Monday 30 January 2012

Twilight Parade




Twilight Chinese New Year Parade
On Sunday night, my friends and I went down to the city to watch the Twilight parade. The road was completely blocked off and my friend and I were unable to cross to the other side where our other friends were waiting for us. After walking for 30 minutes we finally managed to find a route that was accessible and we stood right next to the metal gate.









Overall, the parade was very disappointing with too many random Chinese/ Australian groups that were more often than not, completely unenthused to be participating in the parade. It was also very random that there were groups which included members that were pulling along their luggage. The best group was the pandas on unicycles since they were unexpected.
Tuesday 24 January 2012

Calligraphy

Calligraphy Ink

I am in love with calligraphy; I think it is absolutely gorgeous. Many many years ago, my sister bought the starter pack for calligraphy from the newsagency and recently I discovered it in our stationery cupboard. A calligraphy dip pen is something I have always wanted to master and judging from my poor attempts earlier today, it is still something I need to improve on. The photo below illustrates my less than stellar attempt - blotting and writing in a manner that was not appropriate for the size of my nib. It is a quote from my favourite TV show and is hardly legible.

Quote

I do believe that I need a finer nib - which I shall purchase in due course- and an eye dropper for greater precision when putting in the ink.
Tuesday 10 January 2012

Kayaking

Middle Harbour

Life Jackets

This morning my friends and I went kayaking at Middle Harbour in double plastic kayaks. The weather was gorgeous and perfect for kayaking as it was warm and yet not hot due to the slight wind. I was paired with the girl who I first met at kayaking three years ago and who - embarrassingly- saved me as I had struggled to swim ashore due to my sand-bogged trainers. This time however, that did not happen as there was no one around to capsize our kayak. With the help of a local kayak-er, he gave us a map and told us to travel under the bridge and to a small hidden bay. In hindsight, it was a little ambitious as we were 3/4 of the way there and realised that we would not have gotten there and back within our 2 hour time slot. I didn't bring my camera for fear that I would have gotten it wet and hence I do not have photos of the gorgeous houses, staircases and overall scenic view that we saw. One of the best part was floating next to the pelicans; I never realised how beady their black eyes were.


Monday 2 January 2012

Photos from NYE

Sparklers

Spelling your name out with a sparkler is a lot harder than I thought it would be and yet a lot of fun at the same time.

Dee Why

Earlier in the evening we had attended the fireworks at one of my local beaches. The following photos are not taken by me but by S.