Fri, 22 Feb 2008
After work we went to the North Sydney noodle markets up near the library. Calling them 'noodle' markets is a bit of a misnomer since they generally have:
- One Thai tent
- The Turkish gozleme people that seem to be at every single event in North Sydney (Kathleen calls them the gorgonzola people since she can never remember the word for gozleme)
- One Japanese tent, selling takoyaki and no noodles
- A bratwurst/gelato tent (thankfully, these two foods were not combined)
But regardless there were stacks of people out enjoying the Friday night. And the number of kids racing around on the grass and jumping around near the fountain is unbelievable. Almost every family in North Sydney appeared to be there.
Later on, we were walking home along West St and passed a house with a front yard, with a beautiful white labrador sitting right near the footpath.
In the dirt.
He'd probably just had a bath, too.
Further along, a ginger cat sitting on the path to the front door of another house. We went to pat it, and it got up, turned around so it was facing away from us, sat down and proceeded to ignore us.
Around the corner in Hayberry St, a third house had two large cement pillers on either side of the entrance to the front yard. Astride one, another cat, up high with a view of the street so he could keep an eye on things. Again, we went to pat it, and rather than craning his head down to get a scratch behind the ears, he leant away. Too busy for pats.
Fine.
Sun, 17 Feb 2008
On Saturday afternoon we trekked out to Blacktown for Rami's wedding.
I'd worked with the bloke at the same company, until he left about nine months ago, but hadn't really worked with him, so I guess you'd say I was more of a casual acquaintence. However, apparently it's a cultural thing to invite a massive amount of people - he claimed almost 900 people were invited!
So we were a little worried that we'd got the wrong church (for which Tom Tom would get the blame) when we arrived 15 minutes before the service was due to start and we were able to get a park right outside on the street.
But again, it's apparently a cultural thing, since the church didn't really start filling up until 15 minutes after the wedding was due to start. Luckily the bride and groom didn't make an appearance until almost 5.30!
Rami's religious background is Egyptian Orthodox Christian, so it was a complete cultural event, lasting about an hour, complete with 8 priests chanting, waving incense, and dressing the bride and groom in crowns and gowns. Full on.
The reception was down at Fairfield - the car certainly got a run - and the scale was just so much bigger than our wedding which had probably about 70 people. Although I'm biased at how fun ours was, Rami's certainly had a lot more people, and the entrance was pretty spectacular. Arabic drummers dressed with fezzes, what seemed like hundreds of people dancing, smoke machines... it was pretty glitzy!
And they kept dancing and dancing. Even to Numa Numa.
We called it quits about 11.30, and they were still dancing!
Thu, 14 Feb 2008
Kathleen's been away on a work trip for the last few days (she gets back tomorrow), so I thought I'd go and see No Country For Old Men, since it's probably not a movie she would really like.
Wow. I came out and had to have a beer on the way home at the Arthouse Hotel to settle my nerves after two hours of intense cinema.
At the core, it's a movie about a manhunt, a man who comes across the results of a drug deal gone bad, takes the money and is hunted by a killer, the both of them tracked by Tommy Lee Jones' sheriff.
Javier Bardem is unbelievably menacing as the tightly-controlled psychopathic killer. The scene where he flips a coin for a man's life at a remote Texas petrol station was brilliant. Josh Brolin was good as the hunted, so good it's amazing that he was initially overlooked for an audition.
But, most of all, the dialog was so typical of a Coen Brothers movie, where the rhythm, regional accents and sayings are almost central to the movie itself. The Big Lebowski (my favourite movie) was like that. Fargo was like that. Raising Arizona was like that. Even Intolerable Cruelty was like that.
"Nobody ever sees it coming." Well, Josh Brolin's character certainly didn't.
It's a very draining movie to watch for two hours, too. But I'm glad I saw it on the big screen.
Javier Bardem in real life:
Javier Bardem in the movie:
Mon, 11 Feb 2008
Had Steph, Eva, Dickson and Lucy over for Chinese New Year dinner on Saturday night. Spent the morning at the markets in Chinatown (thank goodness we only do that occasionally now that we live on the other side of the river - I can't believe how busy that place is!), and the afternoon cooking*. Luckily the weather was wet so it didn't hurt so much being inside all day!
We ended up having:
- Soup and mock fish that Eva brought over
- Whole steamed snapper
- Noodles
- Homemade won tons with soy sauce
- Hainanese chicken
Well, Kathleen does most of the cooking, but I do the washing up, plus most of the menial apprentice-style tasks.
Sat, 09 Feb 2008
Government department bans peanut butter sandwiches, according to the Daily Tele (motto: Is that the truth, or did you read it in the Daily Telegraph?). Speaking as someone who has taken peanut butter sandwiches to work virtually five days a week for the last 7 years, if the company I worked for banned peanuts, then I would have no option but to quit.
Peanut butter sandwiches have been banned from a Government building because of concerns the smell could trigger a deadly allergic reaction.
The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission building in Sydney's CBD has outlawed all peanut products from the building for fear an employee could go into shock and die from the fumes.
Taking the nanny state mentality to the extreme, the commission has begun erecting signs in hallways, kitchens and conference rooms declaring them a "Peanut Free Zone".
The ban, which came into effect this week, is believed to have followed a situation where a staff member became concerned after free peanut butter samples were handed out on Town Hall train station.
An email to staff said: "You may have noticed the new peanut free zone posters we've just placed around the floor just to help us remember not to bring any peanut products to work.
"For those who collected the freebie peanut butter samples from town hall (sic) this morning, please take these home as the smell will trigger a reaction."
As well as the peanut butter sandwiches, the ban prevents staff from eating chicken satay, Pad Thai, Snickers bars, Crunchy Nut Cornflakes and anything else containing peanuts at work.
...
A Human Rights Commission spokesman said the ban was informal and was necessary because one staff member had such an acute allergy to peanuts they needed to constantly carry an adrenaline syringe in their pocket in case of a reaction.
...
Royal Prince Alfred Hospital's Rob Loblay said it was impossible to trigger an allergic reaction from smell but a sufferer could become "extremely distressed and anxious".
Tue, 05 Feb 2008
Saturday night - Eva and Steph's for dinner (outside by candlelight), Wii and PS3 since they had the new SingStar. Best feature - internet connection to view other people's efforts at karaoke. Still not sure whether some were intentionally or unintentionally hilarious.
Sunday - wet. Grocery shopping and cleaning and not much else.
