Archive for the ‘Been there Dunne That – Travel blog’ Category
A day out in Melbourne
Posted on: February 9, 2013
I know, I know… This post has been well overdue, finally Jordan and I made it to Melbourne without the kiddies (last time it was just way to overwhelming for them so this time they had a day with Nan.)
So as I promised everyone, I would be writing a section on everywhere I landed while on my world wide adventure – so far ive only covered 2 places (this being the third) but it really only has been almost 3 months.
So today I had the pleasure of getting all up close and personal with some crazy aquarium life including some live coral. The photos are all mixed around – but they are awesome
Who ever in in control of changing this note is hilarious!
When i was younger i tried fresh honey comb, i told jordan about it last year and he said he had never tried it – i was on a mission to find it because he had to try it, it is the most amazing honey! I finally found it, so we captured his first time trying Honeycomb and he loved it!
Southern cross station
Random sticker – i actually found alot of these
Sorry i wasnt able to turn these images around, they were also taken a few days before in Richmond
I thought it was interesting, a random abandoned building in the middle of all the newer city buildings, all the windows have been smashed out of this one.
Metro have some pretty awesome designers on their team dont you think?
This little fellow decided he would check out what i was doing. Its made for a really cool photo to start off this post.
This not so lonely fellow, having fun with his reflection
I never noticed until i took these photos that their eyes look like something that has been photoshoped. Like glass or something, isnt that cool?
These tiny little fellows look so cool upclose – you can thank the new Iphone 5 for all these amazing photos to come.
I was lucky to take all the shots I did of all the fish and reptiles, they are very active sometimes.
time for my close up?
wheres my cricket?
has anyone seen finding nemo?
Hes so tiny and blue
Cant you see i am sleeping here?
I like the way the light hits me on just the right angle when i turn my head like this ~ hisss
Hey you there, yeah you, what are you doing?
Hey! what about us?
A tank full of live coral
I think this might be some species of brain coral
I dont know what type this one is but it looks awesome
look at all that detail
This particular coral was awesome, all the little tiny tentecles moving
these were actually really tiny in person
I think i ad the flash on for this particular photo because the coral didnt look green in person.
How cool are these
This was taken at the Queen Victoria markets
I loved this picture – we asked the butcher if we could take a photo of him cutting the meat he said it was alright, He managed to strike this ‘serial killer’ pose just at the right minute as we took the shot – Amazing! “looks like the bone is winning” he said. This photo was taken in the meat pavilion of the Queen victoria markets
Yes this is a dead fish on ice, i thought because its teeth were showing it would make for an amazing shot!
Hello Crab!
All for just $5.50? Yes please jordan said.
cool statue outside the fish market
Dairy pavilion
This was actually extremely huge in person
Man, thats alot of grapes!
Now that is Organic!
Horse and carridge ride anyone? see melbourne a whole knew way!
There are heaps of alleys like this in melb, amazing!
Flinders st station
Talest building in australia right there the ‘Eureka sky deck’ – Even Russle Brand has been up this and had a photo taken ‘The edge experience’
Down to the subway?
Lovely weather isnt it?
Hey look its the SBS Building
SBS Building steps, not sure if you can see it, but if you look at the building in the distance on the right of the photo, there is a huge LCD screen maybe the size of a house – it was playing the cricket that day.
Dogs with cameras outside the SBS Building
Coffee cups are begining to become so inventive these days
we found an asortment of sushi
cupid
This angel statue is really.. erm… interesting? she seems to be holding a skull while… yeah you can see
lots of fishys
it was really hard to get any decent photos of this fella, so this is the best one
We went to this lovely little dumpling place called ‘The squirrel’ in richmond, had a really long conversation with the lady that owns the place – she even asked about my writing when i told her i write 
Sometimes talking to stangers is a good thing, you can hear so many different storied and opinions on life – its amazing, and so was the food!
I couldnt think of captions for all the photos, although it would have been nice. I actually had to use 2 cameras with all these photos because half way through my camera died, so i used my partners Iphone 5, which quite frankly for some reason produced better pictures than my actual camera – same with when i use my HTC One X, better photos again, the resolution on these phone cameras are much higher these days on cameras, unless you can spend thousands on a good camera, but i cant afford that – Yet 
And that is the first Melbourne addition to my travels – There is so muc more to come as I explore Victoria, I still need to go to the Museums, zoos, aquarium and all the different art galleries. I guess maybe when I start at UNI next year I will have heaps of time and things to share when it comes to melbourne.
enjoy
Coffee and travels
Posted on: December 27, 2012
Wow, what a hectic couple of weeks it has been here in Ballarat. With everyone in a rush to buy last minute Christmas presents and then in even more of a rush to spend on boxing day. Sometimes I wonder how do you relax in this festive season.. it may be over already but it still feels like I must be rushing.
Let’s start from, Christmas shopping – this part was quite enjoyable. It’s one thing I love about Christmas – being able to give something to someone and bring joy to them. I did manage to lose one of the Christmas gifts I wrapped for my partners niece.. but we did indeed replace it and she loved it anyway.
It has been really sunny here in Ballarat, since I’ve been here I have managed to get sunburnt twice.
Jordan decided to take me out to dinner at one if my favorite restaurants in Ballarat ‘Da Vincis.’ Not one are the meals really good, the staff are lovely and the place looks amazing. Painted on the walls are Da Vinci pieces of work, not original paintings of course, unless he happen to rise for that particular occasion.
Jordan at Da Vincis
Me drinking Whiskey and Coke
One of the paintings on the wall
I was meaning to take pictures of our meal, but we were do busy talking about the female waitress who happen to he lurking around our table – she wasn’t our waitress for the night and we were the only customers down the front if the restaurant. We found it just a bit creepy.
Jordan and I had actually left 2 pillows we had bout under our table at this restaurant. Luckily we were able to get them back.
I will skip to Christmas, nothing else really happened during the time before, besides all the Christmas shopping.
Christmas eve was very hectic, I think we left a few things to the last minute. Jordan and I took a walk up the road to the Christmas light display they had put together, I understand that there are people in this town who get into it a lot and spend a lot of money to bring joy to all the children (and all the drunken, drugged up teens I saw marvelled at all the colourful lights and bubble machines.)
Our son Setesh was pretty amazed by the display aswell. Although he was really interested in this singing dear they had mounted on the wall.
We stayed up until around 2-3 am, helping Mum (my mother in law) with cleaning, while she cooked. Honestly we didn’t get much cleaning done, it was a very exhausting day and we spent most the time chatting while waiting for turkey and ham to cook. But we did a pretty good job for the time we made use of. The kids woke up in a really good mood Christmas morning, straight to their presents, wrapping paper flying everywhere. Something that bugs me about Christmas is spending so much on wrapping paper all for one day – what a money maker! Mum and I discussed using plain brown paper, I suggested buying a huge roll and spending time painting and stamping it to make it look Christmasy (is that even a word?)
Yes Jordan received coal from mittens partner for Christmas (his younger brother)
Once again, I forgot to take photos of all the wonderful food we had to eat, so you will just have to take my word for it. It was amazing!
But there was Christmas punch I took a photo of
Very sunny Christmas day
Was an extremely good day, I hope everyone loved the gifts they received from everyone on this day.
On boxing day, I was already for the boxing day sales.
Well sort of ha ha, after my morning coffee I was alright. The rest of the family set off to shepparton for Christmas at Aunty Chris’s house, sadly Jordan and I couldn’t join them this year as it was an early start for Jordan the next day and he cannot risk taking any time off (two people were fired for taking the day off recently.)
It was extremely busy down the shops on boxing day. Jordan and I combined all our Christmas money and gift cards together and purchased the new Nintendo Wii U
We bought the premium game pack they were selling, it came with a bunch of accessories and 2 games ‘Nintendoland’ and ‘Just Dance 4′ I also purchased the new ‘Assassins Creed 3′ on sale $30 off
The kids really enjoy ‘Just Dance 4′
Setesh will be 2 next year, I fear he will take over the world by then with his dancing ability and tantrums.
Jordan and I went out for dinner the other night, we went to a really nice Chinese restaurant called ‘Golden Crown’
We ate some Honey chicken, Lemon Duck, Fried rice and Singapore noodles. I really should keep my phone charged, this is the reason I didn’t take photos of the meal, Jordan took the photo if the outside of the restaurant for me.
Before we had decided to eat at this place for dinner we went for a walk to a new supplement/body building shop that has recently opened up in town, we had a chat and I purchased a tank top from them (it is also helping advertise the store.)
After we left this store we made our way to the restaurant, on the way I spotted this down an alley in ‘Bridge mall’
I thought it was an amazing collection of photos taken if Ballarat. So it is perfect to end this post with.
Stay tuned for my next post.
Adelaide – my city.
Posted on: December 7, 2012
I haven’t written about it yet, but I have decided I am going to travel with my little family. First I will start with Australia, then make my way overseas, I started comprising a list of places I would like to travel to, I haven’t finished that list yet. I plan on writing about every place I visit. Today I was going to travel into the city but the weather is too hot to take a newborn, so I’ve had to rely on google for images of my city – I take no credit for the pictures. Adelaide my city travel destination 1
Adelaide, here you can find peace in ‘rush hour’ – especially if you are from a big city like Sydney or Melbourne. It is almost always sunny here in Adelaide, even in winter you can see sunlight, it does not snow here.
In these pictures you can see the ‘Intercontinental hotel’ Torrens river A lot of other buildings And the Adelaide Festival theater
In primary school (grade school for Americans) I used to perform here with my school, I was in the choir, we performed here every year for a event called ‘The festival of music’
We would spend all year preparing for this one event. I remember the feeling of being on that stage in front of thousands of people, signing and it was amazing. Another even we spent all year preparing for, was a contemporary dance number for a competition called
I competed in this 2 years in a row. I miss performing. I hope my boys get to experience stuff like this when they get to school.
The Adelaide museum is one of my favorite places to visit. If you have a look through my first posts when I started this, you will find the one I wrote on the museum.
Adelaide is filled with ‘old’ buildings, most of them haven’t been upgraded to look ‘mainstream’ yet. That is one thing I absolutely love about Adelaide, you feel a little as if you have gone back in time when you come here. But when night time hits, you wonder what this city is hiding.
This is above our hungry jacks. It turns on at night time and plays various pictures, it lights up the night sky.
Our infamous ‘Hindley street’ is no stranger to light shows and secrets.
The night life here is amazing I hear – I haven’t had the time or real desire to experience it by myself, but I promise if I do I will write about it. Hindley street has mixture of clubs, pubs, restaurant and Gentlemens clubs.
Even the railway station will surprise you
ordinary during the day
Colourful casino and restaurants by night.
Let’s move onto shopping – Rundle mall, now you may know about this place from seeing the famous ‘Rundle mall balls’ somewhere, if not then these are the famous balls.
These balls have served us well in Adelaide, they serve as a national landmark, a tourist destination, a meeting place for friends, business partners, school trips and family. In some cases, sadly a place to remember loved ones that have moved on from this world. Many people hold memorials at these balls.
In 2011, a friend of mine had given up on fighting his battle with depression. He was bullied severely for his sexuality. Kahl Sims. Bullying should never get to the point that a young man, with so much potential takes his own life as a result.
We all light candles, I think about 50 or so of Kahls friends and family attended the memorial, many tears were shed that night.
Hope the afterlife is treating you much better buddy.
Shopping in rundle mall is an experience, with many local boutiques, cafes and underground salons, internet cafes and various shops.
The Myer center is a huge shopping center in the mall. It has many floors and many shops.
Now let’s move to some of the outer suburbs.
Mosley square glenelg. This is another place with many shops. You can jump on a tram from the city all the way to Glenelg.
The trams used to look like this
Now they have upgraded to this
Glenelg is also a beach. With docs and a theme park. It used to be a place called ‘Magic mountain’
Now it has been replaced with a place called ‘The beach house’
I’ve never been to the beachhouse but I have been shopping and swimming at glenelg many times
Now where I live. I live in a place called Hackham, it is about a15 minute drive from the beach,
That is an aireal view of my local beach ‘Port Noarlunga’
I used to live up the road from it, and I would swim from one end of the jerry to the end and walk back nearly every morning.
There are some wonderful restaurants here.
Shopping in my area is pretty good, but you do unfortunately have to deal with loitering teens who all have attitude problems.
For some reason, troubled teens group at shopping centers. Disturbing the peace… I think you get that everywhere.
I was here yesterday to purchase an outfit for a cocktail party I am invited to next week on Sunday.
Blue Is my theme
I think that shall be all for Adelaide today. There are so many more places I have to visit. I will be doing that soon, next top Ballarat, Victoria. For those who don’t know, I’ve lived here before so I know a few places I would like to write about already. Plus I will have my camera handy every day.
