JMH #1 // HN's arrival, food, shopping, and tropfest

Late posts because I've been crazy tired and going out (literally) for 6 days in a row. 

It'll take me some time to edit and blog up the posts, so I'll be staggering the posts (let's try to avoid 6 posts in one day).

Anyway, for those who weren't aware, I had two friends come over to Sydney and stay with me for a few days. HN, who arrived on the 7th, was from New Zealand, whilst JH, who arrived on the 9th, was from Melbourne, Australia.

Both are dear friends of mine and sometimes it still baffles my mind that we met up again. It'd been 5 months since we last saw each other.

Anyway, more final/hindsight thoughts later. Let's get onto the actual adventures.

So, HN arrived first, and she was actually supposed to come on the 6th, but she accidentally missed her flight and thus had to rebook for the day after.

After picking her up from the airport, we headed home, took a short break, and then BAM had to go out to the city to begin our fun times immediately (especially to make up for the lessened day)

We went out to Ippudo in the city. This is my favourite Japanese restaurant of all time.

Unagi rice (?). We also bought noodles (yummm) and their fried chicken (double yum)

I've only been twice, but each time I've been well-fully impressed and filled. 

The food is great. The service is impeccable. The atmosphere is brilliant. The price is affordable.

(I guess the only downside is that there's basically always a line, so arrive early. They also don't accept reservations.)

It was unfortunate because we didn't manage to finish our meal (LOL). We over-ordered (the menu was too attractive) and sat with our stomachs protesting as we tried to finish our plates, until we gave up in defeat.

And then? We decided to go for more food!! Next stop was Happy Labs (which I also like a lot)

Chocolate bars

The shop is always so aesthetically pleasing (and the packaging and just how they do things in the store). It always makes for nice photo opportunities, and they're happy for you to take photos.

Unfortunately, for some reason, all my photos turned out really yellow (? I think the automatic white balance of my camera failed in their store. It's also not the first time it's happened). I had to edit it away in post-production.

Chocolate hazelnut mousse balls

I saw these things that I hadn't tried before. They're 'munch crunch fruit' packets, and were being sold at 5 for $10 (what a bargain!!) and so I couldn't resist trying.

They were 100% freeze-dried fruit, so I suppose that 'justified' the purchase, since it was supposedly 'healthy'. (I'm no dietitian, so who knows)

Anyway, I really liked them, actually! I bought a few more packets a few days later so I could bring them onto the plane to munch on during my flight overseas.

Ironically, I took a photo of my least-favourite one.
Personal favourites are apple, mango, and peach.

Anyway, we decided to walk around a bit more. Stumbled across the Lego Christmas Tree, which deserved at least a quick photo, though it wasn't a greatly composed one.

Since JH wasn't here yet, we decided to do the brute of shopping in the first two days. We went around just exploring various shops, purchasing little things like nailpolish, clothes, shoes, bags, etc. I haven't gone to so many shops in a long, long time.

David Jones also turned out to be much more pricey than we anticipated. We played many games of 'Guess the price' (I got two of them exactly right!!)

OPI Nailpolish in a cosmetics store.

Also brought HN to T2, which they don't have in NZ.

Spent a long time in there, as I usually do. Just various taste-tests, smelling, and marveling at their stock and shop in general. I never get sick of T2, I swear. The service is also really nice!

One day I'll try Buddha's Tears (it's the most expensive, and it smells absolutely heavenly. Like, the purest black tea I've ever smelt. Ahhh)

Very cute tea-pots, but also very exxi (a NZ slang word for expensive)

HN also informed me that NZ has very few frozen yoghurt places. They also have very limited supply of tea drink places (as in, Chatime, Easyway, Gong Cha, Smart tea, etc.), so we made it a goal to go to these places.

Passed Yoghurt World, so decided to go for it (even though we were still suffering from food babies from Ippudo)

We tried Green Tea and Passionfruit.

Afterwards, since it was the 7th of December, we went to Tropfest! (my first time, too!)

I've always been keen to try going to Tropfest, and this year I finally don't have school interferring with my travels, and thus we went!

I met with some other friends (TY, EH, and JW), and we headed off to Centennial Park. But. Oh man. Disaster struck. Rain. Storm.

I'm not trying to be a drama queen, but this storm was insane. It was absolutely crazy, There were moments when I legitimately was scared for my life. None-the-less, we powered on with three umbrellas between the 5 of us in the absolutely pouring rain.

Though you can't see the extremity of the rain and storm in this photo (because I took this photo early on, before the weather got so poor that I had to hide my camera from the rain by placing it in a plastic bag and then in the bottom of a bag). There were gushing streams over 1m wide in the drains.

I haven't witnessed such extreme and sudden rains in a long, long time.

It was interesting because the morning was all bright and sunny, but things turned around so quickly!
Either way though, we powered on to Centennial Park, where we were greeted by a Park Ranger in a car who informed us (and others) that Tropfest was cancelled for 1.5 hours due to the dangers of people being in the park in a storm (the trees would be fragile).

Thus, we were forced to turn around and cry in anguish due to
1. Our wasted efforts
2. Soaked shoes and socks (ew)
3. The cancellation of Tropfest (which we were all looking forward to)

We headed back to Bondi Junction and ate at a Max Brenners for dinner. I had a salted caramel hot chocolate (which was absolutely yummmmmmy, though no photos were taken)

After 1.5 hours, we all rushed to check social media (Twitter, Facebook) for tropfest to search for updates. And hurrah! "Nice try #Sydneystorm. Tropfest is back on!" (paraphrased from twitter).

We fist punched the air and rushed back to Centennial Park, eager to take advantage of the lack of people by claiming good spots to view the screen.

Needless to say, there were a lot less people, which was sad, but also good for us.

So we sat down, got ready and excited for the films.

It rained a few times during the night, actually. Thankfully we had (barely) enough clothing to shield us from the rain. There was a moment when it became so chilly that HN and I huddled together under a damp towel. (Yes, we were that desperate)

Also, interesting shot because the video was blurred, but the screen is in focus too.
I don't know, it was one of those photos that I thought were cool because it's both in focus and not in focus at the same time????
Little things entertain me in life.

And we also opened the freeze-dried fruit to consume!

Taken by HN.
I was so happy with the fruit! It became an ongoing in-joke throughout the trip that I'm a sucker for bargains and deals.

HN also opened a strawberry pack and we spilled it all over her hands. It made for a big mess, but also a nice photo (tumblr quality worthy, if I have to say so myself.)

As the night drew near, the weather grew poorer, but the films also came.

The storm clouds were frightening

Not going to lie, it was so worth it. It was a pity it rained, because I'm sure with more people, the atmosphere would have been electrifying (no pun intended lol). It was such a high quality night, and some of the films were truly works of art.

I cried in two (?), and many, many, made me laugh so hard my sides hurt.

The winning film, Granny Smith, definitely deserved the title. It was really great and I loved it so much. You can view it below.

Also loved many of the other ones, but yes, would recommend you to have a look at them!

Also snipped a photo of a Nikon advertisement (with my Nikon camera), which was a major sponsor of Tropfest.

The reason why I did is because the ad reflected a lot of what I thought.
There was one which said 'I am: Inspiration', too.
'I am: home'? Yes. Photography is my home. Home, at least for me, is something that I'm comfortable doing. Something that makes me feel safe, confident, and content with who I am. It's a part of me and who I am, and that's what photography is for me.

Anyway, tactical segue.

Also, surprise surprise!! ADAM SPENCER (what?! I know right). He was a co-host of Tropfest, and my jaw metaphorically dropped to the floor when I saw him.

Anyway, we managed to get home (thankfully, though it was past 12am) and HN and I were absolutely exhausted. She had managed to stay awake for 24 hours straight, from 2am till 2am. (I was more fortunate, from 7am till 2am). We conked out very soon, and were eager for the next day to come.

It was a long and exciting day. I'm very excited for next year's Tropfest (you'll definitely find me there, if I'm still in Sydney).

Would recommend. Also would recommend Ippudo.

Day 1 COMPLETE.

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