Category Archives: Travel

Fryerstown Antique Fair

I discovered from Arky that Fryerstown held a fairly sizable antique fair. Sensing the opportunity to pick up and restore some old hand tools. Sarah and I now have a hankering since building Windsor chairs by hand.

Having spent the afternoon in Fryerstown for day one (the best day apparently), we spent some time in Castlemaine. The historic house Buda gave us some gardening inspiration, if only our land were flat.

Sculpture by the Sea

Capping of an unexpectedly longer than anticipated trip to Sydney, I’d caught up with Aunty Cindy who’s recently enthusiastically embraced a Nikon D7000. She’d organised to meet up with some friends who do night photography with longer exposures, and playing with the effects of light.

Barbarically, this meant a 4am start after celebrating grandad’s 89th the previous night but I thought: “what the heck”. I could always sleep on the plane (which indeed I did – I was snoring before the safety announcements).

Circular Quay

What can you say or shoot about Sydney that isn’t a cliche? Harbour views. Meh. Harbour Bridge. Meh. Ferry ride. Meh. Opera House. Meh. Centrepoint tower. Meh.

Still, it is all spectacular, not the least bit for the fact that people are expected to be tourists and are less suspicious with photography. The challenge I found was to shoot different aspects and angles, a few of which I’ve included. I especially like angles of ‘the coathanger’ which play tricks with your mind in 2 dimensions.

I do always find bare Windows desktops in public places (which I assume should be actually doing something other than displaying a desktop and tasktray notification) amusing…

Sydney Harbour Bridge

I took a Ferry ride from Cockatoo Island back to Circular Quay via the scenic (and probably spectacularly expensive harbour-side properties) route. I happened upon a spare seat at the front which gave me the opportunity for some snaps, although I was slightly timid partly for the signage that claimed no liability for wet gear or passengers, but mostly for the liklihood of going in the drink when concentrating on some shot or other.

As it happened, the forecourt of the Opera House that wasn’t being dug up for renovations, held a display of the Sony World Photography Awards. A number of which (the movement ones in particular) I liked, but like the art heathen I am I failed to appreciate others.

 

Darling Harbour

Darling Harbour has come such a long way from what I remembered of it in the late 80s. That pink shopping centre chic on one side and the aquarium way over on the otherside are almost lost in the vibrancy of buzz going on. I remember grandma at the aquarium (way back when) going to each of the exhibits in turn saying (in Chinese): “that one’s nice, that one’s nice, that one’s delicious, that one’s nice…”

A ferry terminal from which to do a round trip to Circular Quay via Cockatoo Island, and more restaurants and cafes than you can poke a bread stick at, my favourite discovery was a gelateria next to Imax which served black sesame gelato. Not quite as nice as the ones we had in Kyoto, but still very yummy.

A walk all the way dorn Sussex Street to Chinatown to find some dinner, I was disappointed at the vibe of the street and mall offerings, so ended up going up into a food court and getting some Japanese from there. Which was all the more disappointing for its gooey tofu and half cooked gummy over garliced gyoza. From another stall I’d hoped for a bubblecup but got an oversweet lychee tea with stodgy pearls in it. Good thing I had a kilometre to walk the experience off.

Sydney CBD

Having finished my meetings for the day, I decided to get some air so grabbed the camera & went for a bit of a stroll. The Four Points Sheraton at Darling Harbour (which does an absolutely gorgeous seafood buffet) was a pretty location, but all the moreso as the room I had faced a multistoried carpark and traffic as opposed to the (soon discovered) Darling Harbour itself.

I discovered from one of the local attendees that a Banksy and others exhibition was being held at Cockatoo Island, so thought I’d do a recce do find where and when to catch a ferry. First stop, I zigged instead of zagged and ended up in Sydney’s CBD so took the opportunity to have a look around. It was only upon reviewing the pics that Anna pointed out they were a bit Jeffrey Smart…

Kingston SE

Not to be especially confused, but there are apparently 2 (if not more) towns called Kingston. The one we want is Kingston SE, home of the big lobster. We were initially sad as the lobster season was over a month away, however as it turned out, they’d started early so we had a delicious seafood lunch from the little shop by the pier.

Cape Jaffa was a revelation as the last time we were down that way, there was no marina as such (just wee scale models, and posters of happy families pointing skywards to the future). Stage 1 looked completed, but were it not for Cape Jaffa being so far from practically anything (and possibly also the economic downturn), it would otherwise be a booming place.

Having found the beaches of Little Dip, we thought we’d make a return visit to get some proper sunset pics.