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Archive for the ‘My Photos’ Category

Postcards from Melbourne

Posted in Food & Friends, My Photos on January 15, 2013| 72 Comments »

Last week, Pete and I enjoyed a couple of nights in Melbourne.

Inspired by Lorraine’s review, we stayed at the fabulous Olsen Art Hotel in South Yarra. Our room was a deluxe studio – small, but generously appointed. It offered proper coat hangers that came off the rack (a pet peeve of mine), decent shampoo,  very reasonably priced internet access ($10 per day, less if you’re a member) and the most comfortable bed I’ve ever slept on…

All the artwork in this boutique hotel is by Australian landscape artist John Olsen, and most of it is for sale, with the exception of the giraffes on our bathroom wall…

On our first night, we dined in South Bank with our old friends Andrew and Alex…

Melbourne at dusk is remarkably beautiful…

Having parked in the Crown Entertainment Complex, we had to walk past this aquarium on the way back to the car…

It was full of cheerful fish…

Every single fish in the aquarium was smiling!  I thought they might be a nice addition to our fish tank at home, but Pete wasn’t convinced…

The following morning we had breakfast at Cumulus Inc. with David and Marie. I had the shakshouka – baked eggs with roasted peppers and shanklish..

Then we tried to master MyKi!

Melbourne has an integrated electronic public transport system based around a single key tag. As visitors, we only needed it for one day, but had to buy  reusable cards nonetheless.  Having said that, the tram system works brilliantly – much better than our Sydney buses. The only real problem with the trams is that they require passengers to walk across a lane of traffic to board, hence this advertising campaign…

I dragged Pete out to Kew to buy Naot shoes – an Israeli brand with removable cork innersoles. They’re the only sandals I’ve found that I can successfully use my orthotics with…

We ate old fashioned fish and chips at Hunky Dory in South Yarra…

…and had dinner at France-Soir with Pete’s brother Greg, his partner Michelle, and their cousin MJ.  I had to try the duck à l’orange (it was very good!)…

On the way home, I took a photo inside the plane cabin with the new panoramic camera option that came with the latest iPhone software upgrade. It works really well…

And I checked for snakes on the wing, but didn’t see any!

It was a fun and much needed weekend away, and a great joy to be able to catch up with family and friends whom we hadn’t seen for years. If you’re planning a trip to Melbourne, I’d recommend the Olsen Hotel – it’s in a great location, the staff were cheerful, and the attention to detail really impressed us!

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Rubber Ducky

Posted in My Photos on January 9, 2013| 38 Comments »

We’re in holiday mode.

After an incredibly hectic December, it’s such a pleasure (and a relief!) to be able to relax a little in the new year.

Sydney has a lot to offer in January, and we’ll be spending a bit of time at the Sydney Festival, which runs over the entire month.  One of this year’s most distinctive features is this giant Rubber Duck, which isn’t made of rubber at all.

Created by artist Florentijn Hofman of the Netherlands, this inflatable fabric sculpture sailed into Sydney on the 5th of January and will be happily moored at Darling Harbour until the 23rd.  It’s five storeys high by five storeys wide…

It’s definitely worth a trip in to have a look if you get the chance. It’s surprisingly large and very cheery!  More information is available at the Sydney Festival website.

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White Rabbit Gallery

Posted in Cool Things, Food & Friends, My Photos on November 3, 2012| 62 Comments »

I have two new reasons why Sydney is a wonderful city to live in.

Firstly, we now have food trucks.  Which meant that yesterday, when Pete and I both had the afternoon free, we were able to pick Big Boy up from uni, drive to the Eat Art Truck in Pyrmont, and lunch alfresco in the sunshine.

If you live in Sydney, there is now a free iPhone app (simply called Sydney Food Trucks) which tracks the location of the food trucks at any given time…

Big Boy had the pulled pork with special barbeque sauce, and Pete and I shared the beef brisket with kimchee and chilli.  They were both delicious!

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The second reason why Sydney is so fabulous: it has the White Rabbit Gallery.

You might recall that I’ve recently discovered that I love modern art. Our dear friend Roz is very knowledgeable in this area, and she recommended that we pay White Rabbit in Chippendale a visit.

The gallery is privately funded and free to the public. It houses the contemporary Chinese art collection of Kerr and Judith Nielson, one of the largest and most significant of its kind in the world, focusing primarily on works created after 2000.

The pieces on display are magnificent, and my iPhone photos don’t come close to doing them justice.  Here are some of my favourites.

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Artist Li Hongbo works with the honeycombed paper technique traditionally employed in the production of Chinese lanterns and flowers.  One of his creations was displayed at the Biennale exhibit at Cockatoo Island earlier this year.

For this piece, he and his assistants stacked and glued 30,000 sheets of paper into two large blocks, which Li then sculpted with an electric saw into two identical figures.  This is the first one…

…and this is the second one, stretched out to more than 30 metres in length…

It was hard to capture it all in a photo, but here’s a closeup of a foot. When the exhibition is over, the extended figure will be refolded back into (almost) its original shape…

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This piece by artist Liao Chien-Chung of Taiwan made me smile and smile.  At first glance, it appears to be a motorbike…

What it is, in fact, is a pedal bicycle.

The artist explains that as a child, he had always wanted a Harley Davidson, but could never afford one.  So he did the next best thing and built himself a bicycle that looks like a Harley.  The video which forms part of the installation shows the artist pedaling his creation around a park…

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When we walked onto the top floor of the gallery, I noticed that a television crew were filming a dynamic exhibit at the opposite side of the room. This sculpture was superimposed with a projection of the artist speaking…

I tiptoed around the other exhibits, trying not to disturb them…

It wasn’t until Pete gave me a nudge that I realised that the film crew were wax figures, and part of the display.  They were extraordinarily lifelike (and to be fair, I can be a bit thick sometimes). Artist Zhou Xiaohu seeks to highlight media fakery by faking the media.

The White Rabbit guide (there are a couple on every floor) told us that when the artwork was initially unveiled, Zhou called a news conference, and many of the media attendees didn’t even notice that they were mingling with wax dummies…

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Young Mongolian artist Gao Rong created this reproduction of the entrance to her childhood home completely from padded cloth and thread (including the pipes, doors and switch box).  All the rust, peeling paint and graffiti are embroidered…

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Dust is a full room installation with 210 tiny replicas of household items, handmade by artist Cong Lingqi, strung to represent motes of dust. The light creates shadows on the wall behind it…

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Finally, these woven wire sculptures by Shi Jindian grace the ground floor of the gallery.  The jeep and the side-car motorbike are the result of hours of meticulous work, created by the artist sheathing all the parts of the machine in wire, and then painstakingly extracting them, leaving just the wire shell behind.  The motorbike alone took three years to complete…

The detailing on both pieces is extraordinary – even the tread of the tyres has been reproduced…

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The White Rabbit Gallery is open Thursday to Sunday, and is located at 30 Balfour Street, Chippendale NSW.  The entire contents are rehung twice a year, in February and August, during which time the gallery is closed.

There is also a tea house, decorated with old posters and bird cages…

…and a fabulous shop stocking all sorts of fun and quirky bits and pieces…

If you’re ever in Sydney and have a chance to pop in for a visit, I’d highly recommend it!

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Weekend Photos

Posted in My Photos on October 16, 2012| 65 Comments »

The sun is shining in Sydney, and we’ve been out and about these past few days. Thankfully, the iPhone camera means I get to share it all with you!

On Saturday, Pete and I took a stroll down Hercules Street in Ashfield…

The unassuming Ashfield Café next to the station produces quite decent Malaysian food, including Hainan Chicken Rice every other Saturday…

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On Sunday we went to the Haberfield Primavera street fair.  This annual event has a distinctly Italian edge, with the restaurants and shops setting up stalls in the closed off main street. This year, there were animatronic dinosaurs promoting an upcoming exhibit at Taronga Zoo…

Our friends Johnny and Dot were working hard at the Paesanella stand. Johnny told me he needed his sunglasses, because “the glare off the bocconcini was unbearable”…

Joe was cooking up vats of pasta…

There was lots of Italian produce for sale, including these squid ink and chilli pastas..

Along with the jumping castles and slides, there was also a carnival booth. It’s been years since I’ve seen one! And yes, that’s ABBA playing on the small screen at the back…

Remember these clowns? I’ve never won a thing on them in the past, so I didn’t try my luck this time…

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In between popping in and out, I spent a bit of time over the weekend tempering chocolate.  These dark chocolate roasted almond bars were very moreish…

And these Valrhona milk chocolate cane toads were a hit with the kids…

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Our neighbour Julian brought over his homemade croissants. He’s only 26, and a brilliant baker already!  He was appalled when I told him I planned to eat them with Vegemite…

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And finally, I had an hour to catch up with my dear friend Terri, over a cup of herbal tea. The Tea Drop Australia brand is a new one to me, and their Fruits of Eden blend is divine…

It was a lovely soothing conclusion to a fun few days…

I hope you all had a lovely weekend as well!

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Superheroes

Posted in My Photos on September 28, 2012| 47 Comments »

We mothers are funny creatures.

Most people looking at the photo above would see two teenagers with fresh haircuts.

I see superheroes.

I took this photo of Big Boy (right) and Small Man (left) when we were in town yesterday and loved it so much that I had to share it with you. Even from behind, it’s easy to see that they’re brothers.

Big Boy hurt his leg yesterday morning and was walking with a slight limp.  Small Man automatically, and unconsciously, adjusted his gait to match his brother’s.

They strolled off ahead of Pete and I, and we followed behind, shaking our heads at how enormous they’ve become, marveling at their closeness, and overjoyed by what fine young men they’ve grown up to be.

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