Tag Archives: Western Australia

Photography in Hyde Park

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On the weekend, with summer in full swing in Oz, I took the camera for a walk around Hyde Park, Perth.

It was a glorious morning, and it was the perfect opportunity to get the camera out and have a play.

I tried to mix it up this time also – with a combo of colour and black and white photos, and using two lenses – one for standard shots, the other to get in closer to subjects such as this pensive duck.

I also attempted to catch some candid shots of life in motion. They worked okay, but I still have a lot of work to do.

This is my favourite shot from the day.  At the moment I am trying to edit out the leaves and grass you can see at the bottom of the photo, but this is taking me longer than intended because I’ve never actually done something like that before and am trying to teach myself. Once I’m done I’ll post a before and after for you to see.

Have a wonderful week wherever you are in the world.

 

 

Diary of the Dietary Challenged

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The new eating  plan is doing wonders for me physically and mentally.

My skin and circulation has improved, my stomach pain has decreased as has the bloating, I’ve lost 4 kilos (amazing as this wasn’t my aim), my energy levels have definitely increased, my headaches are gone and my cravings have decreased – finally.  I know I’ve seen other benefits, but this was not the intention of this post.

I wanted to share with you my experiences of eating out as a person with ‘special needs’, as my partner so kindly puts it (in jest, of course!).

[In case you've missed my story, you can catch up on it here].

Eating out experience 1: A well-known pub in the suburb of Victoria Park.  I was treated like I had two heads for asking for the fish dish minus mashed potato and other items I couldn’t eat. I was then passed over to the bar manager, who looked like she really loved her job, where I could state my request again, nicely asked for some salad, or perhaps some extra broccolini instead?  I wasn’t sure if she heard me as she didn’t even acknowledge I existed, but she spent a lot of time poking at the screen in front of her…of which I figured was our order (or maybe Facebook?!).  When the dish was placed in front of me, it included a sauce of which on the menu had said ‘a light herbed lemon sauce’.  I should have questioned it, as it came out as a ‘creamy herbed lemon sauce’.  I had to eat it – I was close to collapse.

Eating out experience 2:  A food hall after late night shopping directly after work.  Do you know how hard it is to find something without dairy? Add to that gluten and wheat, then tomato, garlic and so on.  I opted for the teriyaki chicken, but now I think about it the sauce has gluten in it. I hadn’t expected it to come with gelatinous rice though, and a cabbage and tomato salad – neither of which I can eat at the moment. I was so bloody hungry, and went home starving, to gorge on gf corn chips.

Eating out experience 3: An Italian restaurant in the suburb of Fremantle.  The odds were against me from the start, but my friends and I had this night planned long before I’d done my allergy test and started my diet.  Thankful for the wonders of technology, I consulted the menu on-line before going and found that they served grilled fish with steamed veg (they didn’t serve gluten free pasta at all – I did ask the waitress who looked at me dumb-founded).  When the dish was placed in front of me my heart sank. I was so hungry but the fish looked and tasted disgusting. It tasted like nothing – well, maybe water. I suspected it had been quickly defrosted and grilled. Not even a load of salt gave it taste as it was absorbed by the water. And the steamed veg – of which I had high hopes for? Packed veg, boiled and some sad excuse for roasted potatoes I couldn’t eat (do roasted potatoes count as steamed veg?). So I went home hungry again, to gorge on gf corn chips.

Eating out experience 4: Catering during a full day of meetings at work. I had thought about this one in advance and had made sure that my dietary requirements had been sent to the caterer.  I don’t know what they didn’t understand about ‘no dairy’, but the creamy sauce smeared all over everything looked like dairy to me.

So I’m sure there are places out there that don’t treat people like they have two heads when they ask for a deviation from the menu item nicely.  I can understand if I was a rude, snappy bitch – I’d deserve a mishap with my dish.  But seriously. And what’s with the misrepresentation of dishes on menus?

I know what the answer is – to eat at home for the time being, and to be smart…prepare my meals in advance!  Oh, and to start liking cooking…that would be a great start!

Photos of Kalgoorlie

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The Red Head and her little dog - December 2011

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On the weekend of the 2nd of December, my partner Denis, my dog Kahlua, and Den’s kids – Chelsea and Mason, and myself hit the road for the 8 hour drive to Kalgoorlie. It was the kids first trip to … Continue reading →

Revisiting your roots

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I left Kalgoorlie 24 years ago, but it’s amazing how much like home it still feels to me.

The Old House, 24 years later - Hard to believe it's still standing

It’s a pleasant realisation, as I sit here reminiscing about the weekend spent revisiting my roots, catching up with family, and sharing the experience (and the 8 hour drive each way) with my partner Denis, his 2 kids, and my dog Kahlua.

So much to see on the one, long road to Kalgoorlie...

[In case you don't know, Kalgoorlie is a large goldfields town, famed for its gold rush history, infamous Hay Street, old buildings, interesting characters, pubs, present day gold mining (of course) and red dirt.

Mining in Kalgoorlie

(I tell you now, it took us years after having left Kalgoorlie to get rid of the layers of red dirt over everything!).]

Why is it a pleasant realisation?

After two weekends in a row spent away – the first at the coastal town of Yallingup, 4 hours from Perth, and the second, 8 hours away in Kalgoorlie – it becomes so much more apparent to me that I love this country, especially for its diversity – the people, the cultures and its landscape.  [Seriously, I never thought I would ever appreciate the red dirt and intensity of the bush...especially being a pale, red-head with freckles who can burn after 10 minutes in the Aussie sun!]

Deep down, I think I am a country girl at heart.

You can take the girl out of the country...

 Do you still have a connection with where you lived when you were younger?

 

 

The Red Heads Homage to Photography: Yallingup Beach

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On the weekend of 25 November I found myself hitting the open road for a weekend away ‘down south’ (as us West Aussies say).

Specifically, I headed to the coastal town of Yallingup (an aboriginal word meaning ‘Place of Love’) located about 4 hours south of Perth.

I was in store for a wonderful weekend with some of my family, great food, lots of laughs, a lot of sun, sand, and surf.

It was a welcome opportunity to whip out the camera and play, something of which I have had been a bit slack in doing lately due to my battle with my good old nemesis – fatigue.

Here are some of the pics…I think they would have looked awesome if I had had a better lens so I could have zoomed in more!

Surfers

Yallingup Beach

Yallingup

Surfs up

 

Body, Mind and Soul: Some Time Out

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One of my main goals for 2011 was to put my health first, and to not go through another year constantly stressed, with recurrent colds, stomach upsets and endless fatigue.

If you have followed me at all this year, you would know that I tanked so badly at it, it’s not funny.

BUT

I must give myself some credit for noticing the error of my ways before 2011 ticked over to 2012 – and a few months early at that!

Quitting the old job, going part-time in the new job, eating better, seeing a naturopath, commencing light exercise, pushing back on…everything…Sure I went a bit too hard with the whole ‘changing my life thing’ to start with, but I do now believe that I am heading towards a more balanced life.

Which brings me to last weekend, where I took some time out.  On Friday I drove to Yallingup, a coastal town about 4 hours south of Perth, to spend a long weekend with some of my family, notably my sister-in-law Rachel, and my beautiful nieces Charlotte – 3 – and Emily – 8 months.

Yallingup beach

I had the best time hitting the road by myself, allowing the country and ocean air to successfully rid my brain of its cobwebs.

It was wonderful eating great food and spending some quality time with my sister, brother and their friends.

My brother Luke and I

It was relaxing spending a girly night with my sister-in-law watching ‘chick flicks’.

It was absolutely joyous just being with my nieces, especially little Charlotte who has succeeded in stealing my heart.

My niece Charlotte and I

And it was satisfying spending time with my man (who joined us a day later) and my camera (I took 140 photos in the first day).

I thoroughly enjoyed the time out from my day-to-day life, from chores, from the internet (I even managed to go internet and computer-less throughout the entire weekend), from my brain and stress…I even managed to get a healthy dose of Vitamin D!

Sun, surf and sand - Yalingup

I vow to myself to do this more from now.  Lucky for me there’s another road trip planned this coming weekend!  On Friday Denis and I hit the road, on a 7 hour drive to Kalgoorlie with his 2 kiddies and our dog.  From breathtaking beaches one weekend to the striking vastness of a mining town.  It is with this thought that I realise I really do love this country after all.

The long country road to Kalgoorlie

Yes, I’m a Red-Head…Get Over It

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You may not think that a little thing such as being born with red hair could have so much of an impact on someones life…but it has.

My old best friend and I

As a little girl I’m sure people thought I was cute – with my shock of red hair flaming around my face. That all changed.

I grew older, retreated into my shell, gained freckles and developed pimples. These were combined with splotchy, easily blush-able and burnable skin. I didn’t eat a lot of junk food. I mean, we couldn’t afford it.  Plus we lived in the hills, no where near a fast food restaurant. I was still teased and told that I shouldn’t eat so much chocolate, or chips, or pizza (cause my face looked like one – hahahaha – not).

My body – I became an awkward, supposedly ‘pudgy’ teenager. I hated my shape, and the other kids teased me for it. Looking back on photos of myself I was actually slim…just not slim enough. Being made – by the TEACHER – to weigh myself in front of the entire class in year 5 hadn’t helped. I was the 2nd heaviest girl in the class – I have heavy bones! But because the 1st placed girl had a note so as NOT to put her weight on the board, I claimed 1st place…and the teasing that went with it. THAT lasted into high school. The starving myself…well that lasted – on and off – for a long time, followed by excessive exercising, binge eating, and so on.

And then there was my last name – Ripper. As soon as kids could latch onto that they did. Oh – and my first initial, of course, was J…Janine the Stripper, Janine the Ripper, are you related to Jack? And then there were the original ones – ooo what’s that smell…you let off a ripper.  Of course, I did what any red-headed girl would do blush…badly. 

But that was no way near the flack I copped for my hair. My hair became unruly, and it was still red. How dare I have red hair? I mean – ‘how ugly’. Of course, I couldn’t be seen wearing any colour as every colour ‘clashed’ with red hair. So I wore black, and I was told I looked ‘deathly’ pale. I was told that no boy would ever want to go out with me, and mostly they didn’t (apart from the red-headed boy). I was whispered about on the school bus, just loud enough to be heard…‘the ugly red-headed girl’ – the girls giggled, as did the boys. When the bus braked, and I fell onto the pile of school bags – well, there was more ammo. Yes, I’m a clutz too. So I retreated further into books…

Met at 18

As I got older, I was certain no boy would ever like me, and as I got older still – after being slapped on the ass whilst on the dance floor of a club and laughed at, and followed down the street by men heckling – I threw myself into work, study, getting drunk, and making out with any blind drunk random who would kiss me at the end of the night.

Depression took hold of me – although I didn’t accept that that was what it was at the time. Living in a state with beautiful beaches just seemed cruel. I just couldn’t compare to the blonde, bronzed godesses that surrounded me everywhere I turned. I couldn’t even compare to the ‘alternative’ girls at uni. I was no one, and I couldn’t take it anymore. I needed to get out of this godforsaken country where everywhere I turned I was reminded of my inadequacies.

Singapore was my first trip overseas with my dearest friend Charissa. This was where I found a whole new world. I was told I could be a model there? Men tripped over their feet staring at me. Was I pretty?

Italy was my second trip overseas. 6 weeks backpacking, whilst being sweet talked by Italian stallions, followed into the toilets by a seedy old man in Naples, driven into fits of laughter by a jock from the US, and charmed by a brooding American writer who was the first man I had ever experienced ‘electricity’ with. The trip ended in Paris, where I was made to feel ‘beautiful’.

Searching for myself

As the 6 weeks came to an end I had to return home, where I still did not feel at home. I felt like a foreigner. I didn’t belong, no matter how hard I tried. This was in the midst of an increasing drug culture, and the fact that I didn’t do drugs…well, it was like being at high school again. I was ‘strange’, ‘weird’, I ‘wasn’t interested in anything’. In a nutshell – I was boring. That was the straw that broke the camels back. I chucked in everything and went overseas indefinitely, where I was looked at, loved, charmed, broken and restored. In return I had flirted, smiled, loved, broke-down, and built myself up again. You could say that I found my self.

9 1/2 months later I returned home…sooner than expected, but it was my choice. I was a new person…I was confident! Some people didn’t like it, many that I had worked with before I had left. They didn’t like the new ‘confident‘ me. They definitely didn’t like me sticking up for myself, or the fact that I started achieving things in my career fast. Of course, others loved the new me…and so did I.

What am I trying to say by sharing this with you?

It’s not that looks count for everything. As looks fade.

It’s not that loving someone will solve everything…because it doesn’t. 

It could be that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.

Or that in order to love others, you must first love yourself.

It is that childhood bullying scars, and that these scars can last a lifetime.

In the end, through sharing this story, and the others in ‘The Beauty of Difference’ series, I hope to help people see.

EVERYTHING HAS ITS BEAUTY BUT NOT EVERYONE SEES IT - CONFUCIUS

 

Janine plus Vitamin D and a glass of wine

You Inspire Me

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Whilst I was at University in 1997 I dated a Chinese boy. To me, he was just a guy who had the same interest in creative writing as me, and was studying Radio Broadcasting with a good friend of mine. We hit it off. He made me laugh. He also wanted to read my writing. No one had ever wanted to read my writing before. It was terrifying. And then he asked me out. That was even more terrifying, as I’d never had a boyfriend before. I decided to take the plunge and said yes.

For our first date he took me to dinner at a quaint little restaurant. I think it was Italian, as back then Italian was my favourite food, and it was all about me : ) I don’t remember much else, apart from one thing – the looks we were getting, from most people. A pale red-head girl and a tall, lanky Chinese boy sitting at the same table in a romantic restaurant – how so?

Those looks continued throughout our brief relationship, and I couldn’t quite understand it back then, as to me we are all people. Even when I met his mother and she called me an ‘evil Western girl’ who would ‘corrupt’ her son – well, I couldn’t understand that either.

We didn’t last, but it wasn’t because of those ‘against’ us. It was because I wasn’t ready for a relationship, and had issues to deal with (plus I preferred him as a friend, minus the complications of intimacy and all that guff).

So it was a surprise when, whilst out at lunch with Denis on Monday (in the year 2011) – enjoying my first official day of unemployment at a cafe on the coast – we got looks. Denis had gone up to the counter to order, and I was sitting in the sun, soaking it and my new-found freedom up. I looked over to Denis, glowing with this strange feeling (happiness?), and there was a woman looking from me, to Denis, back to me, to Denis, back to me, to Denis. She had a look of confusion combined with slight distaste on her face. I caught her eye and gave her a look that hinted at the following: ‘Yes – a pale, red-head woman AND an Anglo-Indian man TOGETHER at lunch…’ Now I’m not usually a smart-ass, and that wasn’t the ‘look’ I was going for, but in this day and age, in the world we live in – especially in Australia which is as multi-cultural as they come – you would think we wouldn’t get these looks still.

I could think about it this way though, which is what Denis tells me to think on occassion – we are just one good-looking couple… 

 

Denis & Janine

Yes, that’s it! 

On a serious note though, it is moments like these that have spawned me onto starting ‘The Beauty of Difference’ series. And so, to all of those onlookers, I say thank you. You are my inspiration.

Have you experienced anything like this? Why? How did you feel?

If you would like to be a part of ‘The Beauty of Difference’ series, please contact me at janine.ripper@gmail.com.

I would love to share your story. 

 

Monday Photo-day: Featured Photographer Julissa Shrewsbury

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From this week on I’m opening up Monday’s Photo-day feature on Reflections from a Red Head to other lovers of the art-form, and other budding / up-and-coming uber-talented photographers (Please contact me if you are interested in being featured). This … Continue reading →

The River

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The River: Lens: Buckhorst H1 Film: Kodot XGrizzled Flash: Off

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The river that flows through the city of Perth, where I live, was named Swarte Swaene-Revier (Swan River) by Dutch explorer Willem de Vlamingh in 1697. It was named so after the famous black swans of the area. As the river is the centre of the … Continue reading →