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!

Colour Film: Sticky Shutter Problems

It is Fri-yay! It has been a long and tough week. Work has been quite unfulfilling and on top of that, a stupid my fellow grad made an incredibly selfish decision which has directly impacted me. But he is full of bloody excuses and acts as though he has done no wrong. On top of all that, I went to develop a roll of film and I came out feeling very unimpressed. Firstly, rude staff. Secondly, I have a massive scratch in my negatives. Luckily for them, the roll was already subpar so nothing was really ruined, but I was fuming. I know they scratched it when they were removing the film from the canister. Incompetence.

This roll of film wasn't the best. I was so disappointed. Unbeknownst to me, I have a sticky shutter and this has resulted in each frame to be half exposed. I actually don't know how long my camera has had this problem as I haven't developed a film from this camera since I was in Germany late last year. I have since shot around 5 rolls after that. I am a little worried that those rolls (when I do get around to developing) will all have the same problem. I have basically a brand new roll of film in there which means that I can't inspect the shutter. I have mentally written off that roll too. I just hope it was a very very recent problem.


Helensburgh's Sri Venkateswara Temple. Very disappointed that this photo didn't come out. My first Hindu temple and an incredible experience.


Live Italian music at Leichardt Italian festival a few weekends ago.


Gnocchi!



Passive area! Brings me back to my childhood.


Another shot that is ruined :(


The sticky shutter isn't so noticeable in this shot. Maybe because it doesn't take up half the frame.

Double exposure

What is funny is that I used to use textures like that for my icons and banners back in my Photoshop graphics days.

In other film news, I have purchased 10 x Kodak Tri-X 400 and 5 x Fujifilm Superia Xtra 200! I am still not a fan of Superia Xtra 400, and hopefully I enjoy 200 a little more (it was the cheapest colour film available on the site).

Colour Film: A Roll from Three Years Ago

Film photography is usually quite similar to a time capsule. The period between when I take the photo and when I develop is usually quite a while. However, I have to say that this roll takes the cake. These photos are over three years old. I wrote about it here which is when I went to Thredbo back in July 2012. I am no longer friends or in contact with anyone that I went on that weekend trip with. This really was quite the trip down memory lane. I actually don't even remember taking my Olympus Trip with me.












I am so glad to be finished with uni!

Colour Film: Floriade (Canberra)

During the Labour Day long weekend, I headed to Canberra for the day to visit Floriade. The last time I went to Floriade was when I was 6 or so (17 years ago...) and the last time I visited Canberra was when I was 11 (12 years ago...). In short, it has been a while.

For the past month or two, I have been spending most of my weekends eating out and doing typical weekend activities. Although they have been fun, heading to Canberra triggered a different feeling; I guess I really do miss heading out of Sydney and seeing "new" things. I miss travelling.

I was in Canberra for around 4.5 hours and got a little bored very quickly. I guess it might be the planned nature of the city, but it reminded me a little of the US. It must have been the wide roads which were largely deserted. 

Naturally, I chose to shoot in colour rather than black and white. I shot with Fuijifilm Superia X-Tra 400 as it was the only film sold at the camera store near my work. I am actually a little disappointed with this film. I still have two rolls to go, but from this roll the shots are all overexposed (I have adjusted it after scanning which is something I have never done before). In addition, the place where I have gotten my colour film developed for the past 5 years has been sold and I'm not too impressed with the new staff. Firstly, I really dislike the fact that places don't sleeve negatives anymore. Secondly, not only were the negatives uncut, but they had rolled 3 of my negatives together into one film canister. No. No. No. That's just asking for my negatives to be scratched (which they were) and to have dust on it (which they did). Not impressed. I will take my money elsewhere.

Colour Film: London

I feel like colour film captures the true colours and mood of the situation more than digital does without postprocessing. I didn't realise until I got to London that I had accidentally brought one roll of colour film (the other 5 were black and white). As I was scanning in this roll, my heart ached a little. Although there is something quite special about black and white, colour just looks and feels amazing.












Reminds me of EVE from Walle.


I have stayed at this hostel twice now.

BW Film: Paris

Paris looks amazing in black and white. That is all.














That is one crazy swingset.