BRIGHT ON COLOURS

MELBOURNE 2014

Food-ing and beach-ing our way through Melbourne's beachside suburbs of Brighton and St Kilda.  Sorry, but Sydney wins this round, though Melbourne gets bonus points for the decorating.

EATING NORTH MELBOURNE

MELBOURNE 2014

Halfway down the world and north of Melbourne... lots of food awaits. Words and reviews at The Afterimage - The Town Mouse, Yo-chi and select restaurants from Fitzroy + Carlton.

TO MARKET, TO MARKET

MELBOURNE 2014

A selection of snaps from three of Melbourne's distinctive markets - cute, zany Rose St Artist's Market, classi Queen Victoria Market and the eclectic thrill-of-the-hunt inspiring Camberwell Sunday Markets. More words at The Afterimage - link at the very bottom.

EATING MELBOURNE CBD

MELBOURNE 2014

On food, food and food. Because you should really go to Melbourne with $2000 more than you planned and a second stomach if you're able to. 

INTERCHANGING IN TOKYO

Like many transport hubs, Tokyo station is in constant motion - a nucleus centre of transport lifelines winding seamlessly through the spaces and filled with people who all seem to know exactly where to go.

The workers gotta work, the tourists gotta tourist and if you don't know your north from south (yet), you better get out of the way or at least head on purposefully to the information booths to find out.

Be prepared to pay attention and do some emergency sidestepping. And perhaps practice the art of gracefully maneuveuring your giant, awkward suitcase (with large soft bag on top) in all directions without running into people too often.  

TALE OF TWO CITIES

Kyoto, in many ways, feels like two cities. In Shijo-dori and Gion, a riverbank full of autumn trees and bicycles feels separated, in so many ways, from the gleaming towers of skyscrapers, beautiful lines of steel-coated architecture at Kyoto Station and the polished, brightly lit aisles of ISETAN from the modern skyscrapers.

The small overlaps you may see are in the lanterns of the pedestrian awnings or in the beautiful calligraphy decorating the walls of a shop inside the large shopping centres.

CITY OF LIGHTS

Close to the main shopping streets of Dotonbori, Shinsaibashi-suji and Ebisu-bashi, Osaka is the condensed, loud version of your Times Square billboard extravaganza, curiously merged with incredibly laid back pockets of cheerful, Kansai-ben speaking locals in the smaller areas around Namba, dotted by shops and chefs who stop to pose for photos.

TASTE MAKERS

Two days before exams and time for therapeutic harddrive scanning for un-posted photos... You wouldn't think that street food making, ice cream (Messina, Round Two) and food from upcoming restaurant reviews (that are very delayed, admittedly) would go together that well but they're all accomplishing the common purpose of making me wish for the end of finals so there's that, right?

Enjoy - I will be here sipping lemon water and ensuring I can prove all the elements of a murder charge.

FRESH FROM THE OVEN

Unfortunately, I did not inherit my mother's talent for cooking and was not raised in a household where baked goods (let alone desserts) were a regular thing (we are more of a Chinese hotpot kind of family). Despite that, somehow I developed a fondness for pastries and basically all things involving shortbread and crumbly, rich, decadent sweet things that constituted your weekly serving of saturated fat (mm!).

But every once in awhile, I attempt to make things and, in this case, it was dark chocolate and walnut brownies, a beginner-level dessert if there ever was one.

Let's be honest, part of this was for the novelty of taking cooking photos on a sunny, well-lit day. No shame.

YOU ARE WHAT YOU DEVOUR

A collection of foodstuffs from the winter holidays, mostly from Oiden, Mappen & Takeru because Japanese food is my eternal low-budget-but-slightly-healthier-than-fast-food go-to eateries.

As we get older and the list of novelty activities (game centers, karaoke, sticker photos, laser tag, movies, art gallery hops) to do in the city slowly runs its course, a fun night out with friends has morphed into a dinner of good food and good conversation.

Are we getting old? Does Sydney need a few more exciting places to entertain young adults that doesn't involve clubbing and bars? (my VIDinc recap will be coming very soon on The Afterimage).

Should we be paying more attention to festivals and workshops? Should we be too busy with work and holiday internships? Or is the food just too good to pass on? Those are the questions.

AU NATUREL

The good thing about having various wildlife hanging around within petting distance was that we discovered some unsuspected kangaroo whisperer skills.

THE SEA HAS VANISHED

There is a story behind the poor man's tripod we set up in the middle of Cave Beach (Jervis Bay) and it involves thirteen photographers with a tenacious DIY attitude, a desire for some group photos and a lack of bystanders on the beach.

FLUORESCENT SPARKS

Favourite snaps from winter holidays. The famous Gelato Messina on a busy Saturday night and sitting under the harsh fluorescent lights of a nearby park that turned the gelato into richly flavoured otherworldly moons. My little camera worked hard without flash so forgive the slight motion blur. Lots of laughing conversation, gummy bears, 10pm Woolworths runs and sparklers.

Also - I now have a Facebook Page. Because Social Media Marketing 101 (but no, it's so I can share stuff with friends more easily than posting dozens of blogspot links on my Timeline)

HALF LIVES

Too many of these photos have been sitting in my harddrive without a blog post to call home and most are remnants of food shots and random events from last semester (and the beginnings of Winter Break). It's a veritable mess, really. We have black sesame drink foam art from Hana Hana, shots from uni society events, a Lorraine's Patisserie marscapone cake and glimpses of what I'm going to write about in my Takeru review and creepy Gelato Messina shots - more to come later.

But mostly just food (managing multiple blogs and WeekendNotes account is hard).

With second semester of uni set to suck out my soul for another thirteen weeks very soon, I thought I might as well post these shots up and get a clean start. I'm working on a post with my favourite shots from Winter Break as well, so keep an eye out (:

STOP AT CHECKOUT

I am a shameless snack-experimenter and I am particularly fond of snacks from Asia - I prefer them over brands like Cadbury or Starburst. Something about the packaging - especially snacks from Japan - is just so photogenic and the slightly different and occasionally 'out there' flavours just really appeal. I've written about the snacks on my WeekendNotes articles but here are my favourite shots from the series.

I still have to work on my bravado and my ability to not look suspicious when snapping photos at the shelves, but this Asian grocery 'photoshoot' is something I've wanted to do for a long time now, and I'm glad I finally managed to do it.

ELEMENT6

Photogenic food is always going to add brownie points to any restaurant. I am a pretty avid food photographer (and by that I mean I'm that person who quickly take photos of food at restaurants/cafes as they are served and do not style food in any way') because they are convenient and good subjects. Most of these are bigger versions of the shots used in my element6 cafe review on WeekendNotes (have a read if you would like) with a few 'outtakes' - ie. food I didn't eat and random shots from a lovely brunch with S, M and M

A STUDY IN SWEETS

No one can accuse Sweet Infinity of false advertising. Cold rainy days called for a lovely Red Velvet Cake slice to be shared with C and chai teas and lattes all around.

We concluded our adventures at The Strand with some more Bon Bon Fine Chocolate appreciation and crossed over to Pitt St Westfield for some oogling at the aesthetic loveliness of Laduree