Brought Vyanne to take a balloon ride over the Yarra Valley as a birthday present for her. This is one of my favourite pictures. The body of water is one of the reservoirs up in the valley.

Brought a stack of lenses along but only managed to use one throughout the flight as it’s a tight space on the balloon.

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Booked the flight a few weeks before. Finding these days that to do anything in Melbourne you need to book many weeks (or even months) in advance. Heh, picked the 25th due to many other commitments in the coming weeks, and as it was a long weekend, it gave us the opportunity to have a longer rest.

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Got up at 330am on the day of the flight, having confirmed the pickup schedule and flight plan the evening before. You can’t fly unless the weather permits it. Got ready and got down to the city where they do a free pickup from one of the designated hotels in the city. Left the CBD by van at 425am, and got to Rochford Wines (a vineyard) at the Yarra Valley about 45 minutes later. Got briefed, had some coffee and off we went to the launch site, an empty plot of land a few kilometres away. It was al dark at that time of the day so I couldn’t see much.

Five balloons were going in the air that day, with about 16 people per balloon, so there were quite a number of people that day. Got split into group, and we had to help setup our own balloon. The balloon baskets were rolled off the back of trailers pulled by vans/jeeps and the balloons attached to the baskets. The pilots would then setup fans to blow air into the balloon. Once that filled up, they lit burners with huge flames to heat up the air inside.

Once the balloons inflated enough, the passengers crowded slowly into the baskets and after some adjustments, we pulled up anchor (a rope tied to a 4WD) and off we went into the sky.

By the time we were up in the air, the sky was already lighting up. We could see some rays of the sun peeking out of the clouds and soon after, the brilliant sun shone brightly at us, casting a long shadow of the balloon on the landscape below. The experience in the balloon is tranquil, with the drafts of wind carrying us forward, but you never ever feel the wind beating down on you. I don’t even recall a breeze, as all you feel is the heat of the burner going off to keep us afloat of give us altitude.

Heh, we flew for an hour, taking in the scenery below. We glided over the reservoir, even went low enough to grasp the leaves off the tip of some eucalyptus trees. We could also see some kangaroos running along below, stopping occasionally to glance at us with this absent minded look.

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It was a nice weekend. So much to do these days, so little time. Just need the exam to be done and over with, and once the house settles, I just need a little break from needing to plan ahead.

Autumn’s here. The leaves are following the season by turning yellow and falling off the trees. The weather hasn’t quite followed, it’s been over 20 degrees the last few days, warm enough that you don’t need a jacket while outdoors.

Walked pass the courtyard outside and had the inclination to photograph it the last few days. Picked up the camera today once I reached home and the 50mm f/1.2 was on so I tried something different with it.

I’ve photographed the same scene a few times but nothing quite to this effect, which I quite like. The lights had been lit for the evening and adds a little dynamism to the photo. Set the white balance to cloudy and added a little saturation to get the effect.

Heh, probably a few days before the hired gardener will come and sweep the floor clean of leaves.

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Taking a breather from studying. Heh, my mind’s been a little more tired of late, as studying something not entirely familiar consumes more energy than absorbing the same kind of news you are used to daily. Reviewing my notes the second time round and it makes a lot more sense what I’m studying. Just need to cram in the hours over the weekend to cover as much as possible as I have a rough schedule I need to stick to so that I can cover the entire syllabus before the exam.

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Work’s been a little strange. It’s amazing the little bits and pieces of accounting I learned at uni are starting to pop up here and there. Trying to resolve one of these projects that was finished last year where the funding for it popped up in 2003, while I was still a student! Lots of issues to go through and I’m only the middle man at times.

The bits I take care of at work aren’t overly complicated, but I do dig my nose into other stuff every now and then as people have come and gone from the organisation so I have a bit of experience dealing with different areas when there’s no one to be responsible for it. They all represent different challenges and you work with different managers whose style may or not be your cup of tea.

I have a deeper appreciation for the technical issues of accounting these days. Heh, I still find I’m a very hands on person, so things make more sense to me when I’m actually practicing it than when I’m learning the theories behind it. Tying it back together is so much easier once you have examples to go with it.

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My desk is in a mess. So many letters opened, read and unfiled. Really need a filing cabinet when I move into the new place. Time to do a quick spring clean.