The planning for our 30th wedding anniversary trip has begun. We intend to spend it together at Uluṟu, somewhere my wife visited in high school and I have only seen from 10kms up on a flight to Europe.
It looks like 3 days in the area is most likely with one either side for travel depending on when our flight out is. I have two must-haves. To walk a compete circuit around the base of Uluru and a helicopter flight over it and neighbouring Kata Tjuṯa. I figure if there is every a time to justify a stupidly expensive helicopter flight, this is it.
Health and wellness
A 4-day King’s Birthday long weekend has turned into 5 days. My lower-right back started playing up on Sunday and though I made it to work this morning, it was only for an hour. All my concentration was going into sitting correctly and pain management. I can’t point to a triggering event. I suspect it may have been gym exercises on Friday morning, yet had it not been for 6-months of gym work I wouldn’t have the strength in my legs to support me as I unfolded myself. The transition from sitting to standing and the reverse doesn’t hurt. It is been the transition from no pain to pain that does 🤣. As a friend said, “Not the fall but the sudden stop.”
Hobbies
Three blog entries since my last Now update and all photography related.1 Each triggered by a focus on me making sure I take the steps to be photographically skilled up enough for the Uluṟu trip. I have enjoyed the week problem solving and learning. At the weekend I took photos of the second half of my painted Warhammer miniatures collection which led me down a path of reconfiguring buttons on my camera to my workflow, understanding Focus stacking is not the solution to get miniatures in focus front to back, and a better appreciation for Depth of field. Today, as I sat with a heat pack on my back I followed up on dodge and burn, something that my miniature photo editing suggested I needed.
Arkhan the Black, Mortarch of Sacrament, the only successful foray into Focus stacking over the weekend. Approx. 6–7 images stacked in Affinity Photo.
I finished reading Gideon the Ninth and playing Tomb Raider. Progress on the Wind and Truth audiobook is now at 32% with 30+ hours remaining, and I have begun reading Winter’s Heart, the 9th book in The Wheel of Time. Lara and I are already well into Rise of the Tomb Raider. My shooting skills have improved. It feels like Lara is channeling John Wick.