This is a photo of a few of the 150,000 pilgrims who gathered near my office to hold a giant mass. It’s been an absolutely insane week.
Sydney
SYTYCD – Live Sydney Show
As my many, many blog posts of So You Think You Can Dance attest to, I am obsessed with the show. So much so that I bought tickets to go and see the live tour when it played at the Sydney Entertainment Centre tonight.
The show was a lot of fun – pretty much the same as the TV show, lots of dancing routines. The routines were a mix of old ones from the show and new. There were a lot of video clips from the show was well.
The only annoying thing about the show was the strange scripted dialogue between routines. The dancers all had to introduce each other and say super-cheesy things that made us ROFL.
It was also interesting seeing how different it was watching the same people live vs on TV. On TV the cameras focused a lot on their faces but live it was easier to see things like lack of stage presence and lack of technique.
To be brutally honest, they all looked a lot better on TV. In person I could only compare them with the many other professional dancers in shows I’ve seen. Perhaps that is unfair, but that’s how it is!
I still really enjoyed though. I liked a lot of the choreography and Kate was very good to watch in person.
Half of the opening routine
Rhiannon and Graeme – Hip Hop
“4 Minutes”
Last Routine – “You Can’t Stop The Beat”
The terrible angle is because the people sitting behind me were threatening me if I kept filming, so I had to be sneaky.
Top Ten Routine
I found this one on YouTube
New iPhone!
I was quite devastated by my iPhone loss back in January and have been hanging out for the release of the 3G phone in Australia ever since. Today it finally arrived. I lined up at an Optus store in Chatswood at 7:15 to secure the precious device. After being in line for about an hour I was told I needed a print out of my deposit confirmation – WTF? Surely this is in a database? I guess not! I had waited this long, I sure wasn’t going to give up now. I asked the nice people in line to mind my spot while I dashed out on the street to find an internet cafe that was open. I harassed the staff there to help me get up the email and print it – it took me over 20 minutes, so it wasn’t as easy as you’d think! I then ran back to the Optus store just in time – the man in front of me was now at the front of the queue.
Soon after it was my turn – and I thought I was only about 15 minutes away from iPhone glory. How wrong I was! An hour later, I rushed to the station to get to work – two hours and 30 minutes after lining up … OMG!
It was worth it though for iPhone glory. I got the 16GB in white on a cap plan. What I love most about the new phone is how less slippery it is. I dropped my old one so many times, resulting in its ultimate breaking. The new one has a different back that is grippier and some kind of beveling around the edges so my hands fit around it better – meaning less chances of dropping it!
My new phone in the store – it took so long to get it ready to go because the Optus and Apple systems were all crashing.
In the box … so pretty my precious!
Blue Mountains Offsite – Day 2
With all the work stuff done we head off on a 10km mountain bike ride. I’m really not much of a biker, I have to admit. Every pedal uphill made my calves feel like cement. Even with the pain, it was a lot of fun. Really crisp (OK, freezing) mountain air and a wee bit of exercise.
This was the entrance to one of the bedrooms one of my team stayed in.
Taking a break on the ridge to check out the view.
Caught in motion. Olah loved to take photos almost as much as I do.
Weeeeeeeeeeeee!
Picnic site at the end – so pretty! The water was so clear – but freezing cold.
Where’s the food?!
Wouldn’t be a mountains trip without more fire.
Blue Mountains Offsite – Day 1
I drove up to Leura for a work offsite. We stayed at the Old Leura Dairy – a completely renovated place that was truly unique. Very modern rustic, I guess you could call it.
It was freeeeezing in the mountains, but the air was crisp and the sky was blue, and we had plenty of delicious food.
The dining table set up for lunch.
Big ol’ salad.
Room set up for our conference. Note the corragated iron – it was a bedroom on top of the kitchen.
Roasted capsicums stuffed with rice – they catered very well for the veges.
Mmm fresh scones.
The cottage I stayed in.
My bedroom.
The living room in my cottage.
Hard at work as evening rolls in.
Dinner – noodles with ginger. AMAZINGLY tasty.
Mega bean meal.
Roaring fire – definitely needed up in the mountains!
Dinner at Bar Reggio
I finally met up with Emily to have dinner at a place she loves in Surry Hills – Bar Reggio.
It’s a really cute little place – a hole in the wall that you’d miss if you didn’t know it was there. Bar Reggio is very much an old-school family-run place, with an extensive pasta and pizza menu. The service was friendly, the food was fast, tasty and well-priced.
I’ll be going back for more!
My vege risotto. Very nice tomato base.
Em’s fave – spaghetti bolognaise.
Dining area.
Entrance and kitchen – squishy!
The entry we almost missed.
I walked through the city to get back home – past the war memorial all lit up.
Hyde Park.
Mucking around with the camera. I love Sydney at night!
Churros, Noodles & Panda
The release of Kung Fu Panda sparked excitement. Panda! Kung Fu! Together at last!
We gathered at San Churros for pre movie snacks. Hot and Cold Hot Chocolate, churros and a white hot chocolate … so basically sugar and milk I believe.
Yum yum yum … the best hot chocolate ever.
Chris: “What do you mean white chocolate isn’t actually chocolate?”
Churros with chocolate.
My fave – churros with caramel.
Lisa – times three Tokidokis.
“There can be more Tokidokis?”
Chocolate is not something to be laughing at.
After the movie we needed noodles. Badly. You need to watch the movie to understand why. We set off to our fave Vietnamese place in Chatswood – Golden Bo.
Tea!
Crazy food blogger.
Helpful pics on the menu.
Where are my noodles?
Panda! Kung Fu!
Mmmm raw bean sprouts.
Mystery herb – turned out to be mint.
Mmmm smells like crack!
Vege spring rolls.
Lisa needed dumplings AND noodles.
Alec gets the same thing every time – MORE spring rolls and noodles.
My flat noodles with soya and veges… YUM!
Noodle bliss.
More spring rolls – we ordered two lots and ate them all.
This was Chris’ – I have no idea what it is.
More food? Over THERE? No WAY!
Awesome movie, awesome night.
Juicylicious
I got this super, super-cute heart charm on eBay recently.
Photographing Water
From my photography class last week – throwing water around in the car park. It was a lot of fun – even though the results are a bit all over the place!
Whoops – I got the bucket in this one!
I think this looks a bit heart-shaped.
Whoops again – totally missed this shot.
A bit of lens flare and got the light in it as well, but I like the shape.
GoogleServe 2008 – Lane Cove National Park
I haven’t done any gardening in a loooong time. I am always in favour of doing good for the environment however, so I lead a small group of other Googlers to help regenerate some bush land in Lane Cove National Park yesterday.
We were given a very detailed talk on the park, its origin and uses in the community, as well as warnings on animals that might spring at us – namely snakes, spiders and jumping ants (WTF?!). Our mission for the day – to clear out noxious weeds in part of the wildlife corridor to clear space for the nice plants we actually want to help grow strong – things like wattle and banksia – the pretty ones I like to photograph.
Armed with huge cutting tools and some pink of posion with red dye in it to stop them growing back, we trekked into the bush and started a day of hacking and posioning.
This cute little ring-tailed possum said “Hai” before going back to sleep.
Alec weilds the mighty tools.
Ummm what am I meant to do with these again?
It was a stunningly beautiful day.
Chatswood in the distance, beconing us home to clean up and eat afterwards.
Whoops – spilt dye on shoes makes them pink. Lucky I like the colour!
I had an amazingly good time, getting out anger by hacking up evil plants, getting a good work out and being in the beautiful sun all day. I did get home and collapse with exhaustion, but it was totally worth it. Yay, we saved some trees today!