34th Street Friends

Either the world is reassuringly small, or Australian men have a way of wooing women on an international scale, or perhaps my friend Katrine and I are just on similar paths -- no matter, I was so happy to be reunited with her last night after 2 years since our last visit.

Katrine and I spent summer 2002 interning in NYC and both ended up residing at the genteel, well-mannered, lady-like (read: clean, safe, and strict) all-female residence straight-out-of-1933, The Webster. (Or maybe straight out of 1993 if you look at the pics on the Webster website). What a summer it was! After our summer, I was back in Wisconsin and Katrine in Copenhagen.

But last night we were both in Bondi, as Katrine is in town visiting the very charming Ben, and the three of us had a wonderful evening of tapas and conversation -- loved the haloumi and lamb especially -- and discussed the intricacies of chunkytoast (the food, not the blog) and flat whites. And here are some pics from the evening...safe travels Katrine and hope you make it back this way soon...

--tc

How soon is soon?

The Smiths asked "How Soon is Now?" I ask, "How Soon is Soon?" I was walking home tonight and went past a store window I have been keeping my eye on for some time but with nary an indication that "Mexican Opening Here Soon" is indeed occuring in the near future. (Granted, this is if said Mexican is actually referring to Mexican cuisine...)

This poster went up probably 8 weeks ago or something and Haydn and I agreed that we don't care if it is merely mediocre -- maybe even not that good -- we just want a close, easy Mexican take-away place as an option. That doesn't seem to be too much to ask.

And you go and you stand on your own
and you leave on your own
and you go home and you just want to stop for a taco...

--tc

At the footy

I attended my first Australian sporting event the other night, Australian Rules Football. The Sydney Swans vs Essendon Bulldogs. Swans owned the game!

It's relatively simple game, but I'm sure there are details and things I missed out on...not always sure whey the game stops, why someone gets a free kick, if the ball bounces thru the goalposts does it still count (yes it does). So on and so forth. It's not cricket, in other words.

Here is what I liked about it:
1) no nets on the goalposts, so when they kick the ball thru the uprights it flies into the crowd
2) that in the section we sat, men had to wear collars (downside, haydn didn't have one on so a friend had to bring one over)
3) meat pies! pretty good little snack for rainy weather

But mostly, eating a meat pie, drinking a VB, when the ball gets kicked thru the posts and lands one row in front of me, is pretty priceless. Haydn said immigration should have instantly appeared and given me an Australian passport at that moment.

Me and my meat pie:


Second-half action:


go swans
--tc