Sounds of 2020

What a crazy year. As I write this Sydney is heading into a strict lockdown after a major COVID-19 outbreak centered around Avalon on Sydney’s Northern Beaches (just down the road). After things were just starting to stabilise into our new normal, we’re headed to another period of lockdown over summer. But I’m not here to talk about the weather.

This past year I’ve found myself listening to more music than usual. Home alone, sitting at my desk, missing the hum of an office, I have instead played a couple of albums on repeat over and over again at a low volume. For deep work, I have stuck with just two albums that I now know back to front and inside out. So here we go…

Continue reading →

2009: The music

Better late than never, time to crank out some stats for 2009. First up, music.

Compared with last year’s graph, 2009 was a little sporadic, especially the second-half. I spent most the year listening to podcasts or watching video rather than listening to music, with a major exception being when I was out running.

Graphs produced by the ever excellent LastGraph using my Last.fm scrobble stats.

Continue reading →

2008: The Music

Here’s our listening for 2008, as graphed by the excellent LastGraph using data we submitted (scrobbled technically) to Last.fm over the course of the year from iTunes, our AppleTV and my iPhone.

I love how it increases sharply in July/August as I start using my iPhone and how everything dies out in November when we moved, then picks up again sharply as we started getting settled into our new place.

Best viewed laaarge

PS: I’ve switched comments back on, plus you can now use your Facebook account to sign in and add comments as well.

Continue reading →

Favourite Photos of 2008

Here are a couple of our favourite photos taken in 2008 to round out the year.

My favourites

Oddly enough my two shots for 2008 were taken on the same day within a couple of hours of each other.

Taken at Goulburn Airport, which we’d taken over for a day of performance testing various MINIs down the runway. In a lull in proceedings, I managed to grab a couple of shots of all our cars lined up, this one just happened to work out, I particularly like the long afternoon light and shadows.

This second photo was taken in the tunnel underneath the Harbour Bridge next to Milsons Point train station. I’d stopped off on the way back from Goulburn to pick up girl after work, very tired after a long day out in the sun. Arriving a couple of minutes early, I sat on the gutter opposite and took this shot. It was about 5pm with lots of cars and people around, I was lucky enough to squeeze off the shot before someone/thing moved into the frame. Taken on my trusty 350D fitted with a brilliant 17-55 f2.8 borrowed from Ant for the day.

Natalie’s favourites

Taken on Australia Day, this photo captures a stall holder setting up for the day at the Rozelle Markets.

Continue reading →