Update
Wed 19 Apr
M and I ventured into Sydney City again so I could find the Australian Music Centre and register as a member and have a poke around. I was there for about an hour looking up Australian composed string quartets and song cycles and also bought a Peter Sculthorpe CD so that I could get an idea of Australian "style".
We then found Pancakes at The Rocks and had lunch there. The food was lightening fast and we were half finished before the drinks arrived (raspberry iced tea… mmm).
We walked to the George St cinemas to find nothing on so we kept walking and found some cinemas at Market City (near Chinatown) and decided to watch Undercover Hidden Dragon. I also managed to grab another 4 classical CDs while we were waiting for it to start. Anyway the movie was a mishmash of things but still a million times more enjoyable than Hollywood schlock :P Action comedy with a little romance - a no-hoper geek with loser geek sidekick meets a team of female cops and also gets caught up with a former infatuation who is now married to a gang boss with a super hero side story thrown in (as you do…) so a very mixed 7/10.
Thu 20 Apr
A big day for me :P I went to Balmain to meet my friend J. (who was my first love) and we chatted about life and gossed about friends. He’s off to China for a month to witness the marriage of his best mate to a Chinese girl.
Then I met my ex-lecturer and is now a mentor of sorts, A., who has his studio in Balmain so I had a squiz and he took me out to lunch. The restaurant was being filmed for a channel 7 show Sydney Weekender or something so we’ll be on there chatting away. We caught up on our careers and lives and everything’s going well which is always nice to report and hear about.
My Aunt in Balmain then picked me up and I went to visit my Grandma and 2 of my other aunts were there, too so we all caught up. My Grandma is 92 now and although she’s not very mobile and is very skinny, she’s actually pretty alert and asked about my life. She’s in pretty good spirits for her condition. I think she has breast cancer and diabetes but she’s not suffering which is good.
Found a cop and sniffer dog at a train station I changed trains at. *shaking head at state of the world* I arrived back at J. & A.’s and K., M. and B. came over to visit again along with T. and Cameron. Another night of play, goss and good times.
Fri 21 Apr
M and I went into the city to meet up with my very good friend S. who gets along very well with M so it was lots of fun. We ate at Bill & Tony’s, one of our old haunts - where else can you can a steak and 2 pastas for under $35 with free cordial and bread? Then we went downstairs for some good old Italian gelato and coffee. LOTS of goss exchanged :)
We then went to the Royal North Shore Hospital to visit my other very good friend M. whose husband P. is unfortunately in hospital with an undiagnosed fever, rash and joint pain which is terrible because their first child was only born 3 weeks ago who I was down to meet. Their daughter R. is gorgeous and well behaved and even let me hold her for an hour while I gossed with Mary. She said it - there’s nothing better than seeing people you love, happy and content - and that’s what I see in her little family.
We got back to J. & A.’s and K., M. and B. came over again. We watched Family Guy Presents: Stewie Griffin - The Untold Story and put B. to bed in our inflatable bed which he loved and begged to play on and even more tiredly excited to sleep on. Then it was me and A. (girls) versus J. and M. (boys) in a game of Cranium. It’s mostly the Pictionary concept but with 4 different ways to give your team clues or solve puzzles - Creative Cat (using play dough to mould clues), singing or charades, Word Worm (word scrambles, spelling forwards and backwards, fill in the blanks - all that Wheel of Fortune paying off :P) and trivia questions. The boys beat us to the centre of the board but we made it there and answered one of each category correctly first to win :)
Sat 22 Apr
We had a low key morning relaxing and K., M. and B. came to visit before we were driven to the airport. We totally missed out on Krispy Kreme donuts but we’ll be back in Sydney this year anyway.
An absolutely fulfilling holiday that has recharged me. I’m so lucky to have another home with a social life for me there, too.
Sun 23 Apr
Unfortunately I was rather exhausted from my trip. I suspect I was having sinus issues, too as I spent a lot of Sat and Sun feeling a bit dizzy (not good for travel). We had a lot of TV to catch up on though!
Mon 24 Apr
Back to the reality of Music work. No dramas.
Frozen tuna cakes and salad for dinner. Trying to get back on the healthy home eating track.
Tue 25 Apr
Quiet day at home spent re-organising my life so I can stop thinking about all those little things and actually get on with composing.
Made super garlic meatballs with spaghetti for dinner.
Went to visit isi13 and dreeft. Weighed myself on the scales and the news is NOT GOOD!
Wed 26 Apr
Worked at Music this morning then choofed off to Kmart to grab some things from their sale (it’s amazing what a hassle it is when your cordless phone stops working!) I’m at the call centre this afternoon working with my new team leader (who’s an old colleague of mine).
Life is good :D