BW Film: Edinburgh & Dublin

After a few years, I have finally invested in a decent 35mm negative scanner. It is actually amazing, although it did cost me over $300. Yikes. When I went for my 2 month Grad trip in 2014/2015, I took my Canon Rebel Ti (300V) and a few rolls of film. When I was in Berlin, I got 3/6 rolls developed and nearly 10 months later I have scanned those ones in!

These are all shot with my Canon Rebel Ti with Kodak Tri-X 400.















One of the many reasons why I love this camera, it allows me to easily take multiple exposures.

From this first batch, it is quite evident to me that there will be a learning curve for me. Firstly, I need to figure out my ideal settings for the scanner (what resolution do I really need). Secondly, I need to think about my shots a little more carefully with special emphasis on what it will look like in black and white. A few of my shots are quite flat (not pictured), a consequence of being black and white, but I am super eager to have more of a play with my camera.

I was a little hesitant to take my film overseas as I had to go through a lot of bag scanners and it was a little nerve wrecking knowing that each pass could/would subject my film to damage. Luckily, I don't see any damage to the rolls developed (although I still have 3 yet to be developed which was subjected to even more X-rays) however it does appear my negatives are quite scratched. I'm not sure if it happened in the manner it is currently stored or during development.

I really do love film.

Kit Kat, Japanese & Choux

For the past three weeks it has been quite hectic at work. It has been a little hard to keep up with my blog which has bothered me a little. But I think I will be back in the swing of things soon.

This is a compilation of a variety of notable food that I have consumed within that period.






1 // Customised Kit Kat from the Kit Kat Studio @ Westfield
I honestly can't quite remember what my combination was; dark chocolate with dried mango, salted caramel popcorn and maybe .. honey comb? Like the Magnum popup a few years ago it is more for the novelty factor.




2 // Yayoi
My go-to place for dinner is The Galeries, notably Ichi-ba Boshi. There are two new Japanese restaurants there now which seems slightly excessive. I have now been to both - Lotus and Yayoi  (pictured above) - and nothing to really write home about though.





3 // Choux
I have been seeing these from I Miss Choux for the past few weeks and was intrigued. I actually had no idea what choux was and assumed that the 'choux' was a profterole. Not quite. Choux pastry is the type of pastry used for profiteroles. Mmm I liked the green tea & black seasame one better than the Gaytime which was slightly too sweet, which is surprising since I'm not a fan of green tea/matcha items.

I have also been back into the swing of film photography, in particular black and white. I'm trying to shoot mainly with film which is a little challenging. It requires a lot of commitment on my part as I don't have the ability to see the photos that I take instantly. I know that I will have more of a delay between when I take photos of my outings and when I write about it which is also a personal challenge. But it is all good!

Melbourne

My second work trip was to Melbourne! Luckily, the hotel was in the CBD area which meant that I was able to do things at night after work. However, the work office is in Port Melbourne which is an industrial area. The area is the offspring of Alexandria and Port Botany. In fact, 500m down the road, there was a depot which filled cement mixers with .. well cement.

A random collection of photos.

1) Dinner by myself at an amazing Italian place, Il Solito Posto. I ordered a risotto and it was so incredible filling and delicious.





2) T by Luxbite was 50m away from my hotel and I bought the Emoji tart. It wasn't very nice. But I did also buy 8 macarons which I carefully took back to Sydney for my mate. The salted caramel was to die for.





3) Bagel from Five & Dime Bagel Co was also 50m away from my hotel. This was the bagel w/ pastrami for $11. Yikes






I also visited Little Africa which served Ethiopian food (not pictured). This was my first time having any sort of African cuisine and it was amazing. I would highly recommend the restaurant. Even thinking about it makes me happy.

This was my third visit to Melbourne (I visited last year) and this time round, I could see why a lot of people love Melbourne. But I'm still not convinced it is that amazing. I still love Adelaide.

Adventures in Sydney: Auburn Cherry Blossom Festival

It is now officially Spring in Sydney which is crazy! I can't believe that there are only 4 months left in 2015. I remember when I was a kid and a year felt like a really long time. And I didn't believe it when the grown ups would say, "oh this year is flying by". Aside from the fact that I can't believe that I am a grown up now, I completely understand the sentiment.

I visited Auburn Botanical Gardens 4 weeks ago and last weekend, I went for the Cherry Blossom Festival. My mate is from Auburn and as a resident he gets free entry (non residents pay $5) so I was his +1/ they let me go in with him. It was a little underwhelming but it was very cute seeing the little kids dressed up. In fact, quite a few people were dressed up for the day which I didn't expect.









I still largely believe that Sydney is quite boring. But for 2015 I have been on a mission to see as much of Sydney as I can. My next outing will be to Cabramatta Moon Festival. I haven't been to Cabra for well over a decade and I am not a fan of moon cake either so this may seem a little odd. But like I always say: why not.

Gold Coast

After my trip to South Australia, I immediately headed to the Gold Coast, Queensland for 3.5 days. The only reason I went was to support my sister and her friends as they ran the half marathon there. I actually regret going up there because there was nothing to do there. I ended up waking at 8am every morning, walked around a little bit and then took a nap on the beach for two hours or so.

I only took photos on two occasions: North Stradbroke Island (would not recommend visiting*) and at The Spit.

* I am being a little unfair. Objectively it is a stunning place. But perhaps I am simply spoilt, but I find the east coast of Australia to be generally quite similar and therefore boring to me. 

Perth

I have recently returned from a two week work trip interstate and I am very glad to be back in Sydney. Travelling for work really isn't that glamorous and I got a little sick of it by the second day. Though, I am very grateful for the opportunity and I got to visit Perth, Western Australia for the first time! As I was there for work, I didn't have time to properly explore the city and subsequently I don't have too many photos. However, I did meet up with a guy from Tinder; we 'met' a few months ago when he had an interview in Sydney. He drove me around Perth for a little while (Fremantle is gorgeous!) which was super lovely!








Eating alone is still something that makes me a little uncomfortable. For the first night, I ate alone at The Greenhouse. I was quite disappointed with the food.











Perth is very much one extended country town and kind of non descript. That being said, I do want to return to Western Australia for the wildflowers! However, it is such a long trip over; it is a 5 hr flight from Sydney (and a 3.5hr flight back due to the winds).

Adventures in Sydney: Auburn

Auburn was a suburb that I wanted to visit for a while and for the Sydneysiders/Australians, how ridiculous is this. Seriously ridiculous.


Why Auburn? It is apparently home to the largest Turkish supermarket in Sydney and has a large Turkish community. At this point, I was experiencing a small bout of wanderlust blues (in particular, I was thinking about my trip in Turkey).

I first visited the Auburn Botanic Gardens and the Japanese Gardens. It was very cool seeing the peacocks in the garden!










Lunch was at Mado Cafe which is highly raved about online. I had manti which are Turkish dumplings. The food was different so in that respect it was nice, but the food was pretty nondescript.






It was definitely very cool to see Turkish snacks that I had purchased whilst in Turkey on the shelf however the store was quite small which I didn't expect. But overall, it was a lovely day out and I got to see another part of Sydney that I haven't really been in before.

Returning to Adelaide

The last post for my trip in South Australia! All that I had left was to drive back 450km to Adelaide from Flinders Ranges. By this stage, I was sick of the music on my iPod and struggled to find radio reception; the only clear radio stations were talkback stations. In fact, I tuned in once when the presenters were discussing different types of potatoes. Yes, really.

The drive back was pretty uneventful and what I have discovered in remote Australia is that the roads are really friggin straight.








I parked on the side of a relatively busy stretch of road, squeezed past shrubs and jumped over the fence for this photo. I actually have a scar on my left hand from a scratch that I got from the shrubs.



The coolest part of the drive back was when I was stuck behind a vehicle that was going at 40km/h on a 110km/h stretch of road.

How cool is that? I have never seen a L plate that large before! 

One of the many things that I learnt on this trip was that leggings are awesome for hiking/long drives. Comfort aside, they make peeing so much easier. Especially when driving. It is simply so easy to just do my business quickly at the side of the road in the bushes or even just behind my car door without having to worry about buttons or zippers.

There are still two states (well one is a territory) which I have yet to visit in Australia; Tasmania and Northern Territory. To be fair, I have yet to properly explore Western Australia however South Australia is my favourite state and Adelaide is my favourite capital city. I love the city and I love the area. Job aside, I would move to Adelaide in a heartbeat. What do I love about South Australia? Well it has such disparate landscapes. With the incredible Great Australian Bight (which I have only seen from a plane) to the pristine areas such as Kangaroo Island and to remote country/ outback regions further north in the state. I would love to go back to explore the coastline of the Bight and also to the salt lakes such as Lake Eyre. One day.