No time!

The thing about writing a diary-type blog, so I've found, is that the more stuff you do, the more you have to write about, but the less time you have to actually get round to writing about it. And the longer you leave it between writing, the more stuff you've done in the meantime, and so inevitably you end up reducing amazing experiences to one-liners. Ah well.

So - since last time, this is what's been going on:

The Playground Weekender festival! Up at Wiseman's Ferry, a little town/village I'd never visited, about an hour an a half from Sydney, on the banks of the Hawkesbury river. We rented a houseboat which slept 10 people with Chris, Esther, Matt, Mel, Andrew and various of his friends and friends of friends and had a hot, sunny, fun-filled weekend, involving lots of swimming in the river and barbecued breakfasts. Oh - and we visited the festival (mostly in the evenings) too. We could hear the music from the boat in the day, and there weren't all that many people there (you could tell it was the first time they'd organised it!), so we didn't feel the need to go over too early. Only one crash with the tinny (metal dinghy with motor for getting to shore), although we did come back in the dark one night and find it mostly underwater, lots of booze and generally muchos fun. Band highlights for me: Fat Freddy's Drop and Elbow.

Then Friday night, went to see Ross Noble at the Enmore Theatre. Wicked. There's a comedy festival on at the moment, so we've seen a few things. A couple of pleasant post-comedy beers catching up with Julie and Dom too, which was good. Saturday was Marcus's (the BhangLassi bassist) surprise birthday dinner in Manly. Thai banquet in Wok Bar - highly recommended for $25 per person - we could only manage about half the food!

Thursday 22nd was then Alex's birthday - he's finally reached the grand old age of 28! Apart from a very stylish BhangLassi mug (the envy of the band, I'm told), I also got him a day's hire of a Lotus Elise - to make a change from driving the ute! So we're going to take a day off work sometime and go cruising! He went to band practice on his birthday, so I went to see the closing film in the French Film Festival, with Tom, the only person I thought would be interested! Film was quite good, even with Gerard Depardieu playing his favourite character, and then we went for tapas.

Took Alex out for his birthday dinner on the Friday (after I had spent all afternoon at a boozy work lunch in the sun by the harbour - my first one in a year!) We wandered around East Sydney - mainly known for its Italian restaurants, but it has some others too, and he picked Voiaj, which has dishes from all over the world, and amazing decorations inside. And you get to drink out of metal goblets! I played it relatively safe with Moroccan lamb, although I was slightly tempted by the "Afghan camel snake pie with dirty rice..."

Saturday was the full-on birthday celebration, along with Alex G, who has the same birthday! We spent the whole afternoon from 2pm in the beer garden of the Rose Hotel , which is a great pub (and conveniently, just across the road from the theatre where a few of us had booked to see Ardal O'Hanlon, of Father Ted fame, in the evening). A huge thunderstorm at around 5pm meant we had to retreat under cover, but there was lots of room. Cooled it down a bit from the 35 degrees as well!

And after all that, on Sunday we went round to visit the Kirribilli massive for an afternoon of fajitas, poker and birthday cake (and the odd glass of wine!) Woohoo!

Have just come back from Wednesday night swim squad - hopefully I'll carry on all winter - may need a wetsuit in a couple of months though - it's in the Icebergs pool (see the pic at the top), so outside. Feel a lot more relaxed than when I got in from work though, which is all good.

And finally - the most exciting news of the past few weeks - BhangLassi have got real gigs! The first one is April 4th at the Cat and Fiddle in Balmain. Talk round these parts is of little else...

Harbour swim

Was great to see Leila again - she was last here about a year ago - although she was pretty busy working for most of the time. Came back from the last surf ski training session and she had cooked us dinner though - nice.

Bhanglassi had a chilled out practice session at Mike and Rache's flat, not far from us, on Thursday night, followed by dinner cooked by guest bassist Matt - risotto with scallops...mmmmm... They're sounding pretty good these days - if only they'd get their arses into gear and book themselves a proper gig somewhere!

Friday we had intended to go to the full moon drumming session, which happens on the cliffs between Bondi and Tamarama (once a month, surprisingly enough) - but were just too tired by the time we got home. Quite poor really - have to go next month instead.

In fact, this weekend was rather characterised by sleep. I got up for the 8.30 swim session at the beach on Saturday - supergood - caught 3 waves and nearly won one of the surf races because of it! Returned feeling pretty tired and went back to bed - Alex hadn't noticed that any time had passed in between me leaving and returning! Hot and sunny, so we spent most of the early afternoon lazing around the balcony with the papers. Then deceided we ought to do something, and caught the bus to Watson's Bay. Here there is a famous fish restaurant called Doyle's, established about 100 years ago, so pretty old for Australialand. Just made it before they stopped serving lunch at 3pm, and had fish & chips (v. nice, but priced for tourists) and a bottle of rose in front of the little beach (inside the harbour). Had a lot of fun people-watching - especially the rich people with yachts and pink shirts. Took a walk up to the South Head afterwards - the southern side of the entrance to Sydney Harbour, to walk it off a bit, and then came back down for an ice-cream in the park afterwards. I fell asleep on the bus on the way home, and then we passed out for a couple of hours when we actually got back, only to be woken by a phone call from Carol and David "hoping to catch us before we went out for Saturday night"!

Sunday morning wasn't characterised by sleep - got up and drove to the Opera House so I could do the Harbour Swim. Was much more confident than last year, and it felt like I went a lot faster, but I only shaved 1m02s off my time, to finish in 30.46. Back for a swim at Bondi, as it was very hot and sticky out of the water, where Alex did some proper hardcore swimming, and then got stung by a bluebottle. Ah well. Back home, had some lunch, and then I passed out on the sofa for a couple of hours, before we got up to start our trip over to Manly (back to Circular Quay to get the ferry) for Andy and Kristin's barbecue in the evening. Which was great.

A fairly touristy weekend, all in all - Bondi Beach, Doyle's, Opera House, Bondi Beach, Manly. Excellent.

And back to the Opera House on Monday evening, to see the Gotan Project. It felt a little odd to be watching in a formal concert setting, but they were really good, and the stage show was cool. Not a bad Monday night really!