day 4, 5 and 6.

Day4:

-          Moved into mark’s place and got settled. Spent the rest of the day getting to know my new housemate, watching movies, tv serials and basically slacking around.

Day5 (16june):

-          Headed to the Queensland Art Gallery at South Bank to catch the American Impressionism & Realism exhibition. Its an exhibition from the Met (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). We walked around by ourselves after the guided tour. I’m not exactly a very arty person. But this really threw me off. It was amazing. The paintings evoke so much emotion. Looking at it close up and from a far gives a different feeling. Both mark and i agree that the red room, the room of portraits was the best. A few of favourites are “Mr and Mrs IN Phelps Stokes” and “Mrs Hugh Hammersley “by John Singer Sargent. I also liked a few paintings of the cities in the exhibition. I think we spent more than 3 hrs there.

-          Decided to head for lunch cause we were both starving. Pineapple Hotel for superrrr good steak with fries and salad. Thinking of it just makes me drool. Even the fries and salad was good. Totally love it! Think i should have gone there once more before i left. I mean, where else can you get such great food for 10bucks! Had a pretty great time chatting with mark over lunch. He was teaching me how to use the white balance function on my lousy cam. Hahaha.

-          Headed back to South Bank, this time to Goma, Gallery of Modern Art. They were having a exhibition on China. And some of the stuff there was seriously Modern ART. I totally didn’t get what some of the exhibits were trying to say. For example, there was this video showing totally naked Chinese man and women, waiting in line to take their weight. After which, they lied down on their stomachs, piled themselves on each other with the heaviest below and forming a human pyramid. There was another video of many many people saying wo hui si de (i will die), one at a time. All of them had different expressions when they said it. I think the Australians must have thought that all Chinese were so quirky and weird when they went to the exhibit. But it was really quite cool. It forces you to open your mind to things that you don’t see and encounter everyday.

-          Took a walk by the Brisbane River to take a break from all the arty stuff. The broadwalk is a perfect place to walk or even go for a jog. If i lived there, i think i would go jogging everyday. You can watch the sun set slowly and enjoy the cool breeze and the lovely sight of the river and city. Spent some time taking photos and looking at graffiti on the walls.

-          Went to watch The Hangover at the South Bank cinemas. Tickets cost $6.50 only. If you have consession, its 2 bucks off! So worth it. And the screen is HUGEEE. Its even bigger than the biggest one at Vivo. And its free seating. So if the cinema is full, which it was, a lady will come and ask everyone to squeeze towards the centre. It was quite a good show, funny and all. :]]

-          Headed back to South Bank to take photos. This time, we spotted the firemen! Okay. Its actually 2 guys with fire sticks or whatever you call them. So we were just sitting by the bench, secretly taking photos of them and trying out the longer exposure function. When we got sick of it, we went to take photos of the Brisbane Wheel . After which, Mark taught me how to spell my name with the camera with a point light source. Hahahah. Had great fun though it took me a long while to master it. Then it was time to be at 2 places at 1 time! You’ll get what i mean if you see the photos. Hahaha.

-          Walked around South Bank, went to the underpass which was Mark’s fav hangout, took super alot of photos. Actually, it was him taking photos of me and having fun. Then we experimented with long exposure, trying to capture the movement of cars on the road.

-          Drove to 3 monkeys to have nice yummy but quite expensive cakes. The ambience was amazing! Sat there chatting about our lives for quite some time. Its amazing how we’ve only known each other for 2 days and we could get along so well. I should visit the 3 monkeys in Singapore soon, though i think the aust one is still better. Hahhaha.

-          Mark brought me to the floating platform that overlooks Story Bridge. It was pretty late by the time we went there. It was quite a quiet and creepy walk to the platform. Its like a hideout that you’ll never know it exist unless you live in Brisbane. Its one of my fav places in Brisbane now. :]] spent some time taking photos and talking about photography. Mark was telling me about one of his modules in school, whereby you have to go out and take your own photos and experiment. Pretty cool huh! Unlike all our boring mods in NUS.

-          By the time we headed back, it was almost 2am. Hahaha. Time to go to bed! :]] it was surely one of the best days in Brisbane.

Here’s the photos for the day! http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/album.php?aid=101756&id=692536497&ref=mf

Day6 (17june):

-          Slept in cause i was just too tired from the previous day. Hahaha. Watched some tv serials and animations with Mark before he drove me to Hawken Drive to meet Pau for dinner.

-          We both had grilled salmon at A Salt and Batter. I can’t seem to get enough of the fries there. Sat there talking and catching up with each other. We haven’t seen each other for the longest time! Hahaha. Guess what, we talked so much that we forgot to take photos.

-          Anyhow, we walked back to her apartment which she shared with her sis and a Malaysian housemate. Continued to chat and watch some tv programmes at her place.

-          I think i must have given shi 30 over missed calls cause i needed her to send me back to mark’s place. i had absolutely no idea how to get back. And i didn’t want to stayover at pau’s place cause she still had exams and i didn’t want to disturb. But i guess shi fell asleep. Hahahah.

-          So in the end, i decided to just walk out and hail a cab. It was SUPER dark and it didn’t help that i had to walk past the engineering section of campus. They had like some really old factories and even a petrol station. It was really quite creepy. When i walked to the main road, there weren’t any cabs in sight. I should have expected it cause the streets are basically empty by the time sun sets and it was already 11ish when i left pau’s place. Luckily i was on campus and there was a phone to call for a cab. You just had to slot 2 bucks in and the machine will generate a ticket to say you have booked a cab. But the ticket didn’t say what the cab no was or how long it was going to take to come. So i waited for almost half an hour in the cold. I was SOOO relieved when the cab finally came. And i swear the cab driver, who was an Indian guy didn’t understand me. I had to spell out the name of Mark’s place so he could key it into the GPS. But yes. Thank God for GPS man. Hahahah. Throughout the journey back, i kept my eyes on the GPS to make sure that the uncle was going where he was supposed to be going. In the end, the cab ride back cost 40bucks!!! Totally burnt a hole in my pocket.

- its really quite an exciting night. hahaha. :]] an adventure!