Mardi Gras

Last night was Mardi Gras in Sydney so the main streets in the city were shut off for the parade. It's always a hectic night so we arrived early and set ourselves up with some milk crates to stand on. We were lucky enough however to be invited to a house party some time later with a prime viewing position of the road from the balcony so the milk crates turned out to be unnecessary! The night started out with "Dykes on Bikes" - lots of scary looking lesbians (and some topless - even scarier) riding their bikes down the street basically. A while later the parade started, lead by the American transsexual Amanda Lepore...below is a photo of her outfit for the night...

Various other floats followed over the next couple of hours, although not many of them were as outrageous as I thought they would be. There was not the usual nakedness and OTT behaviour that you usually get with gays! There were floats dedicated to Osama Bin Laden and George Michael, as well as a float led by Australia's first gay Rugby Union club and a Michael Jackson Thriller zombie marching group. Favourites of the night had to be the dancing lifeguards and the Sydney Leather Pride Association dressed in leather buttless chaps and indulging in some light bondage (whips included) on their float.


After the parade had finished everyone headed to all the clubs around Oxford Street and Kings Cross: it was a very hectic night, but very good fun!

"Drinking coconut"

What do these two pictures have in common? If you said nothing, you would be very correct. One is a drinking coconut, one is a honeydew melon. If you're Dave however, you would probably think they are both the same thing.

Yesterday we went to the supermarket to buy some fruit and veg. They were selling "drinking coconuts" for $1.99 and excitedly Dave begged me to get one. Always one to try new things I, of course, said yes. Back at home, the first thing Dave does after we've unpacked the shopping is cut the top off the coconut as you would if you were going to be drinking from a drinking coconut. He cuts a little of the flesh out and says: "mmmm this tastes funny"; I try some too. Yes, it tastes very funny indeed, it doesn't taste like coconut, that's for sure. And that is, in fact, because it's a honeydew melon, not a drinking coconut. Laughter ensues, followed by me wondering how on earth we had both managed to mistake a melon for a coconut. We now have excess melon - a whole honeydew (which is literally the size of a rugby ball), half a rockmelon and a quarter watermelon: what am I going to do with all this melon!?? And Dave is still hankering after the elusive fruit (or is it a nut?!): he has vowed that next time we go to the supermarket, he will get his drinking coconut.

A bargain and Tropfest

Although I initially thought that shopping in Sydney was amazing, I've since had a change of heart: how I miss Oasis, Warehouse, Topshop and ASOS. Australian fashion is weird, and clothes are expensive and not very inspiring. On the way to my Sunday Pilates class I stopped at the Potts Point market, which happens every weekend, to browse through some of the clothes stalls. I found this gorgeous little black and white summer dress so I tried it on. To my disappointment I found that one of the buttons was missing; I mentioned this to the stallholder and she said she would sell it to me for $15 - I couldn't resist - that's about GBP 8 for a dress! Bargain indeed!

On to Tropfest...Tropfest is the world's largest short film festival. It started as an informal short film screening for cast, crew and friends at the Tropicana Cafe in Sydney's Darlinghurst. Now, in it's 16th year Tropfest contributes massively to the development of the Australian film industry and is an iconic cultural event. 16 finalists are chosen from around 650 entries and each of their 7 minute films is screened live at the Domain, and then judged by the panel - this year's judges including Toni Colette of Muriel's Wedding and About a Boy fame, and Elijah Wood. Everyone brings along a picnic and alcohol and it's a great afternoon/evening out (although it was so hot yesterday that it only started getting enjoyable when the sun went down and we weren't sat in the sweltering heat with barely any shade).

My favourite film was probably "Fish Lips", which was narrated Amelie-esque by a goldfish, and very blackly comic. The winner though was "Shock", which was about a radio DJ and was apparently inspired by the lie-detector scandal, in which a teenage girl confessed to having been raped on the 2-day FM show here in Australia. The winner receives a trip to LA to meet with agents, executives and industry representatives: an excellent opportunity and we'll no doubt be hearing more from the director of Shock in the future!

A day at Manly

Saturday was a lovely sunny day and seeing as Dave had just bought a new waterproof cover for his camera, we decided our time would be best spent at the beach testing it out. Shelly Beach in Manly is a good snorkeling spot and, although I'm not massively keen on being in the sea myself, Dave had endured a morning of food shopping so I thought I should probably give it a try! We walked to Circular Quay to catch the ferry over to Manly - it was SO busy and by the time we had paid for our tickets, we'd missed the ferry we had intended to catch. The next ferry was in half an hour so we decided to sit down in a cafe and get a drink and some scones to share...they took so long though that we were in danger of missing the next ferry...so we just got up and left, putting a whole new meaning to dine and dash!

Arriving in Manly we went to a cute little cafe called Bench for some lunch seeing as we'd missed out on the scones before. Highlight of this was seeing a lady get pooed on by a pigeon: she was not a happy bunny! We then walked over to Shelly Beach and set ourselves a little space on the beach. Dave headed straight into the sea whilst I caught some rays and read my book.
After his first foray into the water, I decided to go in too (only after a double caramel Magnum though). It was absolutely freezing to begin with although after a while I started thawing out and it was actually quite warm: it's always the initial shock of the water that's hard to deal with!

There weren't too many good fish: we saw a groper and a couple of funky coloured fish but nothing too exciting. Although it did beat the time we went in South France when all we saw was a sea cucumber and a starfish. I eventually went back to the beach to dry off and read my book whilst Dave stayed out and amused himself further with all the fish (he is VERY easily amused).

A surprisingly fun way to spend the afternoon and Dave got some good pictures too - I think he's very happy with his new purchase! On the left is one of the better pictures - a groper and some other little black and white fishies.

The perks of being a corporate whore

Dave is most definitely a corporate whore (or bore, more like). One of the perks of this is invitations to free events. Our plans for dinner and supermarket shopping were put on hold last night as he rang me to ask whether I wanted to go to a presentation by LANDesk with drinks and canapes followed by a screening of Shutter Island. Never one to look a gift horse in the mouth I, of course, agreed.

The event started at 6:15 with the film showing at 7:30. Dave said it would be full of boring IT people so we decided to get something to eat in town first (canapes never fill me up) and head over for about 7pm so we didn't have to spend too much time mingling. On arrival we were given various freebies including a USB stick which according to Dave was "very cool" and of course, our free drinks. We managed one canape: the waiters were crap only ever going in the same direction so by the time they got round to us the trays were empty. Good job we did have dinner before.

The presentation was held in one of the cinema screens, which was quite novel. They handed out free popcorn and drinks too. The next half an hour, for me, was spent wondering what the hell was going on - I couldn't tell you what LANDesk do or what they were trying to sell, surely a sign that the presentation was really bad?! Eventually it was time for the film, not before free choctops had been handed around though! My review of Shutter Island: not bad, a bit too long, and quite weird at times but definitely worth seeing. Lucky for us we even got four free cinema tickets for any film for filling out feedback forms - a nice cheap (well, completely free) evening out.

The Australian supermarket experience

Being such a sunny country, you would think that Australia had an abundance of lovely fruit and veg in the supermarket: you would be very wrong. Our local supermarket is Woolworths (nothing to do with the English Woolies) and some of the crap they sell in there is unbelievable; often the fruit is swarming with flies, or bruised, and the vegetables leave little to be desired. It can be quite a depressing experience! Luckily though today Harris Farm Markets is opening in Potts Point woooo! We first discovered this family run fruit and veg shop when we were living in our last house - it's an absolute god-send, selling delicious, cheap and seasonal fruit and veg. It also has a yummy deli and cheese counter, and a bakery plus it stocks other posh goodies which you can't buy in normal supermarkets. So tonight, sad as this might be for two 24 year olds, we have decided to make an evening of it: we're going out to a pizzeria near our house for dinner and then we're going are going to indulge in some delicious goods from Harris. Very exciting!

Boxing fitness classes

Dave and I have started going to boxing fitness classes with a slightly scary, ginger Scottish guy called Colin, in Rushcutters Bay Park, about a 5 minute walk from our house.

Our first class was last week - Dave has done boxing before so it was easy for him, but I never have and learning the moves was quite hard to begin with as it requires a lot of co-ordination and concentration too. Colin warned us that we would ache the next day however I was totally unprepared for the pain I felt...I woke up on Thursday morning feeling surprisingly fine, I even managed my usual bodypump class before work, but as the day went on the aching just got worse and worse. All down my arms, my back, my shoulders - I emailed Dave at work and he was suffering too!

Yesterday we decided to go again (although as we were walking to the class and remembering the pain afterwards we almost decided to turn around and go back home!). I felt like I had fully recovered but, as soon as I started punching, I could feel the same muscles hurting. Luckily this morning I don't feel bad at all but it's no doubt going to follow last weeks pattern...! Despite the aches and pains, it's great fun, a good way to get some aggression out and makes a pleasant change from the monotony of the gym: I'll have good guns in no time!

Update

I've just realised that I haven't published a post in quite some time! I'm not entirely sure why - we haven't really done anything bloggable recently. We are planning some exciting trips though. At the end of April we're going to Perth for just over a week. Dave bought me tickets to see Cats there so we would use it as an excuse for a proper holiday (it is a 5 hour flight afterall). We're going to hire a car and drive up the coast stopping at Freemantle, Rottnest Island, and ending up in Monkey Mia where you can swim with dolphins. We're also planning a trip over the Easter break to Adelaide: we're going to hire a car there too and drive the Great Ocean Road to Melbourne. A trip to New Zealand with Skins, who is coming over soon, is in the pipeline too.

Other news...Dave got a pay rise and bonus at work, which is brilliant. He's doing very well at Amex here and everyone is very fond of him: my boy will go far! He was given a lovely compliment the other day by a colleague saying he can easily see himself working underneath Dave in the not too distant future. My temp job was extended last week so I'm at TP3 (a company which provides desktop training and other business courses) for another two weeks until the end of February. After that, who knows where I'll be!

The next few weekends are fairly quiet: this weekend we're going to the grand opening of Harris Farm Markets in Potts Point (yes, we lead an exciting life) and then next weekend is Sydney Mardi Gras so hopefully I'll have some interesting things to blog about soon! Love to you all x

Our herb garden

We regularly buy a variety of herbs from the supermarket and it is beginning to turn into an expensive affair because before we've had the chance to use them all up, they've wilted and died. What to do? Well, we decided to invest in some living herbs being sold at the fortnightly market near our house. We bought a selection: parsley, thyme, rosemary and oregano and Dave has made them a little home outside of the window in our dining room where they can get lots of sunlight and rain. And they sure have had a lot of watering this weekend - all it's done is rain! Don't they look lovely though?

Choc tops

I just had to write a post about choc tops because they are possibly mine and Dave's favourite Australian invention (in fact they are mine and Dave's favourite Australian invention seeing as the Australian's have invented little else....). According to Wikipedia the traditional choc top is one scoop of vanilla ice-cream covered in a hard milk chocolate shell, sitting atop an ice-cream cone. Today however there are many variations, including different flavour ice-creams and chocolate tops studded with confectionary. Apparently, they are an "Australian institution" at the cinema.

And indeed they should be because they are absolutely delicious. Our first foray into them was at our local cinema where they sell many delicious variations including maple and walnut and mint choc chip flavours. The most recent one we experienced was rhubarb flavour and my, it was scrumptious! A cinema trip is now not complete without a choc top. When we come back to England, I'm not quite sure how the incredible choc-top is going to be replaced - a Ben & Jerry's sundae just isn't comparable.

Big Day Out 2010

Last Saturday, we went to the Big Day Out music festival at the Olympic Park in Sydney. We bought our tickets for the day in October last year so it had been a while coming. Acts playing included Lily Allen, Kasabian, Dizzee Rascal, Muse, Ladyhawke, Calvin Harris, and Groove Armada, to name a few that you might know. It was a very, very hot day - about 40 degrees I think - so we arrived already sweaty from the train journey (and also with soy sauce all down my white t-shirt having squirted it all over myself whilst trying to eat sushi on the go!) and a bit grumpy. Hence the first thing on the agenda was to get an ice lolly in an attempt to cool down.

First up on the list we wanted to see was Kasabian. They were really good, and luckily the heat was made more bearable by security men with water sprays willingly drenching everyone with water! Dizzee Rascal followed and, as much as I love him, I have to say that he was a bit of a disappointment. Still at least I got to see his pretty face. We caught the end of Lily Allen, having decided food was more important than seeing her (I hate her) and then headed off to watch Calvin Harris, who was surprisingly awesome. The big act of the night was Muse and the stadium was absolutely packed out for them. We ended the night with Groove Armada and their amazing light show.

I have to say I'm not a big festival go-er and I don't think I would repeat the experience. As always, the best part of the day for me was the food part: we found a vegetarian hare krishna stall where we had a delicious dinner of vegetable koftas, vegetable curry and rice, and date halva. The halva stuff (made from semolina, butter, condensed milk and dates) was an absolute revelation. Full of calories I'm sure but absolutely delicious. So delicious in fact that I found a recipe and recreated it last night for dessert!