While I was in Newcastle, I went to The Depot, a new cafe on Darby St, twice for lunch. Mostly because I hadn’t been there yet, and the first time because I was by myself on Saturday and it looked like I could tuck away at a table with a magazine and eat without being disturbed… while listening to their music that strongly fell into my tastes (Goldfrapp was playing when I got there).
I had an awesome roast vegetable salad (with the usual diet coke) with pumpkin, beetroot, chick peas, pistachios and some rocket, topped with halloumi and pesto. Oh yums! :) The waiter observed that I was in a purple mood, with purple tights, purple handbag and a new purple clip. I ate in peace and read some local music magazine. Noice :p
The next day I went with Rish and his family. Aside from them not being able to do chai to save themselves (lack of brewing in milk – came out as a tea bag, separate pot of water, server of milk – only to be sent back to be brewed in the milk – so either ask for it how you like it, or hope they will learn over time) all was reported to be yummy. My latte (above) was very cute, and very drinkable :) And the toastie was yummy and warm with a nice chili/tomato jam. I was happy anyway.
Not the ‘same’ atmosphere as the Goldberg’s and the Grind on the street (with their wooden tables and chairs and French/Italian posterage), but I liked the walls and the clean industrial feel (clipboard menus are the thing I hear, I had one at dinner on Friday night, too). May or may not have been resting my head on the cork/chip board on the walls :p
Death came for my sim, while she was cooking a breakfast of waffles. You can’t seem to be able to beg and plead, but there was dramatic music in the lead-up.
Time to make a new sim!
edit: Here she is “Pinkie Pie”
A little loopy, she likes to sleep in her bikini.
I know, I know, I’m not supposed to eat nearly this much chocolate, let alone in one sitting, and yes, my intestines were paying for it for the rest of the evening. But, oh, it was good to visit the Lindt Chocolate Cafe at Darling Harbour last week.
Sydney was a grey old place last week. AS soon as you’d think it was sunny, it would start spitting on your again. “Sunshower!” could be exclaimed, to try to keep the spirits up, until it got wetter and wetter, and you knew you had to use your umbrella.
That didn’t stop me on Wednesday from taking my travel pass ticket and hopping around trains, busses and ferries all day, visiting places I hadn’t really been before, like heading up the river towards Parramatta, hopping off early “because there was a bus waiting at the wharf that I could catch somewhere” and generally just being a little bit silly :p
Burwood was good to wind up in, meant I got to grab a Chinese custard bun and browse Hello Kitty items in various trinket stores. Always good :)
Headed back into the city via Redfern, got scared by the Ibises once more.
Because I’m a dork, I visited the David Jones foodhall. You know, just to browse…
more to come when I get around to uploading more photos :)
Came back last night from a week across Sydney and Newcastle, with more photos than I really need to deal with!
On our first night in Sydney, we stayed at the Addison Hotel which is on Anzac Parade Kensington – chosen because it was about 2 block’s walk from the University of NSW, where Rish had a conference, and where we stayed the rest of the time in Sydney.
I’ll have to admit that, which is room was nice enough, I didn’t sleep too well, bed was hard and I kept going numb, plus I think I may or may not have been worrying about missing my alarm in the morning to trek across the city to my workshop on at Novotel Olympic Park… Rish swears he had a good night’s rest though so it’s probably just me being a little loopy! :) TV had free to air channels, plus a whole heap of Chinese-language television. I was watching a doco on SBS for a while before sleep.
The highlight though was discovering that I’d ordered a package that included not just breakfast, but dinner too at the restaurant downstairs! (for $115 online). I love all the bargains you can get through daily deals sites like Groupon. Have you ever used an online coupon for a hotel?
We didn’t eat as much as we perhaps could have, had we not gone to the welcome reception for Rish’s conference and filled ourselves up on finger food and wine! But, it was yummy all the same. :D No idea about the breakfast – I was out the door at 7am, which is when they were starting to take it around to the rooms. I’m sure it was a standard toast, juice, cereal affair, though. :)
I’m up in Newcastle for the next few days, seeing friends and family… Tonight I’m out at Honeysuckle … Because the council has funded a ‘livesite’ with a band and lots of fires, presumably to serve the dual purposes of looking awesome and keeping people warm.
Photos will of course follow on my return to Canberra. But for now I’m sitting at a table at ‘Twist’, awaiting my friends and sipping my drink. Smells wonderfully like wood fires :)
I’m sure these videos will do more to convince the general population that there isn’t actually a link between vaccines and Autism than logic and reason and well-researched papers ever could *sigh*
Or married and gay. My sim just proposed at the rip old age of 87 days to a hot little number (also greying) named Fatima, who has now moved in and taken on her surname….
She has also become a bit of an artiste in her old age, as the garden failed…
I still aim to have her die tonight, as she doesn’t seem to go. Maybe they can adopt a bub before then? Let’s see how equal-opp the Sims really are! :D
Currently trying to find my July desktop over at Smashing Magazine. Something to make me smile through the month at home and at work. Sometimes I have two different ones, but usually I stick with one, and leave it for the month.
2 more days of term left, then I have 7 days leave, 3 days work back in the holidays, then into term 3. How the year is flying.
