jagged gorgeous winter my ass

I hate winter! It's cold, gloomy and unlike in Singapore where I can turn off the cold by just turning off my air-con, I can't turn off the cold of winter. Thank goodness I have a cute new song to listen to which has an awesome MTV. You must watch it below.



Anyway I'm sorry for missing last week's posts, I've been very busy freezing my ass off and hiding under my blanket to keep away the cold. I also have my exams in less than 2 weeks so busy busy busy. This week we only had 2 days of lessons because Monday was a public holiday, apparently it was the Queen's birthday. Not the Queen of Australia, the Queen of England. However, they do have politicians that argue and are always interrupting one another and overall, not being very civil or well mannered to one another. They always show the bad side of their politics on TV, I think they seriously should not wash their dirty linen in public for the international population to see.

Because it was the Queen's Birthday, my friend and I decided to take a trip out to the city by ferry for a little photo taking session and for the experience cause I don't have very much reason to take the ferry and to my surprise, Sydney does have a very dreamy atmosphere to it when you're heading to the city by ferry. The ferry goes down this meandering river which you can see the city getting closer and closer to you, with a different foreground at every instance. The river is lined with all types of water front housing from the modern contemporary to the rustic and it seems private boats are a dime a dozen here. I wouldn't mind going fishing in Australian waters with some beer and good company. Seems extremely fun and stress free and best of all, we can eat the fish we caught straight out of the water if we bring a portable gas stove, can't get any fresher than that. Om nom nom nom.





Did I mention that there were tons of speed boats dashing past our already fast moving hydrofoil ferry. Hmmm it sure sounds nice to have the wind in your hair as you pilot one of those speed boats. I can imagine this whole Miami Vice thing going on.

As we got closer to the city, we had to pass under the Harbour Bridge. I have been for while, wanting to take a photo of the Harbour Bridge from below, ever since I went to Pancakes on the Rocks the other time. It's like this giant construction of twisted metal and concrete that seems on one hand cold and uninviting but on the other, lively. Maybe it's just the endless traffic moving along the bridge or maybe its the hundreds of people climbing up the bridge everyday to peer down on the city, that gives it its life. Whatever it is, it's quite amazing when you stand below it and notice how grand it really is and how miniscule you are compared to it.




Shortly after passing under the Harbour Bridge, the ferry passed the Sydney Opera House. This is not the first time that I have seen it in person, I came to Sydney before but it was during summer and the flies around the Opera House made it hard to want to hang around any longer than a minute. Due to that the Opera House didn't make much of any impression. But now I get to see it cast on a blue sky backdrop and like its neighbor, the Harbour Bridge, it too had this certain aura of grandeur to it. Not just from it's size but from its importance and reputation it has built up over the years. It's not the design that makes it amazing but the millions or billions of people who travel from far and wide to see it, and they leave a little something behind when they visit it, not something visible, not something tangeable just something you feel when you look at it. That is what makes a monument a wonder of the world. I have not visited any of the 7 Wonders of the Modern World but if I did, I'm sure it would be even more grand than the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge.

When it was time for us to alight from the ferry, it was only 11am but we were starving so my friend and I headed to a little Italian restaurant for lunch and my god it was terrible. I think that 95% of the restaurant in Australia are shit! With such great produce, one would expect the potential for great food to be far more common than 1 in 20. But oh well, I'll just tag that meal as sustenance and nothing more.

After lunch, we carried on our little photo journey around what they call Circular Quay and the Rocks. It's a very up market region with all the expensive and well known restaurants being around this area. For example Est. Restaurant @ Establishment, run by Peter Doyle who is regarded as the father of Modern Australian Cuisine. The picture below is of the bar at Establishment. As the restaurant is on the upper floors of the building, I was unable to get a photo of the place. Anyway, the bar speaks loads of how the restaurant would be like.


Circular Quay is also an enormous tourist trap. Steer away from here if you intend to shop for things. We did come across this busker who was jamming some awesome Latin grooves with his guitar. I would have stood there longer to listen to him if the weather weren't so cold.


By the time we had seen what we could see in that area, it was already 2pm and it was time to head back to the city. So we took a walk down one of the main streets back into the Sydney CBD area. On the way back, we came across this building.



This is apparently the Sydney General Post Office. It has housed within it, The Westin Hotel & Macquarie Bank office towers. It is quite a beautiful building with its neo-classical facade. Good thing my friend knows plenty about Sydney, so we went on into the building and boy it was as awesome as it was on its exterior facade as you can see.

Its design resembles very closely the Singapore National Museum, with the exterior facade maintained and fusioned with modern design ideas. The clock tower looks so dreamy when staring at it through the sun roof, from the interior of the building.

After that, we decided to go to Darling Harbor and to our surprise they were having a Jazz & Blues Festival there. It was pretty damn crowded at Darling Harbour but in pursuit of some nice Jazz, I wouldn't mind the hustle and bustle. Although to my dissapointement, most of the acts were just setting up but fortunately, there was one group performing at the main stage and they were pretty good. I don't really remember the groups name but I did manage to snap a photo of them performing. Too bad sound isn't visual. On that note, I recommend everyone to go watch the MTV for Death Cab For Cutie's song, Soul Meets Body.


I'll leave this post as such, it's getting late and since my internet is capped, it's taking a long time to upload the photos. I'll carry on about my classes tomorrow with some pictures of food so till next time, vale!