Photo set #two: Chinese new year

China's ancient traditions contrasted with vibrant contemporary culture welcomed the Year of the Ox at Hyde Park in late January.

Lions and dragons come to life and red firecrackers scare away the previous year's misfortune. All this, combined with the sights, sounds and flavours of the Chinese New Year Markets make the Launch Celebration a unique experience.

Chinese New Year is one of the most important holidays celebrated by Chinese all over the world. The Chinese New Year period starts with the new moon on the first day of the lunar year and ends with the full moon 15 days later.

During this festive period there are many traditions, customs, rituals and superstitions.

These include paying off debts, house cleaning, decorating doors and windows with paper cuts and couplets, paying respect to the ancestors, family dinners, banquets with special foods, lucky money in red packets for children and the exchange of gifts.

Photo set #one: Australia day

Australia day at Belmore Basin is always a treat. Being woken up at 6am by the fire of a cap gun signalling the start of a triathlon, followed by the music of the merry go round and techno of the dodgem cars, not to mention the screaming of a supportive crowd.

This year, the sun beamed down on the tarmac of the cordoned cliff road which featured a row of multi-coloured holden cars contrasting perfectly with the cobalt blue sky and flapping union jacks.

The sand castles looked very professional, most had been taken over by parents after bored and sweaty children lots interest and moved to play in the water. Dads were getting their hands, feet and faces dirty lying in the sand and sculpting their way toward a prize of a few McDonalds vouchers - or maybe they were just having a lot of fun. Things got very serious down this end of the beach.

Into the night he rain started to pour. Ten minutes before the first sight of fireworks, flag-printed beach ubrellas became a shelter for hundreds of anxious children and an equal number of drunken aussie blokes and sheilas wore flags tied as capes, and with a great cheer, the show began.

Real life photo assignment

A fire on the track between Stanwell park and Otford stations caused panic last Wednesday for the hundreds of commuters wanting to get home in time for dinner.