I’m not looking forward to this week at all.   I have known it has been coming for the past 6 months.   This week I will be checking in to the Mercy Hospital here in Melbourne to fix an old injury in my hip.   Some damage to my hip has caused a bone spur to grow over time and eventually limiting my leg movement.   Late last year it started to become very painful.   So this week I will be undergoing something called Hip Arthroscopy with one of the best orthopedic surgeons in town.  It’s only a short stay in the hospital and will be on crutches for a little while afterwards.   I just hope I do’t have to see the torture devices (above) before I go under.   This machine will be used to dislocate my leg.  That’s right…  REMOVE MY LEG!

I’m really not looking forward to it at all.   I have been having lots of sleepless nights.   I can’t wait till this time next week when it’s all over.

With everything happening in the post above I’m trying to think about happier things…  like when am I going to travel again.   It’s seems that since taking 7 weeks off work last year I have finally ran low on vacation time.  I’m actually thinking about possibly buying more time off from work.  I only get 5 weeks off a year at the moment.  I’d like to have 7 or 9 weeks off.  That would allow me to travel more often.

For this year I have already bought a return flight to Buenos Aires.  I just have to work out when I can take it.   It was meant to travel in April but I am delaying it because of the surgery.   And May is the beginning of their winter, so it will most likely happen around October now.   So that means I should fit in a trip before that…  and why not visit my old favourite…  San Francisco!   I’m thinking about an end of summer thing there would be nice.   Perhaps another trip to the Folsom Street Fair again?   The above shot was taking in SFO in Mel’s Diner last year just moment’s before I met Armistead Maupin eating there.

I’ve been very busy lately.  I’ve had a lot on my mind.   It’s has been a pretty nice month with my friend Chris moving back from London.   He has moved into Jake’s old room at the front of the building.   It took a while to move all of the junk that had made it’s way in there.  It’s been fun having someone here again.  I don’t have to talk to myself anymore.

I love these photos that people submitted to the newspaper yesterday showing the flash flood that occurred in the Melbourne CBD on Thursday.   I actually left work a little earlier than usual because I could see the huge storm rolling in and I didn’t want to be stuck in the middle of it.   I had not idea it was this severe!  These photos are taken in the blocks around the Loft.   The water disappeared as quickly as it had appeared.   I’m assuming that most of it ran off in to the Yarra River which is right behind the train station above.

I love MTV’s “Jersey Shore”!   I was put onto it after reading about it on the TouristToTownie blog.   It’s about a bunch of beautiful Jersey boys and girls put into a house for a summer long of partying, hooking up and fighting.   It’s fantastic!   The guys claim to spend more time on making themselves beautiful than the girls.   And the girls are all about hooking up with hot guys.   It’s all very funny.   And I love the fist pumping.

The front room of the loft takes up 25 per cent of the entire apartment space.   It’s been 2 years since Jake moved out and next week I will be getting a new loft mate.   It will be so nice sharing the place again.   And for those die hard Jake fans….   no he is not moving back in.   I’m busy now giving the place a major clean up.   It’s amazing how slack I have become since I started living alone.

The weather in Melbourne lately has been absolutely perfect!   We get about 14 hours of daylight now and the days are really warm…  sometimes pretty hot.   I’ve been using the perfect light to do some shooting out on the rooftop.   I’m really happy with the results.   But I still have so much to learn about lighting, white balance and that dreaded Av mode.   I kinda wish I had gone to photography school a few years ago when Jake went along.   But I’m thinking that practice makes perfect and I’m getting plenty of that right now.

Model wears cap from Cotton On, board and pads from Rebel Sport, Phillip’s old GStar jeans and Converse trainers, and model’s own singlet.

Look at my horse…  isn’t it amazing.   While doing this post I think I had this track playing and now I don’t think I will ever get the song out of my head.   I love it.  I’m looking for the other tracks now.