2008-10-09 - 9:56 p.m.

As you may have noticed, it's pretty much got to the point where I just write about the weekends, unless I have a work entry in me. Or unless I did something noteworthy. Do you really need to know that the Thursday after my last entry I met Jo at Marrickville Metro, we got our Redraw sorted out, and then bought an Ironing Board while we were there before heading home for dinner which I suspect I cooked? Probably not.

My extended birthday weekend started on Saturday 27/9. During the day it was Alex's wedding out at St Mary's- which was very low key and seemingly a little disorganised but still nice. We spent most of our time with Jo's friends Felicity and Justin, and the combination of hanging out with Jo's high school friends during the day and an assortment of friends from different circles that night got me thinking about how cool it will be at our wedding having a cast of thousands from various points of our lives.

Saturday night, since we couldn't be in the Hunter for Glenn and Amanda's wedding, I had a birthday dinner at Morris' Egyptian Restaurant in Dulwich Hill (hmmm, now my diary will probably come up when someone Googles Morris' Egyptian Dulwich Hill- especially now that I've written it twice). It was a good turnout at short notice- myself and Jo, Lucy, Phillipa & Richard, Nathan, Fran, Pete & Mel, Tara & Tristan, Julie, Birch & Frantz and Meaghan (I think that was all). Everyone aside from Birch & Frantz, Tara & Tristan and Julie made their way to the Townie, and (at least for Lucy, Fran, Jo and I) it turned into the sort of late night involving Tequila shots that one would expect for my birthday drinks- although I had no concrete plans to do anything more than dinner.

Sunday involved a decent sleep in, shopping and then dinner at Quay- recently voted Sydney's best restaurant by the SMH Good Food Guide. I keep saying I'm going to start a Food (and/or gig) Blog, but even for dinner at Quay I'm stuck for what to write two weeks down the track. I certainly wouldn't say I was disappointed- top class restaurants are always an awesome experience, but none of the courses stood out among the best I've ever had. Although the dessert (Eight Textured Chocolate Cake) was pretty impressive. It wasn't a full degustation- rather two entrees, a "main" (which I expected more of given that it wasn't a full degustation) and dessert. My first course was a melt-in-your mouth beef tendon with I think a plum jus which took away some of the subtlety, while Jo had kingfish sashimi- you just can't go wrong with kingfish sashimi. My second course was probably the most disappointing- it was a very minimalist squid dish with once again too much "sauce" poured over it. Jo had a lobster dish which was probably the highlight of either of our 8 courses (or should I say 7 since neither of us was able to go past the chocolate cake). My main was a duck dish which I had no complaints about (other than the size), but as I said it wasn't a standout- whereas Jo was very impressed with her veal, but rightly pointed out that I would have been disappointed with the lack of truffle in whatever part of the dish was supposed to have truffle in it.

Oh, and the view was fabulous.

Monday was my actual birthday, and after work I had a family birthday dinner at old faithful Thai Pothong in Newtown. They asked me over the phone if it was for any occasion and I said it was a birthday- and when we arrived they had balloons on the table, took a photo of us all and emailed it through to me, and gave me play money that I could redeem at the gift shop- I suspect for giving them a group of 9 on a Monday night.

Last week was a short week as both Jo and I had Friday off to attend her cousin Cameron's wedding. I took advantage of the fact that I had a weekday off to take my piano to Dee Why to get a couple of keys fixed (and have some brunch, and buy some sunglasses) but the traffic was so bad on the way back that we were cutting it fine to get back into the city by 3.30pm for the wedding. We had planned to take a bus to the Metro to pick up Jo's Grates tickets to give to her brother, and catch a cab the rest of the way- instead we had to cab it directly into the city- once again amidst a lot of traffic, and just made it in time (thankfully the bride was about 15 minutes late).

The wedding was nice- both ceremony and reception very similar in feel to what we want- the reception was at Wolfie's, where Francis and Cam got married, and the Harbour once again put on an electrical storm for us, after giving us a lovely afternoon for the ceremony. And the food was fantastic. No lack-of-truffle issues on my steak- fantastic truffle butter...mmmm truffle...

Saturday (4/10) was a lazy day- we spent the afternoon at Julie and Dan's place with Tara and Tristan (and little Thomas), drinking beer and wine and eating antipasto, before heading home to cook dinner for ourselves on the BBQ.

Sunday before we knew where the day went we were at the Lord Nelson in the Rocks with Phillipa and Richard and an entourage- for no particular reason except I guess for the long weekend. Had a number of pints of the Lord Nelson's various brews. Watched in horror as Manly thrashed Melbourne in the Grand Final. Had another drink or two at the Ship Inn. Had a late dinner at the new Sichuan place down the road from BBQ Kings.

Public Holiday Monday (6/10) we went to Yum Cha with Jo's family, before lazing around our lounge room with her family for most of the day. Nonetheless we managed to get our shopping done and fit dinner in sometime later.

And unless I pull out the fabled entry about work, that's all I've got.

�

previous - next

�