Put on yer glad rags

A bit more pictorial action...as we got all dolled up Friday for a good cause, The Red Cross Gala, that our friend Joe is on the planning committee for. There were some top notch Australian celebs and notables, we had former Prime Minister and champion beer guzzler Bob Hawke in all white, former Midnight Oil lead singer/current member of Parliament Peter Garrett , model Michelle Leslie of Bali prison fame, and then a bunch of people I didn't really know were famous but sort of are here.

And then...there was our table of good times and much champagne. It goes down as a historical even merely bc it was the first time I ever saw Haydn in a suit. He cleans up well!

Keynote address by he of "Beds are Burning" fame


Lovely couple Cass and Tom


Champagne whoo hoo!


Table #28 in its glory


Haydn and Tara, on the town


Dessert, including a mini pumpkin pie/torte!


and that wraps up the evening...

Migrating north

Finally settling back into the normal routine after the Byron Bay sojourn to the Splendour in the Grass festival. While it only really rained on the festival right at the end Sunday night, there was plenty of rain beforehand to set the stage for much mud and many gumboot fashion statements. Myself, I sported bright blue gumboots that Haydn picked out for me for $23 at a hardware store. For those who packed the usual Converse or flip flops, they could purchase boots for a whopping $100 onsite!

But enough with the mud, the festival was grand. Highlights included... all the way from NYC, TV on the Radio and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs -- who when they ate dinner together in catering, Haydn dubbed it the fashionable hair table. Death Cab for Cutie made for a rather buoyant show Saturday afternoon and Brian Wilson wrapped it all up on Sunday playing his Greatest Hits Medley for the Ages: California Girls, Wouldn't It Be Nice, Surfer Girl, etc. The Big Fella seems to be sensitive to smoke as he turned to the sidestage a number of times during his performance to yell at people to stop smoking.

So, without further adieu, here is my little Byron pictorial.



The boots worth their weight in gold:


These concert-goers sported the same boots as me. Unfortunately, I did not partake in the Mexican food harkening in the background but stuck with the rather vague variety of stir fry meals at catering (tho the coconut chili prawns were a highlight...)


Sydney goes north: Leesa and Joeley


I met this handsome dude backstage...


I swear I had red eye reduction set on my camera...Emily and Jeff


And from sunny Southern California...Brian Wilson!


--tc

Pre-show prix fixe

Sunday evening...usually a time for winding down, maybe fighting a bit of the Monday Dreads as my friend Rosi calls 'em, folding the laundry finally, finishing the paper. Oh but not last night. I mustered a different kind of motivation from saturday morning yoga, and put on my Converse All Stars and headed out for some Death Cab for Cutie down at Rebel Rebel at Cockel Bay -- a bay I never knew existed til I had to find the club.

I met up with arguably the most passionate Death Cab fan this side of Seth Cohen from The OC, the lovely Stellaand we grabbed dinner at Black Bird Cafe and soon found ourselves in some pizza deja vu. Just a couple of weeks back we grabbed pizza and vino pre-Sleepy Jackson and now we were doing the same thing pre-Death Cab. Continuity can be good, so can friends who love to share a pizza with lotsa cheeze, mushrooms and onions. Rocket and parmesan for cleansing and a simple bottle of house white. Then onto the show, sold out, all the kids knew all the words and the new songs sounded great. But I was about to turn into a pumpkin before 11, so I grabbed a cab and back to Bondi I went.





But an important fashion footnote from my Sunday Bondi market outing with Michelle...will I or won't I succumb to wearing a one piece shorts combo this summer? Yikes. There was a whole slew of them at one stand and at first I thought these get ups are from another era that maybe doesn't need to be re-visited. And then I thought, wow that'd look cool my with pair of lime green Dr Scholls. Are these being sported in North America this summer or is this one of those Sydney fugly things?



And with that, I'm out.
--tc

The motivated few

It's Saturday in Bondi and grey, blustery, rainy. But I motivated to get to a yoga class and walked by the beach, and my motivation pales in comparison to the people SWIMMING across Bondi, the gaggle of surfers, and the surf life savers practicing their life-saving in rafts crashing against the waves. Who are these people? They are either crazy or they are my heroes, I'm not sure.



But I thought I'd snap a pic of the winter beach on the phone and put it up on chunkytoast. It looks to be a good day to hibernate and start in on my DVDs of series 1 of "Love My Way" and drink coffee and begin my reign of queen of the castle as I am holding down the fort on Francis Street for the next few days.

Enjoy the weekend,
tc

Austria meets Australia

Been awhile since the last post what with the ailment of last week and the start of a new gig and new commute this week. The new gig is marketing at EMI/Capitol and I'm totally digging it and the much more user-friendly accounting system than the lumbering Oracle I use to work in. But mostly, I love the roster and am hoping to stick around EMI for awhile...even tho it is out in the 'burbs or as one colleague said "in Desperate Housewives land."

And after wrapping up week 1, I met Haydn at his office for a couple of glasses of wine with office folk and then he and I headed to Una's Cafe. It was a new culinary experience, while I usually crave Chinese, Thai or Indian, I wanted something of the hearty, European type fare. So we headed to Una's, which Haydn said was Polish, but we were corrected that it is Austrian. And by the number of schnitzel options on the menu, yes it is Austrian if it is anything!

So we didn't mess around and ordered the deep-fried camembert! Oh man, this was like fancy deep fried cheese curds from, very creamy and a lovely coating, served with cranberry sauce.



For mains, Haydn went for the Jaeger Schnitzel -- veal schnitzel with a mushroom sauce, and I had the bratwurst with sauerkraut, to which the waitress replied "beautiful," when I ordered. My picture of my meal is a big shaky as I was in anticipation of more sauerkraut than I have ever seen on one plate! Haydn said if I ate the whole thing he'd walk home on his hands. It was all served with a side of spaetzle/rosti, which made me think of my friend Gregg who can live on the stuff! Oh if only there was Spotted Cow in Australia...



Now I don't think I need to eat again for about 2 days. Thanks, Una!

Happy weekend,
tc