Paddington Market

I like the concept of weekend markets because you can find so many local brands/entrepreneurs in action. Seldom go weekend marketing in Singapore though. Will browse if I chance upon one, but seldom deliberately go to one :P Funny because I do deliberately look for one whenever I travel - thought it's such a nice reflection of the culture, local brands/products!

Went to the Paddington Market in April when I was in Sydney. Check out my press at http://ilovelongvacation.wordpress.com :)

PS: Was in Bintan for the weekend so I am feeling well and rested! :) How did you spend yours?

知己 l MCA

昨天与YK去看 《歌剧魅影》， 有一点感触。
近年发现老友与从前不同了。不知是不是岁月让大家不介意拆下面具。 以真面目示人并不是不好，但有时让人觉得不知所错。 也许有一些朋友应该疏远，也许 美国作家切波斯基在《壁花男孩》说的是：“物换星移，朋友离去。人生不会为任何人而停留。” - 美国作家切波斯基，取自《壁花男孩》

"Things change. And friends leave. Life doesn't stop for anybody."
 - Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower 

Well, it's kind of funny how the opening paragraphs lead to a post about the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (MCA). Well, I guess a museum is a place where I like to visit without friends. Although I visited  MCA with a group of friends. LOL.





 

Our guide for the day who took us through various artwork that were contemporary in a nice way. Not sure if you know what I mean but some contemporary art can be too overwhelming! 

At the entrance facing the harbour...Maybe this man was waiting for the rain to stop too... 

A peek at The Rocks from MCA :)

 

And here's a peek into MCA via below video. I like how the museum show glimpses of its surrounding through the windows. It feels so integrated, like how art should be integrated in life :) Guess I would have lingered longer if I was not travelling or if I was travelling solo... and I really look forward to my next solo trip...

 

Sydney in a Dropbox

Went to Sydney with the girls in April. As usual, tons of photos were taken. Usually we will share the pictures by:
1) Saving them into a thumb drive each
2) Meeting up
3) Transfer them to a laptop
4) Re-transferring to the thumb drive again.

This time, we decided to use the Dropbox which I must say is more efficient. Each of us just upload the pictures into Dropbox and then download the pictures we want - from 4 steps to 2 steps! The only drawback is probably space not enough as all of us are given 2GB free for a start.

If you have not gotten Dropbox and want to try, click here! If you join and install Dropbox from this link, both you and I will get 500MB of bonus space! :)

Enough said about Dropbox :P Although here's a group photo of us taken at Sydney Tower Eye that I just downloaded from Dropbox...

Us and fireworks over the Sydney Harbour Bridge! :)

I must say Sydney is really good at creating experiences and making money at the same time. Haha. At the entrance of major attractions, there was a photo stop where a crew member took a photo of us and then superimposed it onto beautiful backgrounds which were almost impossible for us to take on our own. At the end of our visit, we were asked if we wanted to buy the photos which were put into a nice album of the attraction. Being the laid back Australians, they were never pushy and yet we ended up buying 2 albums - one at Sydney Tower (see above - nice, right?) and another at the Sydney Opera House (see below :))

We took the essential tour! Sydney Opera House is gorgeous, I must say. Will definitely be dedicating a post to share my thoughts about it :)

I really like this fireworks picture. It kind of reminded me of our dinner at Cockle Bay Wharf where we also enjoyed a splendid display of fireworks which I captured in a video. Visit ilovelongvacation to watch it :)

Any plans for the weekend? Looking forward to it - I'm going to watch The Great Gatsby today (Saturday) and off to the Marina Regatta on Sunday!

Laugh, Kookaburra

Happy Labour Day. My first post after returning to the workforce. The first post of May. A post-travel one of Sydney. Wanted to share a picture of Kookaburra seen at the Wildlife Sydney Zoo :)



Happy to see Kookaburra for the first time!

And the Australian Kingfisher brought back childhood memories of The Kookaburra Song.

 

Kookaburra sits on the old gum tree,
Merry merry king of the bush is he.
Laugh, Kookaburra, laugh, Kookaburra,
Gay your life must be!

 

Kookaburra sits on the old gum tree,
Eating all the gum drops he can see.
Stop Kookaburra, stop Kookaburra
Save some there for me!

 

Kookaburra sits on the old gum tree,
Counting all the monkeys he can see.
Laugh Kookaburra, laugh Kookaburra
That's not a monkey, that's me!

Golden Half in Perth

It's been almost a year since I bought myself a golden half for my 30th birthday. Am thinking of getting another lomo for my 31st birthday. Shall I? :)

My 3rd roll of film went to Perth and Bangkok - below are my faves :)



Feeding the animals at Margaret River Hideaway



 huh?



Hey there!



hmmm?

 

 

yo!

 

Get out of my way

 :)

Perth

It's been a while since I last update my blog. Been so busy before I went to perth and since I came back :(

But Perth was great! It was really R&R so I had a good break :) Here's three things I really enjoyed!
1) Trip brought me closer to nature.
- The farm stay was a highlight - how I wish we stayed for another night in the beatuiful cottage. The starry night was a surprise as I didn't expect to see so many stars in Perth as we were not in high altitude. But it was really cold and SF wanted to stay indoors - otherwise we could have a cup of hot tea under the stars :)
- It was nice to be woken up by the chirping of the hens, geese, peacocks in the farm (really!) and to wonder around the farm and breathe in the fresh air :) It was nice just sitting at the playground, enjoying the peace around you. And the highlight was the animal-feeding! Think I never had such fun and laughter for a long time :)

2) Did so many things for the first time in the sunniest place in the world (the sun was really strong!)

- My first self-drive trip (although I did not drive lah :P)
- Never been to a winery until and tasted so many wines in a day! It was a fun yet strange thing to get really red in the face and my heart racing in the day! :) and yes, cold beer at lunch!
- 4WD (not as exciting as I thought it would be) and sand-boarding (this was fun! wooohooo!)

3) Just being free and easy most of the time.

Starting the day with a good breakfast of coffee and toast. Stopping in the late mornings and late afternoons for coffee now and then. Planning what we wanted to do and changing plans along the way. Getting lost and finding our way around. Talking to the locals (many of them know Singapore!). Sunburning in the day and shivering in the night of Perth. Watching the sunset. And seeing the world goes by...