A cool new toy I found

Whilst surfing through some of the blogs I read, I noticed that one girl had a cool slide show embedded in her post. I thought I would try it as I am always up for a new gadget. Here is my first 'slide'. It is the photos from my Kyoto folder over at Flickr. I won't use it for every post but I thought it was a cool toy to keep up my sleeve!

JET competition and exhibition

Each year, the Victoria / Tasmania chapter of JETAA (returned JET people) holds a photography competition. I submitted a few photos and had three selected for the exhibition. The winner of the competition will be announced on opening night so please cross fingers for me. The above are my three. What do you think?
Here is the advertisement for the competition. Come along and see all the fab photos if you have time. I am sure they will all be fantastic!

"I protect a carrot"

Listening to triple J today and the Kaiser Chief's came on with one of my favourite songs... "I predict a riot"...

The song finished and AJ (aged 4) continued singing...

"I protect a carrot, I protect a carrot"

Priceless!

Where has the sakura gone?

Golden glory, originally uploaded by Really Turning Japanese.

We have had lots of blossom over the past month and there is even some still around. I love it and have photographed a bit, but I miss the celebration that you get in Japan. I think we are a bit spoilt for nature. We miss stuff. I try to take it all in!!! Take wattle for example. It is so beautiful. The Japanese have even discovered it. You can walk into any hanaya (florist) in Japan and find wattle for sale. Some people even have it growing in their gardens.
I have decided to invent my own kind of hanami here in Australia. Flower viewing parties. Picnics. Any excuse to get together, have fun and admire the beauty around us!

A bit of fun with a scanner

Mum and Dad recently had a bit of fun scanning about a million old family photos. Anna's and mine were fading out of existence (something to do with the processing of film in the 70's). It was so much fun looking through them all. There were even lots that I had never seen. The selection above are of me at around age 2 and a half. I love the look of them in black and white, they were all in colour before scanning. Thanks Mum and Dad for the hours of work!!!