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Monday, April 30, 2012

Harbourtown DFO

Hey guys!  So sorry for being missing in action!  I've been extremely tied up with 2 assignments - back to back!  Oh my gosh, these 2 weeks have been seriously epic, and I've had really awful sleep patterns - going to bed at ungodly times of 4am or so, and waking up at 12pm!  I even got up at 3pm once after an all-nighter!  Well, not really a total all-nighter as I crashed at around 4am or so.

Right now - it's time to re-align my awful sleep patterns.  I really, really should aim to get to bed earlier these days, leading up to the exams!

Anyways, 'nuff said, let's get on to business! 



Nathan (one of my mates from Melbourne) came all the way to Perth to chill out, and I met up with him for some "tours" around the city!  My brain was still fried from the intense weeks leading up to the Easter Holidays (yes, I met him during the Easter holidays), and so was his!  Well, his was fried from work!

So we decided to go to Harbourtown DFO for some impromptu retail therapy.  DFO = direct factory outlet.  Well, we actually went to the gorgeous St Mary's cathedral first, but decided that we shouldn't spend the whole day there.  So yeah.

Australian souvenir shop - very common in shopping areas, including the Murray St and Hay St shopping belts in Perth.




I didn't have much to buy, to be honest, so I decided to walk around.  And since I had my camera with me, I spontaneously pulled it out and started snapping pictures.

Harbourtown is MASSIVE.  It's probably bigger than Vivocity in Singapore, but it does remind me of Vivocity, except that it's open-air.  There're 2 storeys with lots and lots of shops.  Hung around the ground floor first, before going up to the second floor.












And here's the view of the shopping mall from the second floor.  Decided to take some spontaneous pictures, while looking through the shops.






And of course, I HAD to take pictures of one of my favourite stores - Cotton On!  Believe it or not, the stuff in Cotton On were super cheap!  How awesome!




Oakley Vault and Factorie were awesome too!





I had lots of shots of this area - which consisted of Valleygirl (my favourite shop in the whole DFO - and where I got a gorgeous knitted top for $7 only), Temt, Chic Booti and other girly places.  Well I'm NOT THAT girly, but you know, it's always good to look around for stuff that actually suits me!  And of course, like any other factory outlets, it's so tempting to buy lots of stuff, because they were soooooo affordable!

Which of course, explains the crowds and the shopping bags!
















Another glimpse of the shopping area from Valleygirl.




Not too far away - one of my favourite stationary shops - Typo!  Estha (one of my awesome buddies in Melbourne) bought me mushroom fairy lights from Typo, which I really really adore.  I bought some notebooks and a mushroom-shaped book end myself, and had to restrain myself from going out of control.





Other shops such as Crossroads, Esprit and so on, selling stuff at highly affordable prices.





Since the shops closed earlier, Nathan and I decided to head back to our respective accomodations.  Ended up chilling out even more in my room after that!  Well, it was Easter break anyway, so I felt that I needed some time to actually rest before the semester went ahead at full steam.

By full steam, I mean this:  Loads and loads of studying.  Used my handphone camera to take these pictures, with an inbuilt negative filter, just to make studying seem a little more pleasant.  Well...ok studying isn't unpleasant, but sometimes it can get a little challenging.  I still enjoy studying - don't get me wrong! :)












And that's it for now!  Can't believe it's the end of April now!  Soon it'll be winter holidays!

Right now I should really catch up on the work I put aside.  See you guys very soon!

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Murray Street and Barrack Street - Monochrome

Went on a walk down Murray Street again to relax - after slogging my butt off for one of my assignments! Thank goodness the assignment has been handed in!

Well the assignment wasn't entirely unpleasant...I had a counterpart whom I cuddled...



The title of this post is "Murray Street and Barrack Street - Monochrome" as I did most of the pictures in monochrome. I think I mentioned before that I'm addicted to black-and-white photography because of the special effect it gives. Can't really explain it in words...but I find black-and-white photography beautiful in its own ways. Gives a vintage feel - according to one of my friends.

I dropped by St Mary's cathedral again for another visit, and got some pictures from there:
















And of course, on the way to St Mary's, I popped by Royal Perth Hospital for a visit, and to take pictures of course! If I'm not wrong this is the older part of the hospital, not the main building. The main building's much more modern and developed, but this part's pretty nice.





The actual reason why I dropped by Royal Perth Hospital was because of THIS tree. It was HUGE. I wonder how old it is - its trunk was so thick.





I was pretty hungry then - so I dropped by for a hedgehog slice at the famous Miss Maud hotel. The picture of the hedgehog slice was probably one of the only colour pictures I took.






Walked down to Barrack Street after that - as it was pretty close to Murray Street.

Passed by the Perth Town Hall - it kinda reminds me of Melbourne Town Hall. Speaking of which, I'm starting to miss Melbourne again! Might plan a trip to Melbourne after exams. Fingers crossed that the exam timetable turns out to be good! I don't even mind if they're closely spaced - as long as I end early.




Walked to the Supreme Court gardens down Barrack Street...and stayed briefly.







And of course, since the Supreme Court Gardens led out to the bell tower, I had to take some shots of the bell tower...with a slight modification.



It was a pretty cloudy day then, and I decided to reduce shutter speeds to capture the motion of cars...for an extra effect of course! I did the same thing for my London Court trip - which I'll put up soon!




It gets dark pretty early these days. I was on the train at 6:30pm and it was almost completely dark! By the time I reached my station, it was totally dark and it was only about 6:45pm! So I took a time lapse picture of the train station and the freeway...using the wall as a tripod. Was pretty lucky too - that there was a car coming into the carpark on the left of the picture - so that was captured as well!

I'm gonna try this again - this time with the train leaving the station.



That's it for today! And I'll be posting more pictures of my adventures soon!