5th December 2012

Amazing People #4 - Joseph Edward Short - 'Uncle Eddie'

As I clear more of my blogging backlog up the closer we get to real time, we're in December 2012 with this one. It was precisely the 5th December.

My grandmother and her partner were always conventional people. They were old school, stuck in their ways. The picture above is my Grandmothers calendar and it's stuck on Wednesday 5th December 2012. With an epic picture of a Gloster Meteor plane next to it. They must have got it for free, probably through Readers Digest.

She'll never change it..

Unless something special or completely out of the ordinary happened to you on 5th December 2012 I bet you don't remember anything about that day. I remember that day pretty well. I remember being at work until God awful hours, maybe it was 10pm? Maybe it was 11? It's December and its probably the busiest period of the year. Knowing I was going back to Europe in mid-December I was working pretty much all the hours him above sends, including weekends to get shit done. I was downstairs, outside of the office having some 'fresh air' and my Dad called. Not unusual for my old man to call me in fact he calls me quite often, it was a slightly alarming hour but other than that nothing out of the ordinary.


I hit the part of the screen flashing green and pressed the phone to my ear embracing my Dad as I normally would. As soon as he spoke I knew something wasn't right and it was serious, my Dad is pretty solid even in his 50's. Not much can phase him. He sounded phased.

At this point i was leaning my backside and my lower back against a metre high wall and when he uttered his next words I slid down the wall until I was sitting directly on the concrete itself. Matrix slow motion style. My Grandmothers partner, our adopted Grandfather had passed away.

He'd died around 3pm in the afternoon without pain, without fear and in the comfort of his own home. I'll always be thankful for that.

Uncle Eddie

I learned a lot about new things about Eddie during the sermon at the funeral, many of them made me smile and many made me cry. Eddie had met my Grandmother as a customer in her pub, my Grandparents owned a pub in our home town. Eddie, my Grandfather and my Grandmother all got along well. Eddie got along very well with my Father and Uncle. He was to play a pivotal role in everyone's lives and for another generation to come.

Eddie grew up primarily with his Grandparents on a farm and when he became of working age he got a job on a farm what is now housing estates in my home town. One of my favourite stories he used to tell me was when he shot a bird down a chimney on the farm.

So one day Eddie was practicing his aim with a .22 rifle, standard for agriculture back then. His sights drew him to a bird sitting on the edge of the chimney pot. He fired a single shot and then withdrew as if almost certain of missing his target. The bullet hit the bird, a direct shot and flung it down the chimney. On it's journey to the bottom maybe it's wings opened and it swept all the soot from the inside of the chimney off and down through the fire place in went covering his Employer. I smiled all the way typing through that.

After the farms Eddie began working for the Water Company, I think he used to man the digger when they were laying new piping or excavating the old. A story he used to tell us from his times at the water company was when his colleagues played a trick on him by using his lunch box. I can imagine Eddie not straight forward and professional at work, maybe not as much fun as the other lads would have liked. One day, the clock struck noon and it was time for lunch. Eddie peeling the lid from this lunchbox expecting to be greeted by pink Salmon sandwiches on brown bread instead greeted by a big fat dead rat. The reaction my Uncle Eddies face must have given rattled the humor bone in his colleagues but not for long for he would have his revenge. He too found a dead rat and with a knife he gutted it, well he made a slit the full length of the pest. He then perched the rat on the shoulder of the guy who had got him. Viscera pouring down his shirt.

One day at the water company there was an accident, I don't recall the specific detail but a pipe of some sort that held a type of molten metal (I think he used to say it was Lead) exploded and only by the skin of his teeth had Eddie not been more badly injured. His flesh was, on the areas of his body that were exposed almost boiled off completely and he just managed to guard his eyes with his forearm. After that accident his working life came to an abrupt end and he got some form of compensation from the company.

He married once when he was in his early 30's but unfortunately he lost his bride to cancer. Some 20 years later he met another woman by the name of Ella, a friend of my Grandmothers funnily enough and as part of God's master plan he lost her too to the same illness. Destined to be alone or so it seemed, my Grandmother and my Grandfather divorced. Twice to be precise but it's another post altogether. Eddie and my Grandmother became close but were never to marry. I don't know the entire chronicle of their relationship or the reasons they never married, maybe I'll never know but they continued to be life long friends.

When I was around young, around 6 or 7 my Grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy. She beat the illness but when she came from hospital Eddie offered her the second bedroom in his home so he could help her recover. She took up the offer and 20 years later she is still living there, now the sole resident of the home. My grandmother is still caught up on my Grandfather I think, even though they divorced twice I don't think she ever stopped loving him. Maybe that's why Eddie and her never get married? I might ask my sister to probe.

All I know is that I have only fond memories of Eddie now, I shed my tears for him at the funeral. My favourite memories range from  things such as when he used to smoke a pipe, as a child I was absolutely fascinated and completely addicted to the smell of his rolling tobacco. The gigantic vegetables he could grow in his garden while he could still move around. The steak and homemade french fries he was so famous for. His love for single malt whisky. His phrases and sayings, the most memorable one being 'Can't means won't try' or the fact his hearing was so good he'd often retort he could hear a duck fart underwater. l.

It was a bitterly cold day his funeral, my sister had wrote a poem for him. she got up in front of the half full church and recited it flawlessly. I'm not sure my sister ever reads this but on the off chance she does she has no idea how proud I was of her for doing that. She read it without tear or whimper without stutter or stammer. I'd have been a wreck reading that, I was a wreck listening to it. I couldn't hold the tears back.

I'll miss him a lot and I want to thank him from the bottom of my heart for helping make me the man I am today.

Bali, Indonesia

I can scarcely believe it myself, another post. Shocked at my own creativity, It makes more sense to cook the food while the fire is hot so let me attempt to turn some of this free time and creativity into words, memories for one and all.

It was maybe a month after I got back from Australia, I'd been dating The Chen for about 2-3 months at this point and things were going pretty awesomely. I'd been staying with her quite a bit, she was house sitting for a Latin American friend of hers who had an epic condo on Shelton Road in Bukit Timah. A two story condo with lots of glass. We pretty much other than the surprisingly unfortunately infrequent visits by amazing human beings such as Vicky, Claude, Patrick, his Japanese girlfriend (always forget her name) and Amirah. All amazing humans I've been so lucky to meet, a pro life point right there.

I wanted to do continue the pace of my traveling but this time take The Chen with me. We discussed it and decided we wanted to go somewhere that would be special, not famine evoking expensive, relaxing, interesting and peaceful. Somewhere not too far to travel, somewhere tropical, somewhere bespoke and surfeited with culture but at the same time somewhere down to earth at it's core, a real place and not an island full of aristocrats. After little deliberation we decided on Bali.

The Face of Bali @ Pura Gunung Lebah - Ubud, Bali.

Historically, the Balinese village of Ubud can trace its roots to as far back as the 8th century. It is documented on ancient palm leaf scripts that a revered holy man from India by the name of Rsi Markaneya embarked on a spiritual journey across Java and eventually came to the island of Bali to spread the teachings of Hinduism.

It was on his travels that he received a divine revelation that in Bali he was to bury five precious metals on a mountain slope where the mother temple of Besakih now stands today. Along with a group of followers, Rsi Markaneya was magnetically attracted to a destination located in the central foothills of the island that radiated light and energy. This place was Campuhan in Ubud at a junction in the Wos River and it was here that he felt compelled to build a temple by the name of Pura Gunung Lebah.This is just one of the wonderful temples in Bali. Previously I was saying I'd saturated my temple fever but the Javanese and Balinese temples of rock and earth differ tremendously from the Chinese and Burmese temples of gold and awe. I don't want to get into the temples bit quite yet, let's take a step back and look at Bali. Yes, a bit of a geography lesson but you'll feel smarter for it afterwards, trust me.

South East Asia with Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia

For those of you that can't see Singapore it's at the top of left of the above picture, just below the bottom of Peninsular Malaysia you will see the state Johor Bahru, just below that is The Republic of Singapore.

Bali is a province of Indonesia, it sits in the south east Java sea which itself owes sovereignty to the South China Sea above it and the Indian Ocean below it. The province covers a few small neighbouring islands as well as the isle of Bali itself. The main island is located in the westernmost end of the Lesser Sunda Islands, lying between Java to the west and Lombok to the east. It is one of the country's 34 provinces with the provincial capital at Denpasar towards the south of the island. The official language of Bali is of course Bahasa Indonesia but close to 4 Million people speak the local language of Balinese. The number of locals speaking the local language daily is low, less than 1 million according to wiki and the language continues to dilute due to changing modern nucleic family values and globally changing marital demographics. One thing I noticed during my time here was that the locals were keen to be known as Balinese and not Indonesians, similar to the people I know who insists on being classified as English rather than British. A bad habit I lean more towards these days.

Why so? Why the insistence on being classified as Balinese when Indonesian is technically correct? I haven't done any research on line on this subject, I'm sure dropping it in on Google and hitting go would result in a preposterous number of hits. It's got to be something as simple as the being proud of and wanting to be recognized for the variances in culture and language. Maybe for the fear of being swallowed by the plethora that is the mega category of Indonesian Culture? I don't expect anything revolutionary. Maybe I should look into that soon..

Sculptures of Bali on a shopping street in Seminyak

This place gets hots, stinking hot and humid too, about the same humidity as Singapore but a slightly higher temperature. I deliberated long and hard over the planning of this trip, especially in the type of accommodation I booked. The Chen and myself being potentially the only people not to have been to Bali in our close nit group of friends in Singapore, so we've heard all about the epic accommodation available in Bali. It's pretty well priced too, especially if you book in advance. I was unsure between a luxury five star hotel with the regular run of the mill hotel B&B experience or to go for a Villa. The problem is, when you look into getting a Villa you open up a whole new can of worms on yourself. First world problems I know but the choices are truely endless with varying sizes, layouts, formats, amenities, locations, colours and overall pimpness level. In the end, I booked The Chen and myself a Villa in the town of Seminyak, a pretty touristy place next to the epicenter of the Caucasian habitat on Bali, Kuta.

The villa was for five nights, and it was a little off the beaten track but walking distance to civilization. It was a hotel that compromised 28 private villas in various formats. I got us the 2nd from entry level, you know not too be completely cheap. This villa was a one bedroom Villa with an outdoor social area and private pool and sunbathing facility and without breakfast it was about 1,000 SGD for the five nights, that's about 500 GBP to my fellow Brits. It was pretty outrageous how nice the place was, the service was also impeccable. The name of the place by the way was La Villais Exclusive Villa & Spa on Jalan Pangkung Sari Br Taman, a short walking distance to the famous eating street Jalan Petitenget. I'm afraid I don't have any shots of the villa but go to booking.com, plenty of photos and the place gets an 8.5.

Let's start at the temples.

The Temples

Our schedule was pretty touristy heavy but we took it was easy, meaning we did something touristy most days but we didn't get up unnecessarily early for example. 

Pura Saraswati / Saraswati Temple

Pura Taman Saraswati, as the name suggests is a temple dedicated to Goddess Saraswati (Goddess of Knowledge and Learning).The temple as are most temples I've seen in Asia covered in Temple Guards, officially known as Dvarapala. Sanskrit; a door or gate guardian often portrayed as warrior or fearsome asura giant, usually armed with a weapon. The statue of dvarapala is a widespread architectural element throughout the Hindu and Buddhist cultures, as well as in the areas influenced by them like Java. I have to say that I love Dvarapala, they are one of my favourite things about visiting temples. They do differ by religion, country, origin etc. I wouldn't like to say Balinese Dvarapala are less extreme than Thai or Chinese but they do appear physically less so. I'd love to see a CG movie of Dvarapala fighting, a bit like Transformers. It would be immense.

Tanah Lot

Tanah Lot is a rock formation and the home of a pilgrimage temple, the Pura Tanah Lot (literally "Tanah Lot temple". It's a popular tourist and cultural icon for photography and exoticism. It's a must visit when you go to Bali, it's visually spectacular

^{There's unfortunately a huge tourist trap as you walk into Tanah lot, it seems as if it was built specifically built in that way for the sole purpose of annoying tourists. Actually they're just listening to our voice; we want competition in the market. They got us competition, instead of 1 store selling Bali themed magnets we get 20. There's some pretty nice photo ops inside Tanah Lot and around the site, it's visually breathtaking as I said before so please dont miss out. If you're the impatient type like me, you can do the whole thing in an hour. The drive there will take you longer.}

Pura Luhur Uluwatu

^{Pura Luhur Uluwatu is a Balinese sea temple that was built in the 11th century, it is one of nine directional temples meant to protect Bali from evil spirits. It is located in Pecatu Village, Kuta South District of Badung Regency of Bali. Itself, up close the temple is not attractive, but the history surrounding Uluwatu, it's godly placement on the cliff and it's monkey infested surroundings make this place special. It's also special for me because me and The Chen and our epic Taxi driver who i'll never forget came here to see the Kecak Dance.}

The Kecak Dance - Chanting Mantra

 

King Ravana & The Princess

The Exotic Photographer

Kecak is a form of Balinese dance and music drama, it originated in the 1930s and is performed primarily by men. Also known as the Ramayana Monkey Chant, the piece, performed by a circle of  performers wearing checked cloth around their waists, percussively chanting "cak" and throwing up their arms, depicts a battle from the Ramayana where the monkey-like Vanara helped Prince Rama fight the evil King Ravana.

 <sup>The Sunset

While we're on the subject of the Kecak Dance at Uluwatu, I recalled the sunset that day. It was celestial, it seemed to take hours from the onset of amber to the death of the day. The timing was perfect. It was after all of our walking, hours of taxis and other various missions we'd completed that day and it began just as we were sitting getting ready to watch the Kecak Dance.</sup>

Sunset at Uluwatu

The Food

Onto shamelessly my favourite topic, food. The food in Bali is famous for being some of the best food of South East Asia, there are hundreds of heavenly restaurants strewn across Bali, but when we stayed in Seminyak, the famous food street Jalan Petitenget was literally a stones through away, but because me and the Chen are so bourgeois we took taxis. 


Sardine
Jalan Petitngent 21,Kerobokan
Tel: +62 361 738202
Cuisine: Chic, Contemporary, International
Rating: 8/10

One of the first restaurants we visited came up on a very brief google search. We literally arrived at our room and I was starving, The Chen was in the bathroom doing things women have to do while I was furiously searching for restaurants close by. She was done, I got my wallet and we went, that's just how I roll. 

Sardine, Jalan Petitenget

This restaurant was stunning and such a relaxing and pleasing environment to be in. Sheltered in a wooden pavilion and bathed in perfect tempo and volume background lounge music. The waitresses dressed in long white Balinese dresses, attentive to perfection moved throughout the restaurant and greeted new guests almost without sound. My view filled with perfection, The Chen, sitting content looking at a wine menu. Turning your head a few degrees to the left revealed for me the main USP for this place. The rice field.

Sardines Rice Field

The shot above is not very good actually and hides a lot of the garden, including the mini paddy field directly as you enter the restaurant. It is a beautiful sight at around 2pm in the afternoon, when the restaurant is quiet and the pavilion does its job well of shielding you from the Suns rays. 


Unfortunately I didn't take enough photos of the food at Sardine, of the mains or of the desert but I did of the starters which were indescribably superb.
 

Delicious Tuna Tartare

Sardines with Pepper Pesto Dressing - Sauteed Carrots, Steamed Buttered Potatoes and sliced onions.

All in all, price wise it was about 70 SGD or 35 GBP which is pretty cheap, we had coconuts and a glass of wine each too if I'm not wrong. Which is cheap, but for Indonesia and Bali on average is probably very high. Still it was worth every single cent and I can't wait to go back.

Naughty Nuri's Warung
Jalan Batubelig 41, Kerobokan, (Seminyak)
Tel: +62 361 847 6722
E-Mail: mail@naughtynurisbali.com
Cuisine: Tex Mex, Fast Food, Ribs, Burgers
Rating: 10/10

She get's busy so be prepared to wait.

This place is famous, I'd come across it on a web search while also being told about it by Nico before I left. We had to try this place and I've never been so happy at the validity and truth of reviews about a restaurant, I've never in 27 years on this planet eaten Ribs like Naughty Nuri's Ribs. We also had potato wedges, nachos and a few other dishes but the Ribs were the Judge Dredd of the Rib World, by this I meaan they were Judge, Jury and Executioner all in one.

Ribs, Wedges and of course Diet Coke

I don't know why I bother with the diet coke to be honest, there is logic behind my action but no true intent. I may as well go flat out and go with Red If I'm gonna have a meal like that. It tastes better than it looks, trust me, they are the most succulent ribs I've ever tasted and I hate to say it but fuck KFC; I'll give a medal to the first man I see eat these without licking his fingers. If I remember correctly, it worked out around 8 SGD, so 4 GBP for the set meal, all taxes included. If you're anything like me when you stand from the table after consuming this feast, with a belly full of beast you'll feel like you robbed them as you walk away looking for a bed to rest your weary head.

They also have an outlet in Ubud.


Ibu Oka Warung
Jalan Suweta / Tegal Sari 2 / Peliatan (Ubud)
Cuisine: Local Warung, Suckling Pig, Indonesian Food
Rating: 8/10

Ibu Oka Warung - Peliatan, Ubud.

There are three of these restaurants scattered across Ubud. I found out about these Balinese institutions when Googling for good food in Bali. These places came up as a must try while you are out there. Our original destination was for the Main Ibu Oka Warung which is near the old Royal Palace, it's the most famous and crowded one but it's also the one the most flies. I'm not a big fan of the winged misery while eating, although unavoidable in tropical places like Bali, the outlet at Jalan Peliatan is much better for that. It was quieter too until a huge bus of Chinese tourists arrived just after us.

Ibu Oka Babi Guling Special over Steamed Rice with Lawar

For me seriously the only problem with this dish was the temperature it was served it, which was lukewarm. For me, I'd have been happier if it had been Micro nuked just before it was served, that comment might turn the faces of distinguished food bloggers but I'm afraid it's the truth. Well, that was until I tasted it.

The dish comes served with blood sausages, crispy skin (crackling), deep fried skin, soft meat, deep fried meat, urap and lawar. The deep friend meat (you can see it at the bottom of the dish, looks kinda like Tandoori chicken. That and crackling got a big thumbs up from me. It was spicy but not uncomfortably spicy, just left a small tingle on my tongue afterwards. Well worth the travel.

As I'm super greedy...I obviously got a bowl of the deep fried meat (gorengan) as a side, damn it was so good. Vegetarians beware should have been posted at the start of this section.

Gorengan

Sea Circus
Jalan Kavu Ava, Oberoi (Seminyak)
Tel: +62 361 738 667
Cuisine: European, Australian, Central American, International
Rating: 7/10

Chalk board outside of Sea Circus

I'm not going to lie it was probably either fully down to that advertising board regarding gelato or because the building was pretty and it was very hot outside. Maybe a combination of the two. Me and The Chen decided to go inside and sample some of their gelato and Ice Cream. If I remember correctly, I chose gelato and The Chen got some sort of sorbet, see how more Bourgeois than me she is. It just comes naturally to her where as I have to work at it, honestly. 

If you didn't know the difference between gelato and Ice Cream it turns out that gelato is made with a greater proportion of whole milk to cream, so it contains more like five to seven percent fat where as Ice Cream legally must contain a minimum of 10%. Also the gelato is churned at a slower speed than ice cream, so it's denser because not as much air is whipped into the mixture. (Gelato contains about 25 to 30 percent air, while ice cream can contain as much as 50 percent air) Finally, while ice cream is typically served frozen, gelato is typically stored and served at a slightly warmer temperature, so it's not quite completely frozen.
Since there's not as much fat in gelato, it doesn't coat the mouth in the same way. So the flavors are more intense. Apparently.

I rated the place a 7/10 because I only tried the gelato, it was delicious yet and I saw some australians served real food and it looked epic. If i'd tried it, not doubt the place would have got at least an 8 or 9 out of 10.

We did eat at more awesome places other than these above but I didn't take any photos and we didn't really recall the experiences in the same way so for that purpose we didn't include them on the list. Bali has some of the best restaurants I've ever eaten at.

What else did we do?

So by now you can't blame me for feeling melomania over Bali, the place is magic and everyone I speak to  feels the same. While we were there I really wanted to see some Rice Fields, Bali is renowned for them. We didn't get to see the vertically layered Rice fields you see in the travel guides and Google results but we did find a very unique place near Pura Saraswati in Ubud.

Subak Juwuk Manis

We were walking down the street we saw this sign and decided to abscond from the main walkway and do a little bit of off the track exploration while our taxi driver sat patiently. We followed this path which to be honest was a bit surreal, almost lurid. It was deserted, there was not a soul to be found. We walked around the winding narrow dirt track avoiding electrical cables and the odd rat until finally we wandered into an open space. What a pleasant surprise presented us.

Rice Fields of Ubud

The fields although as mentioned not the picturesque ones you become accustomed to when planning a trip to Bali. Like a bastard child of E.L. James we were confronted with 50 Shades of Green. It was absolutely stunning. I wandered with camera in hand for a good twenty minutes absorbing as much culture as possible until we saw life. In the obscure distance we saw shapes, straw hats, Asian style. We headed in the direction of the hats and after a few minutes of walking we noticed they belonged to field workers picking and filtering the rice. We walked towards the horizon and eventually over the brow of the hill and I was stunned yet again by the beautiful scenery and culture of Bali.

Beautiful timing in beautiful Bali

I love this photo above, I'm an amateur with the camera and I take more shit photos than good ones but this is my favourite photo I've ever taken.

So our holiday in Bali was coming to a close, I'd never relaxed so much in a holiday. In Bali, I started a trend that I would stick to, at least up to now anyway of NOT working on Holiday. I didn't even open my laptop once. The final night before our departure the villa we had booked was showing a traditional Balinese dance, assured to infinity and beyond that it was different to the Kecak dance we booked two tickets which included Buffet dinner for around 30USD per person. When we turned up to watch the show at around 7pm there was only one table inhabited by another couple, the villa was dead. With a 10 man Balinese orchestra and a 6 person crew for the dance and only 4 people watching the show including me and The Chen I couldn't help feel sorry for the performers. Yes they would get paid anyway but it was such a shame to see their talent bestowed upon only 8 eyes.

Male Dancer

Part of the dance crew including the incredibly talent young girl on the left hand side.

The show was mesmerizing, similar to the Kecak dance but at the same time different. The extravagant traditional Balinese dress, the music, the movement, the expressions all thrown together made for a breathtaking experience. One I will never forget.

I recommend Bali to everyone who is reading this, I uncovered in 5 days probably 0.00001% of the island giving me plenty more food and culture to explore when I go back.

I'll leave you with a rare picture of myself and The Chen outside the lotus pond of Pura Saraswati. I hope you enjoyed the blog and thank you for reading.

<3

Valentine's Day

So today is the day after Valentine’s Day, well only just or did I miss it? Depends what time zone you’re in. It also depends when you’re reading this I guess. Does it matter which universe you are in?

Anyway, for me I'm writing this on St Valentine's Day and I’m still here in Cambodia. The Chen is studying in France. I know, I’ll tell you all about that in a later post.

I was working from the Hotel today and I opened my inbox to find an e-card. I hope she doesn’t read this because I’m gonna post the card:

The Best I Keep To Myself

Sweet huh? I’ve been involved in the weird and wonderful world of dating on and off since I was 15 and without a big head; I’ve had my fair share. It’s very seldom I receive things as wonderful as this card. She will probably never know how much it means, but to an emotional guy like myself I'll tell you this means a lot.

She told me she had got me something and had had it shipped to Singapore, I wasn’t going to be there on Valentine’s Day but it’s ok she was late or the postal service was late - it actually worked out pretty well given the timings. You know as a guy, to be honest, you don’t really care about Valentine’s Day, well I dont anyway. It’s just another day you have to go out and actually do the dreaded task of shopping for things for someone that isn’t yourself. That's a task in itself but It’s even worse when it’s your girlfriend. A female. Something a male will avoid at all situations if possible. I decided to get her flowers and found a website delivering flowers in Paris, the selection wasn’t as nice as I’d been hoping I mean the price was seriously bourgeois  but the selection just didn’t match. Anyway, I'd procrastinated as usual, and although not 1 day before Valentine's I hadn't meticulously planned this. What did I expect?

I logged into Facebook earlier and was pleasantly surprised at The Chen posting a picture of the Roses and openly wishing me thank you. I mean, she’s a girl she loves flowers, and yes I didn’t get her favourite flowers, Orange Lillie’s. It’s Valentine’s Day, they gotta be roses right? I'll save the lilies for a very special occasion or when I'm in trouble (thanks Vicky!)

I’m surprised she did something like that on FB, because she’s not a very open type of girl. I mean she is when you know her but just because you’re on her Facebook doesn’t constitute you the right to actually know her. She's awesome like that.

It just has to be Red Roses right?

I love this girl, I really do and it’s outrageously frustrating the fact she’s in France. I always hated Geography, wish I was there in Europe with her.

-- March 8th -- xxx 

Happy Valentine’s Day

Sydney, Australia

So we move on, where were we, ah yes it was the last weeks of August and I was back from Europe, back from Shirley's funeral and back from my family, thrust straight back into the grasps of the Big D 7 Day working week.

Not for long though, I'd delayed this trip once before already because I had to be there for Shirley's funeral and this time I was going. My e-Visa was applied for, yes they make British Passport holders apply for a Visa in advance to traveling, actually do you blame them? I'd make us apply for Visas everywhere we went if history was allowed to speak for itself.

This was the first time I'd flown with Scoot Airlines, the new low cost branch of Singapore Airlines. They used the previous fleet of Singapore Airline planes so straight away you feel the sense of space over other low cost airlines such as Air Asia or Tiger. The flight itself, without the cancellation and amendment fee it was around 480 SGD for a return ticket to Sydney, that's around 240 GBP. Pretty good value if you ask me.

I endured the flight and arrived in Sydney airport, it was the early part of September and New South Wales was just beginning to recover from it's Winter. During the day temperatures in Sydney got close to 25 centigrade with a beautiful clear air, I couldn't feel any humidity. When the sun went down in true logical fashion it got cold, it was a climate I could very much get used to, not too indifferent from our own most magnificent Summer days.

Double Bay & Surrounding

Double Bay, Sydney - New South Wales, Australia

I picked a hotel in a harbourside picturesque suburb of Sydney called Double Bay. It is about 4km from the Central Business District of Sydney and well connected to the inner city by bus, train and boat. Later I was to find out from the locals that some of them are known to call the area Double Pay to which I personally soon became accustomed.

Sydney was the first time I've been away by myself and it was for 10 days in total, a pretty long time but I had my laptop and an extensive array of television stations to keep me company. My first feeling of landing in Sydney was how nice it was to be somewhere in Asia where English was the first language. Everyone in Singapore speaks English, and other than the Philippines I'd have to say Singaporeans have the best command over the English language of any Asian nation except when they butcher it from time to time with their hybrid word destroying logical defying tongue that is Singlish.

Security was long but I'd expected such, I'd watched countless hours of Border Control, Border Force and other such TV shows that show what seems impenetrable wall that is Australian Customs. When push came to shove however it wasn't anything new or spectacular, maybe they just didn't highlight me as a threat what with my bare white limbs. That's nice actually for once, airport staff treating me fairly, not asking me for the additional passport check of frisk down, seeing me and into my soul and realizing I'm a wonderful human being - I just likes to have my special 'relax' occasionally and I'm awesome.

I was moderately impressed by Double Bay and the surroundings, there was some pretty cool stuff a short bus journey away. It turned out to be a crazy short bus journey with an Italian consistently asking the bus driver who was solid and very non social at first but who over time was broken down by this innocent Italian mans repeated queries for "Here shark?" becoming joyful almost giddy.

The Gap @ Watsons Bay, Sydney.

The Gap and the surrounding Watsons Bay are both a short journey from Double Bay. Watsons Bay was named after Robert Watson (1756–1819), formerly of HMS Sirus, when he had to beach his three vessels at Camp Cove for many years because of their being potentially sold. Watson was appointed harbourmaster of the port of Sydney in 1811 and the first superintendent of Macquarie Lighthouse in 1816. The Gap is a place widely associated with suicide and campaigners pledge with orange poles with hotline numbers.

Lifeline Australia

The Centre

So I briefly toured the centre for a few across across the space of a few days while I was there. It's big but apart from being built on a slope it seems organized. They're buses all lined up not far from the Ferry Port transport depot taking you all around Sydney, other than that train stations are not far and are clearly signposted throughout the city. It's a busy city but its not Singapore or London rush hour busy, it's tolerable. Buses are full sometimes but they are too in Sunderland. The trains are big and robust machines, always plenty of space on those. A little shady at night though.

Sydney Opera House

Up close it looks like a space ship has landed in Sydney in that stye of the 1970's rise of Sci Fi. It's material and layout are alien looking, visible bolt holdings, faded paint and aged brown window panes give the exterior a dated feel. Step a few feet back however and symmetrically it's beautiful, all pieces of the opera house together like a perfect jigsaw, it's something that gets more beautiful the further and further you get away from it. The shot below was taken from the Hickson Road Reserve opposite the Opera house.

Sydney Opera House under the diminishing day

The Space Ship or Sci-Fi Turtles?

As is usual with these posts they often span multiple days or even weeks of composition before they are complete. Across these periods of construction I myself come in varying forms of creativity and productivity, two things pretty much directly based on my current state of hunger and sobriety. Right now, I feel like sharing some of the shots I take while I was there.

Of course, where would a travel blog of Sydney be without that shot of the Harbour Bridge?

The Bridge

Forgive me, but I took a few...

The Bridge & Beyond

From a few different angles...

The Bridge Walk

And a few different perspectives...

I walked across the bridge, I walked around the bridge, I walked underneath the bridge..a little bit and I even walked up to the touristy pylon to get better shots. I know what a vanilla tourist I am. Hey, what else can I say about the Sydney Harbour Bridge except that it's a pretty awesome bridge, it's got an interesting story surrounding it's creation and it makes the landscape beautiful both by day and night.

The Freshwater @ Sydney Harbour

The Freshwater shot actually came out of about 15 different shots of the same scene. I'm pretty new to photography and I'm not part of any group or photo cult so I'm not sure if every amateur photographer is like me. Does everyone takes 30 shots of the same scene and then painstakingly deliberate over them for hours and hours until you get one you like? I've no idea why I do this it actually encourages me to procrastinate and not go through my photos. I always find it's good to rope the girlfriend in at this point, mine does a wonderful job of severing any sentimental connections I may have had with the shots.

Fishing Down Under

A shot I got at the end of the night, my camera isn't very good at taking shots at night, well It's probably me being rubbish and the fact that I'm not using the camera right or the fact I don't have one of those war of the world devices, one of those tripods. I doctored the light and added a light filter to it. The original is on my Facebook page for comparison.

Queen Victoria Building, Sydney Centre

Inside the Central Business District itself, this Romanesque Revival architecture icon, The Queen Victoria Building houses chic and splendid stalls with boutiques and personal tailors. Lot's of bourgeois cafe's and coffee shops where one can indulge on the finest imported coffee beans and the most prestigious sweet delights. Australian chocolatier Haigh's who might give Thornton's a run for their money have a flagship store in this mall. Be weary, this mall is chic but can be expensive.

The Royal Botanical Gardens

While I was walking around the City Centre, I had time a plenty and wanted to waste some. Instead of just getting drunk which doesn't take much effort I was close so decided to hit the Botanical Gardens in Sydney seen as though the weather was pretty wonderful, I was looking forward to a walk.

# 813

At the entrance to the park, just beyond the opera house, was this aesthetically pleasing little Red train, instantly made me wish I was 5 again. It didn't move this train, well maybe it did but not on this day it didn't. The kids or big kids could sit inside and have their photo taken with it. When I'm as loaded as Richie Rich I'm gonna have one of these throughout my home. That's a promise.

Bamboo Love Story

In the Botanical Gardens there were lots of plants, as you would expect from a Garden. A lot of the plants were generic and there were some huge gaping tree's, tree's fit for the Forest of Fangorn. There was a ton of bamboo and lots of it was 'modified' let's say, the majority of the modifications being symbols of love made on handheld strolls through the Gardens. It was a pretty beautiful thing to see, I took lots of photos and played with colours, contrasts, filters but in the end settled on the one natural one without a touch. Whoever JCW is SJA is with you all the way.

90mm Macros Lens Shot - Unknown Flower

I took my Macro lens of my Camera with me, figuring If I'd need it at some point and then the Botanical Gardens came into my itinerary, awesome I thought, there will be tons of strange lookings plants and flowers and I'll get ample chance for Macro usage finally! A 400 SGD lens that was gathering dust. It didn't get much usage as the lens is slow, hard to use, needs a lot of stamina, patience and time which I have none of. I took a few others but nothing breathtaking, no spider up close and no bee or winged beauty landing on it's treasure.


The Chinese Garden of Friendship

The Chinese Garden of Friendship is exactly what it says it is, it's a Chinese memorial garden located on the edge of China Town close to Darling Harbour in Sydney.  The garden was designed by Sydney's sister city in China, Guangzhou and were opened was back in 1988. They look pretty good for 24 year old gardens.

I was browsing China Town in Sydney with my camera hoping to get some nice shots, but as usual If I see a shot I walk and procrastinate until the shot is lost. I'm afraid to just go in there and take the photo, afraid to risk the rejection I guess. Nice how that personality trait shows itself in my hobbies. It's definitely something I'm going to get over. I came across the Chinese Garden by accident and decided to have a look around, part of the Garden was closed as they were filming a movie, the garden itself was closing early that day so filming could be done during the evening. We heard from the woman on reception it was the new Wolverine film. Haven't seen anyone of the Wolverine films but I can guess they're either pretty average or pretty shit.

The Chinese Garden @ Sunset

Sydney Temple

Ancient Words

The Dragon And The Fools

I spent maybe an hour walking around the garden, it was nice, nice to be inside the city while being outside of it. It's a soothing place, the walls, water and wildlife somehow block out the sound of Sydney and you quickly forget you're in the middle of a bustling city centre. I took a lot of photos as usual, 95% ending up being obliterated from my flash storage. One nice shot I got was when I was walking out. So in Chinese mythology the dragon is often seen chasing the sun, and sometimes the sun is pictured in it's mouth. Sometimes it's pictured on fire or coated in flame and other images show the ball cooled. The ball is actually depicted as a pearl and the pearl became known as the night shining pearl.

The group of four guys sometimes partially engaged sometimes fully engaged simultaneously trying to free the pearl from the Dragons mouth to no avail. It was obvious from just walking past it five minutes previous like I had done and notice it was never coming out, even from a distance it was clear the orifice was not large enough for the pearl to pass through but still they tried. To this day I'll never know if they were serious in freeing the pearly or whether they realized defeat very early on and continued out of sheer embarrassment. 


Bondi To Bronte Walk

Wanting to see Bondi beach and hearing from a group of German tourists that there was apparently an epic walk starting from Bondi Beach and ending at a place called Bronte Beach, it was 3km from one beach to the other and it was about 25 degrees centigrade, it was definitely not cold but I was looking forward to some sand and sea.

One of the aussie tourist sites states the following:

But it’s the sunny, coastal views that bring walkers by the busload, that inspire and lighten the soul. There are few things more satisfying than watching the South Pacific Ocean roll and crash against the line of coves and beaches extending south from Bondi to La Perouse on to the entrance to Botany Bay.  

Let's see if they are right.

Bondi Beach

'

Bondi To Bronte

They were right. What can I say about the walk? It was stunning... a sensory overload of sun, white sands, turquoise water and colossal rock faces shaped by aeons of battling oceans. I was in a bit of a condition and the walk was challenging, if i was 100% it wouldn't be a problem but I'd think twice about getting my Dad or Grandad to do the trek. It's the heat that takes it out of you, drink plenty of water, not Whisky but water. 

Bondi To Bronte

Australian Castles

So I finished the three kilometers, there are handy half kilometer markers along the way. After Bronte it turns out that the walk continues, I'm not sure where to but that in total its actually 7km and not 8km. So I decided, just like a Johnnie Walker advertisement to Keep Walking. An old friend of mine Tamsin had let me know there was a pretty beautiful graveyard at the end of the walk and I'd googled to check the hype. My pictures hardly do this place justice:

The Waverley Cemetery, Bronte, Sydney

The Waverley Cemetery opened in 1877 and is a cemetery located on top of the cliffs at Bronte in the eastern suburbs of Sydney. It is noted for its largely intact Victorian and Edwardian monuments. The cemetery contains the graves of many significant Australians including the poet Henry Lawson and Australia's first Prime Minister, Sir Edmund Barton,who is interred at South Head. Funerals are conducted Monday to Saturday.

The cemetery is self-funded, deriving its income from interments – including burial, cremation, memorials and mausolea – of which there has been over 86,000. Waverley Cemetery was used during the filming of the 1979 Mel Gibson film Tim. The Cemetery was designed to function along similar lines to Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris and Kensal Green Cemetery in London

^{Waverley Gravestone}

I obviously from the above only know the name of the Cemetery, the rest is with direct thanks to Google.

What else did I do other than the touristy stuff?

Well I'm not sure if I ever mentioned a Filipino guy I know from work called Mightor, he resigned last year and moved to Australia to go back to University. I hooked up with him a few times and hung out at his new place for a while. I either didn't have my camera or I was drunk because I had the best food of my Australia trip; Thai food and Mexican food both close to his new place near Kings Cross station. I could have rounded this blog off with a few food pictures.

Thanks Australia. Until next time.