Me!bourne's Winter Ignites

Winter is upon us! With cold winds bearing down hard onto Melbourne and its surroundings, shriveled dried leaves fly about the city as its citizens seek solitude from the foul weather in search of warmth and comfort... cars a-honking, lights flashing, echoes of running trains, faint jostling of footsteps and mumbles-jumbles of daily conversation among the Melbournian folks fade up into the city sky. Among these bustles of Melbournian life, four souls brave the unforgiving cold as they walked down Collin Street all the way to the Docklands, in search for a cure to boredom and mild leg-stretching. Upon their arrival, they watch the horizon as darkness envelopes the city sky slowly into night.The sun appearing as if to dissolve beyond the ocean waters....

Now, i know what you're wondering: what on earth has gotten into her?? right?? Hahaha, a simple explanation is required: Monster Blood Tattoo by D M Cornish - a book, to be exact. An intriguing, exciting, unique book that will plunge you into a vivid world of fantasy with lamplighters, nickers, bogles, skolds, lazhars and all.Personally I prefer to read this over Harry Potter. With school holidays in progress, I spend the passing days immersing myself into the world of lamplighters and the adventure of an orphan boy with a girl's name, Rossamund Bookchild. In less than a week, I have completed nearly two of this three-part story... yes, it's a trilogy. Unfortunately, the third story hasn't been published yet... Oh! To my woeful dismay! *sigh*


So today, I decidedly took a break from the books and went for a walk to the Docklands in the company of Ms DT, Kim and Mr DG. I suppose today was a blessing - as soon as we stepped out of the apartment... there was eye-candy! No... not some hot guy, but rather a hawt car! A Rolls-Royce to be precise! Aaah... the benefits of living within the confines of the city.... hehehe...


As the sun began to set, our four souls braved the cold and headed our way to the Docklands to watch the sunset. It would've been a splendid night had it not been for the strong gusty winds... but alas, nothing is perfect, right? Hehehe.

Random shots of what we passed in the cold...
And of us, relaxing by the pier...

After taking some shots, we decided to follow the crowd along the walkway towards to pier... we learnt that Docklands apparently had its Ignite@Docklands event, where we were treated to a visual surprise... with white frosted trees brightly lit down along the walkway. We continued walking until we came upon a huge gathering... confused, we looked around... when we heard a huge GONG echo into the air... a musical performance, it was!





It was the Fire Garden - a musical performance where an orchestra of synchronized echoes and sounds were created by a group of talented musicians. I loved the show... thought it was very unique for the sounds were created by blasting fire into various lengths of tubes, each tube created different unique notes. Together with some percussions and melodious clanging - they created a symphony. The whole instrument itself was an art to see - shaped and designed like a ship... which automatically reminded me of the book i was reading. Unfortunately, i only brought along my point and shoot camera, pardon the vague images.
After having filled ourselves with dinner and hung out a bit in the harsh cold, we headed back home... to the toasty comforts of our apartment. Content with the long walk and good company, we warmed ourselves up and together watched Pan's Labyrinth.


On a side note: shots tonight were taken with my point & shoot Konica Minolta DiMage X50

A Skeleton and the Lost Journey

Another eventful day in Melbourne with the company of Mr Canon and Ms DT as we roamed all over the city in search of interesting things to do and see. The day began with our daily meet up for brunch in the city, walking up to one of our usual hotspot, Gold an' Fork to indulge our tastebuds in spicy briyani.It was quite jam-packed as the timing coincided with lunch time so there were plenty of hungry folks lingering about....

After having our tongues inflamed by such spicy food, we headed up Elizabeth Street where we came upon a T-shirt store. Note to self: this store sells awesome often humorous graphic tees, should stop by one day to check it out! Mr Canon bought himself a skull zip-up hoodie, which looked quite funny when he zipped it up.

Satisfied having bought himself the long-desired hoodie we all slinkered up the street, passing by the always-busy buzzing Queen Victoria Market and crossed over the road to check out Cash Converter. Here, Mr Canon bought himself two guitar hard-cases for his prized musical instruments.

Walking about in that store, it dawned to me the ever-useful idea of having a second-hand store... an easy way to sell still-wanted goods in exchange for cash... although it might not be as expensive as when you first bought your desired trade item... and for those who cant afford the real deal, you can get equally similar or SAME goods for half the price or sometimes even more... now isn't that a deal?

By the time we were done, with two hard guitar cases in hand, the three of us walked back to Mr Canon's apartment to relax and hang out a bit. My foot was aching for a break, breaking into my new shoes also didn't help... causing the back of my ankle to bleed through my socks... ouchie, big time!

So relaxing is what we did - Mr Canon took the opportunity to engage me into a battle with the flashlights... dear god, those things are strong! As Ms DT said: it burns the eyeballs!! hehe As we relaxed, I decided to fool around with Mr Canon's lens selection, grabbing the gear and headed out to the balcony to do some architectural and skyline test shots. I must say, it was a VERY windy day!

I'm sure the people in the office across the street could see me fighting against the wind, as I attempt to even stand up. It was very hard to stand straight as the winds were so strong.

We chilled in the apartment for an hour or two before heading out into the harsh cold weather again, making a stop by the magic store in Elizabeth St - we had passed by it earlier the day but Mr Canon was adamant that he didn't want to pop in with the huge guitar-cases in hand. The funniest thing happened: we came across the one-eyed Burger Monster again! It has DEFINITELY been a while since we saw him, the last time we did I managed to steal a burger-friendly hug! hehe

We hung out at the borders bookstore a bit... it was here I learnt that Mr Canon may have ADD.... hahah just kidding!!!! We were there to kill time before heading over to Fitzroy to catch the last day of Melbourne's Digital Media Street Festival....

The funniest thing happened, having boarded up the tram we proceeded to head to Fitzroy when halfway through the journey, we all realised that none of us knew the way! Hahaha We ended up getting lost and spent the next few hours tram riding down Fitzroy where we discovered some wonderful stores and restaurants...

In the end we gave up and headed back on another tram... on our way back... we found the lost street we've been looking for before! But alas, the mood to go was now lost so instead we went out for dinner where we had the pleasure of meeting Mr Canon's friend, Mia, a very friendly Indonesian girl before ending the day.

Camera Gear Hunting

Flinders Lane & Degraves Street

This happened a while back, so quite a late update: met up with Mr Canon earlier the day to do some brief shooting of the daily bustles of Flinders & Degraves Street. It's definitely the IT place for the Melbournians, with rows of hip cafes, wafting aroma of baked, warm goods and melodious echoes of side-street musicians - this is one of the places to be seen and heard.

Mr.Canon seeking a place to shoot?

Once in a while during the weekend, there'd be a street performance with jugglers, and all. As for the music, it comes in various sorts from seductive Arabic jives to classical opera. At times they play so loudly, the sweet melodies float up the air and you can hear them clearly in the apartment, by the window.

Mr. Canon killing time with his G9

Unfortunately I still remember that day being a slightly gloomy with the grey clouds hovering above us but thankfully it didn't rain. I had the grand opportunity to learn and work with Mr Canon's recently-acquired Canon 40D. I have to admit, in the beginning I didn't quite like the camera - although I very much preferred its size and weight in comparison to the 400D, I didn't find it user-friendly at all. Though it did feel more "pro".



So around Flinder's Lane and Degraves Street, we walked about, shooting and killing time as we waited for the arrival of Ms DT and Ms Crocs from school. Ms Crocs was nice enough to bring a little surprise for us!

Little cupcakes from the Little Cupcake Store

As soon as they arrived, off the bunch of us went camera-hunting, as Mr Canon was determined to check out the latest gears in the photography world and perhaps invest in some second-hand camera gear. Treaded through some back alleys and discovered some mysterious stores while we were at it as well. You'll be shocked to see the little surprises this city's small back alleyway offers.
Definitely something to check out!

The trio: Ms DT, Ms Crocs (wearing her crocs) & Mr Canon

For dinner we decided to try out the new and only Italian Restaurant on Swanston Street, sharing between the four of us two pastas and a pizza - very filling!! Overall the food wasn't bad, the price was alright too...The location of the restaurant itself is quite obscure... well at least the entrance was. Which was probably why we were the only ones to eat there? he he


However according to Ms DT & Mr Canon, there are far better Italian restaurants you can get for the same price we paid. After dinner, Ms Crocs was keen to go to Laguna for some grocery shopping. Now, for those of you new Melbruneian students... if you are ever crave to get yourself some food that remind you of home... i would recommend going to Laguna, located at QV in the city.

The Market, Luna Park and the Beach... in the c-c-cold!

Sunday was quite the eventful day: haven't had fun like that in a long time. What began as a small visit to a magic stall by the Opera House and ended up with a nice yet brisk photo session all the way at St Kilda Beach.

Walking over to the weekend market

Magic by the Opera House

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention, yesterday I think Mr Canon was magic-obsessed. Ever since the BBQ night and seeing Visual Acid perform some MAD tricks, his conversations revolve around magic or the use of it 95% of the time! Hehehe...

Sadly I didn't manage to see Visual Acid's demonstrations that night because I was busy in the kitchen with Ms V, however I gather it was quite impressive since there was an echo of oohs! and aahs! by the rest of the cool cats... and the occasional throw of tissue paper by Ms SG (quite possibly from the frustration of not being able to figure the tricks out).

So on Sunday we went on a outing: a grand opportunity to bring Mr Silhouette to see St Kilda Beach and also check out the weekend market by the sidewalk. Mr Canon also took the opportunity to go "magic" shopping - with Mr P, I think we visited almost ALL known magic stores within the city.. hahaha...

Ms SG focused on her breakfast game

Before that, we popped over to one of regular haunts, Nila Restaurant just below for a filling breakfast. After having bopped our heads to indian-flick music whilst munching our breakfast away, we later wandered around Degraves Street, checking out several stores such as Il Papiro and the second hand bookstore in an attempt to kill time.






Having met up with Mr P, we crossed the bridge and paid a visit to the magic stall where we got several FREE magic shows. Coincidentally just when we were about to leave, there was a sudden invasion of the Star Wars Troops by the entrance of the Opera House. Can you say: "photo op!!"? hehe






We wandered around a bit, checking out the Sunday market by the opera house - this was certainly different compared to the stuff you get at Vic Market as it was more artsy-individually crafted items. Interesting stuff you'll see, i would definitely recommend dropping by the check it out if you are ever in town.


After we boarded a tram and headed down to St Kilda where we visited Luna Park - a tiny old-fashioned amusement park. It was in this amusement park that Mr. P won himself a "pretty" gift by playing those carnival games.





After having nandos for early dinner, we lingered around the area a bit in hopes that the rain would stop and we would be able to shoot the sunset. Unfortunately for us, although the rain did subside a bit, the sky was rather gloomy. I took the opportunity to my first sky shoots... not so great, but hey I'm learning!

Braving the cold, wet weather we did some light shoots of the beach where we encountered a really friendly dog that wanted to play ball with us. Dear god, never have I seen Mr Canon and Mr P run so fast away from the dog .. he he it just wanted to play fetch!

Later we headed back to the city for some hot drinks at Max Brenner, where we met up with Ms SG, Mr DG and Kim before heading back home to relax. Feeling quite spent when I got home, my head dozed off as soon as it touched the pillow. Must've been really knackered!

As usual, shot more than 400 photos... for more photos, you can see them:
Star Wars & Sunday Market
Luna Park & St Kilda Beach
Luna Park & St Kilda Beach II