Word of the week: aa-haan-yen - Dinner

In my life: I think I need to start writing a bit of these weekly notes throughout the week, as by the end of the week I only really remember what has happened in the past 2-3 days. I do make a note of things of I want to talk about in a Notes app but just seeing "park walk" gives me no insight into what was actually on my mind when I took down that note.

That said, this week's lack of memory may be blamed on the long weekend we had. Most of what I remember from the week was just waiting for the long weekend to start so that we could head out on our Canberra trip and I could get a break from work.

Things at work are looking busy again. We have a new requirement and I'm looking for ways to make it work without re-writing much of our existing code. Also looking into the production issues we've had and looking at ways to reduce the occurrence as usual.

Was a bit of a quiet week on the workout front with only one workout this week - I usually do Tuesday and Friday mornings and as I was away this week, I wasn't able to reschedule it to a time that worked for both me and my trainer. Instead, I will have three sessions next week. I also got in some long walks in over the week and obviously the vacation meant a fair bit of walking around, so the step count looks good this week.

I was talking to Sathya about losing track of people's weekly notes and he suggested I start using Feedly for that. I used to religiously use that to follow blogs before - mostly food, design and finance related but stopped using it somewhere in the last few years. I took a look through Thej's blog ring and added people writing weekly notes to Feedly. It's been fun looking through people's notes and seeing what interests them. I especially enjoy that some of them talk about photography - not the overly flashy, curated kind that I seem to see on my Instagram feed - though those are fun too - but just general "this is my life and this is what caught my eye this week" kind of photos.

On Friday morning we drove down to Canberra via Bowral/Goulburn. Goal for this vacation was mostly to relax, eat some good food, see some autumn colors and take some photographs, so we didn't really have a must do list as such.

We got caught up for a bit in holiday traffic heading out of the city so got a bit delayed, but our first stop was Lake Alexandra Reserve in the Southern Highlands to see autumn colors. We realized as we drove there, that we were about two weeks early for that as trees had just started turning. We had a picnic lunch at the lake, looked at the ducks and then headed out again.

Sathya and I originally wanted to stop at the Bradman Museum, but we arrived there only to see it closed for Good Friday. We instead stopped at Gumnut Patisserie, an amazing pie shop that we'd tried last time and grabbed a hot cross bun and a lamb and rosemary pie.

We were running late due to the traffic delay so skipped another stop on the road that Sathya had planned and just drove down to Canberra. We stopped for a bit at the Goulburn War Memorial Lookout and at Lake George Lookout, both places had some really nice views of the surrounding areas. We then checked into our hotel and went to Lazy Su for dinner where we tried their delicious set menu.

Canberra is incredible, it's relatively small compared to Sydney and Melbourne and was only properly established in 1913 and design for many of the prominent buildings began after that and much of it in the post war period. Walter Burley Griffin, the man who designed Canberra was a contemporary of Frank Llyod Wright and had worked with him for a few years. Though most of his designs were never built, many of the buildings that came up after him seem to be heavily influenced by his style.

All this meant I saw some varied designs all the way from the 1910s to the present day, especially a lot of Modernist architecture, ranch style homes and even saw a MCM style church (tour here) with the characteristic steeple. I would love to go back, stay in one of those homes and just explore more of the building styles in the city.

The next day we explored the local city sights, starting from a visit to Lake Burley Griffin, followed by a drive by visit to the Parliament, the bell tower on the lake and Mount Ainsley Lookout followed by a visit to the Australian War Memorial. We then had lunch at a cafe nearby and went back to our hotel to rest until evening.

Canberra has low light pollution and has relatively low humidity so it's a good city for astrophotography. Skies looked clear that day and it is now Milkyway season so I asked Sathya if we could head out later in the night to get some photographs in. We went out to the pier on Lake Burley Griffin and spent some time taking some pictures there. I'm yet to process them so will have to see how they turned out, but the one taken on the phone (feature image at the top of this blog) was pretty decent. We then went Moowingsteak for dinner. We'd walked past them the previous night, and the smell was incredible, lucky for us the skewers we had matched up to the incredible smell.

The next day we went to Mount Stromlo Observatory. It's been mostly abandoned since the 2003 bushfires destroyed many of the buildings here, but they do have some private and public astronomy nights. I went here because people said there were lots of wild kangaroos spotted here but unfortunately, it was extremely hot that day, so we didn't spot any. From there we went to Scrivener Dam lookout and to Cockington Green Gardens - to check out the miniature model houses, before starting back for Sydney.

We stopped for lunch at the Berkelouw Book Barn. I browsed the stacks for a bit and picked up a book, we had a Portuguese Chicken pizza and a Serrano Jamon starter, and I also had an incredible glass of Chardonnay. Sathya had not tried the hot cross bun that we bought on Friday, so we stopped at the Mittagong store of the bakery, and I grabbed another pie, some more buns and a carrot cake before finishing up our drive home. We came home, dropped off the car and had an early dinner at Saravana Bhavan before I crashed for the night. All in all, a great vacay and I'm sad it was over so quickly.

On my screens:

  1. Heesu in Class 2 (Korean, Queer, Ongoing, Viki): An adaptation of a manhwa, this show has slowly taken over my weekly top show spot. I love the romance between both couples, how it's quiet and supportive and not overbearing. I love that they have a messy dynamic now but that they still show up for their friends. I love the contrast between the ease with which they got together in the hetero relationship and the confusion over confessing in the queer relationship and how true to life that is. Overall, so far, a genuinely great show and I hope it ends well next week.
  2. Wheel of Time (S3, Prime, Completed): Loved how this season ended, they closed through on all the arcs that they have set up and I can't wait to see more. I understand that there are major changes from the books, but as a show only watcher, I really liked it. I hope they renew it for Season 4 because this show has improved so much since Season 1.
  1. My Golden Blood (Thai, Queer, Supernatural, Ongoing): Okay, I love this show now that it's out of the college campus. It has the right elements of romance, thriller, horror and so many callbacks to all the vampire movies we've enjoyed over the years. And the actress who played Meena and how she portrayed her possession? I had shivers down my spine when I watched that.

On my bookshelf: As usual read a bunch of fanfiction stories in my specific fandom. I haven't really been up for anything non fanfiction and a few years ago that would have bothered me, but I've realized some reading is better than none at all, so I just do my thing now.

On my playlist: Heesu in Class 2 has this ending song. They haven't released the OST officially so I'm not sure who the artist is (will post it here once it's available) but the lyrics are so apt for the show.

Have fallen into the unknown
Pieces I am holding on my own
Let it be another truth,
I can't hold in.

On my camera:

The Australian War Memorial has rolls of honour for people who died in the line of duty serving in the various wars that Australia has fought in. Red poppies are flowers of remembrance in Australia and are often placed next to the names on these boards. I saw this woman gently touch the WW1 board and place one while we were at the War Memorial and wondered what the story behind the name on the board was.

Thanks for tagging along!