days of summer

I will try to do this chronologically but it has been three months since I first had these developed so the events present themselves as 'very hazy'. At the time we were in the middle of moving and without internet connection, so I had no way of blogging about anything. And then I was in China, and you know the deal there. But at long last I can post the final dregs of my summer photos and tick that off my to-do list. 

They continue from a roll I took at my friend's beach house. 

It was something of a photography camp, I've managed to lead most of my friends onto the righteous path of analogue. 

We drank milkshakes on a hot day, and I felt generally very Californian. 

This birdie was photographed about 100 times. 

We found a new dumpling place that didn't have a greasy residue on every surface. 

Anni is so sweet and so is her home. Everything is well compartmentalised and just quaint enough without being pretentious. Her backyard reminds me of Japan in that it is compact and functional, without compromising aesthetics nor ambience. 

For dinner we made sweet potato gnocchi and salad with vegetables from her garden. We also made bread and butter pudding, a first for me as I am not so big on British food unlike a surprising number of my friends, and I am sorry to say that I was not a fan.  

I don't remember this occasion.... 

This was the window display of a toy store on Brunswick St. It was a game: there was a list of different toys which you were asked to find in the display. Michelle and I were in the middle of finding the giraffe when the store owner came out to close for the day. If memory serves me right he had his son with him and they were getting their bikes ready. I remember them as being sweet but I can't recall why. 

On one Saturday in early December we moved out of our old house. This was the last photo that I took of my bedroom. Currently we are living at a friend's house as we wait for our settlement date.

A few days later it was my birthday. I distinctly recall complaining to my mum about the fact that I am spending my first day as a 19 year old sharing a room with my parents. To make myself feel better I had a picnic with friends at the botanical gardens, and although I look really disgruntled in the above picture, I was actually really happy and thought the wrapping paper on that particular present was really neat. I baked macarons, scones and red-velvet cupcakes, which were really neat too.




Jayne bought me a new red lipstick, and oh look, I got my braces off! On the day of my birthday in fact.

It was something like 40 degrees celsius that day and we eventually started playing with ice from the esky.

Aurora's dress was so pretty.


On Christmas Eve I hung out with my friend Yue who was home from Oxford. Her neighbours had a monstrous cactus plant that had flowered.

We baked, I quote the recipe here, a "yellow cake". Essentially a butter cake with only egg yolks. I hate separating eggs since the unused half is sometimes wasted, so we made some meringue cookies too. Then we arranged all the food around the couch and watched Paranormal Activity. It was disappointing after all the hype I had built around it. 


After Christmas, I had another bake day with Maddy. We had seen this recipe on a blog and I think it was originally from Martha Stewart. Something like 2kg of cream cheese was used in this...

The film I used was shitty but that's actually an Oreo you see there. We made Oreo cupcheesecakes! We'd been itching to trial them for months but I think in the end it was a case of "too much of a good thing". 

And then it was New Year's Eve! I never give up on taking photos of fireworks on film but each time they turn out like this.

Even a double exposure can't salvage them.

There was a thunderstorm that night and lightning was streaking through the sky horizontally, if you can imagine.

We were all drenched.

But still pretty excited! The lit up billboard in the back was an ad for Avatar by the way.

I had breakfast with Jayne one last time before I went away. 

Her YSL ring is beeaaauuutiful. So was the grilled mushroom I ate.

Speaking of one last times, my Korean student went back to Korea. I took her on a picnic, in fact at the exact same spot that I'd spent my birthday, and we shared a punnet of strawberries and macarons. I can't remember what we talked about, she is so quiet so we probably didn't talk about much. I hope she comes back one day, or maybe I can go visit.  

I told her to take the last shot in the roll.