Regularsteven

Photo dump from a recent last minute Melbourne trip over Christmas. Really great to catch up with family in some pretty tough times. Being on the other side of the world doesn’t feel so far most of the time, but when family are going through some health s**t, it does feel like I’m a world away. P.S. these are just some mobile snaps - first time I’ve gotten on a plane without my ‘real’ camera… Impressive how capable these pocket cameras are now.

Randomly recent

Back in Prague for ! And I’ve got a new phone. After 15 years, I’m back on the iPhone. Went for a walk, gave the camera a little test. Gotta say, pretty happy with it. And the size. Oh my goodness. After having a Galaxy S23 Ultra (same size as the iPhone pro max), this ‘pro’ size is perfect.

agua loca!

Merry Christmas / Feliz Navidad.
Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, Spain.

Seriously lovely couple days on Island. Love the quokka's and natural scenery. Got our little but shattered with the efforts from . Smashed our luggage but zero accountability. Airliners at least accept some responsibility, but just a reminder that the terms say they do not accept liability for damage to luggage, so guess this one's on us. We should know better. We didn't even get a refund for the premium service, but that makes sense, cause SeaLink doesn't manage the end-to-end process. Subcontracting Programmed Facility Management to manage the delivery is actually a clever way to abstract responsibility, so we as damaged bag travelers need to be more aware of these fine-prints. Silly us, hey. P.S. a refund for this 'premium service' would have probably upset us given the cost of the damage, but just a joke. Highly recommend you visit , though. A midnight walk would be my secret tip to see hundreds of cute quokkas without anyone around. Kinda amazing tbh!

Have you seen the moon in Prague like this? These climbing babies are keen for a good moonrise, me thinks.

Saturday. Summer nights in

I'm back in and for the first time in months, feel like I can finally relax. The last 6-8 months have been insane, work-wise. What does that even mean? It's month on month of 300+ hours per month of working. 300 hours is clocked hours, so I start and stop my clock when I go to the toilet, so it's real hours. Comparing my office life, the idea of a 9-5 is a past life. Counting hours is a weird one; I wake at 5am, often finish work at 10pm, and that is usually 10 or 12 hours work. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, an afternoon walk - so it's not like a 17 hour day, but truth is my head is in work-mode most of the day. I've kinda made a rod for my own back; I'm helping make a 1500 person conference happen, with speakers from 15 ish countries, and I'm heavily involved in so much. From building the website, speaker rehearsals, creating marketing assets, designing and creating custom animations and videos for every speaker, and so much other stuff. It's a full-on 6 or 8 months, but the months are some slow-down time. This is the 3rd conference I've been involved in, and the first month after - for the 3rd time, I get sick straight after. Like cold, flu crap. Just burnt out. The HARDEST thing is hearing negative feedback after, right at the time when all I want to do is rest, and that's the ear-worm that I cant shake out. Even when it's like 2 or 3%, it's sticky has hell, and really hard to hear given how much we try to do a great job. People think this conference is run by a massive team, but we're a 2.5 person team. People often say "you should pay for help / outsource things", and we did. But we never got the results we wanted, and it cost SO much, so doing this madness in-house saves a lot of money, and we learn so much. Anyways, blah blah, whaaa whaa cry. These photos here are my little gift. I bought a new Sony 200-600mm lens, and this is my little excuse to hit the streets when I just want to relax and do nothing.