Cherry blossom season

Cherry blossom time! 

It is evidently cherry blossom time in Japan as can be seen on all the hats worn by the Zombees and cherry blossom trees in the landscape :) I would really love to go and see them in real life!

Doh!

Goony boony 

Can't really describe this face but it is one of the cutest things around :)

Fun with Bobbi

Bobbi & me :) 

Bobbi got to come out for a long time today. As a result, I took lots of photos. She is always funny to watch when she is out for her runs and she doesn't mind me putting the camera in front of her all the time. Hehehe!

The end of the Games

Fireworks again! 

The Games came to an end today...and life goes back to normal. We watched the closing ceremony on TV and waited with anticipation for the fireworks to appear again. They did! :D

Last days of the festival

Mega Field 


More Strange Fruit 

Strange Fruit again! This one is called The Mega Field being a larger scale of the one I saw in Singapore previously. This is the last of the festival performances that we were watching at the Alexandra Gardens. What a pity they don't have events like this more often! I really enjoyed the atmosphere there.


Hedge-mony 

Went to the Melbourne Museum to see what Hedge-mony was about today as well. This lot of people wore hedges on their heads and formed a maze that many people later queued up to walk through. Then the "hedges" sort of stare after you as you walk past. A little bizzare...but of course there was a deeper meaning to that which I couldn't really tell :P


Giant dog 

Saw a giant of a dog watching the performance too. At least it fared better than some other smaller dogs who had to be content just standing around the legs of all the people there. :)


More doggies 

Festival mood

Went out to catch Fly By Night at the Alexandra Gardens (one of the festival performances) this evening. I was really amazed at the crowds of people on the streets especially along the river, around the Arts Centre, Alexandra Gardens and Fed Square. Looked like the entire city was out in the same area! There must have been thousands of people! Just looking at all the people around was fascinating enough for me. Didn't bring my camera out today so no good pictures to put up.

After the performance we wandered over to the "beach" at the Arts Centre (which was created for the festival too). Loved the atmosphere all around - kids running around in the sand, people watching the big screen and the fake beach boxes to add to the mood :)

It's a good thing the weather is really nice these days too. Would not be as fun if everyone were hot and sticky. Will go back for more tomorrow and I will definitely bring the camera.


"Fishy" display on the Yarra River 

A bit of trivia: Singapore is represented by a guppy on the river :)

Funny news

This was in the news yesterday. Imagine what a funny sight it was! :)

"Police have found a team of garden gnomes set up on a football oval in Victoria.

They believe the gnomes, which were displayed on Wyndham Vale Football Ground to appear as though they were flooding the goal square, were stolen from the local area.

"Werribee police have locked up 19 unfortunates discovered loitering on the local football oval early this morning," Victoria Police spokeswoman Belinda Richmond joked.

"Police would like to reunite the team members with their owners."

Police were called to the ground after a passer-by spotted the gnomes. AFL teams consist of 18 players."

Tiny cute bunny

Tiny little bunny 

Spotted this pretty little bunny at the pet shop today. Well, if Bobbi was not this big already, we would get her this one for a companion!

Bunny photos

Posing under the table 


Check out my large ears! 

I am beginning to think that Bobbi bunny likes to be photographed. I can put the camera right in her face these days and she just sits there nonchalantly. We try to let her out for runs as much as we can these days. Too many people are saying that she looks fat :( But she is still so cute anyway!

Marathon Day

Went down to watch the marathoners run past this morning. Many people from our block came out to cheer the runners on as well. The number of people here weren't that many but at some other locations, they could be a few people deep.


Waiting for the runners to appear 

The men's marathon was really fast. The main group of runners literally sprinted past. There were of course a couple of runners who were not as fast as the others but they too got a lot of cheers and encouragement from the spectators lining the road. 42.15km is a really long distance - cannot imagine ever going that far all at one go and running continuously at that.


Marathon runners 

Luckily I got a multi-burst shot. Otherwise I would probably not be able to get another picture before they zoomed off :P

Marathon route

Marathon route 

Realised that the marathon that is happening tomorrow morning passes right in front of our apartment! No wonder they closed all the carparks downstairs. Thought that it was just happening nearby...We will probably go down and try to get some pictures of the athletes passing by tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Walking down Swanston Street

With the Commonwealth Games on, you could just walk around the city and there will definitely be something to see. There are also noticeably larger crowds on the streets in general. We were just wandering around today and spotted a big chess game in progress. Never noticed that this patch of tiles was actually a chess board.


Chess board on Swanston Street 

Thought the big plastic chess pieces were quite cute. Wonder where they get them?


Giant chess pieces 

Also spotted these roving performers from the arts festival called the Seagulls. These big birds were just following people around and imitating them. Didn't manage to catch on camera one of the funny scenes we spotted - that would have made a great picture.


Seagull crossing the road 

Victorian Producers' Market

There was a Victorian Producers Market outside the Melbourne Museum today as part of the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival (which is also part of the festivals held in conjunction with the Games - they all tie back somehow).

I love going to these markets to see all the foodstuff they sell! I could hang around for at least half a day wandering through all the stalls :) But of course then I would end up buying lots of stuff.


Market at the Melbourne Museum 

Naturally, some pets went along too.


A very black puppy 

With some self-control, I only got these items.


Stuff I bought :) 

First day of the festival (for me)

Had some events on my timetable today to catch. The first one was at lunchtime at Fed Square. I took a really quick walk there (it took me 10 mins to get there - surprisingly fast for me) and watched the Spurting Man. Quite an interesting performance but was not really as laugh-out-loud kind of funny as I imagined.


The Spurting Man 

After work, there was Strange Fruit to catch. I saw these performers in Singapore some time back and I really liked the show. I think the one I saw then was The Field. Today's show was called Absolute Pearl, a special preview performance of their new work. It was nice to watch them on the poles but I somehow preferred watching The Field, I think the music was better in that show. Anyway, there will be The Mega Field (with 16 performers next Saturday). I will definitely want to catch that one!


Strange Fruit - Absolute Pearl 

The opening ceremony

We were having dinner in front of the TV and watching the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games when we heard fireworks going off right outside our balcony! There were fireworks going off from the top of all the tall buildings around the city as part of the celebrations! It was really quite spectacular seeing the whole city light up like that (of course I could only see that from the TV). That must have been the best part of the ceremony! There were some more at the end even. Darlink managed to get some shots from our balcony while I oohed and aahhed the whole time :)


Fireworks on top of the buildings! 


Some more!