A lovely chilled out weekend

After an extravagant weekend in Melbourne, we decided this one would be a more chilled out affair. We had a nice lie in on Saturday morning and then made our way to Leichhardt, which is the Italian precinct of Sydney. We had a wander arond the Italian Forum, which is an Italian-style piazza in the middle of Leichhardt with lots of Italian shops and restaurants.

It was completely dead so we decided to walk over to another suburb, Haberfield, which is meant to be quite Italian too. There was a bit more happening here; we found a nice delicatessen and bought lots of Italian meats, cheeses and vegetables (which we devoured for dinner in the evening - delicious) and then we went to a pizzeria called Napoli in Bocca for a spot of lunch. Nice pizza, but not as good as the pizza you get in Teramo near where Daddy is from in Italy.

After lunch I treated myself to an Italian fig biscuit (they're amazing - whenever we used to go to Italy, we used to get them from the local pasticceria). It was delicious, but I was slightly put off by Dave staring at me and wimpering whilst I was eating it - he is still on his diet.

Sunday was another chilled out day - we spent most of it by the pool sunbathing and reading - the little pool and lounge area at our flat really makes it feel like you're on holiday, it's lovely when the weather is good!

Frost*

I thought it might be nice to write a post about where I've been working for the past few months whilst I've been in Sydney (unlike Dave I haven't sold my soul to American Express). The company is called Frost* and it is an independent design studio of around 30 people. They work across various media for a diverse range of clients including Qantas, American Express (!) and Nike, to name a few that you would know. There is also a fashion department here which designs graphic style tshirts.

My role here is as a receptionist, so nothing very glamorous. My main duties are answering the phone, maintaining tidy and well-organised studio spaces as well as general administrative duties. It's not the busiest or most stimulating job in the world but it enables me to earn enough money to pay the bills and to explore Australia, which is, afterall, the reason that I came here! Only another 3 weeks here though so after that the job hunt will begin again...

The perks of being a receptionist...

Being a receptionist, I have to book a great deal of couriers on behalf of people in the studio every day. The perk of this? The manager of the courier company just came in to give me a Christmas card and a little present - a box of Lindt Lindor chocolates (my favourites!). I was going to share them around the office but it's only a small box with 9 chocolates in and seeing as there are over 30 people in the studio, I think I'll keep them to myself....and as Dave is on a diet at the moment, I really can have them all to myself. Yum yum!

A very wet weekend in Melbourne - part II

Our second day in Melbourne was another miserable one - it rained on and off almost all day, which didn't make it much fun walking around discovering the city! Again we found a little cafe down a random alleyway for breakfast in the morning before getting the free tram to the Queen Victoria Market which is meant to be Melbourne's "premier open-air market". One word of advice, if you're ever in Melbourne, don't bother going there. The only good thing we found was a packet of licorice allsorts, and even they were a bit chewy and jaw breaking.

Cold and wet, we walked to the Old Melbourne Gaol where some of Australia's most infamous criminals including Ned Kelly and Squizzy Taylor (yep, I don't know who he is either) have been imprisoned. The tour started with The Watch House Experience where you are actually arrested and locked up in one of the cells by a Charge Sergeant. The photo on the right is us in jail. The rest of it is self-guided, and due to Dave being the slow reader that he is, we must have been there for almost 2 hours! You can imagine how bored I was (although grateful for being warm and inside) after 40 minutes...

After the Gaol experience we headed up to the "Italian" part of Melbourne to sample some good traditional Italian cuisine. Inevitably, I was disappointed; no-one can cook as well as my dad - in fact, my mum can cook better Italian food than what was on offer - and I have made a vow (probably shortlived) to myself that I won't go to anymore Italian restaurants whilst I'm in Australia. By the time lunch was over, our flight back to Sydney was looming so we headed back to the hostel to collect our bags and to the station to get the bus to the airport.

Boarding the plane, we discovered it had been a sweltering weekend in Sydney - up to 38 degrees - and on arriving home, we were hit by the remnants of the heat. Just our luck! Melbourne is lovely - I would have liked a little longer to explore it properly so we're planning on going back - but I think I prefer Sydney!

A very wet weekend in Melbourne - part I

The time had finally come for us to jet off to Melbourne after a long week of work. Our flight with Tiger Airways was delayed by around half an hour so we didn't end up landing until about midnight and then it took a $60 cab ride to where we were staying - The Greenhouse. Being my first time in a hostel, I was actually pleasantly surprised; apart from the fact that our room had no windows and it was quite noisy at times, it was a fairly nice place to stay! Really central, very cheap and, most importantly, clean. Breakfast was included in the cost but we went downstairs on Saturday morning to find just cornflakes and bread; we decided to eat out.

Venturing outside, we found a little lane full of buzzing cafes, which is apparently what Melbourne is famous for - we settled down to a coffee, newspaper and bowl of muesli. Relaxing and delicious. After this, we meandered around the streets of the city, familiarising ourselves with the place. Dave wanted to go down to the Yarra River so we took a walk there and decided to get a ferry up the river to a place called Williamstown. Although a little cold, this was a great way to see the city. Unfortunately, Williamstown wasn't as exciting so we decided to get the train straight back!

Back to Melbourne CBD we went to the Docklands for a spot of lunch and a wander round Harbour Town, which is an outlet centre. Typically though, when you've decided you want to go shopping, you can never find anything nice! By this time the weather had began to turn and our walk back to the hostel was a wet one.

Dinner was at Ca de Vin in the Melbourne GPO, which was a lovely little restaurant, hidden in an ambient alleyway - rather romantic! After this, we ventured to a bar we'd been recommended by a girl working in Ted Baker called Cookie, with four floors and a rooftop cinema and bar. We decided to brave the rooftop bar - great views but it was freezing cold and absolutely pouring down. We had a quick drink, took some photos (mostly obscured by the rain) and headed to the Crown Casino - the biggest casino in the southern hemisphere. Dave had a flutter, I had an Irish coffee to warm myself up, and we eventually made it back in one piece, but a bit wet and miserable, to our hostel.

A revelation

I emailed this to Dave this afternoon and he said it was a blog post in itself so here it is...

Oh my god. I was doing the flowers and Erin, one of the interns here, was making her lunch. She was toasting this amazing bread with dates, macadamias, raisins, seeds etc. She then slathered it in butter and let me try some. It is actually the best bread I've ever eaten in my life. But apparently it's from a deli near where she lives in Cronulla - $8 - I've asked her to either find out who makes it and where I can buy it, or to buy me some, because I actually cannot live without this bread in my life. That is how good it is.

It really is very good bread. I can still taste it in my mouth. Nom nom.

High Tea at the Victoria Room, Darlinghurst

Saturday was the day I had been waiting for all week - the day of High Tea at the Victoria Room in Darlinghurst. High Tea is very big around Sydney, it seems as though every bar and restaurant does it in an attempt to captivate what they think is "English"; I'm not sure I know of many places to go to for High Tea in England, other than the Ritz.

Anyway, we arrived a little early for our booking, and were both very hungry having saved ourselves since breakfast for the treat; luckily they managed to fit us in and we had soon ordered our tea and the anticipated selection of sandwiches, petit fours and scones. The place itself was done in what I suppose can only be described as British-Raj style - it was very shabby chic. After what seemed like forever, High Tea came out in all it's yumminess on the traditional three tiered silver stand. On the top was a selection of tiny crustless sandwiches, of which our favourite was cucumber, creme fraiche and dill; the second tier housed the little cakes - a mini cupcake each, a viennese whirl each, a chocolate and raspberry mousse each, and a lemon tart each; the bottom tier held the scones complete with cream (not clotted unfortunately) and jam. The sandwiches and cakes were delicious but the scones were a bit a of a disappointment - I don't think a scone is quite right without clotted cream!

Our gluttonous afternoon was followed by a lazy few hours by the pool with a book at our apartment catching the rest of the sun. Sunday was spent doing exactly the same thing (minus the High Tea, of course). A restful weekend as this Friday we're off to Melbourne, yay!

I've given up on yoga!

After my two week trial at the yoga club, I decided it wasn't really for me - I liked the exercises but I wasn't so much into the meditative aspect and, although I know it's meant to be relaxing etc etc, when I've exercised I like to feel as though I've actually done something. I like to ache the next day! So I decided to try Pilates instead which is supposed to improve the strength of the core muscles around the abdominals, hips and lower back. I discovered whilst trying to find somewhere to do it that it's an incredibly expensive hobby - the cheapest way to do it is just to join a gym where they do classes. Luckily, I managed to find someone on Gumtree who wanted to transfer their gym membership for super cheap, and not only do they do Pilates there, but also Spin, Bodypump and loads of other fun classes.

My first class was on Sunday and OH MY GOD was it hard. My tummy muscles must be really weak - you basically have to support yourself the whole time with your abs - I had to give up on various occassions because the burn was too much for me to cope with! Anyway, the instructor is really good, although a bit mean because he says we'll do an exercise for 8 but then says the first 2 don't count - massive group sigh! Monday morning my whole body ached but it was a satsifying feeling knowing that the exercises had actually done something. I went back for more pain on Tuesday but didn't feel so achey on Wednesday morning, thankfully. All in all, much better than yoga I think; we'll see whether in a month's time I've got the killer abs that Pilates is meant to give you (I doubt it - I think I'd have to stop eating so much cake for that to happen!)

The Opera Bar

Tuesday night we ventured to the Opera Bar to meet Loren and Latch (Kirsty's sister and her boyfriend), who are in Australia for a couple of weeks on holiday, for a drink. The Opera Bar is located on the lower concourse of the Opera House and has amazing views of it, plus views of the Harbour Bridge and the famous city skyline. Here's a photo I stole from the internet...

Never one to turn down a cocktail list, I sampled two different ones - "Twiglight Tryst" which was tequila with maraschino and raspberry liqueur blended with fresh lime and raspberry; and "Loves Me Not" consisting of vodka, lychee liqueur and campari with blood orange. The former was definitely my favourite of the two, the latter being ruined somewhat by the eyeball-looking lychee sitting on the top of the glass. Sydney has some amazing cocktail bars, my favourite being the Ivy, where the barman mixed me a special cocktail, as the one I'd chosen on the menu was apparently a "real man's drink" and would have me drunk with one sip. I think I must have already been drunk to not have answered back to that sexist comment!

...and the rest of the weekend...

The rest of our weekend was spent doing mainly house related things, that is food shopping and cleaning, none of which is worth writing about. Although I did make sultana scones on Saturday - Dave is having a "bring a cake to work" day to sell for charity so I thought I'd do a dry run (and just as an excuse to make something yummy to eat). They turned out really well so hopefully I won't embarrass him at work by giving him crappy cakes to sell.

On Sunday we ventured to Newtown, a suburb in the Inner West, for the annual Newtown Festival, a free community festival featuring dog shows, 5 stages of music and performance, writers tents, market and food stalls. Apparently the festival usually attracts about 80,000 people and even though the weather was rainy on and off, it certainly seemed that way. We wandered around the stalls, which all seemed to be selling very hippy fare, and eventually sat down to listen to some of the free music, mostly (actually, entirely) featuring bands we'd never heard of! It can only be described as very "Brighton" - lots of hippy, alternative people about.

If the weather had been nicer, it would have been a lovely way to spend the afternoon, but the drizzly rain coupled with the fact that alcohol was really expensive and you couldn't bring your own, meant that we left for home after only a couple of hours. Back to the flat to enjoy pie and mash for dinner, and yet more of Lost season 2, which is currently racking up a huge bill in overdue fines...!

Kobe Jones

I thought our Friday night escapade deserved a post of it's own as it was quite a sensational evening! After work I went home for a little sleep as I'd spent the afternoon with a banging headache and just didn't feel up for going out quite yet. I awoke to a phone call from Dave asking if I wanted to Wagamama for dinner with some friends - I'm always up for dinner so of course I said yes! I met up with everyone by Darling Harbour and rather than going to Wagamama we decided to go to a Japanese-California fusion restaurant called Kobe Jones, just for a change - http://www.kobejones.com.au/sydney/7

The restaurant itself is beautifully decorated, very Japanese, with a red and black themed interior and views out to the harbour thanks to floor to ceiling glass windows. Not being versed in Japanese cuisine, other than the Marks and Spencer sushi snack pack (which I love), we relied entirely on one of our friends to order the food for us. The menu being so vast, she ended up choosing the Gourmet set menu - it was very expensive but we decided since Dave had achieved such a good mark for his MSc that we would treat ourselves.

First to come out was the famous Number One Special (a Kobe Jones speciality) - crab salad with avocado wrapped in snapper and baked with Kobe Jones' secret sauce. It was absolutely sensational; I was devastated that there was only one piece each! This was followed by Wagyu Tenderloin and a Sashimi platter - also delicious. Yet more food was to come - Lava rolls and Spider rolls consisting of crab salad and avocado topped with steamed tropical lobster; Wafu style barbecued prawns in a ginger sauce - each one more delicious than the other!

And before I thought I couldn't eat any more, the dessert platter came out including sushi cheesecake, strawberry trifle, green tea creme brulee, a delicious melt-in-the-middle chocolate pudding, to name but a few. I could have polished off the lot on my own. It was an absolutely wonderful dining experience; very indulgent and special. I can't wait to go back there - although apparently they do an "all you can eat" $25 lunch menu during the week so I think until we've saved enough pennies to indulge again, this will have to do! A really lovely and enjoyable night :)

Parramatta and Riverbeats.

This weekend started off quite badly! We had decided to visit a Mexican restaurant we had heard good things about for some fajitas and margaritas, only to find out after we had walked there that it was fully booked. We ended up in a Vietnamese restaurant called Saigon Saigon (we were feeling adventurous) which looked lovely but was a massive disappointment. My meal was okay, but Dave had a duck curry which was really fatty and tasteless. He ended up not eating anything and complaining about the meal too. So no margaritas, no fajitas, and a disgusting dinner! Pick and mix from the shop downstairs and a couple of episodes of Lost made up for it though.

Saturday we took a trip to Parramatta, which is a town about 40 minutes west of Sydney, for their Riverbeats festival and an evening at the comedy club. Riverbeats is an annual festival in Parramatta where the river is lit up with pyrotechnic displays, glowing inflatable spheres and a myriad of music and live performances. The town was buzzing. The comedy club was not so buzzing and nothing compared to Komedia in Brighton. The compere was okay; the first act died on stage; and the second act was a racist, fascist, bigoted drug addict/alcoholic. The only thing to do was to drink lots of wine to numb the pain of the Australian comedy club experience!

Sunday was a beautiful day (if very windy - sunburn weather!) so we decided to make the most of the weather by going for a walk around to Mrs Macquarie's chair, which is a carved out rock on a peninsula in Sydney harbour. We ended up at a lovely poolside/harbourside cafe where we had a bite to eat and enjoyed the views.