eight years

mid-mallow
Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Sunday was my neice Courtney's eighth birthday, so it was time again to venture down to the family in Rosebud.
The day was pretty good, there were two activities planned, bowling and rollerblading, both promising to add up to a big photo op, plus the usual amount of general silliness that manages to associate itself with the Sandars family, and believe me, Courtney is no stranger to silliness :)
I have to admit that there were times when the squeals of 5 little girls was making me wish I had ear plugs, it was still a lot of fun, despite having to scramble at the last few frames to not get beaten at bowling by an 8 year old :)

of babies and babes

look, in the sky, it's a bird!
Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Friday was a pretty busy day, and yet not one filled with photographs, which is kinda weird for me, but there you go :)
The socialising started early when Kim, Shaz and Max met me for lunch. We had a pretty funny time, taking a few funny photos of Max and trying to work out what the heck he was trying to look at :) still don't know for sure, but probably colour and movement of some kind :)
The evening started off slow but ended up quite well, especially since I spent it in the company of a group of very beautiful women. :)
After work I twisted Kathryn's arm to go down to Yak for a drink, where we were joined by the incandescent Kate and her friends Georgia and Fran. All four of these women are truly beautiful and I was very aware of the fact that I am a lucky man to have hung out with them :)
We started at Yak and then went to St Jerome's, Cookie and Crofts. A great night, spent with some really cool chicks, and I didn't take any photos at all, still not sure why :)

big fish, little fish

upside down jelly
Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Saturday was made special by a trip to the Melbourne Aquarium. I had been looking out for something to go that would make a good photo opportunity and realised (after seeing Kathryn's shots of diving with the sharks) that the Aquarium was well suited, since it was in out of the rain and might work well with my handy-dandy 50mm lens. I had been there before ages ago and was disappointed by how hard it seemed for friends to get good photos, as the light is too low and I wasn't interested in using the flash, unlike the hordes of tourists trying their luck and wondering why they have a big white spot in the middle of all their pictures :)
If you haven't been to the aquarium I suggest you give it a go, it's pretty cool, and has some really creepy little creatures :)

Friday night hijinks

a well co-ordinated millsy
Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Last Friday was yet another night spent in the confines of Yak :)
This one was a bit special thoguh, as it was international ex-KPMG night :)
The initial piece of ex-Capers escapades was that Daimo was finishing up, so his farewell drinks were held in the estemed location of the corner of the bar at Yak.
Also on the cards for the evening was a visit and catch up for some other famous ex-Capers crusaders, firstly miss Lee, come to visit from the wilds of Altona where she's working at the moment, although I didn't get much of a chance to speak with her, she managed to catch up with Clare and Kylie and a few of the old crew, she seemed to be having a good time, but I'll need to catch up with her again sometime, as I was catching up with a lot of people that evening. :)
Included in the catch up were Narelle and Lisa, former Capers cohorts whom I was very glad to see again. I haven't seen these guys for a very long time and was having a lot of fun getting drunk with them and listening to Lisa's voice get more high pitched the drunker she got :)
Also had a bit of a catch up with s2art from Flickr and introduced him to Joe. They already knew each other, just hadn't actually met :)
The evening devolved into drunkenness rather quickly and I was even able to take the tram home, things finished up so quickly :)

Max

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Popped around the Berley's place today to meet Max, the baby formerly in her belly and now in her loungeroom. Max is, of course, a bit of a cutie, very quiet and attentive and makes some very cute faces :)

Bonding Session

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Friday night saw another work social club function at Bond bar in the city, however we first started off at Yak to catch up with an old friend who was in town for a short time. This was also a good oportunity for me to get a bit drunk so I could handle the free beer that was going to be flowing at Bond without cringing for the first few hours (not a huge beer drinker).

The paty at Bond was going full swing by the time we got there, with a large number of people crowding the bar for the free drinks, and the bar staff scrambling to keep up with demand. I had a pretty good night snapping off a few pics, then loaned my camera to Kiarobro who then proceeded to take some very cool shots and also chatted to a lot of people who were interested in some portrait work. He ended up handing out all of my cards to those who were interested, so I hope we end up with some photo shoots out of it. I'm very keen to work on my portrait skills, and if they're willing to be subjected to our cameras in return for a few nice shots, then it's a win-win situation :)

Birthday Boy

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Saturday night was a celebration for Sean's birthday, and a very large evening it turned out to be. It started about 6:30pm when Joe and I rocked up to Sean's house, where some other friends of his were congregating. So we met Carl, Jeff, John and The Captain, with Doug and Lincoln showing up a bit later. I had met Doug once before, and have known The Captain for a while, but hadn't seen him for ages.
The night started innocuously enough, we were all just sitting around, listening to sean's music and talking crap as we started to drink ourselves into the night.
As the evening wore on we started to devolve into a more raucous group, with more silliness occuring as the minutes ticked away until we realised we had better go out before we wrecked the place :)
The next stop was The Night Cat in fitzoy, to see a friend's band, Relax with Max, bang out a few tunes. We bopped along there for a bit, having a few more drinks, then after the band finished up we danced a little to their DJ, but it was decided to find somewhere more amiable. We strolled off around the corner to Bar Open, where I was immediately accosted by some very cute girls to take their photos, which was pretty cool for me ;)
Joe got hit up for a free beer by another chick, but I don't think it hurt him any :)
Then afetr a few drinks it was off to St Kilda and the bar Traffik on gray st. The bar was ok, a bit 'trendy' for their own good, but the drink prices were ok and the music was fine for dancing, although the DJ was crashing a few mixes, which is rarely helpful to your mood. We ran into a few people we knew there and had a bit of a boogie, and then headed off when they closed at 5am :)
The next stop was Bubble in the city, which was a bad idea made worse by the fact that we didn't get in. We stuffed around for a little and then the group broke up, with one bunch going back to The Captain's place to hang out and one group staying at Bubble to meet some friends that were coming. Joe, Doug and I went further into the city to try some more clubs. We showed up at Altitude just in time for them to close, then stepped across to Billboards, which was also just closing. :) As we stood outside Billboards we saw Nathan and Chris from Yakbar, so we went off with them for a quick drink and a catchup and then all went our separate ways home.
It was a fantastic night, full of fun and games and all sorts of shenanigans, and much fun was had by all.
Sunday morning, well, that's another story of pain and regret, where the alchoholic hero of the previous evening reveals itself as the villain of the story, but you get that sometimes ;)

upstairs

isles of glass
Originally uploaded by Scootie.

been spending a bit of time up on the Rialto observation deck this week, taking photos of course. So far I've managed to get a few very good shots up there, including some time in the fog, waiting for it to clear.
It really is a beautiful place, especially at night, with the lights of the city and suburbs. There's something quite magical, when standing up there on a crisp clear night, looking out, watching the suburbs sparkle a little, looking over to the port and seeing literally hundreds of flashing blue, red and yellow lights with no detail of what they are attached to. Looking down at the cars and trains moving around nearby, and out at the streams of lights making up freeways and major roads.
Go there at night, they're open until 10pm most nights, 11pm Friday and Saturday. Take a date, wear warm clothes, go on the cold nights so there's hardly anyone there :)