@ Concrete Cafe.

Labels: concrete cafe, photo

friday

• Didn't quite manage to scarper from work early, but took off promptly at 5.30pm and drove across town to collect L from work. Noticed disturbingly strong wind gusts while waiting at the lights at the bottom of Oxford Street, but that corner always seems bad so didn't really think much of it.
• Got to airport only to find Belegdel and Cynthaea's flight delayed, presumably by the weather since it was one of the most miserable nights I've ever been out in. Sydney airport is set up so that when it rains, if you park you get wet. No way around it. Christened New Jacket #1 and dearly wished I'd brought New Jacket #2 with the insane I-though-OTT-but-turns-out-isn't-OTT-at-all hood.
• With a goal of "Steak!" saw us initially heading for Newtown, but the intended destination appeared closed and ...well, parking in Newtown? 'nuff said. So instead we went to Cafe Otto and had a very nice dinner in the enclosed courtyard. Joined by rocksluts and msrocksluts; the resulting group henceforth being called The Gang in this post. Despite the freezing night the gas heaters were almost too hot! Cafe Otto is good - and not just because they do home delivery :) Home delivery is awesome though. You can ring them and say Send me tiramisu, my good man! ...and they do!

saturday

• Headed to Paddington Markets only to discover they were cancelled - hey the wind was only gale force and the rain was merely sideways. Details, we wanted our cinnamon waffles! ...not really, actually I can understand entirely that they cancelled the markets.
• Lunch and coffee at Cafe Escobar, while we worked on a new plan given that the rain was still going past the door sideways. Thoroughly christened New Jacket #2 as I retrieved the car. Hoodies FTW!
• Decided that although it was generic, Bondi Junction Westfield was open, covered and probably had shoes to replace Cynthaea's broken-strap-mary-janes. That turned out to be untrue, however there was much squee when we went to T2 tea and the funky design shop. I forget the name.
• Available bookings turned out to be impractical so we ditched Portofino plan and instead headed to Betty's Soup Kitchen, joined by the rocksluts. Hearty stew and bread later, dinner declared a success!
• Walked back to car then drove on to Max Brenner, only to discover a stupid lineup. Why the hell don't they get rid of the useless display table up the back and put in another four tables? Instead gathered supplies from a supermarket and the gang repaired to Chez Rocksluts for hot chocolate and chats into the night.

sunday

• Slept in a bit, madly cleaned the unit to make it presentable then picked up B&C on the way to Chez Rocksluts for indoor picnic with the gang.
• Lots of food and weird DVDs ensue.

monday

• B&C joined us for brunch at Concrete. I say brunch, actually it was Second Breakfast for two people (hobbit alert!), lunch for another and breakfast for me. Apparently I like french toast when it's encrusted with cinnamon, drenched in maple syrup and topped with berry compote. YUM!
• Joined full gang and went to The Da Vinci Machines. It was cool, although admission really was a bit high for what you got.
• Went to Max Brenner, successfully this time! Discovered they're not making my favourite hot choc any more though (the orchid oil one). *shakes fist*
• On to The Dolphin for quick pub grub dinner before heading to the airport to drop B&C off to their flight.
• Now home, sipping a single malt scotch and writing this up.

Certainly a good weekend in terms of getting used to Sydney - if we can cope with this weather I think we'll be ok. Will see if it get significantly colder though, definitely going to have to work out how to keep warm on the bottom half - jeans don't cut it! Never had that problem before. Another new thing is Hoodie Hair, which is apparently worse than Hat Hair.

Plus we drove around a lot and found a few new ways to get places, which is good. This is a difficult city to navigate when you're relatively new - the endless No Right Turns make it much harder to recover from a wrong turn.

Weird to tune back into the news on sunday night though, discovering that the weather had actually been a really bad storm causing deaths and doing shitloads of damage. Pretty full-on, really. We'd been merrily wandering around thinking it's a bit chilly and bloody rainy.

So anyway, that's the weekend that was. Back to work tomorrow - sigh! - but at least it's a short week. After this one I think we'll have to declare next weekend a "do absolutely nothing" weekend :)

Labels: betty's soup kitchen, cafe escobar, cafe otto, concrete cafe, max brenner, t2 tea, the dolphin

the cool seems settled
the air has winter's first touch
i close my jacket

Walking to the coffee shop this afternoon, the street felt cool on a level deeper than a cool breeze can create. It feels like the day you know summer is done, but winter isn't here yet. But of course being Sydney I don't really know for sure - I've spent most of my life in Brisbane so I don't truly know how to read the weather here.

So the cool hit my face and I had a flood of memories, I guess we'd always visited Sydney in cooler months. Suddenly I have the thought this is what I remember, this is the Sydney I knew before I moved here.

Six months and it still seems vaguely unreal, still a bit unsettled. But then life in Brisbane wasn't so very different... maybe it's my life that's a bit unsettled, not the place I'm living in. Or maybe I just miss my family, who are gathered on the farm this easter, cooking up a storm, watching the latest James Bond movie and no doubt having a drink or two.

Maybe I'm just feeling the distance more because I have a slight touch of 'flu (I'm hoping it doesn't get worse). Being sick always makes things seem less fun.

I go to the cafe where they know us well enough to remind Leah if she forgets sugar in my coffee. I grab a paper on the way back.

Buying the paper seems odd now - there's always the hint of work. I see papers with online offers and wonder which of the guys did the update. I'm on a project or it probably would have been me. But that minor thought passes and it's just the Sunday paper again - a TV Guide wrapped in newsprint.

So now we have coffee, Leah is curled up on the couch reading the paper and I'm about to dive into a DOM scripting book that's well overdue for proper attention. To top it off, we have another whole day off tomorrow.

So, I wrote a haiku and this post. I took the photos a while back, doing the same walk, and remembered to post them now.

So that's today so far ;)

Labels: concrete cafe, haiku, poetry

Haven't done a weekend roundup for a while. But that means I have to actually remember stuff...

• ++ Friday lunchtime got a phone call... it was my parents having birthday lunch with my grandma, at a seaside fish cafe at Manly (the Brisbane Manly, not the Sydney Manly). 95 years old and going strong! It was lovely to talk to her during her lunch, even if it was a quick call :)
• + Call for contacts on microformats discuss seems to have got a message through to Google regarding the new Blogger's implementation of rel-tag. Woot!
• + Friday night kicked off with work drinks at The Dolphin in Surry Hills.
• -- Realised Leah was heading home from just up the road, but she'd already grabbed the bus home by the time I called her so she didn't join us :( Fair enough, she had gone all the way home. I could have sworn I'd previously suggested she come along, but we figure it didn't really click.
• Stayed longer than expected until couldn't ignore hunger. Wandered off and found cab home. Realised I am definitely behind on shouts for Lachlan and Gleddy. It's the problem of getting shouts from people who drink faster than you do...
• + Slept in on Saturday.
• - Not a great sleep though.
• ++ Breakfast at Concrete. Pancakes nearly beat me, but I pushed through the wall and vaquished the stack! ;)
• ++ Dinner with the Rocksluts at the Japanese/sushi place around the corner, hurrah for new takeaway option as Leah found lots she liked too.
• + Noticed the sushi place does non-fish stuff, so I can start having sushi with work crew! Yay.
• +++ Gig at Bar Broadway with Rocksluts. Kicked off with Reflection Point, good rock act, fronted by a rock girl with a big voice. Missed out on one of their free CDs though, doh! Next act was The Follow, who bored me. Finished off with Ink who rocked. Seriously, fucking great loud angry metal! Lots of funny stage antics and the boys can play.
• For some reason really noticed the drummers and their different styles. They guy from Ink had a way of sort of flicking the sticks around that was quite graceful to watch. The guy from Reflection Point hit harder but had a way of throwing in lighter embellishments that knocked things up a notch. *shrug* I dunno, I'm no drummer so I don't really know what I'm talking about. But still it was interesting to me :)
• Odd moment that I can't classify: went to the Gents at the gig, huge security guard was sort of taking up the whole urinal. He realised and shuffled over, then admitted he'd been reading the flyer that had fallen in. I realised we were taking a leak on a flyer for Dead Inside the Chrysalis, a band I can truly say I supported once (as in, our band was the support act). A long time ago and in fact the second and final gig for that great footnote in Australian music history ;) Small world eh. Smaller still: Ink is largely composed of guys from Jerk, who were supposed to play that same club (maybe not that same night, but the same event anyway - I can't really remember any more).
• -- Post gig mission for dessert was a washout. Gelati place closed shortly before we go there, then (with the triumph of hope over experience) we tried a cafe on the way back through Darling Harbour. Gads, never again, that's it, all strikes used. Should have got stuff from the all night supermarket and gone home. I mean, seriously, how can you fuck up two scoops of ice cream?? They managed.
• - Another crappy sleep on Sunday. Bleh.
• -- Went over to get coffee from Concrete, but they were closed! Argh, when did they stop trading on Sundays? I guess it's been a while, we've been using our espresso machine for weeks (it's off at Sunbeam right now). Tried coffee from Cafe on Pyrmont, not bad but not impressed. Should have gone over to the patisserie.
• +/- Tore all over the place and got fruit market and groceries done.
• + Met Leeno from Ink while shopping in Coles. Nice guy. I think he was torn between 'hey cool, someone saying hi and liked the gig' and 'aww, but we're in Coles'. Not a lot of rock cred in aisle five, eh :)
• +/- Got cleaning done ahead of inspection today. Didn't exactly go nuts since by this place's standards the fact it's not covered in engine oil is probably enough.
• +/- Rebuild of PC proceedingly slowly.
• -- Having trouble with external HDD. MBP seems to read it ok, which is exceedingly weird (it's formatted NTFS). Suspect it needs better drivers for XP, attempting contact with manufacturer.
• -- Dishwasher blew up (literally, with a bang). Fuck. Now we have to deal with tardiest fucks that ever called themselves fucktards and pretended to be real estate agents.
• -- Monday kicked off by dealing with moron aircon repair guys. Two guys, one doing all the work and the other - a pathetic small man with a serious snob complex - just watched. They were totally unprepared and ..... well, fuck it, they were basically the last straw. We are going to move, the only people worse than our landlords are the morons they hire. There's only one guy in the entire operation who is not totally fucked in the head.
• - Got copiously rained on while walking to work. Mental note - take big umbrella next time, not the small umbrella.

Rain today was nice, pity I couldn't just stay home and watch it :)

Labels: bar broadway, coffee, concrete cafe, ink, reflection point, rocksluts