I’m pretty sure the last time I visited my old high school was around the time of our class reunion in 2004.
This morning, I took a trip down memory lane, revisiting the school, albeit not venturing onto school grounds. There’s a fence around the school now, as befits the changing times, with concerns around safety for the students, the staff and the school property.
A few other things have changed, too, such as the nearby sports ground and the school farm. They still have both, they’ve just changed a bit.
The school also has a new name.
While in the area, I also paid a visit to the Lismore Farmers Markets.
Once again, Lismore is back in lockdown, but the markets continue.
As “scrambled eggs” is our Sunday night “special” I picked up some farm eggs, as well as some home made jam.
A short video of Lismore Farmers Market, at Lismore Showground.
“Shall we have another glass of wine?”, said one of my friends, to which they other replied, “Did you say ‘bottle’?”
Look, in the grand scheme of things, when you have three people all having a glass of wine it makes economic sense to buy a bottle instead, right?
It’s a bottle of wine I personally argued against, and which I declared “loud and proud”, I’ll only be having a small amount. And besides, we had already had a glass or two before hand. It was a night out with “the girls” that began at a small bar and ended at a bigger one.
We started off the night at the previously named “Solas” in Surry Hills, which neither of my friends could find at first because they’ve re-named it, with a dirty martini which was very tasty. It seems my life-long aversion to olives has been overcome, as now I consume them happily in both food and drinks.
The night progressed across the road to “Cafe Sicilia” which I’ve described here previously as having great food and attentive, attractive waiters. We enjoyed the olives there too. The food and service were, once again, very good, and I think it’s a place I’ll keep coming back to.
We finished the night at “The Clock” and that’s where the aforementioned last, debated bottle of wine was consumed. A great night was had by all, but I think we should have avoided that last glass, er bottle of wine we ordered.
There’s always something “scarey” about trying a new cuisine. Even though I’m fairly adventurous, by nature, when it comes to food, there’s still some apprehension. Apprehension that you’ll order the “wrong thing”, or that you’ll make a cultural faux pas. That’s why I’ve been walking past a fairly new nearby restaurant in Surry Hills, never stopping in to order.
The words “Biryani” and “Hyderabadi” have meant nothing to me, and that’s why I haven’t stopped in to eat, or get takeaway from Pista House.
The “Pista House” on Crown Street, Surry Hills has been consistently busy since it opened a few months ago. Despite my lack of knowledge about the cuisine they offer, the attraction of a busy restaurant got the better of me the other night, so I called in to grab some takeaway. The menu looked so incredibly “foreign” to me, and so I chose “chicken biryani” as something which sounded like I couldn’t go wrong. I also chose “medium” spicyness for the same/similar reason.
Hyderabadi cuisine (native: Hyderabadi Ghizaayat), also known as Deccani cuisine, is the native cooking style of the Hyderabadi Muslims, and began to develop after the foundation of the Bahmani Sultanate, and more drastically with the Qutb Shahi dynasty around the city of Hyderabad, promoting the native cuisine along with their own. Hyderabadi cuisine had become a princely legacy of the Nizams of Hyderabad State, as it began to further develop further on from there. It is an amalgamation of Mughal, Turkish, and Arabic along with the influence of the native Telugu and Marathwada cuisines. Hyderabadi cuisine comprises a broad repertoire of rice, wheat and meat dishes and the skilled use of various spices, herbs and natural edibles.
In the meal I ordered there was lots of rice. It was tasty enough, though nothing special in my view. But at least I’ve now tried it.
As I’ve gone through my photographs of the last week there have been lots of food photographs, so I thought I’d share a few.
Friday Lunch with Friends : Beetroot, Tomato and Watermelon Salad with haloumi at Cook & Archies, Surry Hills. Very tasty, and a nice place to catch up for lunch with some now-retired former colleagues.Lunch today alone : Linguini Marinara, the $14 Lunch Special at the Oxford Hotel, Darlinghurst. Though I don’t understand why there was a sprig on top, the meal was very tasty, and good value.And finally, coffee. I still haven’t settled on my “permanent replacement” to the Coles Supermarket at Surry Hills. Today, I bought some groceries at Aldi on Oxford Street. As it was “Fair Trade” and super-cheap ($4.95), I thought I’d try this brand of coffee. Fingers crossed.
“Do you mind if we call in to Myer? A girlfriend told me about some great new mascara and lipstick from Clarins”, my friend asked as we made our way through the city this afternoon.
As I stood and watched, I listened to the conversation between the two women. “It doesn’t run and all you need to do is rinse with warm water…” the assistant told my friend. “What about tears? They’re warm water, aren’t they?”, I interjected. The looks on the faces of both my friend and the shop assistant clearly told me I was out of my depth in this conversation.
It was then I looked down and saw cotton buds, presumably used in the application and or removal of makeup. “I could really clean my ears out with those”, I thought to myself. It was then I realised the difference between men and women.
“He was SO trying to pick you up”, my two friends declared emphatically over a bottle of wine tonight.
We had just been discussing the pros and cons of Ian Thorpe and how WE thought he should have addressed this week’s media speculation about his sexuality.
We all thought the issue, with the emphatic “I’m not gay” denial was all a bit much. All a bit defensive. We all thought he should have just said, “My private life is my private life. Piss off.”
My general feeling is that most Australians now believe Ian Thorpe is gay, and would like him to come out and say it, before it all gets a bit “Liberace”.
My feeling is that most Australians saw the paper on Wednesday, smiled in recognition, and said to themselves…. “Good on ya Thorpie, I’m glad you’ve found happiness. I hope you live happily ever after.”
From my own perspective, I added the thought bubble…. “Can I have one from Brazil too please?”
Of course we don’t know for sure about his sexuality, blah blah blah, and sexuality is a fluid thing, blah blah blah, and there’s a lot of pressure on him for various reason, blah blah blah.
Anyway, you get a general sense of the conversation.
And then I spotted out of the corner of my eye someone I used to know from work.
I’m not very good at these things, and so was incredibly unaware that he was apparently “hitting on me” in a major way, as my friends later told me, as I obviously failed to recognise the signs.
I was attending, by the way, the inaugural 2009 meeting of the “Boozehounds”.
This is the rather silly name we’ve given our small group of friends to describe when we catch up for dinner and drinks.
We met after work tonight at Cafe Sopra at Fratelli Fresh on Macleay Street.
I had the sardines, while the others had pasta variations. The food was excellent, by the way, and I “cleaned the plate” to within an inch of its life. Very tasty. And the staff were just lovely also. Really friendly. Attentive when they needed to be, but not always in your face. And the prices were good. I would highly recommend it.
And from there, we wandered down the street to another bar – The Sugar Mill – where we shared a bottle of wine (or two), before finally ending up at The Gazebo.
Although much food and wine were consumed, we kept ourselves nice which is a good thing too. Although the others stayed out a bit longer, and went to The Bourbon for a bit of a dance, I maintained some of my new found maturity and decided to head home while it was still reasonably early.
As I looked for a taxi to head home, and as I wandered around The Cross, I noticed the place had “cleaned itself up a bit”.
There was still a lot of prostitution (in fact, possibly more prostitution than I’d remembered and they still can’t recognise a poof when they see one), but there didn’t seem to be as much of a drug problem as there was the last time I’d visited the area six months ago. Or maybe I was just there at the right/wrong time of the night?
Either way, it’s made me feel a little more comfortable and happy about socialising in the area. And there seemed be a lot of new restaurants and bars which seemed quite salubrious. It wasn’t too bad. In fact, it was pretty good.
Kings Cross, Sydney
Collectively we had only one regret about the night. We had all forgotten to set agenda items and take minutes for the First Boozehounds Meeting of 2009. Thus, I think we need to organise another one shortly to settle a number of outstanding business items.
(To my fellow Boozehounds I would like to suggest Agenda Item #1 for our next meeting. A thorough discussion of the warning signs that someone is hitting on you.)
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WOW I had not be back to RRHS since 1983. I know once lockdown is over, I’ll have to get and have a look.
It would have been fun to go inside and take a look. My nephew is going there now, and his mum recently commented that my name was on one of the awards boards. He didn’t seem all that impressed!! :)
WOW I had not be back to RRHS since 1983. I know once lockdown is over, I’ll have to get and have a look.
It would have been fun to go inside and take a look. My nephew is going there now, and his mum recently commented that my name was on one of the awards boards. He didn’t seem all that impressed!! :)
One of my old classmates sent through these pics from photography class.
Lol at ‘needs to try harder’. I am sure that was on my school reports.