Gold Coast Digger

A fortnight ago I was lucky enough to score a last minute deal to the Gold Coast. It’s like the Miami of Australia and where our version of Spring Breakers herald every November. Not exactly in with that scene, I decided to postpone Gold Coast digging until the end of January 2015. The holidays I go on are usually intensely packed – sometimes with 3 am wakeup calls and past midnight showers so it was nice to head somewhere sunny without a plan for once. Click the scrapbook to see it expanded and try and spot my dress twin (I’ve been keeping count and so far I’ve seen it once in Gold Coast and once in Sydney!)

Transport

In order to maximise out time there, we took a 6 am flight with Jetstar! This was probably the most tiring part of our journey but we were in chill mode from here on. Watching the sunrise while we took off wasn’t too bad either. The traffic around Gold Coast is pretty easy to navigate – we usually took a bus or tram. Our hotel was right beside the Surfers Paradise tram station which was super convenient. Check out that surfboard carrier on the tram below – if this isn’t a surfer’s paradise then I don’t know what is!

Accommodation

We stayed at a 3 bedroom apartment at Q1. It was insanely spacious for four people and had everything you needed: kitchen, 3 bathrooms, balcony, dining room, Foxtel, game consoles, board games and even DVDs (there was Mean Girls haha!). My favourite part were the views! My goodness we could see the jetty, the coastline, I basically could touch the clouds and we were only on floor 31! The facilities were pretty sweet as well. I loved lying on my back in the pool and staring at the tip of the hotel. They even had poolside tents with awnings if you didn’t want to burn.

Sights

Gold Coast is a bit like Florida because it is home to a lot of amusement parks. Since this wasn’t our first time here, we skipped Dream World, Movie World, Sea World, White Water World. Instead, we spent our days never too far from the ocean or the pool and went to Cavill Mall and Robina Town Centre for shopping.

Food

Although our apartment was fully equipped with a kitchen and even a food processor, we went out to eat most of the days we were there. Some of my top meals included the all you can eat pancakes from Pancake Paradise (you can order unlimited pancakes and they’re HUGE … I stopped at four), the pesto rosso from Vapiano (the wait is tiring but they make it in front of you) and the Hawaiian chicken with curly fries from Hog’s Breath Cafe.

Night Life

The Gold Coast is alive up till late and I just loved watching the skyline from up high. They have markets along the boardwalk every Sunday and we would usually walk along the beach back to our hotel in the evening.

I hope you enjoyed my postcard, one by ones and trademark GIFs!

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A Gal at Bal

According to the Urban Dictionary, definition number seven, chinos are: A type of trouser made from chino cloth. Although they are very comfortable and soft, they come in the most grotesque colours possible which really makes them stand out. The fact that they are sold in excess in stores such as Abercrombie and Jack Wills doesn’t help their reputation much either. Chinos, the everyday hipster’s choice of trouser wear. So what then are chino shorts? To me they are the conservative short, which means they are the perfect piece to go with the bustier – a garment Victorian women wore to get their va va voom on. Since I have no desire to show off too much skin, I decided to pop on this light see through chiffon shirt and one button it up all easy breezy.

There you have it, all ready to set sail! Or at least walk along the boardwalk. How lovely does Balmoral look on this cloudy Saturday? I think the cool tones are the perfect complement to my sailing appropriate look and I love how bright the pictures turned out. Sometimes, a picture sans blue sky is really okay after all! And where do sailors brunch? The Balmoral Boathouse of course! Get the quinoa bircher it could seriously feed three!

Today was actually meant to be a DIY post and the last post in my New Year series but Optus decided to cut my internet for two days because the roof of a tower fell off or something so I have been in agony for the past 60 hours. It got to the point where I turned up two hours early to a party so I could use the host’s internet (thank you beb) and stood in front of the Apple store for an hour to leech off their fast wifi. Sue me, I’m so twenty first century.

The footless seagul { :(((( } and food shot by me, outfit shot by Adela 

NEO-DADA

“Your lipstick stain is a work of art” {5SOS ‘She Looks so Pefect’}

I hope you guys are having a lovely weekend! I recently went to The Art Gallery of NSW to visit the Pop to Popsim exhibit which runs until March so I totally encourage you to check it out if you live near by! I think one of the reasons I love this movement so much is neatly summarised in the guide itself: “Pop was one of the defining art movements of the 20th century. It was radical because it brought the realms of mass entertainment and consumerism into the halls of art galleries and museums …. While for many this new art was a shocking betrayal of high cultural values, for others it was a liberating encounter with the world that people actually lived in.” 

Although, I wasn’t able to take actual photos of the exhibition, I still shot some of the patterns found in this really neat pop art book that they had in the interactive area. Then I took my pictures in the permanent areas of the gallery which are architecturally breathtaking.

Taking cues from pop itself, I went with a lemon yellow cropped tank top with little ruffles at the bottom. I haven’t worn something this cropped since my middle school days but I thought this was so cute with high waisted pointe pants and some easy ballerinas. Then the highlight of the outfit is my cute little speech bubble bag which is the definition of pop and something that I have been obsessed with since my friend Emi got it for me. They’re like the Sophia Webster ones which have cheeky phrases all over them 😉 I have a bit of an affinity for small unpractical bags like these so lookout for some potential DIYs in the future because I hear Olympia and Spade inspiration calling!

So tell me, do you love a bit of Lichtenstein or do you admire Andy Warhol? What’s your favourite decade in pop? Pop to Popsim itself was divided into seven sections: The Future is Now, Swinging London, The American Dream, Euro Pop, Made in Oz, Late Pop and Popism. I hope you enjoy the visual delights and check out those crazy rainbow flowers i saw in Martin Place!

Photography Credits: Outfit – Adela Other – Myself