It's been so hectic and so stressful, this Melbourne job. But I've actually enjoyed myself so much with the little time that I have outside of the job. Catching up with old friends, just like old times. And i've even got ivan my old classmate staying with me in the hotel,paid for by my boss, which is somewhat wrong, but who cares. haha.

I've been eating out in the city a lot actually. Been to some nice places and some not so nice places. The Pacific house dinner on latrobe st made me vomit, literally. Then there's the hainanese chicken rice at hawker cafe which I adore (been there 2 times since I'm back here). Sambal kampung in chinatown is not too bad for malaysian food. Mercadante on Lygon's chicken parmigiana was awful, but i still love the pollo.

Bennett's Lane was okay, although manchester lane is heaps better. I'm just not comfortable with the idea of a bar where everyone stands around. And the music was not that great the night we were there. Also watched a musical at the arts centre. The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plains! hehehe...

Sadly I've not been attending OCF, as much as I would like to. I've been working ungodly hours. And not getting paid for those extra hours really suck. Ok I shall stop whining now and be merry. It's Saturday night anyway. oooohooooo

Oh well, I thought Melbourne was gonna be fun. It WAS, at least for the first 2 days. It was downhill from there. I'm now seriously pissed at having to cover my boss for agreeing to something he never discussed with the engineers, and asking something we could not possibly deliver on time. He's giving us the shits when it's clearly a miscommunication on his part and he wouldn't admit to it. And now I'm working 12 hour days to cover his mistake. I wonder if I'm gonna survive the next month..

I've just acquired a new addition to my photographic gear with the purchase of a circular polarizer, so today I decided to test drive it. Here's a shot of the QVB building, one of the trendy shopping arcades in Sydney's George St. Its architecture is reminiscent of the Victorian era.

The skies turn out bluer than usual with the polarizer. I like.

I decided to do the Manly to The Spit walk, which is a 10km walk from Manly to The Spit Bridge, which is the entrance to Middle Harbour (close to Sydney Harbour lah..) This here is the start of my journey, at Manly after alighting from the ferry


A few kilometres later, I can see this gap where the ocean comes in


A ferry on its way back to Circular Quay ..

A pool like this is quite popular in beaches in Sydney. There's also one on Bondi Beach where the waves seem to crash into the pool. But the water on this particular beach is calmer


Boats berthed near the beach..


A few hours (and a very sore leg) later..



A random dog..

And finally, I reached The Spit Bridge! What? Are you kidding me, this is the bridge? There's not even a view here for goodness! Sigh.. 3 hours of walking for this..


So I took a bus back to Manly and then a ferry back to the Harbour. It was almost sunset at this time, which made for some spectacular photography.



One thing I've learned, sunsets are the best time for outdoor photography, and midday is the worst, especially in ozone-free Australia!


The harbour coming into view as the ferry draws in ..








So that was my shoot out with the new polarizer. I should have shot some with a UV filter and CPL filter but unfortunately I totally forgot to do that.. Now I have to go nurse a sore foot..

Just came back from a working trip to Melbourne! Felt really surreal the moment I touched down on Wed morning, like I can't believe I'm back in good ol' Melbourne! Had a training session the whole day at East Melbourne. then after that checked into my hotel at corner Latrobe and Spencer st.. here's the view!

Actually, not much of a view. Napped for a while, then went to Ito for dinner with OCFers. Really have to thank Lydia again for organising the people in such a short notice. hahaha.. It really felt like old times again, eating with the ocfers and being silly and funny. Nobody's really changed drastically. After the dinner, we went grocering around in Chinatown and SAFEWAY (which I've not been to for a few months). Some of us then went to sitcom house for coffee session (my request, haha..). I tried to make the froth but as yanyan said that was BUBBLE not froth. So mean right. Well it's okay... She's like that one. But her coffee damn good lah. hahaa. After some time, we went home. Almost wanted to walk back to College Square until I realized I'm not staying there anymore! Oh, yeah this is the packet of chips that survived a 4 m jump. The best thing that's ever came out of Indonesia besides IndoMee.


Had a fine sleep, and woke up to a rainy Melbourne. Ah, just the Melbourne weather I LOVE. Had a meeting with client and then some more training, and then me and my colleague had a few hours to spare. Went along Bourke St doing some shopping but I realize I couldn't be bothered since I'm coming back in a few weeks anyway, so I rocked on over to Chinatown for dinner. We had dinner at Dessert House and I bought Maxim Egg Tarts to bring back to Sydney.. the best egg tarts in the world. seriously.


I'm back in Sydney but going over to Melbourne again in a couple of weeks. It'll be just like old times. And an interesting project too. Life's good..