It's been about a month since I returned to Melbourne. So far the temperature has been going up and down, but someone somehow made a random snowman outside one of my neighbour's door...it's cute though...but I wonder how my neighbour reacted upon seeing it.

Back to what I'm supposed to muse about today:

We had Yum Cha (literally meaning "drink tea", though it's something like brunch) at Shark Fin Restaurant down in Chinatown yesterday. It was supposedly expensive, but we had heaps of subsidies. So we ended up paying about $2. Nevertheless, we had many awesome dishes...of which 4 are shown below. I think we ordered about 20 over dishes on our table - the dishes were small though. Here goes:

Dumplings. It's been so long since I had dumplings. And these were really, really good.....




I think this is one of the buns with custard and egg yolk fillings in it. I didn't really get to try it, but I reckon it's really good.



Char siew bao - buns filled with pork. They're pretty good, though I didn't get to eat them.



I'd really like to go back for another round of yum cha. The food tastes so good, and we can eat as much as we want...

Oh yes, on a side note............

I've not been to Williamstown Beach for quite a while. Perhaps schoolwork is going to grant me the status of "no-life": doing nothing except study, sleep, eat and play piano. An absolute quotidian lifestyle. Hopefully I would be able to go there during the Easter break...



Oh, and not to mention, pictures from supper after Sidney Myer:




That's about all, folks! Gosh, I should be getting to sleep! Till then, goodnight and stay tuned for the next post!

The picture above was taken around mid-March. It was really romantic though - someone proposing to his girlfriend by drawing contrails in mid-air. We were even speculating that someone in uni would suddenly jump up and say "I DO!" But no one did.

This year...it's something totally different. It's an advertisement!!!! For Lipton Ice Tea!!!

I saw it in college last week, when I was walking down the corridor. When I saw the words "S" and "T" being written in the sky, I dashed down straightaway and started snapping away...and so, here goes:

The wind was pretty strong that day and the words actually got rather distorted. Then the other clouds came in and very soon, the words were gone.

It was pretty cool to see writings in the air. Especially when the sky is totally blue and cloudless. The contrails just stand out so well, and the words turn out really distinct.

This is the second time in my uni life that I'm seeing such contrails. The pilot (and the person who planned it) is so amazing. Unfortunately, I only see it (on average) once a year. And only when the weather is really good. Hopefully I would see something like this again...it's just so cool - messages in the sky...

The next post would be about something else...hmmm I haven't really decided what to post next, but yeah, stay tuned! :)

It has been really pleasant these days. Sun's shining, hardly a cloud in the sky, warm temperatures....it's really a far cry from the freak weather conditions we experienced last week. The pictures above show the contrast between last week (bottom pic) and this week (top pic). It's so fascinating - Melbourne is really unpredictable, and there's absolutely nothing we can do, except to stay prepared.

Anyways, back to what I wanted to talk about: a not-so-big mushroom bloom in a toilet. It sounds pretty weird to see mushrooms growing in the toilet, but I'm not surprised coz of the moist conditions inside. But mushrooms growing in the toilet might indicate that the toilet isn't really clean. It was interesting though.

According to my friend, she saw brown spots poking out from a crack in the tiles. When she came back the next day, she saw that these brown spots were actually mushrooms. She told me about it, and I came, armed with a camera of course:




And this truly proves that Melbourne is a really unpredictable place. I guess the freak thunderstorm raised the humidity levels by a notch, and since the bathroom was already humid, the mushrooms were more than happy to grow. And voila! A tiny mushroom bloom!

Another picture taken a few days after this mushroom bloom:

This red-and-gold tiger is Weiwei, a Chinese New Year present from my teacher. I got him around late January, and he's been a really good companion. And here he is, sitting on my new tiger mini-poster. He looks really adorable, posing with the tiger cub in the poster.



This post isn't too long, as I'm merely taking a short break from studying...before my brain explodes, that is.

The next post would be about words in the sky. I saw a marriage proposal in the sky last year (and I still have the pictures for that!). This year, it's something totally different, yet absolutely fascinating and ingenious. Stay tuned!

It's been 2 weeks and 1 day since I left the diamond-shaped, sunny little island of Singapore. And it's been about 2 weeks since semester has started!! Whoa, time flies...

I've posted pictures of The Great Mushroom Bloom (it's an unofficial name, actually) this time round. I dubbed it The Great Mushroom Bloom coz of the size of the mushroom "colony" - absolutely massive. It's the biggest I've seen so far.

Up till now, I'm still awed by the number of mushrooms proliferating under just one tree. This really caught my attention, and I stopped and yanked out my camera. I should say I'm really really lucky, and that I was at the right place and the right time. Thanks Ben!! :)

In fact, there were a few people stopping by and looking, and some even took out their cameras and attempted to snap some shots.

Best part is: Although it seems like an ordinary "colony" of mushrooms, it's actually really different from different angles. That is, you tend to see different things from different sides of the "colony". For example, if you view it from the top, you see specks of white, but if you actually stoop down, you see all the mushrooms in their full glory (quoting last year's chemistry lecturer). And of course, there're individual mushrooms here and there. And mushrooms of different shapes and sizes (of course!). It's amazing.

Sadly, the mushrooms disappeared about 2 or 3 days later when the weather got slightly drier. But yeah, this is definitely a wonderful magnum opus, created by Mother Nature herself. Oh well, hopefully such things will come again...

Anyways, here's the mushrooms in their full glory:

View of the mushrooms from a wider perspective...




Focussing on more individual groups of mushrooms, with the rest of 'em in the background...





And back to focussing on the mushrooms in general...



An individual mushroom separated from the rest...it's actually not too far away from the rest...



Another group of mushrooms...



And yet another individual mushroom with its "neighbours" in the background. I think this one was pretty far from the others, but it stood out really well. The next picture shows bigger mushrooms amongst smaller ones.




Nawww...I love this picture!!! Mushrooms growing such that they look as if they're joined to each other...



From short to tall. The brown thingy is actually a leaf.



More mushrooms with grass draping over them.



The next post will probably be about a much smaller mushroom bloom...in a place where I least (and most) expected. This place is a cool and moist place, where people come in and out pretty frequently. Stay tuned!

Moomba Festival 2010 was held for 3 days - Saturday, Sunday and 2 days ago. And my buddy and I went for the one on the last day. It was truly wild - we went on a slingshot ride (similar to the reverse bungee in Singapore) and screamed our lungs out big time, a vertical drop ride (we sang silly songs 12 storeys above ground and yelled as the thingy brought us all the way down - really fast of course), and a ferris wheel to end the madness. And of course...Helios the dSLR went along!

The main bulk of my pictures didn't come from the carnival itself - most of the pictures are actually of fireworks. Honestly speaking, I've never seen a firework up close before, and of course, I've never taken a picture of a firework (or a burst of fireworks) before. The pictures I took 2 days ago are my very first attempt at fireworks. Hmmm let's just say it was pretty challenging - coz I had a lack of equipment (of all things, a tripod!!!!), and shooting fireworks handheld is not recommended. I broke the rule though...but somehow the pictures turn out ok! They're not of a professional standard (I'm far from professional), but at least I tried...!! The next time I get to shoot fireworks - I'll definitely try my very best to make 'em as professional as possible, and BRING A TRIPOD.

Anyways, here goes:

The Yarra River with barges fully loaded with fireworks. This is about 30 minutes before the fireworks are set off. All's calm, people setting up their cameras and finding places to sit..........



And BOOM!!! Off go the fireworks!!! Anyways this picture isn't the first burst of fireworks...it's probably the 3rd of 4th? I think this was held (in bulb mode) for about 3 seconds or so? I don't really remember, coz I was experimenting the bulb mode on the dSLR - apparently about 2 or 3 seconds of shutter speed creates pretty decent shots...This is one the better shots of course.



More fireworks of a different type. They actually threw sparkly bits into the sky along with the fireworks...



A curtain of fireworks shooting into the sky. This seems as if there's a pinkish flame on the river or something...



The curtain dies down and fresh fireworks are released. Some shimmering stuff are released alongside the fireworks as well, but not as high, creating the sparkly bits somewhat in the middle.



The next 2 pictures show the last few bursts of fireworks before the show actually ended, and people started packing up and going home. I noticed (just yesterday) that the foreground of my fireworks pictures are pretty blur, while the fireworks themselves are actually really clear. Hmmm, wonder what's going on? I'm glad though, that the fireworks weren't as bad as I thought they would be...




And that concludes Moomba Festival 2010! From crazy, wild rides to fireworks...it sure was fun! Though it was rainy at first, we still enjoyed it...!!!

Stay tuned for the next post!! :) Which would be coming up in the not-too-distant future!

I'm missing Hokkien Mee terribly...and it's only been a week since I left Melbourne. Honestly speaking, I really dunno how I managed to survive last year without Hokkien Mee. It's bad for health (coz of all the lard), but it's absolutely delicious! Hopefully I'd survive this year too. Guess I'll have to use psychology on myself then!

I've not had rice for a while too - probably a week? Hmmm...maybe I might have a good meal of nasi goreng tomorrow, instead of the typical lunch in college!

Speaking about college, there're new photos up!



Commencement Dinner was held in college today to mark the beginning of the new college year. Though I didn't manage to take many photos (forgot to bring my dSLR), I did manage to take a few snapshots of the food and other stuff going on. Oh, and not to mention the turn after the dinner - a change from formal to totally informal and rowdy. It was pretty cool though.

Anyways here goes:

The turn cost $3 to enter, and after payment, the person at the "door" will draw something on your hand as a form of receipt. And here we go: a smiley face on my hand in pink highlighter ink. In fact, the smiley face is still there, even after showering. Let's just say it's a way of indicating that your entry has been approved. Pretty cool.



This is the menu for the dinner. Pardon the numerous reflections - my table happened to be facing the sun (and so was I). But nevertheless, the food was pretty good! And pictures of the food are shown below.



Starters: Bread with some seeds on it, and sliced melon with a piece of ham.





Main course: Either beef or mushroom vol-au-vent (I'm not too sure how to spell this) with risotto - a vegetarian dish. I took the vegetarian dish of course, but I took a pic of the beef dish too.





Dessert: Caramel with cream. It was quivery - coz it shook when we moved our plates, but it was really, really sweet too. And this plus 3 big glasses of wine=intoxication. I was pretty groggy for the rest of the dinner, till we got to the turn.



And yeah, that's about it! I didn't get many photos of the turn (besides the smiley face on my hand), but it sure was a great night!

Stay tuned for even more pictures about Aussie!