Donna managed to get us some last minute tickets for Sneaky Sound System at the Hordern - nice one! We met up with Donna, Jo, Penny and Elka at Love Supreme on Oxford Street. Now, I know it gets hot in Sydney but honestly this place takes the biscuit. It's like eating pizza in a Sauna! The place has no air conditioning and if it's even a tiny bit muggy you end up sweating in your seat knowing that a steaming hot pizza is on it's way! Still, the food is really good but seriously they need some fans or something. And we took refreshing red wine. Doh.
We then drove into Surry Hills to find a park and then walked to Fox Studios across Moore Park to the sounds of Donna's whinging (red wine induced) - she ended up running across Fox Studios to Elka's cheers of "Run Donny!, Run!". Too funny.
Sneaky Sound System
The Sneaky event was an "all ages event" which meant lots of 15 and 16 year olds dressed like they've just stepped out of the 80s - but it did make for a good atmosphere. When we walked inside the venue, Sneaky has been on stage for about 30 seconds and the place was going nuts - like they'd been on for hours!
We started off sat on the sides like a bunch of saddo's - Donna's red wine consumption meant she was dancing in the eisles doing the chicken wing dance. We all ended up down the front dancing away to "I love it" and "UFO". It was a top night, even if some of us did disappear for the last 5 songs and encore to turn up after the house lights were back on with a glass of white wine and a vacant look on their face! Hahahaha!
The good weather continues and so we decided to go back to Watsons Bay for brunch (well, I was too lazy last week!).We enjoyed some great bacon, eggs and latte (what Sydney ponces we are!) at the Tea Garden cafe at Watsons Bay before taking a stroll along the South Head trail.
Tea Garden Cafe
The trail takes you past some great beaches (including the nudey Lady Bay - hehehe) right to the edge of South Head. The views were great and it was a stunningly clear day.
Along the South Head Trail
It's not long until Mum & Barry arrive and we kept thinking this would be a great place to spend an afternoon in Sydney especially if the weather keeps up like it has been!
We haven't seen Martinette & Carl for ages and ages and ages so it was great to catch up with them both again.
We arranged to meet them and their friend Saga at "Plonk!" at the Spit Brigde near Mosman. Saga's boyfriend is the head chef there and we were treated to some great food and wine! The restaurant backs onto Middle Harbour, has a lovely deck where we sat on a lovely warm evening. Right next to the desk is a small beach and the view is of million dollar boats moored there and of even more expensive houses!
We all enjoyed a yummy Shiraz, bread with olive oil/balsamic and I had a wonderful Corriander Linguine with King Prawns and chilli - mmmmm.
As per usual, we've all agreed not to leave it so long between catch up's next time and by the sounds of it we have plenty of catching up on our surf skills to keep up with them both now!
Ryan and Tanya arrived on Friday to join us, Patrick and Christina for the weekend. We stopped off at the Bank Hotel in Newtown for a few drinkies after work (very convenient for Jo!) before going for dinner on King Street. Much wine was consumed and we finally got up and out on Saturday for a day at Manly beach.
The weather this week for our overseas guests has been dreadful! Rain, wind and cloud all week but today things finally brightened up and we drove to Manly (they decided to bask in the sun finally and caught the Ferry) in shorts and t-shirts.
We took a nice walk around to Shelly Beach and generally enjoyed the good weather after a crappy week.
On Sunday, after a really exhausting week at work I had to sleep in but Jo, Ryan and Tanya took an early morning drive to Watsons Bay for a nice coffee and a walk. As you can tell, the weather on Sunday was just as good!
It's only taken me 11 years to see the Indigo Girls live but finally they travelled across the earth to play a fully acoustic gig at one of my favourite venues the Enmore Theatre.
Jo and I arrived just on time and scored a park a few mins walk away - we made it just in time to see the tail end of the support act before Amy & Emily took the stage.
Now, I first discovered the Indigo Girls my first year of University back in 1996 and have wanted to see them live ever since (particularly that their live album '1200 Curfews' was one of my most played albums of the last century) - so when I moved to Australia they of course decided that was a great time to tour in London - grrr. Still, better late than never!
You can't deny their musical talents; harmonising with ease, quality guitar playing and improvisation but I have to say I was a touch disappointed with their stage craft. For a duo that have been together for years and years I expected them to be at ease with interacting with the audience and generally put more energy into the banter between the songs as they did playing them.
Still, it was a solid performance and I am glad I can finally say I've seen them live.
We picked up Patrick (a friend of Jo & Ryan's from the UK) and Christina (Patrick's Mum) from the airport on Sunday night. They had just arrived from the UK via Hong Kong and are staying with us for the week while their in Sydney.
Patrick works in travel and Christina worked many years for Finair (she is originally from Finland) so they are well prepared for making the most of a week in Sydney; they are taking in the Blue Mountains, a Harbour Bridge Climb, jet-boating on the Harbour, not to mention the usual Opera House, Botantical Gardens, city, beaches etc etc!
Unfortunately the weather forecast this week doesn't look too promising but we've got our fingers crossed for them!
We headed to the Clovelly Hotel today for Janet's birthday lunch. I've never been to this Hotel before and after the initial struggle to find a car space on a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon we found Janet and friends out the back enjoying the day.
I have to say, there is something great about having an ice cold Corona with lime on a hot weekend afternoon and that is exactly what we did. After the majority of people arrived we ordered some lunch; I had a really good chilli salt squid salad and Jo had a moroccan lamb salad - really yummy!
We met some really nice people as we only knew Janet and Jo met her counter-part of another Sydney hotel so I believe some networking took place! :) It was a real shame we couldn't stay for longer but we had to go a) because we've got friends from the UK arriving and we need to pick them up from the airport and b) if we stayed it would've been criminal to not have more Corona's and we were driving!
Still, I managed to squeeze in a shot as a partying 'cheers' to Janet (some baileys, schnapps thingy but it was good!) before we left. Looking forward to catching up with Janet for some surfing soon!
Sneaky Sound System
