It’s a Pentax Optio W20 – a waterproof 7mp ultra-compact. Yep, waterproof.
Our criteria were (in order):
- Significantly smaller and lighter than current camera.
- Waterproof enough to survive the surf, wakeboarding and the snow.
- Good low light photos.
- No AA batteries.
- 6 megapixels or more.
I nearly bought a Fuji F20 because all the reviews say that takes excellent low-light photos but I’d have had to buy a $200+ underwater case (rated to 20m+) to meet #2. The W20 was definitely more agreeable to our budget. It’s only rated to 1.5m but that’s all we need.
Here’s a review and this guy uses his when he’s kayaking – check out the cool Sticky Pod camera mount that he uses on his kayak. Wonder if that’d work on a snowboard?
So far it’s been easy to set up. It even has a user-programmable button (the green one), so I’ve set that to go straight to the white balance menu then the ISO menu, which will be handy in different light situations provided that we remember to use it.
We’re looking forward to seeing some great action photos out of it.
Had a great day at Dad’s 60th on Saturday. Breakfast, lunch and dinner and the whole day with everyone. Some of our photos didn’t turn out very well but here are some that did.
We’re a bit disappointed that we didn’t get one of Mum and Dad, but I’m sure somebody did. When all those kids are running around the camera tends to follow them …..
The guy who wrote the article makes it sound easy. I bet it’s not!
Going White Around the Mountain
I’ve thought about doing the Australian Alps Walking Track once or twice but it’s unlikely that I’ll ever get around to it without something decent to motivate me.
At least I’m honest!
On April 15 I wrote about our decision to rip up the lower piece of decking in our garden. I’m happy to say that much progress has been made since then even though I haven’t written about it.
For a while there I wasn’t really happy with my own plans for the space (yes, I should have thought a bit harder about it *before* ripping the deck up) but I found that if I fiddled around placing redgum sleepers and rocks in weird places it helped me to understand what I definitely didn’t want. This, of course, narrowed things down considerably, and a few weeks ago I finally settled on something I thought would work.
Since then we’ve invested three or four days of hard labour and now we’re nearly done … just need another metre of sand ‘cos I didn’t order enough and then we can lay the bricks. Here are some pics.
Me thinking about it
Putting those rocks there helped to finalise things a bit
Starting to move the 1.5m3 of road base. Note the new wheelbarrow – Jaffa.
We had to back up the narrow path, lifting Jaffa up the steps.
Max can’t take a decent photo – where’s my head gone Maxy?
Just like raking a bunker
Nearly done
What it looked like 3 weeks ago
We’ll lay the bricks so that they lead out to the rest of the garden. They won’t be hard up against the sleepers, we’ll leave a 6 inch gap and fill it with fine gravel. We’re planning to plant the borders heavily so that you can’t see the edges anyway.
More photos and write-up in a few weeks when it’s all done.
The other week we sat down with a glass of wine each and talked about Muchacha. Every time we went wakeboarding or out for a cruise on the bay we had a great time but we’re fussy and we kept coming back to these “faults”, if you can call them that:
- the wake’s clean but not very big
- there are only four seats
- there’s not a lot of interior space
- the motor’s solid but it’s 27 years old
- it’s difficult to get back in the boat after a ski
- the uncarpeted floor can be slippery underfoot
- the towing cover is stuffed
Not huge problems at all, but they all contribute to the day’s experience so like I said we sat down and talked about whether or not to sell her and buy a bigger boat or keep her.
I did a bit of research regarding what you get for your money in the next price bracket but it quickly became clear that we’d have to spend more than $15k to get (say) a clean early 90s inboard. Not possible. For $8-10k we could get a clean late 80s outboard, but that’s not possible either.
So we woke up to ourselves and tried to answer the faults:
- the size of the wake can be enhanced with some weight
- other boats up to $20k only have one extra seat anyway
- interior space would be nice but isn’t really that big a deal – this isn’t the Freedom of the Seas, it’s a speedboat
- can’t do much about the motor except run it ’til it fades away
- we can add a ladder or a second step to make it easier to get back in ($5)
- we can install carpet ($300)
- we can buy a new cover ($500)
Also,
- She has a brand new spiffy trailer
- She’s in great condition
- She easily pulls out a 100kg wakeboarder
So the decision was made: she’s staying and she’s getting a makeover. We started it almost immediately by pulling out the seats so that we can fit carpet, cleaning the seats down with some special stuff, removing the steering wheel to fit one with less of a deep dish (gets in the way when sitting down), fitting a second step to get back in and servicing the motor.
In the next few weeks we’ll carpet her, touch up some paint chips and install a bilge pump. Then in Spring we’ll buy a proper towing cover and a couple of Fatsacs (for weight) and she’ll be tops! Long live Muchacha!
Just back from settlement … Glenmaggie Place is now somebody else’s. We might have a bottle of bubbly tonight to celebrate: (a) it proved tough to sell and (b) now that it’s off our hands our finances are a bit tidier.
P.S. I recommend the Legal Kits of Victoria DIY Conveyancing kit to anyone thinking of buying or selling. Conveyancing is pretty straightforward, you just have to do the right things in the right order. This kit shows you what the things are and when to do them. From memory the kit cost us about $75 and I’ve used it four times (two buys, two sells) to save around $2,000. Pretty good value!
Forgot to blog this last week – we decided on the train home last Thursday that Thursday night is eat out night (mainly because we were gasping for a big steak). I remembered that long ago I had a good meal with Mum, Dad etc at a place called Scottish Chiefs in the middle of Geelong so I suggested that.
We got off the train, got into our car (sounds like a Billy Ocean song) and drove around looking for it. I recalled it as being down a side street with a car park opposite, but 15 minutes of circling Geelong’s CBD later I was stumped, so I rang Dad. He couldn’t exactly remember either but googled it and found the address, which I then found in the Melway. So we got there.
I’m no food reviewer so I won’t crap on for too long but suffice to say that our eye fillet steaks were over two inches thick, perfectly cooked and accompanied by delicious veggies including a huge, tasty jacket potato. And all for $20. Great value and we’ll be going back. The place was a bit more “pubby” than I remembered but who cares when you can get a top meal for that price.
Unfortunately we forgot our own rule tonight so we’re eating at home.
Shortly after writing the previous post I realised that I had no defined way of jotting down new contacts, appointments, ideas etc. for later input into the MacBook.
I thought about buying a used PDA off eBay, or even a new one – you can pick up a new Palm for less than $200 these days – but in the end I decided on a hi-fi version of the Hipster PDA. I bought a nice little Moleskine notebook and a classy Fisher Bullet Space Pen that won’t leak, is small, and has no clips or points to catch on trouser pockets. So now I carry them around jotting things down as I go.
It’s working so far – and at less than 40% of the cost of a basic PDA. Will the system last? Time will tell!
