Xmas & New Year Holiday Season 2012

This time around the Xmas and New Year's holidays season, I got some time and opportunity to exercise my favorite thing i.e. taking photos.

A friend visited us from Victoria and that was the ideal for me to show off my new DSLR and skills :P We went to only a few places like Manly Beach, Darling Harbor & Watsons Bay but managed to take few photos worth sharing here.

I am going to add them below. Feel free to leave a comment/feedback (if you happen to crash on this blog).

I took this photo at Manly beach. This was some type of a cone on a tree and I liked how it looked. Quickly took this shot while there were people behind me coming down the narrow track.

 This was at Watsons Bay when it started to rain and we were waiting inside the cars for it to slow down so that we can setup our BBQ in the shed in the park. I took this shot of the rain drop on the car's window. You can see the reflection of the building across the street in it.













Taken at Manly Beach as well.

 This was at the Manly Beach as well. Kept it out of focus for the added affect of the lights. Love it.

These little fountains are like brand-ambassador for the Manly Beach. When you see these, you know it was the Manly beach :P



















Overall had good fun with friends during the Xmas & NY break. Good food, lots of driving (mainly around Sydney) and lots of fun. It was a good holiday (but never enough) :(

Anyway, happy new year to everyone !!

Another 5K Run @ Balmain Fun Run

Note: I started this post last month but only could finish and post it today

Within a month of the last run Run4Fun, I registered for another run and this time it was a longer run i.e. 5K compared to last 3K run. This was on 2nd December and event was called BalmainFunRun.

Once again my running buddy-cum-mentor-cum-running adviser-cum motivator AF encouraged me to register and run in this 5K event. In total 3 of us (I and my work-colleagues AF & AW) participated and we all did very well. It was a beautiful weather on Sunday morning as I call it 'nice running weather' with overcast sky, bit of cool breeze and water-side running track with other runners.

Run start time was 8:30 and I was aiming to keep my finish time under 30 minutes - owing to the fact that I have not been running regularly in last two weeks. The track was different to what I have been running on and I didn't know if it would include uphill / downhill run as well. When the run started and we took the first turn on the track and came towards the end of the ground where the run started from, suddenly track wen uphill and that put me in the first gear, exerting the sweet energy I wanted to reserve for the last 10 mins of the run. The heart beat jumped up to the tops and that's how the run begin. The next 5K went in forcing myself to push and keep running till around the corner and then switch to walking for a minute before resuming the run.

In the end I managed to force and push myself enough to complete the complete run without stopping and within 30 minutes. To be exact it took me a surprising 25 minutes and 36 seconds. That made me happier than I was for completing the 5K runing.

Here is the winning shot from the collection of the run.

At the finish line they arranged for some fresh fruit and drinks. Enjoyed the fruit, did some stretches and went for a coffee with the team.

Next run - City2Surf may be ?