Prom Date

After months of fantasising and a day of planning, that road trip to Wilsons Prom we were always talking about finally happened.

I also made a vlog, you should totally check it out by the way.

After a much needed chill sesh by the squeakiest beach you’d ever come across, we hiked our way up to the summit of Mt. Oberon. Thankfully all prior thoughts of giving up half way through the hike were pushed aside because damn, that view was worth it.

p.s the hike is only 3.5km and should take about 1 hr. we only thought of giving up because we’re a bunch of very unfit (and lazy) people

Always This Late

About 3 months ago, I was up late watching videos of Odesza performing live wishing they would tour Australia soon and stop by Melbourne, though it was unlikely since they had played a show here about a month ago. The next day however, my prayers were answered. They announced a Melbourne sideshow and I called up binsky despite her not even having moved to Melbourne yet and got us two tickets to their show. I had another stroke of luck when I did one of those “comment to win” things on facebook and actually won.

Highlight of the night: when they practically literally had a porter robinson tribute. Could not have imagined anything better than one of your favourite artists tributing another one of your favourite artist and incorporating the theme of his latest album into their displays. *praying hands emoji*

I’ve never been to an electronic artist concert before but boy, this one is gonna be tough to top. Seeing the duo live is a completely different experience, contrary to what is usually said about electronic artists. I was completely blown away (literally) by their use of incredibly talented percussionists and brass musicians, giving their tracks that extra edge. The venue itself was absolutely beautiful, the high ceilings giving us the illusion that we were outside.

High Places

We walked, we rock climbed, we explored, and we walked some more.

Adventure 2.0 was well in play on the 28th of March 2016. After spending hours googling transport information, maps and hiking locations, we decided to head down the Werribee Gorge State Park (spoiler: the park is not actually in Werribee) for a 6 hour long get away from the bustling city. We took a gamble, and at about 7am made our way to the station nearest to the park without any solid plans of how we were going to get to the actual park from the station, initially planning to wing it once we arrived there and walking as a last resort. Fortunately for us, just as we arrived, a van-taxi-thing which snugly fit all eight of us pulled up at the station car park. Transportation settled, we buckled up for the 15 minute ride to the state park feeling immensely grateful that we didn’t have to resort to walking.

After a mildly dodgy van-taxi-thing ride (the brakes may or may not have burnt out to which the driver, a bubbly old man with a heavy Aussie accent who goes by the name Steve, brushed off with a “Oh don’t worry folks that burning smell in the air is just the brakes” as we were going down a steep, winding road.) we began our hike.

We went full out asian tourist mode and probably spent more time getting that Instagram worthy shot than actually working out our calf muscles but hey we had no where to be and had loads of fun.

Grasslands

We needed to hang out, I was itching to shoot.

So we kicked off the first weekend of the new semester with a much needed hang out/shoot with Zi Tian (who graciously agreed to stand in front of my camera and do this thing where she’s crazy photogenic) and Billy (who graciously agreed to be my photography assistant for the day). Thanks guys.

Location set in a snug little western suburb 40 minutes away from the city, we spent a good couple of hours just enjoying the breeze and wandering around the grasslands.

We also may or may not have discovered a secret hobbit hide out.

As usual, you’ll probably find more photos on my flickr.

Beach House(s)

Here’s a short update, because I liked how these pictures turned out (this is a rare occasion). Maybe it’s that photoshop tutorial I watched, maybe it’s because I had Lazuli by Beach House on repeat in the background maybe it’s maybelline.

We spent the first half of Australia day at Brighton Beach, lazing around under the sun, contemplating what to eat.

Week Three

Last week I saw The 1975 on Wednesday and walked close to 20km at one go on Saturday. Also we’re about half way through summer term. Time sure flies when you have 12 weeks worth of course material crammed into 6.

_

The week before that, I found out Li Xin was a fan of The 1975 and Esen was itching to go to a gig. We looked up the net for tickets but apparently they were sold out. Only one’s left were resale (which often cost twice the original price). At that point I had already mentally prepared myself to accept the fact I’ll be missing out on this one. A couple of days later Li Xin visited the ticketing site again because “she felt like it” and would you believe it, three tickets were available.

Feeling incredibly lucky, we purchased the tickets and before you know it, it was 5.30pm on the 20th of January and we were lining up outside the venue waiting to get in. The opening act, The Japanese House a.k.a Amber Bain blew me away with her charming, androgynous voice and hella trippy light show. Matt Healy was every bit the eccentric, charismatic, sentimentalist as advertised, glass of wine in hand, full face of make up and all. It was amazing to see all the lads in person doing their thing on stage.

_

Later on Saturday, we set out to explore Sherbrooke Forest which was about an hour away from the city. We made the 5 hour-ish journey on foot, navigating using a damp crumpled map I printed out a couple of days ago. From Belgrave station, through the forest, along the main roads, more trees, stopping by a (mildly disappointing) waterfall, through a suburb, we finally arrived at Tecoma station making the train by less than a minute.

 

Every Tuesday So Far

I guess the best part about Summer Term is that there’s only class 4 days a week and classes usually end before 2pm. (Before this I had classes 9am-5pm almost everyday so this new schedule was considerably relaxing)

Week 1:
Sunny and I hit the National Gallery of Victoria. The exhibits were lovely and I especially loved the existence of the quiet and thoughtful atmosphere that seemed to be exclusive to the gallery. 10/10 would recommend

Week 2:
On a whim, I whatsapped Li Xin the night before and asked if she was up for 1000 Steps at Dandenong Ranges, and she said yes. Later that night I messaged two other people and before you know it we were a group of five bored university students eager to do some mild hiking the following morning.

After doing a lot of walking on dirt paths surrounded by trees, we did even more walking around the city trying to find this amazing burger place I heard about. (It was worth it)

It felt great to be out of bed and doing something before 12pm on a day off. Will definitely try doing that again.

Times Like These

Just a few days shy of the 31st I got to see Bellyn and Karu after what seemed like ages. 

Abandoned and Another

So Angeline told me there was an abandoned house across the street from where she stays and we both thought it would make a pretty cool shoot location and turns out we were kinda right. After a couple of hours exploring, shooting and being grade-A mosquito chow, we rewarded ourselves with pizza and the most amazing chocolate cake.

Hello Again

I was back at Nadayu again for a little get together. Met up with three of the boys for breakfast and we went on over to Irfan’s house for video games, pizza and chill. Also, I made Yi Fung sit in front of the fridge so I could shoot him. Thanks, Yi Fung.

After that, it was back to Austin’s pad for a party with (even more) pizza, thai food and good company.