First stop, breakfast at Degraves.

Then a rummage through Lygon St, with refreshments on route!

We then had a Vietnamese Coffee from The Soap Bar Launderette, which is about as Melbourne as it gets. Such a welcoming space where not only can you do your washing, but you can have a drink, hop on their free wi-fi and just take a great little time out.

Next stop, The Kustom Kommune, which is a community/DIY motorcycle workshop in Collingwood.

We got to meet Jimmy Goode the owner, who ended up saying he follows Zen, and studied and took some inspiration from Zen before opening The Kustom Kommune! Well the tabletops have turned, what an amazing thing they’ve got going!

Not a single spanner has gone missing apparently! SO awesome to hear that.

Turns out Backwoods Gallery are at the same location too! I’m a huge fan of some of the artists Backwoods have shown over the past few years and have always supported their shows through Aus Infront so it was nice to finally drop in (they were shut but were happy to let us in for a geez!).

I hadn’t finished taking photos at The Kustom Kommune, and got chatting to Jimmy then these 2 people approached us, not wanting to keep Jimmy from attending to them (I figured they were potential customers) I thought I’d continue shooting but it turns out the 2 people were from Crumpler (who have been making bags in Melbourne for 20 years!). They had some new bags coming out and were doing a photoshoot and wanted to know if I’d be interested in modelling some of their new bags for them!

Hilarious right?! I’m there with Jess, my muse and model, and nek minnit I’m the model posing on a rooftop which somehow had 2 train carriages on it… random but hilarious fun!!! Was interesting to be the model (good for me to know what it’s like on the other side of the lens), and not having any idea on what to do when no direction was given. Got me thinking a little more about my process when shooting my girls.

On a high from what just happened (what just happened?!) we thought we’d stuff ourselves with more food. We dropped in to Huxtaburger, but having just had the best burger of my life last week these guys fell short with a dry patty. Chips were great though! Salty, colourful and crunchy as!

We then caught up with Tam Tran for drinks at Section 8. Tam runs Natural Aspirations and makes our amazing Bamboo Zen Garage Phone Cases. He’s a bright kid at 22, and onto massive things no doubt! Tam also gave us a lift to the airport (legend!), so that concludes our most awesome spontaneous Melbourne getaway!

We actually got up early-ish this morning. First stop: Manchester Press for some cold drip and bagels!

Reuben was good, more meat would have been great!

Sweet naughtiness on a plate. Bacon, maple syrup, bananas and mascarpone!

We then caught a tram to Collingwood and dropped in to see my old friend Dom Bartolo who runs a killer motion graphics company called 21-19.

Dom was pretty excited to see if I could guess what this letter “O” came from.

Yup. PORSCHE. I was pretty upset I couldn’t spot it! The guys could see Porsche Melbourne closing shop and removing their huge neon letters. Amazingly they scored a few! One of the guys has the letter “P” working now in his house. Amazing, right?!

Hey, how you doin’?

Jess then suggested we eat fried chicken at Belles Hot Chicken, damn it was farking amazing! I’m 100% going to make it a pitt stop every time I visit Melbourne now!

Chapel Street Bazaar.

An unlikely find at the Bazaar! Fave car in that movie. Had to have it!

Mojitooooooo.

Drug dealers, many drug dealers.

akid one from Malaysia.

So rad!

We then finally made it to Hakata Gensuke. Yes there was a queue outside but we got in pretty fast. Hearing big claims of this place being the best ramen in Australia had me psyched for the past week.

You choose your broth, noodle hardness and toppings. My (rather small) bowl came to $21 from memory which was a little pricey I thought, and man, hype is a very dangerous thing. I really hated the thin straight noodles (wavy noodles FTW!) and the broth was nice, but so plain. I didn’t think it was anything special. Manpuku kills this joint, no doubt, their broth is just SO much more complex, and the aftertaste of Manpuku hangs around with you all day (so too the smile).

Jess went for the hot ramen (low heat) and also thought it wasn’t mind blowing, suggesting that the tantan-men at Ichiban Boshi was better (I can’t eat anything with a hint of chilli in it but have an Ichiban Boshi tantan-men once a year and just deal with the pain haha).

After Ramen Jess and I took some pretty rad shots around the city. I want to edit the raw images though, and since I can’t edit raws on this laptop I’ll have to wait until I’m back in Sydney.

Inception. Me taking photos of Jess taking photos of herself. We woke up in a haze, my head, amazingly, was feeling alright after yesterday’s all day into night drinking fest!

We rolled out of the hotel. I said “good morning” to the hotel reception guy, who looked at me strangely. I then asked: “Ummm, is it not morning anymore?”. He replied: “It’s 2PM”. Haha! Destroyed. Too late for breakfast at Cumulus Inc., so we ordered lunch instead.

Pigs head croquettes with tartare sauce. Gamey goodness!

Flounder with greens and eggplant, super clean cooking. Love this kind of food.

We then walked off our brunch and headed to Brunswick St. This guy was a legend!

Rose St. Markets.

I picked up this amazing ‘Seven Seas’ ring. The middle band spins! I love it so much, it’s my new favourite thing!!!

Love Brunswick St. Used to always stay out here when visiting Melbourne. It always feels like my old stomping ground.

I approve.

Those lines. The only Volvo I desire.

I then snuck in a shoot with the absolutely gorgeous Amanda Sierras. She’s such a rad chika. Was a really fun shoot in her apartment high up looking over Melbourne CBD. Looking forward to getting back to Sydney to edit these shots!

We then hooked up with the JTYPE ninjas, who had just finished a ramen dinner, so naturally they went for coffee after.

The guys wanted to take us somewhere for dessert, and these are the 2 awesome beasts that greeted us at the carpark.

Twinsies! Mike and I both rocking Midnight Fog Nike Roshes.

Obtuse, intense, obviously designed on a computer. Over the top? Definitely.

Looks even wilder with the lights on!

Mike led us to Yo-Chi in Carlton for yogurt. Loved the interior design and concept.

You help yourself to whatever flavours you want.

Then you add toppings.

And you pay by weight!

Day 2 is down, and it was a pretty short day as it took us forever to get out of the hotel! We’re failing at the whole concept of eating and drinking our asses off. Must… try… harder!

Bye Sydney!

Break on through to the other side.

Straight to CHINCHIN!

I’ve always had great times at CHINCHIN so was more than happy to be back.

Next level. So sticky, sweet, reminded me of an Indonesian Beef Rendang, only so much more complex and delicious!

Fox!

So jealous of Melbourne’s teal milk crates!

We had a quick catch up with one of Jess’ besties Dennis at Koko Black.

Breakers.

Then straight to rooftop bar at Cookie for some drinks.

Amaze.

Shepard was here.

Back at our laneway hotel on Little Collins St. First up; hair.

Then make-up!

I’m shooting with the 35mm this trip. It fits a lot in in comparison to the 55mm, but I’m just not digging the lens, it’s just got no character, or depth (needs lower f-stop!).

Tentacles!

Hey Horsies!

We tried to get into the JPG exhibit at the NGV, the line was massive so we gave it a miss.

Cool 3-piece band which drew a decent sized crowd. Jasia I think they were called. Electric violin, the drummer was hitting cymbals on the ground which was interesting to watch.

Then onto Ferdydurke!

Last time I was here it was just being set up, it’s all done now and they’ve done an awesome job.

Two Birds.

Matt-San and Sandra are in town too! They’d just come from the JPG exhibit at the NGV to join us for drinks with Gil (not pictured).

Matt’s a whiskey man. He took us to this amazing bar.

So much of that nasty brown liquid that makes me wanna puke.

Matt, Sandra and staff were awesome with trying to get me into Whiskeys, but to be honest. I just can’t appreciate. I almost died once on brown hard liquor. Since then I’ve only been a fan of the clear stuff (vodka, gin, etc).

Soaking up that alcohol in Chinatown with a bit of grease lightning.

Writing this Sunday morning, still alive despite getting pretty sloshed last night (and having almost a full bottle of red to myself the night before!). Not sure how I’m still operating to be honest! But having a great time. Especially loved the intense conversations on the topic of music last night with Matt and Sandra (and Jess and Gil!).