Wednesday 18 June 2014

The Grounds of Alexandria

I completed my final exam today and it was horrible. In the earlier years of my degree, all the later year students raved about the benefits of picking your own electives and studying what you actually wanted to study. I have now completed 8 electives and only 1 has been worthwhile. The rest have been varying levels of disappointing and the subject that I completed my exam for today was just a joke. A complete joke. Who changes an exam from 3hrs to 2hrs only 30 minutes before the exam started without telling any of his students. Who examines material that wasn't covered in class. Just ridiculous.

After the dreadful exam, A. met up and we headed to the Grounds of Alexandria.

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We didn't eat at the cafe as there were just so many people and it was so dark in there. There was also a surprisingly amount of people at The Grounds considering it was a Wednesday. Instead we ate at the Garden Bar. Well that was disappointing. I don't really expect to pay $13 for my burger + chips for it to simply taste as though the innards of a Maccas quarter pounder was placed between a generic white bread roll. Hmm.

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We headed back to Manly for some Froyo (I always pick the worst flavours. I don't know how NY Cheesecake tasted even sweeter than vanilla) and watched the sunset.

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Thursday 12 June 2014

Deck

I only have one final exam next Wednesday and I feel like I am already in holiday mode. A. and I went out for lunch in Dee Why as we had plans to stay at the Dee Why carpark (more on that later). We go to Dee Why quite a bit because it is really the only place on the northern beaches where there are a lot of restaurants aside from Manly (which is incredibly difficult to find parking). Quite a few places had lunch deals but we settled on Deck. It was actually a gorgeous day with, surprisingly, a lot of people around.

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We both ordered the Wagyu beef burger with chips and a ginger beer ($12 w/ any drink purchase). The chips were amazing! Each one was super crispy and I suspect they were fried twice. The aioli was also very tasty. A lovely lunch on a very lovely day.

Deck on Urbanspoon

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So remember how I mentioned that I wasn't a fan of Game of Thrones two months ago in this post.Well I sort of take it back. Sort of. I am currently a quarter through the fifth novel, A Dance with Dragons, and have been quite enjoying the stories since the third novel. Still not a fan of some characters and their stories - even though I know that it will be very important at some stage- but I guess that is to be expected. Back to the carpark! So we were in the car watching the first two episodes of season 4. In the carpark and next to a lagoon. Shortly going to have a tv Skype night to watch the next episode. I wouldn't say that I am hooked on the series, but I want to know how it all ends.

Monday 9 June 2014

Vivid Sydney 2014

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On Friday night, I visited Vivid Sydney. It is crazy that a year has already passed. I had plans originally to visit during the middle of the week, back when Sydney was stuck in its 20+ degree Celsius days. But alas timing didn't really work out. I'm not actually sure if I enjoy Vivid per se, but I definitely enjoy feeling like a tourist and being excited about something in Sydney. I guess that is the downside of living here basically my entire life; Sydney is quite dull.

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We arrived just after 6pm and it wasn't that crowded yet (actually we entered and left Circular Quay by back routes so I wasn't really sure if it was super crowded).

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This was actually very annoying since the lights were actually ridiculously bright.

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My favourite installation.

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We went up onto the Overseas Passenger Terminal to take photos. The lookout/observatory itself was a little awkward since 4 people had set up camp with their camping chairs at the spot with the best views of the Opera House.

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The world is slanted.

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I wasn't very impressed with the Aquatique Water Theatre at the Darling Harbour. We watched the 9pm and 10pm show and surprisingly, they were both different. I didn't get it. At the 9pm one, it somehow transitioned from Miley Cyrus' 'Wrecking Ball', to the main theme song of Swan Lake to an opera piece. What? At the 10pm one, it seemed to be an ad for things that were playing in Sydney; the Lion King, Strictly Ballroom and then some ballet performance (not sure which one). Random.

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I don't know why we were eating ice cream in 14 degree weather. Though unlike last year, my beloved wool coat actually kept me toasty warm.

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Not entirely sure what happened (no one seems to know) but soon after we arrived at the bus stop, 4 police cars pulled up along with the ambulance. Also two news photographers snapped some photos of the scene.

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Walking home.

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Canon HQ allowed you to print your photos (including A3 if your heart desired).