Well another years Mardi Gras has come and gone, and this years party was as fun and frolicking as the last years one (although I had the trail end of a cold). Here’s a simple video I put together showing some of the build up to the parade on Oxford St and some of our own party behind the scenes, enjoy!

Sydney Mardi Gras 2011 – The Main Parade

> Watch the whole video in HD here <

Thanks for everyone that came to the party, I know we all had a great time.

We all went go-karting today. No special reason, just were all into trying to beat each other on the track but telling each other were not competitive, and we love it. Jesus the girls were quick too!, even faster than Turk!

I had to share this stupid photo we took afterwards

Stupid posing photo alert

I have to share my favourite karting video too, if youve ever played Mario Kart on the Nintendo you’ll get this.

Here are a few quick photos from Australia Day 2011. Australia Day is about aussies just having a public holiday off to celebrate being all things Australian, food, beer, sun and being with friends and family.

I don’t know how the aussies do it but every Australia day for the past 7 years I’ve been living here, its always been a beautiful hot sunny day and this year was no different.

Every Australia day I go down to look at all the classic cars at the big NRMA sponsored classic car display. They close off the roads around Hyde park and all the classic car clubs of Australia get together to show off their pride and joys.

Every year there is a Red e-type series 1 Jaguar Roadster owned by a guy called Neil by memory. I go look over the car each year and have a quick 10 minute chat to him (so I should remember his name). I absolutely LOVE this car, its my mornings highlight of each Australia day to go look at this car, I always tell Neil I want it to be my car for my wedding one day.

Red e-type series 1 Jaguar Roadster

After I went and looked at the cars I went for a mountain bike ride with friends Ian and Trent around centennial park for an hour in the 30+ degrees heat and then joined Sanna at our swimming pool afterwards to cool off.

In the afternoon we went down to look around the cars again! (well mostly I did) and walked down to the harbour front to meet some of Sannas friends at the Opera bar. It was close to 35 degrees in the shade, it was just too hot with no breeze. We then went to the old rocks area where there was a slight cooling breeze and we headed into 2 separate pubs, one with a roof top beer garden with a great view of the harbour.

Sanna, Brendon & Josh

In the evening we headed to darling harbour for the big Australia day fireworks which are always really good as your up very close to them. Me, Sanna, Brendon, Josh and a Indian guy we made friends with who just got off the boat from India 3 weeks ago, all had a meal and drinks over looking the darling harbour fireworks. A great busy day!

Australia Day 2011 fireworks at Darling harbour

I think I mentioned on my blog a few months ago I worked on a horror/thriller short film with director Jay Ng called ‘Empty’. This is the 2^nd short film I’ve worked with him on with the 1^st being ‘The Poker Table’. This time around I was the main camera operator with about 95% of the footage in the film shot by me.

Here is the short bio of the films description:

“Anna Berger has returned to work after a long hiatus. The office, however, has become a sinister place with images of death haunting her vision and the presence of a mysterious stalker. Is Anna losing her mind or is there a darker force at work?”

Unfortunately it didn’t make the cut to get into the final 16 of the Tropfest film festival out of the 100’s of entries, but we are all proud of the work we did to make it. I myself am pretty proud how it came out considering it was the 2nd film ever Jay and me had worked on together and the first time I was really director of photography. Jay did a great job of the editing as well I thought.

Bang!

Last NYE we were so lucky to be on a boat with James and Shaun under the Sydney harbour bridge for the fireworks and this year we had nearly as incredible a view of the most famous NYE celebration in the world, just 200 metres to the side of the bridge. We were invited to a NYE party at Troy’s new unit in Kirribilli on the 5th floor of a building right next to the bridge.

Troy’s place right next to the Sydney harbour bridge

We had about 15-20 people come , a mix of Troy, Alison his girlfriends and my friends I invited. We had Sushi platters to eat and lots and lots of different types of alcohol of course. When we arrived Troy tried to make Mojito cocktails in his food blender and he didn’t have a muddling stick, they turned out ‘interesting’

Getting to know some new people over some drinks

Troy installed some free DJ software called MIXXX on his laptop plugged into the TV (my old 40” Samsung TV I sold him years ago, still going strong) and it was so complicated to use, only Troy and me knew how to change songs. I couldn’t DJ on it though as its near impossible to mix without some headphones for cueing, if your a DJ you’ll know what I mean. It didn’t stop me pumping out some old classics like ‘Blackbox – Ride on time’ from the 90’s though!

Shaun trying to work out the DJ software to change songs

The midnight fireworks were awesome as usual, the best NYE celebrations in the world (so they say) and they are never a let down, they lasted for about 15 minutes.

The Sydney bridge was on fire!

The final seconds of the fireworks when all hell let loose

We left the party at 2am and walked back to the train station where there were a group of Indians around 40-50 having a bit of a Indian NYE rave it seemed with live drums and a DJ, it sounded really good. I stood there watching and took a video as it was a really good vibe in this outdoor party, like a little bit of India away from home it felt. All of a sudden a hot sweaty Indian man grabbed me by the arm and dragged me into the party and ushered me to dance, so I did, in the style of the other with their hands above their heads pushing up the sky.

New Years Day

Ah waking up to a new year, to 2011, new opportunities new challenges in life. A bit hung over we went to the nice cafe over the road for some cooked breakfast and then we headed to one
of the smaller Sydney eastern suburbs local beaches. No tourists on this beach, just all aussie’s chilling out in the hot 30 degrees new years day sun. I laid in the shade all afternoon reading my car magazine, it was too hot for me with a hangover.

Double bays 7 shillings beach

Turn up the sound for the below video and imagine your at a beach in Sydney on a nice warm summers day.

Happy Christmas 2010 & a Happy new year to 2011 to all of my freinds and family all over the world including in Europe Mum and Dad, Nicki and Michael, Nanny B, Grandad and Nan Fosberry,all my family in Manchester, Mike and Jill, Damien, Dom, Rich, Ed, Harry, Tim Russel, Rich Write, Claire Withers, Paul, Keith and the rest of the Littlehampton gang, Paul aka Planet Salsa, Mark Akky, Signe, Toby,

and in Australia, Brendon and family, Chris and Christina, Troy and Ally cat, Greggy and Silvia, Ian, Josh, Chris and Pete at Lambo, Rob Bryden and SWIMBO, everyone at AussieElises, Jeff O’Connor, Cam, Jay Ng, Paul Whitman, Michael Tran, Alex Kempson, Tony (Antonio) Santucci, James and Shaun, Monique, Roland, Stuart from Barnham, Vishnu and all of Sannas family.

and to everyone else i’ve had the pleasure of being a friend to in 2010 and hopefully beyond!