C'était un rendez-vous

A classic short film titled "It was an appointment". Where a Ferrari 275 GBT in the break of dawn ignores all red lights, drives on the wrong side of road, mounts footpaths, encounters a close call with a woman crossing the road and absolutely flies through the streets of Paris.

This was a film I watched a long time ago, if I vaguely remember it was from Justin's blog that I stumbled upon it. And just recently I decided I should revisit the video and be entranced once again.

Upon google it turns out there is a fair bit of controversy circulating through this film. Apparently the soundtrack of the movie is of a Ferrari 275 but some people say it was originally a Mercedes and the V-12 engine noise was dubbed in. Also there is speculations going on about who was the real driver, an anonymous F1 driver or Claude Lelouch himself. Supposedly upon releasing this video Claude was arrested right after.

Despite its authenticity, to me it's still a classic video, a real life legend if you can drag it that far. Something that made my jaw drop.

Street Photography

I was/am inspired by the DigitalRev guys on youtube to do this. What I enjoy about the digirev guys is that they review a whole bunch of camera bodies and lenses and give their unbiased (possibly biased sometimes) opinions of their product. No I cannot afford many of the things they review but watching them teaches me loads about camera gear and whatnot.

But what makes them so special over the other guys on youtube, who review camera gear? It's that they show people that despite their high tech, super expensive, really big gear and gadgets you really don't need it. And it's true! Yes it does help, but with passion and imagination you can propel yourself much further than any type of camera and take nice photos.

So despite Kai's super annoying British accent, I'm subscribed.

Spiral Staircase.

After

Before

Remember that photo I posted up here I stated that I wasn't 100% happy with it. Well I finally got cs5 working and a different photo (but same subject). Photoshopped out some useless objects, played with curves for a bit and stared at it for a long while.

I think I got it to the way I want it. This is just something cool to put up on my wall later on, so I think I'm happy.

The Apprentice

So about 2 mondays ago? I was invited to go try out "The Apprentice". It's a restaurant inside the Ultimo Tafe building level 7, completely run by the Tafe itself. All the foods are prepared by the student chefs, the dinner bread rolls are baked by the students, the floral arrangements on all the tables are also created by the floristery students and even all the waits staff are the hospitality students.

It was quite strange actually dining here. The doors didn't open till past 6.30, so everyone was seated at the same time, our meals were pre-paid for and also the course meals were all brought out at the same time for everyone. And because each course had more than two different dishes, the dishes were alternated between people, it made for a feeling of being in a private function dinner really.

Appetizer, Tuscan tomato bread pudding. The pudding was served cold, not particularly my thing but the texture was spot on, crispy prosciutto with a light bread pudding. I must note that the tiny square plate made for a strange experience, if you put your knife in the wrong place to cut it would of almost flip the whole plate over! Something I believe was overlooked and shouldn't happen.

Fennel and pink grapefruit salad. A funky salad this was, with not only the rocket adding a bitter sweetness to it but the grapefruit too.

Entrees, Roast pumkin raviolli. The smallest of all the entrees, the walnuts added a nice contrast to the raviolli but I did notice that the walnuts had a harsh unpleasent bitterness to it.
Cream of mushroom soup. Not the prettiest dish at all and it did lack a bit of flavour.

Mains, Seared pork medallions. The pork was great, a smidget on the dry side (possibly because it was left under the heat light for a while) and the bit size bits was a good idea. Although I must say I think that their choice of sides for this dish should be altered, brussels sprouts while a texture full vegetable the bitterness was too much, the pork medallions were just not hearty enough to have such a strong vegetable. The same can be said for the apples (yes, they're apples not potato but they did have potatoes too), the crunch and sour contrast overpowered the pork.

Roasted baby barramundi fillet, Grilled just right, not too dry and the skin still had just a tiny bit of crisp to it.

Balsamic Lamb rump, cooked to a perfect medium rare!! Good job guys, just succulent, soft and tender. Again not too sure about the rice as a choice of side for this dish.

Dessert, dark chocolate mousse. Oh jolly this was good, super rich and dark! I'm not quite dark chocolate fan, but the brown sugar sprinkled on top just made it a fun crunch to eat. This did get passed around the table as it was just too much for me to handle!

Vanilla pannacotta, pannacotta is always a favourite of mine and this was not different. Great texture and it wasn't too sweet at all.

Tiramisu.

All in all it was a unique experience. The waiters some were obviously first timers, nervous and eager but it was quite ambient. For $30 p.p it does make for a good value for fine dining

Dirtworks 100kms

2 weeks ago on the Saturday night me and Clifton put two bikes on the roof of his car and drove up to St Albans (near the Wisemans Ferry). Camped out in a tent with these awesome camping stretches borrowed from Jing and Felix. Such luxury we had.

With a 5 am start, both eager to start only to get it over and done with.

So with actually 105kms to ride, with surfaces ranging from dirt to tarmac this would be the longest distance I will have ever ridden in one hit.

Fuel with a bacon and egg roll and half a muffin, the rain was holding up and at 7.30 sharp we were off. The track was wet, very vet but it was ok considering the rain was holding up.

The first challenge came up quite early in at about 10 kms in. It was quite difficult to ride up the mountain climb, there was just too many people, very steep and it was 1km long. I came out ok, after that was the 25km feed station. Bumping into the Clifton and Alex they headed off first, I had a snack on banana bread and some fruit, a minute or two later off I went.

Quite early after the first feed station I had gotten a terrible stitch in my right abdomen, and it was quite painful. After one climb I just had to pull off to the side to rest, it was much to painful to even breathe. With that rest stop it didn't help at all I just had to suck it up and keep riding. This stitch lasted 10kms with me raising my right arm at any chance I could to stretch out my stitch, it didn't help at all.

At 50kms was the second rest stop and by this time apparently the pros were already finishing the race! There was a nice makeshift bike shop there for any emergency repairs. I took use of their lube station (which was very necessary) and filled up on a bit of water. I didn't fill up all the way because in the first quarter of the race I didn't even drink half my water. Bumped into Alex because he snapped his chain, when it got repaired he took off again.

Riding again the stitched came back into full throttle again, ran out of water at about the 60km mark, I was quite scared because of that. Thankfully I bumped into Alex again because his tube was leaking air, gave him my pump and he gave me some water. So grateful for that.

At 70kms was the 3rd and last feed station, I stopped for a while stretching and watching the other riders ride or wade across the infamous pontoon crossing. If you didn't have the guts to ride across you would wade across waist deep in water with the bike. I had the intention to ride it no matter what, so even if I did fall off I intended on wading back to the start and riding it again. I made it with the first attempt with my hand in the air.

Then for the next few kms I was riding with Alex again. The second major challenge was nearing with a mountain profile of 300m of vertical climbing. I was dedicated to climb this without stopping. I was told that the highest elevation would be at the 86km mark so I was just concentrating on that number and peddling with all my concentration. At the 83km mark up a steep pinch my quads had a very funny/erratic twitch. After that my muscles just gave way and I collapsed. I don't think anyone can comprehend what I was feeling when I say this but I cramped up both legs, I cramped up badly, I was screaming like I was going to die and for a few seconds I honestly thought that I was going to lose my legs forever and I was wondering on how I can lead my life from then on. There was then about 8 other riders crowing around me, all of them brain storming ideas on how to cure my cramps. One guys started rubbing my quads another guy graciously popped an electrolyte tablet into my cammelbak. I was so grateful for all their help and concerns I don't know what I would of done without it.

I had such bad cramps because during the race because all I was fuelled on was water, gels, fruit and banana bread and no salts. I was lacking in sodium badly and so after that I was helped up and was advised to walk it off for a bit.

The next 20 kms was the slowest ever I have ridden 20 kms. I walked up any sort of hill with no power in my legs, it was very strange because I can say I had energy to move but no power, very frustrating it was. The last road section I thought I could power down but no I couldn't my muscles almost started that strange erratic twitch and I almost cramped up again.

I finished though in just under 8 hours with over 2 hours of stopping time, terrible I know. But I'm glad I did it. I now have accomplished something I thought I was utterly stupid for doing.

I have now ridden 105 kms in one ride.

This would be the only other time I ate maccas. Last time before this was when I blogged about it.

Bugs

I tend to have this thing with taking photos of bugs.

This time a huge fly.

Top Ryde Library.

About 2 weeks ago, on Saturday I helped out at the grand opening of the Top Ryde Library in the shopping centre. It's huge!

I managed to get a picture of the spiral staircase that I quite admire.

Picture wise, I'm not 100% happy with it. I would like to get photoshop back on the computer so I can just play around with it and when I get it to something close to what I want it to look like, I'll post it back up.

Robbery (Social ecological ad)

Robbery (Social ecological ad) from Ruslan Fedotow on Vimeo.

"It's bigger than money, sort your garbage"

Seriously..

Alio's in Surry Hills

You know what's cool? Those coupon sites that offer pretty decent deals on anything they can find. Last week or so I saw an offer for Alio's 10 course degustation and I just couldn't resist!

Olives and Cheese!

It's funny because I'm not the type of person to ever eat olives on its own, the flavour is just too strong and pungent for me, but these olives were marinated just right not too strong at all!

Hand made Grissini and Focaccia bread

Focaccia was great! I love the taste and feel of fresh bread, I was quite wary of filling up on the carbs before the meal but I ate it all anyway. The grissini, well I honestly didn't even know what a grissini was up until now. I just reminded me of a cheesey bread biscuit, quite fun to eat actually.

Potato and Leek soup

Super creamy and quite tasteful. Coming from a Chinese background I did find it slightly awkward to be having soup out of a coffee cup and saucer.

Cap.

Betroots with feta and walnuts.

This dish proved to be quite the surprised of flavour and texture. Just think, betroot, feta cheese and roasted walnuts. hrm..

Veal with tuna mayo, fried capers and parsley.

The veal was sliced very thinly and reminded me a lot of prosciutto, with the mayo and capers quite the delite.

Warm salami on polenta and herb butter.

Super creamy!! I like it!

Mushroom Risotto

This dish does and did look a but ugly but boy it was good

Lamb rump with eggplant and dragoncella salsa.

This dish was quite amusing to eat. The lamb was fantastic, cooked to perfection I cannot remember the last time I had a rump cooked to a perfect medium rare. The eggplant however was very confusing, my first taste test brought me through a nostalgic memory of home cooking both me and my partner agreed there was somewhat of an asian feel to it.

Mandarin Sorbet

This was amazing, you knoe the mandarin flavour. Well Alio brought it to a whole new level of taste. I could almost taste not only the juices of mandarins but also the pulp and it's texture. Very refreshing.

Belgium chocolate with caramelised oranges and berries.

The chocolate was super thick, close to a moose texture but not quite. The flavour was a bit dark for my liking up until I grabbed a bit of fruit on the side of it and it proved to be an excellent combo.

For under 100 for two it was a great degustation. Alio's degustation does change monthly depending on what's in season so I just might check it out again if their menu entices me.