Weekend Update

Friday night Matthew and I went out to dinner with M’s coworker and their team lead, Jon, who is a really nice guy. We went to a good Japanese restaurant, where M was glad to see they have tako yaki on the menu – fried octopus balls. Also, the ruby plum wine was nice, and the prawn roll with avocado was yummy. On the walk home, we spotted an electric heater someone left out on the footpath, and we brought it home, since it was free, and our apartment has no central heat.

Saturday was a lovely sunny day, and we went to the Eveleigh Farmer’s Market, and then to the Glebe Market, which is less food, and more of a "stuff" market, with clothes, jewelry, secondhand books and cds, etc. We wandered down Glebe Point Road, which is the main drag of the suburb of Glebe, and went into Sappho Books, a cool secondhand book shop, which has a café and a nice courtyard out back. We also walked by Restaurant Atelier and looked at their menu. It looks good, can’t wait to try it sometime when we have a bit more cash.

On Sunday, we tried to go to a few vintage furniture stores in Surry Hills. One was really nice, but way over our budget ($7,000 dining sets, etc), and the other one had apparently gone out of business. As we were walking around, we were surprised how much is closed on Sundays. Campos Coffee, Mecca Espresso and Single Origin are all closed on Sundays – where do Sydneysiders get good coffee on a Sunday?!

We ended up in the CBD, and went to JB Hi-Fi and Red Eye Records to check out cds. JB Hi-Fi is similar to a Best Buy, and prides themselves on low prices, and even there, new release cds are $20. Afterwards we had a late lunch in the Food Hall in David Jones, the posh department store. For dessert, I had a profiterole and a raspberry macaron, so good. For dinner, we stopped at Guzman Y Gomez, a Mexican place near our house that’s always crowded. We got chipotle pork quesadillas and a salad with chicken, and both weren’t bad. The tortillas were a little strange, but the food was Mexican-ish, it’s affordable and nearby, so I’m not complaining.

We rented a movie from this tiny place near us called Red Room DVD. They have an indoor space with several browsing kiosks and one external kiosk, which is open 24 hours. You join and get a membership card, which you then swipe at one of the kiosks, browse for a DVD, press Rent, and then go pick it up at the kiosk on the outside of the building. The little elves in the basement load your DVD into the machine and it spits it out right there at the external kiosk. It’s pretty cool.

Matthew was off work today (Monday), as he’s switching to his new schedule, working Wednesday to Saturday. He works 10 hour days, but it will be really nice for him to have 3-day weekends.

Today we had a low-key day, just had breakfast at a new place, Café 2042 (which is the post code for Newtown, our suburb), went to the post office and the library, then went for a walk up to Leichhardt, another suburb near us. It was actually not very exciting once we got there, but it was good to get to know the area some more and always good to go for a long walk together. On the way, we saw a dirty, but nice wringer mop bucket on the side of the footpath, and we grabbed it on the way home. Kinda weird to carry home a dirty bucket, but the building manager sent a cleaning person to our apartment the other day to clean our balcony windows, and she’d suggested this type of bucket and said they’re usually $25-$30, so hey, we’ll take one for free! Apparently I’m becoming quite scavenger of beside the footpath free piles. ;)

As an aside, today is the 23rd anniversary of my father’s death. R.I.P. John K. Morrow - love you always, xoxo.