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.
Nothing quite like a bowl of cold, diced mango on a hot summer day.
Photo of a hand holding a pink and white bowl that’s full of diced chunks of mango.
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. When your fridge freezes your diced mango (because you inadvertently knocked the temperature dial to a higher setting) make mango milkshake.
Photo of a blue glass full of mango milkshake.
It’s been ages since I’ve ridden a tram. At least I got to see one when I went into the office today.
Photo of a classic tram turning into a street in front of some office building. Everything but the tram is blurred in the photo.
Zippy cyclist is zippy.
Photo of a motion-blurred cyclist exiting a curved bridge onto a paved, inner city riverbank.
So the Google Pixel 6 Pro smartphone camera’s long exposure functionality is cool.
Selective long-exposure photo of a train passing through a level crossing. The moving train is the only element of the photo that has a motion blur effect applied to it. Because one of the long-exposure photos taken was from before the train appeared within the frame, the train in the final image appears to be semi-transparent. A white car has stopped in front of the lowered boom gate of the level crossing.
The more I use it, the more I like it.
Selective long-exposure photo of a train passing through a level crossing. Only the moving train has had the long exposure effect applied to it, so it’s the only object in the photo with motion blur.
Yay for post-lockdown catch-ups!
Had a lovely, delicious dinner at Panda Hot Pot with a bunch of friends. The food was good and the company was fantastic. 10/10 would recommend.
There was a line outside the restaurant for our scheduled sitting too. Nature is healing!
Selfie of a man and a woman sitting next to each other inside a large Chinese restaurant. Both are smiling at the camera.
A couple of months after I stopped needing to wear it, I had to pull out my puffer jacket to walk the dog this morning. With this current cold snap we’ve taken two steps forward, three steps back on our way to summer in Melbourne. *sigh*
Selfie of a man walking along a residential street. He is wearing a black t-shirt, black puffer jacket, and black cap (with a red trim).
When you’re walking Maggie and she suddenly surges forward or pulls away, you know she’s found something to eat in the buffet that is our neighbourhood.
One in five times she succeeds. The rest of the time I pull her back quickly enough.
But now she knows that I know…
A red dog being walked on a lead in a residential neighbourhood sniffs at a patch of grass in the nature strip by the side of the road.
So these days, when I yank her to a halt (and she’s not still straining because Dammit. She. Is. So. Close.), she immediately feigns disinterest. Sometimes she even takes a small step in the other direction.
Then, the second there’s some slack on her leash, she lunges forward to grab the forbidden morsel. It’s a smart tactic that’s even worked a few times.
But now I know. And she knows that I know.
I’m curious to see what she'll come up with next :)
A red dog being walked on a lead looks back over its shoulder at the photographer who has stopped walking to take this photo.
I do occasionally let her grab a doggy street food snack, by the way. We have a primary school and three cafes nearby so there’s always fresh bits of sandwiches and the like strewn across our neighbourhood.
Finding and eating random stuff on the road is the highlight of her day!
No, really. We are heading into summer in Melbourne. We’re just not going in a straight line.
Photo of a red dog settled down on the floor in front of a gas heater.
The thunderstorm itself might have missed our suburb, but at least we got to see the gorgeous cloud formations on the fringes of that weather system.
(Of course even this distant thunder managed to freak poor Maggie out. She was a trembly dog all afternoon. *sigh*)
Photo of a completely overcast sky above the roofs of some houses. The sky is full of puffy, swirling clouds and looks quite dramatic.
Nadia and I made the most of the gorgeous, post-lockdown Sunday we had today.
First we had brunch at the Altona North Jolly Miller Café. (I’d been missing Eggs Benedict so much! Not enough to make any at home though.)
Photo taken from the top of a table in a café. On the table is a menu that’s out of focus because it’s so close to the camera. Behind the menu are a water bottle, two glasses, a salt shaker, and a pepper grinder. In the background are other tables and chairs, as well as floor-to-ceiling windows through which you can see a bright blue sky.
And then we went for a relaxing, hour-long walk through the lovely Paisley-Challis wetlands nearby.
Selfie of a man and a woman wearing hats, sunglasses, and light jackets. They are standing in a flat wetland area, with lots of green grass, several bushes, and pools of water. In the background, behind all this greenery, is the sea.
There were several walkers, runners, and cyclists on the track, but the rest of the place was so peaceful.
A wide-angle photograph of a green, brushy wetlands area, with the blue sea in the background. On the extreme left of the image you can see a thin walking trail with a single person on it.
A lovely way to spring into post-lockdown spring in Melbourne.
We had heavy rain and seriously wild winds across Melbourne overnight and well into this morning.
Screenshot of a smartphone weather app showing a large band of heavy rain moving towards Melbourne from the west.
Luckily just three weeks ago our local council and the power companies that supply our side of the city had come through and cut down all the tree branches that were close to powerlines in our neighbourhood. They’d asked us to do the same with the trees in our front yard too.
Photo of a letter titled ‘Vegetation clearance responsibilities’ with diagrams showing how residents need to trim trees around power lines in front of their houses.
Not that this stopped whole trees and massive tree branches from falling across roads in and around Melbourne’s west, of course.
Screenshot of a smartphone app showing a continuing list of ‘Tree Down’ incidents across several suburbs in Melbourne’s west (including the suburbs of Brooklyn, Ascot Vale, and Maidstone).
Which inevitably led to a bunch of power outages.
Screenshot of an ‘Electricity Outages’ webpage from electricity supplier Jemena. The map on the screenshot shows several pockets of power outages across Jemena’s area of supply, which is mainly to the inner west and inner north of Melbourne. There are no outages at the bottom of the map – between Altona North and Williamstown – which is where the suburb of Newport is situated.
But we lucked out in our neighbourhood: we did have a couple of brownouts during the worst of the wind, but we never actually lost power.
This was the biggest branch that fell on our street.
Photo of a large branch that has fallen off a massive tree on the side of a residential street. The branch that has fallen off is as long as the house behind it is wide.
Fortunately most of the branches that did fall were thinner and leafier, like this one. (Medium sized dog for scale.)
Photo of a relatively thin tree branch that has fallen and is lying on the nature strip next to a residential street. A red dog on a leash is standing next to the branch on the grass.
So chalk one up for proactive maintenance from the Hobson’s Bay City Council, Jemena, and Zinfra!
There’s a first time for everything. Like today, when Nadia and I watched a movie at the Village Cinemas drive-in during a thunderstorm! Which is a lot less disruptive than you think it might be, by the way. As long as you’re not too fussed with watching a movie with the windshield wipers on :)
Also, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is a fun movie.
Photo of a large, outdoor cinema screen taken from inside a car at a drive-in cinema. Being projected onto the screen is the Marvel Studios opening titles sequence.
I’m not a fan of summer picnics, but spring picnics are most excellent – especially post-lockdown ones! And Newport Lakes Reserve is a great place for a picnic.
Selfie of a man and a woman in a large park on an overcast day. The man is sitting in a low picnic chair. The woman is sitting on the ground and is leaning back on to the man. Both have been caught mid-laugh.
(Don’t worry, Nadia and I only took our masks off while eating lunch, which was immediately before we took this selfie.)
And, since it was such a lovely day, here’s another selfie :)
Selfie of a man sitting in the share of a tree in a large park. The man is balk, bespectacled, and has a salt-and-pepper beard. He is wearing a black t-shirt that’s the original cover of the book ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ by Douglas Adams.
To beach, or not to beach, that is the question…
Living in Melbourne’s west you get a 10:1 ratio for Western Bulldogs vs Melbourne Demons supporters who have decorated their houses for the AFL men’s grand final match.
Collage of four photos, each showing streamers, balloons, scarves, and residential gates painted in the red-white-blue of the Western Bulldogs or the red-blue of the Melbourne Demons AFL men’s teams.
And then you get balloons after the Demons won :)
Photo of the front of a house. Painted on the gate is a large red and blue heart. Painted next to the heart in large red text is ‘Go Dees’ and, on the other side, a red trident. There are red and blue streamers tied to the sides of the gate. Tied above the garage door in the background is a Melbourne Demons scarf.
This is not a kookaburra post, this is just a post with a kookaburra in it.
Photo of a residential wooden fence. There is a thick wooden post at the end of this fence. Sticking out from this post is a flat metal sculpture of the outline of a kookaburra (a native Australian bird).
Nein, nein, nein. It’s not bin right tonight.
Photo of three garbage bins with the number nine written in large white text on each of them. The bins are lying tucked away in a line by the far wall next to a garage door at the end of a residential driveway.
So I was at a Tier 2 COVID-19 exposure site in Altona North last week.
(Night time texts from DHHS? Not fun. Would not recommend.)
Screenshot of a text message received at 9:49pm that reads: “This is a message from the Victorian Department of Health. You are receiving this message because you have been identified as a Tier 2 contact of a person with confirmed coronavirus (COVID-19) after recently attending Woolworths Supermarket Millers Junction, Altona North. WHAT YOU SHOULD DO: Get tested for coronavirus immediately and quarantine until you get a negative result. For more information on testing sites please visit” and then there is a URL.
I immediately checked the Victorian Government’s coronavirus public exposure sites page for confirmation of exposure and, sure enough, the Woolworths at Millers Junction in Altona North was listed as a Tier 2 site.
The exposure period was on 13 August from 6:30 to 8:15pm.
Screenshot of a website entry for Woolworths Altona North. The exposure period for this site is 13/08/2021 6:30pm to 8:15pm. The health advice listed is “Tier 2 - get tested urgently and isolate until you have a negative result”.
I then checked my Google Maps timeline to confirm that I’d been there at the same time. And, indeed, I had been there from 7:47 to 8:46pm on that day to do our weekly grocery shop.
I’d checked-in via the Services Victoria app, which is how they’d traced me. (Thank you contact tracers!)
Screenshot of a Google Maps timeline for Fri, 13 Aug 2021 that shows two entries. The first is for driving. The second is for Woolworths on Millers Road in Altona North in Victoria, Australia from 7:47 to 8:46pm.
I got that text last night, so early this morning Nadia and I went for a drive-through COVID-19 test in Newport.
Lots of other people were there to get tested too so the the whole process took us two hours! But we got through it in the end.
Photo of a large white tent set up in a parking lot with several cars queued up to drive through the tent. The car this photo is taken from is waiting behind an orange traffic cone well behind the queue that's in front of the tent.
Now normally COVID-19 tests take 24-ish hours to process. But given I’d been mandated by the Department of Health to take this test, it looks like they expedited mine.
So just before 1am tonight I was told that my test had come back negative. Yay!
Screenshot of a text message that reads: “Dear Ameel, Test on 20/08/2021. Result: COVID-19 virus was NOT DETECTED. Test performed by Aust Clinical Labs. Plus do not reply to this text message.”
So, phew!
Of course I do our weekly shop, well, weekly. And in Newport (which is the suburb where I live) there’s a sizeable COVID-19 cluster. Which means there’s a good chance this’ll happen to me again.
Fortunately, I’m careful, I’m fully vaccinated, and I wear a good quality face mask so the likelihood of me actually getting infected and then falling very ill is tiny. But, still, it’s not fun to be reminded (and then be able to document) your close calls.
Someone who lives here knows how to make the most of a sunny day in winter.
Photo of the front lawn of a house on a sunny day. In the beautifully manicured lawn is a beautifully manicured tree, next to which there’s a comfortable wooden chair that’s set facing the sun.
Maggie isn’t particularly interested in our local Spoonsville.
Photo of a tree on the intersection of several residential streets. The tree has solar powered string lights wrapped around it. It also has a large, hand painted circular sign on it that reads: “Welcome to our Kidsville. Please feel free to add to our community.” On the grass in front of the sign are several brightly coloured spoons with faces drawn on them that have been stuck into a sand and gravel pit surrounded by a mini wooden fence. This patch also has other bits of child-drawn art and crafts in it, like flowers and other objects on sticks.
Sure, why not? Who am I to deny requests from a random sign in an alley in Kensington?
Photo of a sign pasted on the wall of an alley off a main road. The sign has black, all-caps text on a plain white background. That text reads: PLEASE BE AWESOME.
Speaking of that part of the city, the Flemington post office is in such a gorgeous building!
Collage of two photos of the same historic building from the 1880s.
This is personal website of Nadia Niaz and Ameel Zia Khan. Here we document our lives in Melbourne, Australia.
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia