Hunter Valley

As I wrote last post, over the weekend I visited the Hunter Region in New South Wales. Originally, we had planned to leave at 1pm however we only left at 2.15pm. It was a nice ride to the Hunter Region, although when we started to near, it became so much warmer, an almost burning sensation.








Sunrise. I didn't realise that the place we were staying at was in such a dip, in hindsight I should have trekked 10 minutes to the top of a hill.

On the Sunday, my sister, brother and sister's boyfriend were completing the ride and I was planning on wandering around the region. I had intentions of checking out Pokolbin, however once I actually reached the 'town', I discovered it was merely an intersection. Literally.














The horse I was petting. They are so lovely.







I walked a grand total of 13km on the shoulder of the road, the occasional bike path and for the last 7km, just on the edge of the road. I admit it was a little awkward walking along the road whilst everyone was in a car. Ah well.



Later, my sister and I went wine tasting and also cheese tasting. As I said previously, I am not much of a wine drinker, but we tried sweet wines predominately late harvest and moscatos which were lovely. Not the biggest fan of red wine, although I did try the most amazing red wine on the planet (because it was not dry at all). If only they were sold at the local liquor stores and not only at cellar doors.


Hands down the coolest drink ever. The first taste is a sickly sweet butterscotch followed instantly by a super hot chilli-burning sensation. Seriously, completely weird.

Packing for the Hunter Valley

Last Thursday, there was a gorgeous sunset. Only really adjusted the contrast of the photo.

One of the many sunrises I saw last week.

Tomorrow, my sister and her boyfriend, my brother and I will be heading up to the Hunter Valley for the weekend. We will only really be there for one full day as we are leaving my area at around 1pm on Saturday and most likely heading back to Sydney on the Sunday late in the afternoon. I am pretty excited as it is finally, finally a chance to get out of Sydney. Also, I don't believe I have ever been to the Hunter Valley. Everyone but me is cycling on Sunday and I am merely tagging along. Hoping to wander around Pokolbin, walking through fields and vineyards and the like. Possibly visiting some wineries by myself, although to be fair, I don't really drink alcohol so there is that.

Also planning to have a technology detox as I won't be bringing my laptop and will endeavour to not use my phone unless completely necessary (for calls).

What I have packed!

Still a little unsure if I want to bring my colour film or my black and white film.

In other news, I have been following the study abroad blog of a girl who is attending UNSW and I saw her today! Completely weird because honestly, what are the chances.

Mulberries

I like mulberries. One of my earliest memories is from when I was in Preschool when I was 4 years old. At the very right hand corner of the outdoor grass area, there was a mulberry tree. I remember there being a crowd of little kids, stuffing mulberries into their mouths. But the memory in mind is this: I picked up one mulberry and walked, what must have been at least 30m, to the bathroom inside the building to wash my mulberry and then ate it. One. Mulberry. It is one of my funnier stories that I have. At highschool, there was a mulberry tree although it got pruned constantly to avoid kids climbing up the tree and eventually it was cut down to a mere stump. On my way down the hill where I live, there is a mulberry tree and for the past month, the mulberries have been ripening and it has been my breakfast and my post-work snack as I return home. However, I remember an old highschool friend mentioning that she had a mulberry tree relatively close to her home and so alas, I have been there twice in the past week to harvest some mulberries. I walked 20 minutes one way and returned with around 300 grams of mulberries. Right now they are de-stemmed and in the freezer as I am not sure what I want to do with them.


Mulberries also stain your hands like no tomorrow.

Lindsey Stirling @ the Metro Theatre

Lindsey Stirling's concert was held at the Metro Theatre on 28 August 2013. It was her last show for her worldwide tour and it was brilliant.

My favourite shot.

I wasn't sure how many fans she had in Sydney, but she managed to sell out the venue which has a capacity of 1400. I had to pick up my ticket from the venue itself and arrived there at around 5pm (doors opened at 7pm). At the time, there were 5 people waiting in line, however when I returned after dinner at 5.45pm there were around 30-40 people in line. I started chatting to the man in front of me who was from Canberra and completing his PhD in astrophysics. Also met another guy who looked so similar to Leo from Veronica Mars (Max Greenfield), even his smile. Matt (Canberra guy) taught me something new: there is an English children's game called conkers. The things you learn everyday.

I have been to three other concerts/ shows in my life. By that I mean three different artists: Ingrid Michaelson, Taylor Swift and Rufus Wainwright. The demographic of those fans are somewhat similar; the age range somewhat differ but the vast majority are female. Lindsey's fanbase is quite diverse. There are those who like dubstep, her covers of game theme songs, her dancing and then there is me. I don't particularly like her covers of game theme songs, purely because I don't play the game and there isn't that connection with the piece. I wouldn't say that I am a dubstep fan either, but I enjoy her music. Her compositions are different and thoroughly enjoyable to listen to. I was second row behind the barricade which would have been impressive. Except for the fact that the crowd was 98% male. Tall males. I was either armpit height or shoulder height if I was lucky. The three people in front of me were a good 15-30cm taller than I was.

Her opening act would not leave the stage. He was some DJ, and his name escapes me. He wasn't 'famous' (didn't turn up anything on Google) and he was DJ-ing for a good 80 minutes. Finally Lindsey came on and she was just amazing.

It was super hard to take decent photos. All my photos turned out super grainy because it was a) very dark, b) the lights were going crazy and c) the smoke machine was adding additional grain to my already grainy pictures. Plus she was moving everywhere. But alas, here are my best photos.

Still don't quite understand how she managers to have so much control to bend down and then up again whilst playing.

 The best quality picture out of the 400 that I took. Yep.

Not my photo, but a picture of the set list

My favourite from her entire show was her medley of Phantom of the Opera. I adore her medley but to see her perform in person was just amazing. I cannot stress how much I love the medley. Side note, I love the music of Phantom of the Opera but dislike the story. Creepy guy watches girl grow up, seduces girl and girl falls in love with creepy guy who ultimately throws a tantrum. And people say that Edward Cullen is creepy. Of course, I also loved her performance of Transcendence and My Immortal. When she was palying Zelda and Skyrim, I completely blanked out because I just didn't connect with the pieces. Ah well.

Kudos to Lindsey. She was sweating so much (not only was her face completely sweaty but so were her arms) and I am surprised her make up didn't just slip off her face. At one stage, she played a very off note and her facial expression was very funny.

Going back to the crowd. It is quite something being in a crowd predominately male and having the crowd sing to 'Call me Maybe'. It is quite surreal.


This entry is very long and going everywhere. But there are perks to being female in certain circumstances. I feel that generally in crowds, it is more acceptable and tolerated to have women standing very close to other women or men. But for men to be standing very close to other women or even other men, I guess it is not as okay. I am not suggesting that I am pressing myself against other people or invade their personal space on a regular basis. But just an observation at the show. I was quite close to the people in front of me (and accidentally touched the under 18 year old's butt countless times. Whoops) but looking around, everyone was quite spaced out, relatively. (The only reason I was so close was because there was a slight elevation behind the barricade which would have made me 3cm taller).


She reminds me of a part of the poem, To This Day.

we grew up learning to cheer on the underdog
because we see ourselves in them

I will add my videos to the next post since this is getting overly long. I can't wait for her next show in Sydney.

Lindsey Stirling @ Martin Place

Lindsey Stirling was performing for the Sunrise show for a pre-recorded performance at Martin Place. I am going to her show this coming Wednesday and I am very excited. She was scheduled to perform at 9am so I arrived at 8am, as I wasn't quite sure how famous she was here in Sydney. When I got there, there was quite a crowd. However, it was for Jessie J. Truth be told, I didn't know who Jessie J was - although I later recognised her music- but I definitely didn't know what she looked like.




There were probably around 120 people for Jessie J's performance and for Lindsey, there were a maximum of 30. And I was pretty sure that most weren't sure who she was, but they just wanted to be on tv. Namely all the teens and tweens.

She is amazing. My favourite pieces and covers by her include:

• Crystallize
• Transcendence
• Song of the Caged Bird
• My Immortal (Cover)
• Phantom of the Opera (Medley)

At the end of her performance, I went to the side in the hope of getting a photo with her. I am still quite bummed that I just missed out as the security guard had almost taken my camera, but her tour manager said, "no more photos". I try not to let it bother me, but it still does bother me. I am understanding that they do have a schedule and can't stick around forever. HOWEVER, considering that there were only 10 people waiting at the side (and I am guessing the only fans out of the meesly 30 people who viewed her performance {the channel 7 people tried to squish people together as much as they could, just to give the illusion that there were a lot more people than what the actual situation was}) it really didn't make much sense as to why she couldn't stay for another 3 minutes maximum. Out of the 10 people, she took a photo with 3. I mean really? It honestly still baffles me.


Side note, she is actually quite short. Even shorter than I am, which is surprising because I didn't expect that.


Also, all the teens that were watching her performance were hanging around for this guy. Adam. They were all gushing over him and managed to take a photo with him. I don't even know. Also, some of the girls were there for the drummer who was also Reece Mastin's drummer. Hmm.

Sunset at North Curl Curl

This post is long overdue as these photos were taken on the 2nd August. After a day at university, I decided to head to my nearest beach. More accurately beaches as it is divided into North Curl Curl and South Curl Curl. On the way, I walked by my highschool and it was quite nostalgic.














On an unrelated note. All I can think as of late is this: trust no one.

N2 Extreme Gelato

Haven't posted for a while. I originally had plans to meet a friend who I hadn't seen in over a year for dinner. However, my Saturday class finished early and we ended up meeting for lunch instead for ramen at World's Square. It was both an interesting and awkward experience. What was interesting was sitting in her car that was completely decked out in Hello Kitty gear.