Cafe, Chilling, Contemporary art and the City

With exams finished (internal ones, at least) for the time being, I went out to celebrate!

Actually, went out for an appointment about University applications, but decided to make the most of the day and enjoy the new-found freedom a bit more.

So, thought it'd be a great idea to bring my camera out with my 50mm f/1.8 which is the smallest and lightest 50mm lens made by Nikon :') (which a dear friend gifted to me)

I absolutely love this lens wow.

f/0 is surreal. Like crazy.

It's only manual focus though, which makes it quite difficult to take photos (thus, some of the following images may be slightly out of focus). I'm working on it! I still love the lens, because it takes such lovely photos. And there's something really nice about it being manual and so small. 

I've yet to use it to film something though; it would be brilliant to film with.

Anyway! So started off meeting two friends at Parramatta for a catch-up sesh after weeks of hardly seeing each other or talking, due to exam period.

Went with KS to a nearby cafe first-off, since other friend PT slept in. 

Lemon meringue! Was worth the price and really satisfying for the sweet tooth.

Chilled around for a few hours, then decided to head off to lunch at Toscani's.

First time at the restaurant.
Also can I just point out the amazingly narrow depth-of-field?!

 Photo dump;;

Lemon lime and bitters

Beef burger (exceedingly filling)

Not quite sure of the name of the dish but it looks delish

Then, it was time for me to head off so I could make it in time for my appointment in the city.

PT made a last minute decision to go out to the city too, so tagged along. Ended up teaching me how to make paper roses on the train there (which I've probably forgotten already... whoops)

And then we thought we'd be all /mysterious/ and hopefully brighten someone's day by leaving them on the train seats for the next person to enjoy.

On the way I saw a couple of street performers.

This boy was incredibly talented. I spent a good 10 minutes watching him (thankfully I allocated extra time to get to the appointment).
He sang and danced and really knew how to work the crowd. I hope he goes far.
I hope I see him again in the city sometime, actually! 

This guy played the drums. Apologies that it's not in focus :( Almost cried when I realised afterwards

 After I had my appointment/meeting, I had some time to burn before I met with my family for dinner, so I decided to go to the MCA (Museum of Contemporary Art) because I hadn't been in a while. I'm also a sucker for contemporary art, and I figured that weeks of non-creative subject cramming ought to be balanced off a bit with some artistic stimulation.

'temporary art'
My attempt at being creative and contemporary.
Represents something. Like the transience and forever changing perception of art. Or something.

They installed these new public Foosball tables outside!
Keen to try it one day (I love Foosball)

Just going to post images of some of my favourite works at the MCA;

From afar, it was clearly two guns

But close up and it's made of pins depicting human body parts.
Probably means something. Something deep. But my brain is too fried from exams to fully understand it right now.

Sorry it's a little blurry, but the accompanying plaque said this:
"'Collection of Proverbs': Messager (the artist) questioned why it was acceptable for women to be characterised in such demeaning ways, by indicating the outcry that would take place were the word 'woman' to be replaced in these proverbs by a term describing a racial or religious group, such as 'Jew'.

Really enjoyed this.
Maybe a biology-based favouritism though... Hmmm.

Time to leave at 5pm because the MCA closed, so headed off to Kinokuniya to browse some books and kill some more time (I can spend hours in there without noticing, I swear)

On my way, took a few more photos.

This guy makes massive works using crayons (on ~3m x 3m paper sheets) and then donates all of his work to charities.

People were donating him things besides money, too. Things like coffees and fruit (I saw three entire coffee cups!)

Also it took me a lot of will to resist buying books.

I came close to purchasing a couple several times during the time I was there... A lot of science and biology books caught my eye, as well as photography and art books.

But, I ought to finish reading the mass-stack of books that I have lying around the house, that are waiting for me to have enough time to get around to going through them.

Really wanted 'Photos that changed the World', but it was $$$ and I ought to finish my other books first.
At least now I have a lot more motivation to finish my unread books now. Because then it means I can buy more books!

 Then met up with my family to go off to dinner at Abode Restaurant.

Damn, not in focus :(
But I really liked the colours and composition so I'll just put it here anyway and pretend that I intentionally made it blurry. "It's art. Abstract."

 The restaurant was really decent! Incoming food spam.

Octopus entree

Atlantic tuna entree

HAHA My father was holding an iPhone light to increase the brightness of the fish for my mother to take a photo.
I thought it was incredibly amusing and cute, so couldn't resist a photo.

Winter tart

Wagyu 

Raspberry sorbet crumble!

Really, really nice panna cotta

Sorry for all the photo dumps in this post.

But it's been so long since I've taken photos with my camera just for fun and it really does feel good to :')
Felt so weird using Lightroom today, because it's actually been that long since I've touched it.

Anyway, it's been a tiring day, and up to go out to the city again tomorrow!

I really ought to get sleeping (it's currently 1AM... hm. Looks like I'll need some caffeine tomorrow.).
It's been a good day. Hope you enjoyed the post, and I surely will be updating again very, very soon. Probably tomorrow.

Keen as a bean. A la prochaine.