Sculptures by the Sea @ Bondi, 2012

When one of my workmates said he hadn't EVER been to Bondi, our work group was shocked. How can you call yourself a Sydney-sider if you haven't traveled to Bondi?  So we thought we'd venture out on the weekend. It was perfect, especially since Sculptures by the Sea was on :)

We got off the 333 bus as soon as we started seeing cafes/shops because we wanted to stop by for lunch :D  Ended up walking for quite a while because a billion other people were trying to find a place to have lunch too.  We ended up at Gusto Cafe - they make a mean grilled chicken salad, let me tell you. 

menu

 I did not order a coffee (got a mango smoothie instead), but lots of people/locals dropped by to get a t/a coffee, so I presume they're good!

grilled chicken salad with grilled corn, celery, apple and sundried tomatoes - YUM

Corn fritters

beef burger

I thought the food was great. The only problem was the wait for the food. Beef, which usually takes the least time to cook, actually took the longest to come - almost half an hour after we ordered. The chicken salads came out about 15-20 minutes after ordering. Corn fritters took ages too D:  

But I guess they were tasty...

Moving along!  It was a short and lovely stroll to the beach :)

I swear half my photos are of water/sand/sky and not really of the sculptures. It's just too scenic at Bondi. The view is far too distracting!

Does this remind you of a woolies trolley?

And then from below, we saw these:

I was going to report back to M, telling her what I saw, and I couldn't quite figure out how I'd say it in words - so I recorded a bit of it. 

This photo reminds me of K. She has a stress ball (which is really a stress-slug) make of soft rubber, which looks EXACTLY like one of these.  We call it "Gertrude" and I was just really amused to find a few of them wedged in the rocks :D

a whole gang of Gertrudes!

There's also an indoors exhibit showing the smaller sculptures and the mini-versions of the sculptures displayed from Bondi to Taramara in years past and present.

Took 198 photos on my iPhone 4 that day. Still waiting for my camera to come in the mail *-*  I want it to come before the next weekend so I can hit up Bondi again :)

This was probably my favourite. It's like a dome shaped enclosure which is covered in rainbow scarves.  Inside,  you can see it's a metal wire dome, and attached are little buttons with messages that people have written.

On the plateau place with the bamboo poles, there was also a tent FULL of stuffed animals. Tbh, it was a terrifying sight - the animals were displayed in a real in-you-face way, but I guess that was the effect the co-ordinators wanted it to have.

I had to weave my way though other stuffed animals to get this photo. What I didn't realise at the time, was the hyena to my left. My yelp was more than just audible - that was embarrassing. I think I was a bit spooked out by the amount of dead-ness there was in the room. (The amount of dead-ness does not compare to the stuffed animal exhibit at the Melbourne museum, although their animals are not arranged in such a scary manner).

There were more, but I'd rather you all go see it in person - the exhibit sent a pretty powerful message about poaching/environmental sustainability. Besides, I think I have enough dead stuff in one post. D:

Standing at the wrong busstop at Taramara Beach.

Overall, it was a nice day. We ended up taking 3 hours from Bondi to Taramara and back (ceebsed waiting 45mins for the bus). It was an easy walk- though I have to say, we went on a Sunday.  I went twice last year, once on a Saturday and there was SO MUCH congestion. I'm waiting for my camera to come in the mail so I can go again.

Screw study. That's what stuvac is for.

I think this finishes next weekend. To those who have never been, GO!  There is never much happening in Sydney, so you should totally take advantage of this :)

PS. The iPhone photos turned out okay, eh?