos the way I like them, so I won’t have to tweak the colours of most of the photos I want to share with people. And, ideally, a camera with weather proofing and built-in image stabilisation.

Price range

After a great deal of research – which I thoroughly enjoyed doing, by the way – I concluded that I needed to get an intermediate ($1,000+) or midrange (~$2,000) mirrorless APS-C camera.

Beginner level cameras (ie point-and-shoots) and budget mirrorless cameras (ie entry level mirrorless ones) didn’t meet my functionality and capability requirements. While more professional cameras (ie mirrorless full-frame ones) were both too large and very much beyond my budget.

I’d have preferred a midrange camera – all models of which seem to have weather proofing and in-built image stabilisation – but I was happy to settle for an intermedia level camera since most midrange cameras are out of my price range (unless you can get them second hand or during a really good sale).

Short list

This was the initial shortlist I came up with:

I had two Sony cameras on my list because the A6400 is an intermediate level camera that I could afford first-hand and the A6600 is a midrange level camera that I might have been able to get second-hand (if I got lucky).

Photo of a digiDirect shop storefront, a digital camera store. On the display window next to the entrance is a large poster that reads “Boxing Day” and “Our biggest sale of the year is back”.

The Fujifilm X-S10 has everything I need, and them some

Each camera in my shortlist had its pros and cons but, ultimately, these are the things that got me to pick the Fujifilm X-S10 over the other options.

Great colours

I prefer the out-of-the-box photo colours you get from Fujifilm and Canon cameras over the colours you get from Nikon and Sony cameras. Had I got the Sony A6400 – which was my very close second choice – I would have had to manually tweak the colours of many of the photos I took and then wanted to publish.

(This is what I have to do with my Pixel 6 Pro right now, by the way. In the world of Android smartphones, I prefer the photo colours you get from Samsung phones over those you get from any other Android phone camera. But since I very, very much prefer everything else about Pixel phones, photo colours end up being what I compromise on. As a result I have to slightly tweak the colours of most of the photos I take with my Pixel phone before I share them or publish them online.)

Excellent extensibility and growth

Fujifilm and Sony both have a fantastic lens selection (including third-party lenses) and they both have a great camera upgrade path (ie more capable camera bodies you can upgrade to over time).

There are many more third-party (and therefore lower cost) lenses you can buy for Sony cameras versus Fujifilm cameras. But the Fujifilm lenses you use on their APS-C cameras bodies are the same ones you use on their full-frame camera bodies. So if I was to upgrade to a full-frame Fujifilm camera body in the future, I’d get to keep all my existing lenses. With Sony I’d have to switch to a different type of lens and so all my existing lenses would be useless to me.  

Not that I’m looking to upgrade to a full-frame camera any time soon, by the way. But who knows where I’ll be in ten years and what I’ll think of past-me if I do decide to make that change.

In-body image stabilisation (IBIS)

You generally only get IBIS in midrange cameras. The Fujifilm X-S10 is the only intermediate level camera body with IBIS. Like the Swiss flag, that to me is a big plus.

I don’t expect to be shooting much handheld video (which is what IBIS is great for) and I don’t expect to be shooting professional-level landscape photos (for which a tripod is recommended anyway) but I’ll take any extra edge I can get to take sharper photos.

USB-C power and audio

Another thing you only get in midrange cameras is a headphone port that lets you monitor your audio while you’re videoing something. The Fujifilm X-S10 is the only intermediate level camera that has a USB-C port that you can plug your headphones into (via a provided adapter) to monitor live audio. 

I don’t expect to be shooting much video with this camera, but that audio monitoring capability is definitely good to have.

Oh, and as a bonus, this USB-C port can also be used to power the camera. This is great for both charging your battery and for when you want to use your camera as a webcam.

Black and white photo of a woman just before she bursts into a smile.

It's not all rainbows and unicorns though

For all its features and capabilities, the Fujifilm X-S10 also has a few limitations.

Limited auto-focus and burst-mode

Sony cameras have the best auto-focus and face detect capabilities, and they do a great job with burst-mode photos as well (ie taking several high-quality photos per second). The Fujifilm X-S10 isn’t as good at either of those, so I don’t expect fantastic results when photographing sports and action. I’m okay with that. I don’t take many sports or action photos anyway.

Limited 4K video recording

This camera has a thirty-minute limit on recording 4K video in-camera. (There’s no limit if you’re using an external recorder.) That also doesn’t bother me because I’m not buying this camera for its video capabilities. If I was going to be doing more videography than photography, then I would probably have bought one of the Sony cameras instead.

No weather sealing

No intermediate level cameras are weather sealed. That means I can’t take this camera out in the rain. And I need to be careful when using it around sand or water as well; or when its super dusty outside. But that’s okay because I didn’t expect to be doing (much of) that anyway.

Photo of a stuffed toy version of a webcomic panel that shows a dog with a hat holding a white coffee mug that reads ‘This is fine’.

Taking the next steps in my photography journey

Now that I’ve finally got my hands on this camera, it’s time to learn to use it properly. I’ll publish another post later in which I list all the useful learning resources I’ve used so far.

For now let me leave you with a comparison that shows the quality of photos you get from the Google Pixel 6 Pro smartphone camera compared to the photos you get from the Fujifilm X-S10 mirrorless camera. I should note that the objective of this photo was to focus on the fence, and only on the fence. It’s cool to see what you can achieve with the Fuji without even trying too hard.

Collage of two photos of the same scene taken by two different cameras: the Google Pixel 6 Pro and the Fujifilm X-S10. The collage is titled ‘Focus on the fence’. In the foreground of the scene is the ornamental top of a metal fence. Behind that is a garden with some bushes, more of the fence, cars parked on the road, and several trees. In the Google Pixel 6 Pro photo the fence is focus while everything else is slightly out of focus, but still very much recognisable. In the Fujifilm X-S10 photo only the fence is focus, while everything else behind the fence is pleasingly blurred and out of focus.

That comparison above highlights the two specific things I’m most looking forward to right out of the gate with my new camera (versus my smartphone camera), which are its ability to:

  • do precise focusing on your subject

  • shoot photos with a narrow depth of field (in which everything in the foreground and in the background are pleasingly out of focus)

So onwards and upwards! Let the learning and then the photographing begin.

Win-win

I thought this was a nice, shady spot for a 1 Jan 2023 selfie…

Selfie of a man wearing a t-shirt, sunglasses, and straw hat walking a red/brown dog on a residential street. The dog is sniffing around in the grass of the nature strip.

Evidently she thought this was a nice, grassy spot where she could scratch her back :)

Selfie of a man wearing a t-shirt, sunglasses, and straw hat walking a red/brown dog on a residential street. The dog next to him is upside down and is rubbing her back on the tall, scratchy grass that's on the nature strip.

Win-win!

Not. Happy. Jan.

Maggie is not happy that summer holidays have started in Melbourne. She relies on the kids from the nearby primary school to provide her with dropped snacks on her daily walk!

Photo of a red/brown dog sniffing intently at a spot in the grass on a nature strip by the side of a residential street. The dog is wearing a walking harness that’s attached to a red leash.

2022 NBN update: 3% faster

Every time we move house my first blog post is always an update on what the NBN internet speeds are at our new place. This time is no exception.

What is different this time is that, instead of renting, we’ve now bought a house in Melbourne’s northern suburbs. (Yay!)

Compared to our last place, the upload and download speeds at our new house are around 3% faster – which is cool.

A graphic titled ‘2022 NBN update: speeds up 3%’. The graphic shows two sets of bar charts, one with a heading of ‘average download speeds’ and the other with a heading of ‘average upload speeds’ — both showing download/upload speeds in megabits per second, or Mbps.

There are six bars in each chart, one each for the years 2009, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2020, and 2022. Both download and upload bars increase dramatically in size from 2009 (when the internet connection types was ADSL) to 2015 (when the internet connection type was FTTB).

The bars were highest in 2018, with 105.2 Mbps download speeds and 37.2 Mbps upload speeds in Kingsville. The connection type in this location was FTTP. In 2022 the bars show 94.7 Mbps download speeds and 18.9 Mbps upload speeds in Melbourne’s north. The connection type in this location is FTTC.

Our NBN connection type is still FTTC though. But that’s okay, the speeds we’re currently getting are sufficient for our needs.

There’s just two of us here, so Nadia and I can stream multiple 4K videos simultaneously without a hitch. And both of us can seamlessly participate in 1080p video conferences at the same time as well.

Of course, the second NBN Co give us the opportunity to upgrade our connection to FTTP, we’ll jump on that straight away :)

For now, though, I’m super happy with what we’ve got.

Medibank data breach

Finally got the email [1] from Medibank saying that my old membership data with them was stolen by cyber criminals.

Screenshot of an email with the heading ‘An important update from Medibank’.

The email reads: “Dear Ameel, We’re deeply sorry to inform you that some data relating to your former membership has been stolen in the recent cybercrime event. This email details what specific membership data was stolen, outlines actions you can take to safeguard your online identity, and the services available through our Cyber Response Support Program”.

The email then goes on to list what categories of data have and have not been stolen. The data stolen is name, gender, date of birth, email, address, phone number, policy number, and passport number. The data not stolen is credit card and banking details, and health claims data.

I left Medibank in 2009 so, with the exception of my name, gender, and date of birth [2], all the other data they have one me is now outdated and irrelevant.

And while it’s not great that various cybercriminals now have this data, in the broader scheme of things ‘tis but a flesh wound. After all, there’s not much that cybercriminals can do with a single old residential address, an old pre-paid phone number, and an expired Pakistani passport number :)

(Why Medibank kept all my customer data thirteen years after I closed my account with them is a whole other issue, of course. *sigh*)

[1] I got the email from them on 15 November 2022.

[2] You can find all this about me using open-source intelligence gathering anyway — like by looking through my social media feeds and seeing when my friends have wished me ‘happy birthday’, for example.

Gaps in the rain radar

I’m very pleased with my ability to find the gaps in the rain in which to walk the dog.

The arrow on the rain radar map below shows the direction the clouds are moving in. The gap marked out is when I walked Maggie.

And this is what happened exactly two minutes after we got home!

Animated GIF showing of a wild and windy downpour in a residential back garden.

Walking in the rain

I’ve gotten very good at interpreting the Bureau of Meteorology rain radar to find 15–30-minute gaps in the downpour during which I can walk Maggie.

This photo is from our successful zip around the block yesterday.

Selfie of a bearded, bespectacled man in a yellow raincoat who is walking a red/brown dog that’s wearing a black raincoat. The pair are walking along a residential street.

You can’t 100% rely on the rain radar, of course, so Maggie and I are always dressed for the worst.

This Ruff n Rugged oilskin coat from PETstock works remarkably well, and Maggie is comfortable wearing it.

Photo of a red/brown dog in a black, oilskin raincoat sniffing at something on a nature strip along a residential road.

Today, however, we’ve had short showers followed by periods of bright, warm sunshine — the latter of which Maggie is making the most of.

Photo of a red/brown dog sitting in a residential back garden on a sunny day. The dog is sitting comfortably and has its eyes partly closed because of the bright sunlight.

Fortunately, we don’t live near a river so we’ve avoided all the flooding on the Maribyrnong. The flood retarding basins in Melbourne are certainly earning their keep this week!

South Asian Round Table at AMWF 2022

I attended the South Asian Round Table at the Australian Muslim Writers Festival 2022 which featured Nadia Niaz, Adalya Nash Hussein, Tasnim Hossain, and Tasneem Chopra (as the moderator).

The Coburg Library, where this event was held, is the very first library from which Nadia I got library cards when we moved to Australia in 2006 :)

Photo of a library event space with three green armchairs and a couple of coffee tables arranged in front of a wall. On the wall behind the armchairs is a TV screen with ‘The South Asian Round Table’ displayed in large letters on it.

The discussion was great!

The upshot was that we’re all excited about more (probably second and third generation) South Asians getting into the arts – both in front and behind the scenes. And though there’s been some representation in recent years, there’s still a long way to go and a lot more to do.

Photo of four women of colour sitting on armchairs, taking part in a panel discussion

Here Adalya is talking as a journal editor about making space at the table for South Asian writers.

Photo of two women of colour on a panel discussion. One of the women is gesturing with her hands as she makes her point.

Here is Nadia talking about how she built her own platform to showcase multilingual writers in Australia because nobody else was doing it.

Photo of two women of colour on a panel discussion. One of the women is gesturing with her hands as she makes her point.

And here’s Tasnim talking about creating safe spaces for minoritised groups in her role as theatre director.

Photo of two women of colour on a panel discussion. One of the women is gesturing with her hands as she makes her point. The other woman, who is the moderator, is listening attentively to what’s being said.

Finally, a big shout-out to Özge Sevindik Alkan from The Right Pen Collective for running the whole festival. (This particular panel discussion was organised in conjunction with the SAARI Collective, fyi.)

Özge is the festival director. And, as you know, a festival director’s job is never done!

Photo of a woman wearing a bright blue hijab. The woman is sitting on a chair with a laptop on her lap, while at the same time typing on a smartphone that she’s holding above the laptop.

It would’ve been nice to attend more events from this festival this year, but hopefully I’ll get to do that next year.

Tu chal, mein aaya

Shout out to Nadia for getting me this happy mug for my recent birthday and to Sophie Hurst for the lovely design!

Selfie of a bald man with a salt-and-pepper beard holding up a large white mug. On the mug is an illustration of a brightly coloured Pakistani rickshaw, drawn on a yellow background. Below the illustration is the text “tu chal, mein aaya…”.

COVID-19 vaccine winter booster!

Turns out when you’ve already had three Pfizer COVID-19 vaccinations without any reaction you don’t have to wait around inside the pharmacy for fifteen minutes after your fourth one :)

Selfie of a man inside a car. The man has the left sleeve of his black t-shirt rolled up to show a plaster over the place on his upper arm where he was given a vaccination injection.

Happy potato

Nice, long walk
+ routine visit to the vet
+ drying off in front of the heater (it’s a cold, rainy day)
+ pig’s ear treat
= happy potato (who is snoring gently).

Photo of a red/brown dog curled up and fast asleep in a comfy dog bed in a carpeted room.

Neighbourhood buffet

Best. Walk. Ever. Well, at least for Maggie.

We found a pile of chips under a tree (which is what she’s being pulled away from here), a whole open packet of crackers, and two small orange and poppy seed muffins.

She managed to sample a bit of each.

Photo of a red/brown dog straining on her walking harness and lead as she tries to get at something at the base of a tree.

Delightfully dessert-ey

I’ve had a delightfully dessert-ey few days.

First I made a (gluten and lactose free) three-tier carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. Plus a basic fruit trifle. Both turned out really well :)

Photo of a dining table (with a flowery table cloth) around which people are standing. On the table is a large cake with rustic cream cheese frosting and the numbers 5 and 0 stuck on top of it. Also on the table is a trifle bowl containing fruit trifle that’s topped off with vanilla custard.

Then yesterday I made two pies: one apple and one sweet potato.

I made the gluten free sweet pastry for these from scratch too.

Close up photo of an apple pie cooling on a rack. Behind the apple pie, and slightly out of focus, is a sweet potato pie.

The apple pie even featured an unintentional alien face :)

Close up photo of an apple pie that has three slits cut into it so steam can vent during baking. The slits are arranged in a way that looks like two angled eyes and a vertical mouth.

And since I had some leftover pastry, I made a few mini apples pies for good measure!

Photo of four mini open apple pies cooling on a rack on a kitchen counter.

Those turned out pretty well too.

Close up photo of a mini open apple pie with crispy, caramelised apples and a nicely browned crust. This pie is lying on a cooling rack, along with a couple of adjacent mini pies.

So yay for some successful weekend baking!

Happy birthday Nadia!

Happy birthday Nadia!

#StarOnAStick #PotatoQualityPhoto

Photo of a woman standing in a public park at night. The gardens behind her are decorated with lanterns strung on poles to illuminate walking paths. The smiling woman has long hair and is wearing a black puffer jacket.

We celebrated Nadia’s birthday with an evening at The Wilds, an outdoor festival of art, light, and performance that had food trucks, bars, and an ice skating rink.

We got a little wet – which we expected, given the weather forecast – but we had an otherwise lovely time.

Photo of a large, artistically swooshy, and brightly coloured wireframe sculpture bathed in strategically placed lights on a dark, overcast evening. People have gathered around the artwork, and some of them are taking photos. In the background is a metropolitan cityscape with tall buildings that have their lights turned on.

Of course we couldn’t bring a cake to an outdoor event, so instead we brought all the macaroon flavours for everyone to share :)

Overhead photo of a box containing fifteen brightly coloured macaroons of different colours.

For the record, those flavours were: French vanilla, Nutella, salted caramel, double Belgium chochlat, crushed pistache, original bubble gum, lemon meringue, crème brulée, authentic tiramisu, strawberry & cream, raspberry & white chocolate, and blueberry cheesecake. I got these from Antipasti Deli & Cafe in Yarraville.