Been waking up at 6am of late each day. My body reacts to the faint sunlight that seeps through the other end of my apartment and dutifully wakes up.

The above was me stepping into the washroom and finding this amazing light casting a warm glow on things. I guess it gets lost in translation when taken with a camera, but that was what I saw.

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Clearing out work issues and handing over duties. Heh, at least I feel that I have contributed something this past year. My mind is all over the place, yet strangely blank at this moment. I may be excited, but a little inhibited in feeling it too much. Always just want to get on a plane, and I can feel relaxed from there.

Another 3 days before the unruliness in my apartment has to fit in my luggage to go. I didn’t collect too much stuff, and I’ve always been good at surviving on bare necessities. I just acquire lots of gadgetry to get me by. Heh.

This is probably one of my better shots from yesterday. With a little tweaking in Photoshop, I could bring out some detail in the roof. Heh, I could probably plan these shots and do it properly, as in slap a tripod underneath the camera and take two or three shots at the same aperture but different exposure than make it into a composite HDR image.

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Was out yesterday doing one last round of sightseeing in New York. Took the subway all the way up to the upper West Side to see Columbia University. Heh, was mainly greeted with buildings to take pictures of. I find I’m not very good with buildings as you have to take in everything else that goes with it, so if you get bland skies, there’s nothing much you can do other than come back at a different time of day to reshoot it. Photographers prefer either sunrise or sunset to do these things, as you get different coloured clouds, textured skies etc. I don’t have that luxury so the best I can do is just shoot as is.

I’ve got used to the 28mm focal length (50mm equivalent on a 35mm film camera) and frame my shots accordingly. Wide just means you add a lot of unnecessary info into the picture. I’ve been reading that to use wide angle lenses successfully, one needs to take stuff close up, to exaggerate the angle of view. Will give that a try in a couple of weeks when I’m back in Melbourne.

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Columbia University sort of reminds me of Melbourne University, with buildings just sprawling across different streets due to space constraints. Of course, Columbia U has the better buildings. The libraries alone are impressive, with their Greek/Roman styled pillar architecture. Heh, maybe a proper tour of the premises would have been more impressive.

Also bumped my way around the Tomb of Ulysses Grant, famous general for the Union Army in the American Civil War. It’s the largest tomb in the US. Also bumped around several cathedrals in the area, and they are all quite large. There was even a wedding ceremony at one of them and I just sat there for a bit, soaking up the atmosphere.

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The weather is still wonky with the amount of rain that’s been falling, and I’m actually looking forward to melting a few days in the Malaysian heat before I have to go back to the midly cold weather of Melbourne. Heh, another 8 days.

Pan fried salmon with capers. Marinated with pepper, salt, olive oil, some herbs, garlic and lemon juice. Stir fried with onions and red peppers in paprika. Skin was just nice and crispy. I think the trick to not getting the skin stuck to the pan is to ensure that it’s really hot before you put it in. Heh, it was a little on the raw side and could have added another couple of minutes of cooking time, but it was still tasty.

You know what I think would have really made it good? Chucking the capsicum on the fire and charring the skin before peeling it off. It gives it a smokey flavour and intensifies the sweetness from the capsicum. Maybe browning the onions a little longer would have given the onions extra sweetness as well. A dash extra of capers and lemon juice to give it a stronger sourness. I think the sour and sweet would meld quite well together.

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I was obsessing about the salmon for dinner during the last hour at work. Kept thinking on how I’d cook it. The air conditioning at work was freezing everyone in the room today for most of the day until the building engineers came to tweak the thermostat. I wasn’t terribly productive and my hands were frozen eventhough I didn’t feel too cold. A little ill maybe, was having a runny nose yesterday. Not sure if it’s the pollen or the flu bug. Either way, it’s cleared up a little now.

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Heh, trying to tie up loose ends here in NYC. Buying all those last minute items that friends want. Meeting up colleagues and other friends for dinner. I’m just burning to get things done. It’s like I want the Earth to revolve a little quicker so I can appease the impatience in me. Work is still just work, and at the moment, I just wished for a little lightheartedness in the work environment. Work is still like walking on the edge of the cliff it seems, but in a calmer manner. Need an outlet of expression but find that I’m just thinking to myself too often as everyone is just busy with daily chores.

Just ten more days.