Adventure, baby!

Month: August 2007

Bourne is Back

Tonight marked the final Bourne Fest, with part three, The Bourne Ultimatum. I joined 10 boys to watch the movie on opening night in Chatswood. The testosterone in the theatre was overwhelming.

I loved Bourne one, hated Bourne two, and loved Bourne three. It was a return to the themes of the first movie, with many very similar scenes marking a full circle.

There were a lot of extreme close-ups of Matt Damon, which made me see things I had never noticed before, like his funny slightly-raised eyebrow, and one eye slightly larger than the other, not to mention the mole on his lip. Interesting how even gorgeous people look odd when their face is several metres tall.

Bourne, as always, was a machine. No-one else except the terminator takes such a licking and keeps on ticking.

The only down side was the excessive use of “vomit cam” as Malcolm called it. Hand-held camera work throughout the action sequences made it hard to follow what was happening and left me with a bit of a headache. Or maybe I’m just getting too old for this much excitement.

Goodbye Emily

Today was my dear friend Emily’s last day at work.

We celebrated her time with us in true Google fashion – with copious amounts of food and sangria.



Last photo in the Google office. I miss you already Em!

Chinese Noodle Restaurant

We took Jan to Chinatown for noodles on her last night in Sydney. Alec loves Chinese Noodle Restaurant, so off we went.

Busy! There was a line out the door when we left.

Full of noodle-lovers. Note the decor. Fake grape vines on the roof. Interesting.

Fresh noodle stir fry, dumplings and egg fried rice. Delicious.

Sweet corn, peas and pine nuts. Great combo funnily enough.

Required self-portrait.


At Central station on the way home I impulse-bought a cactus arrangement. I decided it would be nice to have more plants around the place. Let’s hope I don’t kill them all too quickly.

A Day At Sydney Art Gallery

Another full day on the agenda.

We started at the Art Gallery NSW to see the Islamic Arts exhibition.

I know nothing about Islam let alone Islamic arts, so was unsure of what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised to find it fascinating. The exhibition had a lot of versions of the Qur’an – all drawn with the most amazing calligraphy.

It was an educating experience. I learned a lot about Islam and their art. I appreciated the highly detailed drawings and manuscripts in particular, and loved seeing the links between Islam and Christianity and their common stories. Seeing Jesus depicted as a turban-wearing fighter was highly interesting.

We then checked out the Max Dupain photographic exhibition at the State Library.

I love Max Dupain. Seeing his photograph of the bather inspired me to take up black and white photography when I was a young teenager. The exhibition had some of his early work and later architectural photos, which, while exceptional, didn’t interest me as much as his portraits and social documentary of his early works.

Seeing Dupain’s early works amazed me as he took some stunning photos of things like bathers mid-dive from a high board, that are perfectly in focus. This is hard to capture now, with our new digital cameras, so imagine the skill it would have taken to snap such a shot in the ’40s. Completely inspiring.

ABC Garden Show

Jan came down to visit so we went to the ABC garden Show at Homebush. As well as taking almost 300 photos with my awesome macro of the flowers, I came home with a beautiful orchid from Jan (fingers crossed I figure out how to keep it alive), some bulbs for exotic lilies and a bunch of tulips.



Tulips from Alec.


Bulbs that are going to become exquisite exotic lilies.

Puppies!

I stayed in Warwick Farm on my way back from the snow and enjoyed some sweet puppy time the next morning. Gratuitous puppy shots below.

Lick attack!

Put me down, mum!

Snow Dreaming

I was picked up at 3am on Thursday morning for our trip to Thredbo. It’s been seven years since my last trip to the snow. I decided to snowboard again – several runs and awesome stacks later, I was back linking turns and belly flopping in the ice all over again.

On my feet finally!

Oh-oh!

Splat!

Two days later, I was back, with plenty of bruises to show for my little adventure. Can’t wait for next season!

New Sunnies

I’ve taken my love of pink to a new, disturbing level. I bought these gorgeous pink Oakleys to take to the snow. I called the store in Melbourne yesterday and they arrived on my desk this morning. Awesome service, awesome glasses.

Retail Therapy

Here are a few of my recent fashion purchases. I went to the Birkinhead Point factory outlets today, which is where I picked up the FCUK and Alannah Hill items. The factory outlets are a bit hit and miss, but the Alannah Hill one always has awesome stock, heavily reduced. Their pieces are occasionally damaged, so be careful to check out the zippers and look for stains and tears. Who could damage such beautiful clothes? It breaks my heart!

Pretty Alannah Hill jumper. Love sale time!

FCUK singlets.

Sweet ballet flats from the Parisian Ballet sale – they took a while to arrive but it was worth the wait.

Very like the Chanel ones for a lot less.

Cute design.

Mimco bag – bought a few weeks ago during the Mimco sale. Do I have an addiction? I think it’s fair to say yes.

Close-up of the beautiful leather.

Aya and Matt’s Hens and Bucks Night

My first joint bucks and hens night was held tonight at the Great Northern Hotel.

The girls arrived for for dinner and gossip, while the boys got completely hammered at Daniel’s place. With bottles thrown, a PSP lost and one man down, they finally arrived at the Northern for a late dinner and more alcy-hol. Some steak-stealing, yelling, rapping and head-butting later, Alec and I head on home to watch the end of Forrest Gump.

With Ayako the hen.

With Ayako and Shannon, cousin of the groom.

Alec loves pink. A lot.