Two friends are in hospital (with cancer).
A friend has gone overseas.
I worked 12 hours today on a mostly un-newsworthy day. And in the midst of that, managed to cope with a fair bit of workplaces sickness.
At the end of it all, I caught up for a chat and a drink with a couple of colleagues after work.
Gosh it was a long day.
Stockholm… memories…
It was a view I hadn’t expected, as a few of us went out were very kindly taken out to lunch today by the boss as a very special thank you for the year.
And not only was the view great, but the food was too. I had a fettucine with beef ragu, and a chocolate creme brulee which were both very good. And the service was good, and it’s a great place. I’ve nothing else to say, really, except it was absolutely fabulous.
Aside from that, I’ve nothing much else to report, except that my friend Colin is now out of hospital (for the second time this week) and doing okay it seems.
For me, it’s just been a night sitting at home, surfing the net, listening to music etc. Hopefully there’ll be something more interesting to report over the weekend.
Marque Restaurant
Shp 4/ 355 Crown St Surry Hills 2010
(02) 9332 2225
Don’t get me wrong, the food was delicious. Excellent, even. But every sentence I began when thinking about the meal ended in a criticism. In essence the problem is that technical excellence is a given at the top level. Creativity, flair and honesty are the hallmarks of the best restaurants, and sadly Marque failed to deliver on these counts.
My entree of Beetroot Tart with Fresh Horseradish Sauce was very tasty, the sweetness of the beetroot nicely complimented by the mouthwatering shortcrust pastry beneath. However it was also a bit one-dimensional, and the horseradish was delivered as a foam which seemed inescapeably pretentious. On the other hand James’ entree of Almond Jelly with Crab, Almond Gazpacho, Prune Oil & Sweet Corn Custard was superb. The crab was delightfully light and was well complemented by the saltiness of the accompanying roe.
The choice of mains was short and definitely not innovative: duck, venison, jewfish, and kangaroo island chicken stick in my mind, and there were one or two other options as well. I chose the Roast Venison with Carrot Confit, sweet and Sour Turnips and Bitter Chocolate. The venison was delivered very rare, with perfectly cooked miniature carrots and turnips and a very sticky jus. Yummy, well presented and faultlessly executed, also totally uninspiring. The best part of the dish was a
shockingly rich dollop of carrot puree.
James had the Roast New England Muscovy Duck with Liquorice, Niçoise Olive Emulsion and Lemon Confit (pictured), which resembled a meat pattie on a stack of vegies. Also delicious, but it didn’t meet the test of “I couldn’t possibly do that at home”. It was quite strange really: like a duck burger without the bread.
And a word about value. At $24-27 for entrees and $39-45 for mains, Marque prices itself at the top of the Sydney food tree. However portions were very small for the money, in my opinion, and I was glad I had eaten a decent home-cooked lunch earlier that day. BYO is a great bonus of this place, but at $10 per bottle it certainly isn’t cheap.
We asked for the dessert menu, but nothing at all on the menu encouraged us to stay. Not even a creme brulee on the list, which would have been lovely. No dessert was definitely a wallet-saver: $18 per dessert, plus drinks starting at $12 a glass. And my armagnac fetish would have brought the cost of that third course to over $40.
In the end we paid $80 a head for two courses, including a modest tip. Not outrageous, but I can think of many other places that offer better value in this town.
Damien.
About a month ago, my friend Michaela and I were in New York together. In contrast to Sydney with its’ 1.30 lockout, and where it’s near impossible to get a restaurant meal after about 9.30, you can go and do anything at virtually any time in The Big Apple. Memorably, there was one night when, having been to a show, we arrived at a restaurant called Balthazar at maybe 10.30 or 11.00 at night. And memorably, seated metres away from us was none other than Salman Rushdie.
In contrast, we met this week for an early meal at a Crown Street restaurant called Besser. As we arrived at the door, we saw another famous person enjoying their meal. “I love Noni Hazlehurst”, I said to Michaela with a smile, “but I can’t help but contrast this with New York”. In common, the service and the meals at both restaurants were excellent.
Besser, which has an Italian menu is located in the space where Billy Kwong’s used to be. “Everything is meant to be shared”, the waitress told us.
When the bill arrived, we noticed we had spent significantly more on the wine than we had on the food. That happens, I guess. And anyway, it was a great place to discover, and I’ve been recommending it heartily ever since.
“Most of the year we have a really very pleasant climate in Sydney”, I argued to a colleague earlier today. “Except for two weeks in winter when we all bang on about how cold and wet it is, and two weeks in summer, when we can’t stop complaining about how hot and humid it is”, I added. Except that this year, the round the complaints about the warm nights has been going on for much longer. It’s become quite the topic of discussion at work, and on social media, abut how difficult it has been to sleep at night. “You have air-con?”, people will say, before they tell you how they hardly slept last night, and how tired they are today.
The topic of discussion today was much different. When I woke this morning, it was already lightly raining. At about 5.30, I walked onto my balcony, wearing only underwear, and sat there, simply enjoying the sounds of the rainfall, and the sounds of birds, and the fact it wasn’t so hot and humid. There was a good forty five minutes before the traffic of nearby Cleveland Street began to be overheard. Praise the Lord!
By the time the evening rolled around, I was feeling quite chipper. A good night’s sleep last night, some pleasant sounds to start the day, and between leaving work and heading off to Swedish class, I had a little nap.
Yes, I’m back at Swedish class for the first time in probably two years. I took a break from class for mostly two reasons: time and tiredness. I found that by the time I’d finished work each day, I was so completely tired, that I didn’t feel inclined to do the homework. I also found that turning up to a class at 8pm on a Wednesday night was too much. As interesting as the class was, I was too exhausted from work to concentrate as much as I would have liked.
But my job has changed a fair bit in the last few years. Though I have a more senior role, I’m finding the hours are actually better. Either I’ve become better at delegation, or I’ve become better at doing my job. And so I decided a few weeks ago, I thought I could go back to class, or at least try for a while to see if I could balance things a little better. Hence, the early evening nap.
The class consists of people I’ve never met before. Many of them have Swedish relatives, including partners. One guy is doing it only because he thought it would be an interesting thing to do. He’s a bit of a “word nerd” by the sound of things. And me? So I can tune up my language skills ahead of this year’s trip to Stockholm, and so I can finally overcome my fear of words like adverb and pronoun. I was part of the transition generation between old style rote learning and current practice . Hence, aside from nouns and verbs, I never really learned grammar. And whilst that didn’t matter so much for my native English skills, it’s always been an issue for me in learning another language.
So yeah, I’m feeling re-freshed in that regard also.
For just a brief moment last night I thought we might have seen the start of “flood rain” here in Lismore. “Flood rain” is the phrase used in my family to describe sustained, heavy rainfall that, as you might expect, eventually leads to flooding. You don’t necessarily identify it by the volume of rain that falls. No it’s more the sound of the rain that identifies it as flood rain.
Just like they have dozens of words for “snow” in Iceland – or is that just an urban myth? – we have lots of words and phrases for rain and flooding in my family. “Is it as big as 74? No it’s more like 87” and “It’s up to AGR’s corner” are the kinds of phrases we use.
That’s what happens when you grow up in a flood-prone area. While the capital city media is declaring the area “at risk of major flooding”, ask my sister and she’ll say, “the river’s up a bit”. Ask her if she wants help moving up some of the many things stored under the house, she’ll say “oh no, it’s alright, they’ll wash away and we’ll replace them”.
Anyway, we’ve had some periods of quite heavy rain – mostly at night over the last few days – and then tonight, there was a story on the local news tonight about how the area can higher than average rainfall over the next few months. We shall see, I guess.
The last time I was home there was the risk of flooding in Lismore, and for an afternoon I found myself on the radio giving out flood warnings. I “worked” a fair bit on that holiday. In contrast, this would have to be the most relaxed holiday I’ve had in quite a while.
When I think about my holidays last year – four weeks in Europe and two weeks in China – they were both fairly hectic. Even though they were “holidays” I was still pretty active with lots of activity from day to day.
Even when I was home at Christmas time, I still worked for a couple of days and was pretty much “on call”. It’s the same this time, but somehow it’s been more relaxing and the phone hasn’t run nearly so much. My sister noticed this on the day I arrived home, harking back to the day when I flew home at Christmas and the phone had rung half a dozen times on the drive between Ballina and Lismore. This time it’s been much, much more relaxed which is a blessing.
I spent a couple of hours this afternoon doing some “internet training” with some older family members – the sister and brother-in-law or my brother-in-law. They’re developing a bit of an interest in family history, and so I was in a good position to put them in the right direction. In particular, they’re trying to track down a family member who hasn’t been seen since the mid 1980s. Although they have a reasonably unusual name in Australia – it’s a German name – I still found it difficult to track him down, though I think I’ve given them a few hints in the right direction.
And then tonight, it’s been another evening for dinner and chatting around the television set.
Even though I spent last night complaining about how there was already too much about the Royal Wedding, that didn’t stop me from watching two documentaries on the ABC (6.00pm and 8.30pm) and then hopping over to watch “The Queen” on Channel 7 (or Prime, as I should say up here on the North Coast).
The Queen is such a good movie, eh? Although much has been made of the outstanding role played by Dame Helen Mirren, I thought all of the actors played their roles well without resorting to caricature and cliche. Even the Duke of Edinburgh who is a bit of a cliche and caricature in the way he is portrayed in the media, came across as a highly believable character.
I’m back to work tomorrow – working from the office up here – and then back to Sydney and back to work proper on Thursday and Friday. Still, it’s been nice having a holiday with only a few phone calls to answer.
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.
Are you still managing to maintain that post-holiday mellow (despite the 12 hour days)?
I kept my post-hols resolutions (leave the office for lunch, *do* more stuff) up for a while, but I think I caved around about this point.
It takes an iron will to keep it up, I think.
…and you’re listening to ‘My Colouring Book’ too? What kind of wrist-slashing mood are you in girlfriend? What’s next – Shannon Noll and ‘What About Me?
Fran’s hubbie sent an email to work saying she’s doing well. I’m sure Colin will be fine. The only was is UP! Get off that Barbie pity party and smile, smile, smile!
What are you doing about sliding jobs at work? What about 2009? Focus, focus, focus.
Was it Aristotle or Aunty Mame that once said ‘life’s a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death!’
I think you’ve misread. I’m fine. I was just tired! Show a bit of humanity and… (bloody hell). “Colouring Book” was tonight’s listening, not last night by the way. Get with the program Graeme!
Aren’t we all! Our days sounded very similar actually. Heard Life Matters on the way home tonight and they were talking about “adult gap years” – thought you could tell them your story ;)
Carol – yes I have been maintaining it all quite well. Monday was the first day I was so flat out I didn’t have time to leave the office for lunch. You’re right – it does require discipline.
Sue – yes every life has it’s ups and downs.