Free flowers in Sydney City

Finally, summer is here! And what would be better to celebrate it by having a few colourful flowers on your balcony?... Getting those flowers for free!

Sydney city is giving out their flowers from the Living Colour display around the city today (and I'm guess next Sunday too). For today they have the location in front of St. Mary's church.

People went there with trucks! We arrived there without a car, so it's a bit hard to carry. Luckily, there is the husband and his backpack; another good use of a husband!

(A bit of a side story: we had to go to cinema after, because I got a free double pass from ABC to preview the movie Gasland. So the two pots were there in the cinema with us!)

We got one pot each of Celosia Yellow and red.
Thank you Sydney City!

Sculpture by the sea 2010

We went to visit Bondi Beach last week to see this year's Sculpture by the sea 2010.

It was a fun afternoon of photographing, albeit it was quite crowded. Very hard to take pictures without anybody being in between your lens and the sculpture.
Luckily I got ahead with my sigma wide angle!

Took too many photos (will upload more later), but this particular one is my favorite. It's a result of an HDR from 3 photos.

OMG. I tried to find the artist behind this work, but I still couldn't find it (Let me know if you do know!). I think credit should be given to whoever decide on the placement of it. To put it right in the sight of the sun creates an amazing shadow. My job was just to be there to capture it at the right time. And if you're wondering, the lens flare is real!

Check out last my year's Sculpture of the Sea photos here.

Ichi-ban Boshi Noodle

Craving for a good ramen / udon? We found the place!

Ichi-ban Boshi restaurant in Bondi Junction served very yummy noodles.
When we got there for lunch on satruday, unfortunately the Tonkatsu ramen is already sold out! So we had to content ourselves ordering some other noodles they have on the menu.

For me, tempura udon 12.95$ and for my husband Wonton noodle $10.95 (yes, he likes his wonton).

My tempura udon was a bit small, but it was super yummy. Something to consider for the health conscious, they put a lot of oil in it, which makes it more yummy albeit a bit too fatty.
And his wonton noodles? He liked it very much. The serving was generous! To me, the wonton noodles tastes different than your normaly chinese wonton noodles, nevertheless it is different in a good way. It's like eating chinese menu with a japanese take on it.

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Weekend Flan

What to do when your milk is close to the expiry date?  Get some eggs and sugar and make a Caramel Flan. Then ask your husband to held a torch while you aim an shoot it!

Yet another use of a good husband.

The caramel was super yum!

Uses of a good husband

Three uses of a good husband: Cooking, Cleaning and Carrying my Indomie! :)

Wedding & engagement rings

Wedding is fun, especially if it is your own!
Because you got the chance to play around with your own rings :)

Brisbane with Vincent

It was so much nostalgia coming back to the city where I grew up. Even more when I had to spend the time in my university where I spent 10 years of studying too!

Some things changed. The cafeteria is much better now. With Subway and Boost Juice option now.

I had a peek at my old phd desk, the office was still the same. Great court was still the same. Dorothy Hill Engineering library, the lake, merlo's cafe.. Ah so much memories.





I met up with Vincent, a friend whom I met previously in Taiwan. We spent lunch at the University of Queensland's Schonell's pizza. One of the best pizza place ever in my life! The "Y" is the bet! He bought his Lomo camera (it's so cute! I want one too!). Then we walked around in the Great court afterwards.
We talked about life and how things are changing for the both of us since we last met in Taiwan. I'm so glad his English is so much better than my Mandarin! hehe..

Ah, it was a fun meeting! I'll wait for your visit to either Indonesia / Sydney ya? :)

Sydney with Yuni (Part 2)

This is the 2nd part of the series of photos, taken a few weeks ago when my friend Yuni came to visit from Brisbane.

We walked along the Darling Harbour after dinner and saw this converted the Sydney lights  to soccer balls during the FIFA world cup.

Night photographs without flash and tripod is rather tricky, but we managed to get some picture of Yuni and Sydney nightscape. Living outside Sydney myself, it was a rare occasion to take pictures of the city.

We ended the night by having a hot choc and cake at the Lindt's cafe. It was yuuuuuuuuuuuum. A visitor is always a good excuse to chocolate it up.

Sydney with Yuni (Part 1)

So when my friend Yuni came to town we head out to chinatown for some food.

I had some nasi kuning campur, which was very good. A tad expensive: AUD 9.50 but I guess I miss Indonesian food that much!  We then went to line up for emperor's puff (see previous post), before making our way to darling harbour.

We took pictures in front of the FIFA screen. All the lights was turned into soccer balls. (wait for more in next post!). It was about 8pm so the arena was still empty, and yet ready for the 4.30 am game display.

Emperor's puff

Walking around Sydney's chinatown, we saw this huge long line of people in front of a shop with Emperor's Puff for sale.  At the price of one for 30cent or  four for $1.00 we figured out that this cannot be too wrong. So we tried it.

It was a yummy soft cake with yum centres, worth the long wait!

The Slim and The Butt Lifter

Today we were shopping for his clothes. A success!
A black shirt, a white shirt, a tie, jumper and jeans at Myer. Then we went to Jeanswest and they got a deal of $65 or 99$ for 2 jeans.

Not that cheap, considering I got my other pair from Taiwan for 300NT (about 12$ AUD).

So anyway, I went and get one myself to make it $99.
Guess which is mine and which is his, the Slim size 33 or the Flare Buttlifter size 8.

Shadow play

On the magical brief minutes of sunset rays through the trees, to the balcony doors, pass us and to the wall I took these pictures.

Stunning rays.

Australian King Prawns

Celebrating the new Photoshop selection tool, I present you with a picture of an Australian King Prawn. These prawns are quite huge! Pricing at 17.95AUD per kg they're quite yummy and pretty to look at with the blue and orange tails.

Tonight, they enjoyed a restful sleep alongside basil, garlic, butter and virgin olive oil. Rest in peace, I've got your beauty documented!

Waffles - the luxury breakfast

After craving for weeks, I finally got my waffles! With the help of Myer voucher, I pull the plug and get myself a waffle maker. With butter and maple syrup on top, it's an absolute joy (to take picture and to eat!).

Thanks for boyfriend who lend me his waffles to be taken picture of. Mine, was gone before I remember that I wanted to take a photo of it!

Petits Sorelois

Nothing is more joyful than the smell of cookies coming from your kitchen.So yes, today my boyfriend decided that he would like to try his hands to make his favorite childhood cookies.

Petits Sorelois are sweet-lemony cookies, crunchy on the outside and a little bit moist on the inside. With the hundred and thousands sprinkled on top of it, I wouldn't be surprised if he had it while he was young. The looks certainly screams "kids!".

Since it was his first cookie making experience, I decided to document the historical events with photos. Looking at the trend these days, where everybody (most certainly Asians, for sure) likes to take pictures of their meal, I think a few little photography tips wouldn't hurt.

Just to show you how picture quality is important, I took another picture of the cookies with on camera flash. Look at the difference between the two photos. Which of these that you prefer? Do you notice the difference?

First picture shows more of the texture and details of the cookies. The second picture looks flat. Main difference? Lighting! First picture is taken with available sun rays coming through the window from the back, creating depth to the picture. It really doesn't take fancy cameras to make a difference in your pictures. As long as the lighting is correct, everything else is easy.

So remember, it's the job of your loved ones to cook, our job to make it look good on camera!

Featherdale Wildlife Park - Part 2

So here are more photos from the recent trip to Featherdale Wildlife Park.

All taken with 70-200mm Tamron.

Can someone check if I have the names of these animals correct? (was too busy focusing and didn't read the information planks with the names!)

First picture, the pied Commorant (?), second is a Long-billed corella,  then a wombat that looks and walks like pigs, a not so happy Tasmanian devil, and the last picture: a tropical penguin!

Featherdale Wildlife Park - Part 1

Seeking for an authentic Australian experience? Nothing feels more authentic than surrounded by native australian wildlife, immersed in the fresh smell of kangaroo (not on your bbq grill, although that too can smell good!)

Inspired by the latest picture of my friend that just came back from NZ zoo, and the idea of my office colleague to go to wildlifepark. I took my Canadian boyfriend to finally meet some australians!

Located about 1.7km easy walk from Doonside station or a bus away from Blacktown station, the Featherdale Wildlife Park is a must visit.  Free running kangaroos, hugable koalas, tame kookaburras are so much better than normal zoo-caged-behind-bars-untouchable experience.

We had a relaxed there, watching lazy kangaroo, sleeping koala and ducks chasing emus. Watching kids carresing a Tawny Frogmouth.

I took quite a lot of photos, and thus this post is to be continued with more picture soon!

Australian Wildlife: An Introduction to Familiar Species (A Pocket Naturalist Guide)

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Korean BBQ... again?

I didn't think raw beef can be so inspiring before. But it can be! As soon as we saw the raw beef picture in the menu outside the restaurant, then checked that the customers are mainly asian, it didn't take much more to convince us to go and try it out.

Pricing at 17AUD for the two slice of marble beef (wagyu?) and another 19AUD for the marinated beef ribs, the portion is enough for the two of us. We would be happy with slightly more though. It also came with the standard side dishes and the salad.
The service was a bit slow for us considering it was sunday night and not a lot of people serving. But it was worth the wait.

Won-Ji, The restaurant itself is only a short walk from Strathfield train station. I think I will come back for more experience, maybe try their other non-bbq menu. Anyone?


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Pempek? Yes Please!

After a 4.5 hours of feet burning Tango, there is nothing better than eating some familiar food. So we went to Pempek Clovelly, to satisfy my craving for fish cakes in vinegar. I ordered Kapal selam for 7.5AUD and a Pempek Kulit for 2.5AUD.

The Gado gado + Ayam Goreng + Nasi wasn't so bad either. It was quite a big portion! Even too big for a Canadian to finish!

It was a success. Too bad Kensington is so far away from where I reside. Luxury treat indeed!


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Sydney racism

Checking my mailbox today after work, I discovered this. This is the first racism mail that I received here in Australia.

"Our economy is in a crisis.
So far, 338,346 immigrants have arrived during it.
This is insane!
Not one more!"

Obviously anonymous.
I tried to find it on google, to see if this number has any significant meaning. No luck.

If you received similar things (or you're the sender), write me! I'm interested to know.

Grave view for our new year

I forgot to share to you how my new year was. It was super! I got to spend some time with my mum and my dad, enjoying dinner and time together.

And to top it all off, these were the views I had first thing in 2010 morning. A neatly lined crosses and David's stars on a green healthy grass of Jakarta; the British colonial cemetery (thanks for the correction mum! I thought it was the Dutch. The Dutch got a part behind it as it turns out).


See how packed and chaotic are houses next to it? The dead certainly got the best place, I'd say.


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The dog models

Meet the two cuties, the dogs of my grandma and aunt: Pasha and Cybro.

In this first picture they looked really friendly to each other. Awww.

Well, actually they weren't! In fact, these two were competing for attention when the picture was taken. The two frames after consist of Cybro coming over to Pasha, and Pasha walking away avoiding him. Certainly make picture taking more challenging. Almost as challenging as wedding photography, I'd say. Except obviously they don't look at the prove later and took three hours to decide which one to order.

Pasha was shy at the first time we met. This is probably the 3rd time around. She gave me a good paw shake after I give her some scratch. She also tried to sniff my lens. No bueno!

Cybro is a flash dog. He's everywhere! Most of the indoor picture I took of him was a blur because he moved too fast and I tried not to use a flash.

We tried to get him to move outside to the grassy backyard so I can get the nice greeny background for him. We stood there on the grass, calling and calling and calling him. No luck. But as soon as we stepped out of the grass area though, he went on the grass! I found the reason soon enough. As you can see in the third photo, he was waiting for us to get off of his toilet. Such a cute face! Yes, my friend said "Even dog has no privacy when I'm around". I took that as a compliment.