and then there was one

i woke up before 7am this morning! jason and i picked up one guy(Aaron) and one girl(Jiamin) in the vicinity before heading off. we were going to the airport! so i drove the 4 of us (the 2 of them were sleeping most of the time) out of wollongong and on to the freeway, on to sydney. jason and jiamin barely made it in time for the flight check-in (counter closes at 9.20am)! the traffic was horribly rush-hourly. i had to take a toilet break at a petrol kiosk, and by the time we reached the drop-off bay of the kingsford smith airport domestic terminal 2, jason was already super jumpy and agitated. =x they had barely minutes to check-in. so after that aaron and i headed to city.

to sydney central that is. i think after reaching central, we'd driven around for an hour or so. before we manage to locate proper parking space! aaron directed me to the chinatown area parking in market city. by comparison, it costs AUD$6.00 for an hour of parking here, instead of AUD$18! furthermore, full day parking maximum cost is AUD$19. amazing. so yeah we went in search of food and found the food court to be sufficient. i got myself some char kway teow, which i must say tastes not too bad!

then after briefly walking the floors of the building, we headed to paddy's market in the basement. i came here before, with my cousin and jason. but it was a whole lot less crowded this time! probably because it is a regular weekday. so happily we walked all over the flea market and he found sheep wool he wanted to buy for his dad. the parking lot is weird. staircases are not very accessible at all! the lifts were chugging like snails servicing just 8 floors.

when we were done with the building, we headed out. George Street is the main street running through Sydney. chinatown (where we were then) is at one end of it(well almost). sydney opera house was on the other end. we walked about half an hour or more along George Street to reach our destination. phew!

first we reached Circular Quay. this was located across the harbour from the Opera House. this is a place bustling with activity with buskers performing and people making out on the grass openly. we walked around and took some photos... and noticed a building. "Museum of Contemporary Art". guess what? we went in! it's the first time i stepped into a museum here. unfortunately, as with any museum, they don't allow photographs to be taken. i'll just have to describe what was inside.

well ok to be honest i don't really know how to describe the exhibits inside. they were simply... contemporary. we shall start with the first, ground floor. there are two floors in this exhibition hall.

• on the largest area of wall, there was a web of yarns, depicting a network of art associations around the world. used were a variety of coloured yarns. in front of this were about 6 small tv sets, each playing an interview with a particular artist. one could sit down, headphones on, and listen to the interview.
  
• there were paintings on a wall. one of which was depicting a huge roadside banner of a lady posed lying down in very little clothings. in front of this were car wreckages in numbers. try to picture it. =_=
  
• and then there were four doors, forming a small room of sorts. they had stuff painted on them, to appear like u are in a larger room than it appears.
• there was a lady standing around in a corner of the exhibition hall. we thought she was a security or curator, dressed normally. she wasn't! she was part of the exhibitions. in fact, she WAS the exhibit. she would, at intervals, start singing a short song (which i couldn't really make out the lyrics) and end with quoting who was it written by, and sponsored by. peculiar i tell you.
• there was also a projector playing a video. there was a box beside the wall where the image is being shown. title of this art piece? "The Box". supposedly the box is left there and doesn't do anything. the video replays animation of sorts, to do with depicting some things coming out of the box and behaving in strange, artistic ways.
• in another room further in, was a "meeting room" setting. there was a meeting table and chairs all around. the setting was in a bit of a mess. notes are spread on the table. there was a blackboard on the wall. scribblings were here and there on the blackboard.
  
• further in is the last room. a movie was playing. it was showing the lower half of a face of a guy. his chin had 2 dots. now imagine how this looks if it were inverted. yes! looks like a small character talking! he talked, but i couldn't really make out what he said.
• ah well, on to the 2nd floor. i got a shock. they were featuring a whole bunch of stuff from singapore. sheesh.
• they had a section showing different scenes along the singapore river. you can stand on a pedestal and have your picture taken. this is because the artists tang da wu or something decided that it was acceptable that anyone can be a Founder of art, and in the fashion of Sir Stamford Raffles (they didn't state this, i recalled from history class), you can take the stand and be your own statue! duh.
• they had a map showing how singapore looks like. eew.
  
• they showed a video of a guy at the esplanade, with 2 boards each tied to one of his hand like wings. one board reads "is art necessary?" while the other reads "what is art?".
• they showed a video of a guy who painted himself gold. he rose from a "coffin" and took a rope ladder. he dragged it across a field and some obstacles. then he reached the shore with the rope ladder in tow. tying it to a tree and a floating ball of "moss" in the water, he laid himself facing down on the ball. some extra then pulled him out to the water. i couldn't watch any more of that.
  
• they showed a video of an art piece that was done. this lady painted herself green. she was in teeshirt and track pants. she did some "ritual" and she laid down on a long roll of paper with wordings on it. how long? try 3 car lengths. can you guess what she started to do next? rolling along the paper, she started to wrap herself in the paper, covering her head. rolling and rolling, she rolled herself into this trail of paper.
  
• they had a art tour beginning in 15minutes. we had to get out before being trapped here any longer!

so we got out and continued our excursion. there were a bunch of japanese school students around. male and female. but in any case, we walked around circular quay and found the gelatissimo stall my cousin tried before. 2 flavors each! mmm... chocolate mint and vanilla. on a frigging cold day. no wonder they were having it at half price! so we sat down and finished it quickly.

we eventually walked to the opera house and took more pictures! walking round to the rear of the opera house, we managed to get a better shot of the harbour bridge. and then we went up the steps. this was when i got nutty with the photos. aaron helpfully took the photos for me haha... and we took more photos when we were at the top of the stairs! the opera house was still magnificent upclose... the tiles were pretty neat. only gripe was they were running waterproofing works on the building. so parts of it had the granite flooring tiles (each the length and width of a mini cooper mind you!) removed and placed one side, for the waterproofing (read: painting) to be done. the smell wasn't too inviting either. that done, we were finally expended. we made our way back to chinatown, taking photos along the way.

so finally we got to our car and left. darn car stalled at the exit of the underground carpark! it was not very happy with being started up. i took a while to force it to move by stepping on the accelerator while it was in neutral. we then navigated our way on to the route back to wollongong.

gosh by the time we were on the freeway it was dark! luckily i took a toilet break to freshen myself up after leaving the main sydney city. the thing about their freeways is... they DON'T HAVE LIGHTS! it's all pitch black. they rely on the vehicles having headlights, and installing reflective strips on the roads to guide drivers.

after what seemed like ages, we finally reached back in wollongong. dinner! we had red rooster, a simple set meal. and considering the fastfood restaurant was just in front of his serviced apartment, he just had to walk back. i drove home alone and tired, at long last this calls the end of the day. and i'm alone at home now.

we shall see what tomorrow brings!

*wo yao hui lai le!*