The news from Bondi

It was a blog-free weekend, folks, and kind of nice to stay off a computer for a couple of days. Shortly after my post on Friday, Haydn and I nixed going to the Ray/Ben/Missy concert, we just lost gumption and parking looked to be a hassle. I got home and procured some Chili Basil stir-fry from up the hill at Thai Terrific and then fell asleep about 20 minutes into Napoleon Dynamite -- bummer! I wanted to catch the little nuances that I didn't when I saw it last year for the first time.

Saturday was a gorgeous day here and I pretty much hung out in the 'hood. I felt a bit homesick that night, when it was time to make dinner and I really wanted to flip on the radio and listen to Prairie Home Companion. I always like when Saturday ends, it gets dark out, and you can listen to the News from Lake Wobegone and make some tacos. I think I'll have to start listening to shows online. Thank goodness for interweb.

Totally rainy Sunday was an outing for Yum Cha at Bondi Junction, or as those back in the states call it, Dim Sum. Haydn and I met up with Dan and Anthea and waited about an hour for a table. Also waiting was one of the hot ranch hands from McLeod's Daughters. My first celeb spotting in Oz, and I'm tempted to put it on Gawker, but I think it would need to be, like, gawker.com.au to be relevant. So, Anthea was our Yum Cha expert and knew exactly what dumplings and whatnot that we should have. Some lovely fried dumplings and delicious mango pancakes. And, yes, I still for the life of me cannot figure out how to use chopsticks.

After that, H and I felt the spirit of the Orient and went to Mao and More to look around at furniture and Mao-inspired art and communist propaganda. Good times, and of course in a wierd way made me nostalgic for Russia/China class in high school. This is a great resource if you're looking for that Mao bust to put on the mantle.

Dinner was over at Jimmy Pops and Michelle's and I really drank too much wine and ate kebabs. But it was quite the international gathering with me, Morgan (England), Pops (Ireland), and Michelle and Haydn representing Australia. Seems like we were missing a Canadian or something. And that pretty much wraps up the weekend.

Halloween is pretty much a non-event here and I was only really reminded of it when I saw the date on the newspaper today. I think I did see a woman on her way to some kind of pagan celebration, but I don't expect any trick-or-treaters. I hope some of you are keeping it real and donning costumes for some pagan revelry tonight...

--tara