Random tangent (blog)
Ameel Khan's personal blog. This is a blog about life, technology, photography, typography, the internet, science, feminism, books, film, music, and whatever other random stuff I come across or happen to be interested in today.
That 'COVID normal' train life in Melbourne.
Selfie of a man wearing a hat, eyeglasses, and a large face mask. The man is seated on a train that’s stopped at a train station. There is a long instructional sticker on the inside of the train window that says: Keep your distance where you can.
Do you have a favourite tree on the street that you live?
We moved to the suburb of Newport, VIC last month and I've narrowed my list down to four…
This first one is a big broccoli. Well proportioned, nicely filled out, and colourful. But basically just broccoli. And I love it.
Photo of a paperbark tree on a residential street. The tree is shaped like a single branch of broccoli.
The second one is spade-shaped broccoli. It is massive, with a good solid trunk, and is arguably majestic.
Photo of a tall paperbark tree on a residential street. The tree is shaped like the spade playing card symbol.
Number three is a big boy. Both tall and wide, it provides plenty of shade and sounds lovely in the wind. This is a tree you'd want to hug.
Photo of a gum tree on a residential street. The tree is massive.
Number four is a spindly specimen. A tree from a lighter weight class than the others, if you will. But it has a strong zig-zaggy aesthetic that I find pleasing.
Photo of a tree on a residential street. The tree has distinct, zig-zag layers of branches.
I’m sure almost no one else is interested in what my favourite local tree is (currently leaning towards #3 btw). But, hey, if you can’t talk about this stuff on your own blog, then what even is your blog for? :)
Dramatic skies on a Sunday evening in Melbourne, Australia.
Photo of a partly cloudy sky at sunset. The colours of the clouds range from white and grey to bright yellow and golden. The light blue of the sky peeks out from between the gaps in the puffy, many-layered clouds.
Wearing sunglasses and a rain parka, I was prepared for both rain and shine when I walked Maggie this morning. (Melbourne’s weather is more unpredictable than usual this time of year.)
Selfie of a man in a baseball cap, large sunglasses, and a rain parka walking a dog along a residential street.
I’m glad I was prepared. Because here we are, 20 minutes after that first photo, sheltering under a large tree during a blustery rain shower!
Selfie of a man in a baseball cap, large sunglasses, and a rain parka with its hood pulled over the man’s head. The man is walking a dog on a leash.
And ten minutes after that we were being toasted by the bright sunshine again.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Selfie of a man in a baseball cap, large sunglasses, and a rain parka as he walks a dog along a residential street. There is bright sunshine on the pair.
Don’t get me wrong though: I love Melbourne and wouldn’t want to live anywhere else. You just have to be prepared for all that this city has to throw at you :)
What better way to return to the cinemas in post-lockdown Melbourne than by watching TENET at IMAX Melbourne in the original 1570 film version?! That was so worth it.
Selfie of a man standing in front of the IMAX cinema building in Melbourne, Australia.
I must watch that film again soon too. TENET is one of those juicy, complex, adult science fiction storylines that genuinely warrants a re-watch (plus a Blu-ray purchase).
There’s so much happening both story- and film-making wise throughout that you don’t want to miss anything. Overall a superb filmmaking achievement!
Last week we moved house. If that sounds like a stressful thing to do during a global pandemic, let you tell you: it is. But, we made it. And we’re now all settled in the suburb of Newport – about a fifteen minute drive from where we used to live in Kingsville.
One of the best things about our new place is the large garden at the back. Maggie took a couple of days to settle in and thoroughly mark her new territory, but even on moving day she found herself a nice spot to roll in.
A red heeler dog rolls around on her back in a patch of grass in a residential lawn. In the background you can see a garden shed and a swing.
Which she was immensely pleased about.
A red dog lies comfortably on her side in a residential lawn. In the background you can see part of a garden shed and a fence.
I guess dogs donna dog, and Maggie is making the most of it :)
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.
And outside was all dull green and grey
A dreary, overcast sky as seen through a window from inside a house.
Gorgeous skies in Melbourne today, with bands of rain clouds coming through in waves over the course of the afternoon and evening.
Cityscape from a tall building, showing a dark band of low-lying clouds in among lighter clouds higher in the sky.
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.
When you’ve found the brand that reflects your outlook on life, you might as well tell the world about it :)
A silver car is parked on the side of the a residential street. There is a sticker on the left rear window with the Mitsubishi car brand logo and text that says: miss-a-bitchy.
A sticker on a residential garage in Kingsville says “If feminism feels like an attack, it might be a counter attack.”
A sticker on the side of a residential roller door garage.
Today in our continuing series: the Cats of Kingsville…
Seriously? Not only are you walking a stinky dog you’ve brought it to my doorstep?
A white cat sitting in front of a door at the top of a residential driveway looks on grumpily off screen where there is a good on the other side of the front gate.
Dog? Yeah I noticed it. Don’t care; I’m in the sun.
An orange cat lies comfortable in a sunny patch of garden just inside a house’s front gate.
Fricking dogs. Can’t even take my morning walk without one of these stinky creatures turning up.
A cat watches and waits next to cars parked on a residential street, waiting for a dog on a lead (that’s off screen) to walk past.
I’ve always loved how, at Footscray Railway Station, designers and architects managed to meld the original red brick structures with modern metal and plastic ones so well. That contrast of straight and solid old with angular and swoopy new works so well.
Entrance at one side of a train station. There are red brick buildings in the background and a large metallic rain shelter over the ticketing turnstiles in the foreground.
Also, can I say once again how much I love Moment smartphone camera lenses? This photo wouldn’t have been possible without their 18mm wide-angle lens.
And you thought hanging fuzzy dice from your rear view mirror was cool.
A white SUV parked on the side of the road with a colourful and long (car-width long) fuzzy caterpillar wrapped around the bull bar that’s attached to the front of the car.
Lovely, cloudy day in Melbourne today.
View of a cityscape from a tall building. The sky is covered in puffy grey and white clouds clouds.
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.
After a day at the Australian Open tennis, Nadia and I went to the the Sidney Myer Bowl to watch the fantastic Ludovico Einaudi on his Seven Days Walking world tour.
This is ten minutes before the performance started.
A large crowd is seated on a hill overlooking an open air stage area, the front of which is visible to the extreme left of the photo.
And here’s the man himself, along with his accompanying performers on violin and cello.
A stage showing a man playing a grand piano while two performers on the other side of the piano are playing a violin and cello.
My favourite bit of the performance, I think, was when the three musicians improvised what they were playing based on the outline of peaks of three mountain ranges in the Alps (where Einaudi was when he came up with the music for Seven Days Walking).
Three performers are stage on playing a grand piano, violin, and cello. They’re looking at a massive screen behind the stage, across which three coloured lines show the outline of mountain ranges. The musicians are each following one line and are adjusting their music based on what these overlapping coloured lines are doing as they’re drawn across the screen.
Even if you’re not into classical music you should check Einaudi out. If nothing else listen to ‘Night’, which is my favourite track from his 2015 ‘Elements’ album.
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.
This is personal website of Nadia Niaz and Ameel Zia Khan. Here we document our lives in Melbourne, Australia.
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
