Jah Bar

For my early birthday dinner, I went to a tapas place in my area. As multicultural as Sydney is, I find that certain cuisines dominate particular suburbs which can be a little annoying when I don't want to trek out too far for dinner. My area of Sydney has a lot of burgers, pizzas and the occasional Thai. So I was quite surprised to discover that there was tapas nearby! I've eaten at The Strand at Dee Why many times now and never noticed this place.

This was my friend's first time eating tapas and I haven't eaten tapas in a very long time so we were quite excited.

Sweet potato // $15

wood fired with honey, smoked paprika, oregano and confit garlic

Cider glazed chorizo // $17

with toasted almond picada

Moroccan braised Lamb // $18

slow roasted, pulled apart & put back together

I didn't take a photo of the Moroccan braised lamb unfortunately! My favourite was the sweet potatoes; the honey made it so incredible tasty.

Jah Bar was an interesting place. We were seated at the bar and could see the wood fire oven and the staff assemble some of the tapas. Like a lot of other places at The Strand, it's a little expensive however I wouldn't mind going again someday. Especially interested to go during warmer nights and sit outside by the ocean.

Matilda: The Musical

Last Thursday night I watched Matilda at the Lyric Theatre in Sydney. It was a birthday present from Mr Paella and it was incredible! I had heard amazing reviews from the musical but had zero idea about the musical aside from the obvious fact it is based off Ronald Dahl's novel.

I absolutely adore this musical. It is near the top of my favourite musicals right now, just under or very close to Wicked. It's a musical that appeals to both children and adults and is hilarious. That being said, I didn't expect it to be so well rounded or so touching. There are moments of hilarity (esecially with Mrs Wormwood and Mr Wormwood) but then moments of sadness.

The role of Matilda was played by Georgia Taplin for my show (shared with three other girls) and she was amazing. Actually everything about the show was incredible; the production, the songs and the amazing cast of children and adults.

My two favourite songs are: Naughty and When I Grow Up. I'm a little torn which one is my favourite because the lyrics of 'Naughty' resonate with me. But 'When I Grow Up' really touched me when I was sitting in the theatre. It was an incredible scene with the children and adults sitting and then "flying" on swings into the audience. It's a very bittersweet song. This review perfectly captures my thoughts:

And When I Grow Up, complete with kids and grown-ups playing on oversized swings over the front few rows of the audience, does something which seems impossible — it simultaneously speaks to adults and children in different ways. It’s joyous, cheeky and playful but has a bittersweet resonance for many adults. Have we grown up into the people we wanted to be? Did we take the innocence of childhood for granted?

And when I grow up, I will eat sweets everyday on the way to work and I
Will go to bed late every night.
And I will wake up when the sun comes up and I will watch cartoons until my
Eyes go square and I won't care because I'll be all grown up.
When I grow upHa staying up late. Late these days is 11pm because of work the following day. How adult is that?!

I would highly recommend this musical!

BW Film: Sydney

I got two rolls of black and white film developed by a camera store near work. This time, relatively cheap and no scratches! Although I've now come to realise that developing black and white film really is an art and the two professionals that have done it have resulted in two different kind of photos. This time, the shadows and the highlights in the photo are a lot more distinct. I also feel like the grain is more obvious. Compare with the previous roll.











Seeing these photos also makes me realise that I need to be more aware of the light and shadows in photos. Just another lesson on my very long learning curve.

BW Film: Sticky Shutter Problems Round Two

Hopefully this is the last roll with this sticky shutter problem as I still have two underdeveloped rolls from Europe. This was my first go at developing and it didn't go so well. Both my rolls were underdeveloped which is a little heartbreaking. But what is even more heartbreaking is that the shots I was most looking forward to had the most severe shutter problem. Seriously. That hurts. I have another camera that doesn't have this problem, but I have been feeling a little frustrated and disheartened with film which is why I have been shooting with digital again. So many things can go wrong which you don't know until you have it in your hands. The film might be crap. Check. The camera might have a problem. Check. The person developing it can be incompetent. Check. My lack of developing skills results in shit photos. Check. Check. Check.

As mentioned above, I underdeveloped my roll and I had to do a lot of Photoshop-ing on all the photos. The photos aren't sharp, the grain is out of this world and the details in the lighter areas are almost non existent. I can only improve I suppose. But those lost shots really bring me down.




The grain on that shirt is crazy.







This one breaks my heart.


This one too.


See the loss in detail?

Adventures in Sydney: Dural Christmas Tree Farm

I can't believe that the festive season is already here, where has 2015 gone? I have never gotten into the whole spirit of it though. Perhaps it is because I worked in hospitality and retail which meant that this period was characterised with angry, pushy and overly-demanding individuals. I'm sorry, but is it really my fault that you decided to look for a Christmas tree a week before Christmas?

I feel that I am brainwashed in a sense about what a Christmas should be. A Christmas that isn't during summer is a start. Sunbear used to tell me that a summer Christmas wasn't a "true" Christmas, which irked me. What did he expect me to do? Pretend it's winter? Change the seasons?

From movies and tv shows, it seemed that a lot of people have real Christmas trees. And because I didn't know anyone (even now, I only know one) who had a real tree, this was always very very cool.

This has been a very long introduction for this post.

In short. Real Christmas trees have always been very cool to me and that is why I visited the Dural Christmas Tree Farm. Not to buy a tree, but just to look.






Next year's trees! Although there are a few that are for this year. 

Dural is a semi-rural suburb of Sydney. I don't think a lot of people would think of Dural if they think of Sydney. It reminded me a little of Terrey Hills, namely that it seemed as though I was a little in the middle of nowhere. I mean look at that dilapidated house and the gate!


And yes. Seeing the trees were very very cool.

Blue Mountains Botanic Gardens

Sydney is slowly creeping towards summer and there has already been a couple days where it has been in the high 30s. Two Fridays ago it was actually 43°C which was horrible. But when the weekend rolls round, it is completely dreary. It has been raining or overcast almost every second weekend since I started my job. Perhaps it's a sign from above that fulltime work really isn't for me. I jest.

I have been feeling quite down for a while now. It's a combination of a few things but in essence, I just feel so trapped. I knew that it was going to rain but I decided to head out to the Blue Mountains. When I am travelling, I still go out as planned even if the weather is kind of crap and decided I need to adopt that mentality for my own weekends back in Sydney.

I hired a car from GoGet and was stuck circling the same few streets since I kept on missing the bloody ramp to the motorway. Seriously. It took me over 20 minutes before I was actually on my way. I'm not a confident driver. I rarely ... well more like never drive. I have driven twice since July and it was just to the shops and back. And back in July when I drove in South Australia, that was the first time in 5 years.

What amazes me about Sydney is the size of metroplitan Sydney. It just keeps growing and encompassing previous separate towns as suburbs of Sydney. For example, Richmond does not feel like Sydney. It feels very much like a large country town with historic buildings but it is a suburb of Sydney.






It was bucketing when I was in Sydney, but there was a crazy amount of fog once I arrived at the Blue Mountains.





There is meant to be a very pretty view of the Blue Mountains (See here). That being said, it was still very cool walking around the garden. Definitely had an eerie, if not spooky, kind of feeling. It was very foggy and it was drizzling.









To be honest, I haven't been to many places in the Blue Mountains. I've done Wentworth and Katoomba but the rest is unknown to me. I have always been a little reluctant to go to the Blue Mountains since it is a little boring but I think I will try to see more of the area. I miss seeing empty land and enjoy being away from the hustle and bustle of city life.

GPO Cheese & Wine Room

For the past 5 years, I have walked past the GPO Building on Martin Place twice a day. However, it was only a few months ago when I realised that there are restaurants inside the building and it is connected to The Westin!

For Mr Paella's birthday dinner, I picked the GPO Cheese & Wine Room. When I had booked a few days prior, I had selected the number of people and also the seating location (tunnel rather than the main room). However when we arrived, the wait staff didn't have that additional information on hand which was a little annoying. Doesn't that defeat the whole point of making a reservation?


The highlight of the night was the grilled prawns entree. I'm not a fan of seafood generally, but the prawns were really well seasoned.



The mains were a little disappointing. We ordered the chicken spit roast w/ french fries and the mac & cheese with Italian sausage. Although the chicken was really nice, the french fries were okay. Not terrible, but they were effectively a better version of McDonald's fries. Comparable to a fresh batch of McDonald's fries in fact.

The mac & cheese was a dish that I had been craving for a while and it wasn't creamy enough. It was a little watery actually.

It seems that the cheese fondue is quite popular there and, of course, the cheese boards. But I'm not entirely sure if I would revisit. The GPO Cheese & Wine Rooms seems more like a place I wouldn't mind eating at rather than a place on my list of places to eat at in the Sydney CBD.

Ending the night with a walk around Circular Quay.

Cafe Oratnek

When I ask people what to do in Sydney, invariably people end up rattling off a list of places to eat. Although this is usually not what I'm after, it does expose me to a variety of places that a) I haven't heard about or b) are the current 'popular' eateries.

Cafe Oratnek is a place that I have been hearing about and I decided to pop in for a visit with Mr Paella. It was a pretty miserable day when I visited which may have been a good thing actually since there wasn't a line! It's at a bit of an odd location; close to Prince Alfred Park or the giant Australia Post building on Cleveland Street.



I ordered the soy chai latte which was alright. I just wish that places would actually use proper chai rather than chai mixes which does not compare to the real thing.



My dish was the mashed 4 spring peas & beans, jamon serrano, spinach, kale, parmesan on toast with poached egg. I'm not really a peas kind-of-gal, but surprisingly I really liked it! The jamon was probably my favourite part of the dish. I also tried Mr Paella's soft shell crab burger (not pictured) and it was pretty good. My favourite was probably the chips. Super crunchy and beautifully flavoured.

Cafe Oratnek is well known for it's matcha dishes/drinks such as matcha latte, matcha lamington and also matcha french toast. I'm actually inclined to revisit to try other dishes which is a rarity for me!