In the UK I grew up with the Grand National -- an annual horse race that people got fairly excited about, and even people not of a gambling persuasion would have a little flutter. In the sports-obsessed nation which is now my home, we have The Melbourne Cup, nicknamed 'The Race that Stops a Nation'. Literally, in the case of Victoria, where the day is a public holiday.
A number of traditions abound for the Melbourne Cup, including that the ladies wear fascinators (silly feather-type things in their hair). This year I decided to fully embrace the day, and donned a cute frock, pink fascinator, and scored myself an invitation to lunch with the Masons. Yes, those types of masons!
There's a chap who works on Stage Door at the theatre who's a pretty established gambler, so I knew he'd have a good tip for the Melbourne Cup. As I left the building I asked his advice, and he said 'Americain is definitely going to win', with such conviction that I placed a $5 bet on the horse on the way to lunch, despite the fact that it wasn't a favourite and none of the pre-race discussions on the TV mentioned this horse.
Champagne on arrival, and a divine lunch awaited, including oysters, lobster, and beautiful little cakes. The race itself is just before 3pm, and is over in, ooh, about 3 minutes!
Much as I adore Sydney, sometimes it's good to get out of the city for the weekend and relax, away from the cares of our everyday lives. Last weekend, my friend Nick and I took a trip down the cost, to Narooma, to visit his Auntie Helen.
The drive down was stunning, a 6-hour pootle south down the Pacific Highway; a mixture of ocean views and National Park shade. We plugged in the iPod, belting out triumphant tunes along the way.
Nick's Auntie lives in Dalmeny, a pleasant village near Narooma with a high population of retirees. She worked in the Department of Foreign Affairs for many years, in the Diplomatic corps, and has lived all over the world, including Russia and China. Her dinnertable conversation is hilarious, I could listen to her stories for hours, and she has a strong will and cheeky manner which adds sparkle to the stories.
We did lots of vegging about, eating good food, reading books and talking nonsense. We also drove around some nearby towns and villages, taking in some interesting coastal rock formations and a cheese factory where I bought some lovely chutney. Nick even let me do some driving, as I am still yet to get my licence. There are no traffic lights in Narooma so it was pretty easy practice.
The lowlight of the weekend was being bitten by a giant bluetongue lizard -- I foolishly tried to move a twig from in front of it to get a better picture! Also when we took a walk on a deserted beach in Narooma, there were dozens of dead birds scattered along the beach, which was slightly creepy.
On Saturday evening there was a huge storm, and we took refuge in the restaurant at Narooma Golf Club, watching the lightning over the ocean through the panoramic windows.
Six hours might seem like a long time to drive for just a weekend away, but as I've mentioned before, Australians have a completely different concept of space. On the way back we took the King's Highway inland, and stopped off in Canberra for lunch with some friends. A lovely weekend away!
Recently I ventured North to Darwin for the arts festival, to spend a couple of weeks watching theatre, dance and many other arts events in the Top End of the country. It was my first time in the Northern Territory, so although I was primarily there for work I managed to sneak away for one day and went on a trip to Kakadu, to see some of the landscape there. The whole trip was a real eye opener and it was a changed person who boarded the redeye back to Sydney (and I'm not just talking about the heat rash and mozzie bites!).
Darwin is a small town compared with Sydney, but it's the capital of the Northern Territory. It was around 35 degrees and that didn't change much as the nights wore on (I walked home from events after midnight on the balmy evenings, still over 30 in the dark!). Much of the trade there comes from tourism so there was the usual glut of drunken backpackers, but I avoided their haunts and found some fab little cafes and bars.
Although I went on my own I knew a few people working on the festival, so caught up with some old friends and made plenty of new ones. I also found the locals very friendly and often got into chats with people at gigs and shows.
The festival also created a 'hub' where most patrons gathered in the evening. A roofless big top, with strings of lights instead of a roof, was the focal point of many music events, and many people spent their evenings there eating and drinking and socialising.
I saw some great theatre, and brilliant dancing, especially a group of dancers from a remote island called The Chooky Dancers. You may know then from their YouTube version of Zorba the Greek:
They were hilarious and the schoolkids in the audience loved them too. That was one of the most interesting things I found up in Darwin, was that the audiences were less PC and they really responded loudly and with abandon to whatever they were seeing.
My favourite things were the play readings -- I saw three new plays which were early drafts, read by actors, and the audience then chatted about it afterwards and gave the writer feedback: a valuable step in the writing process.
One day I escaped the town and took a bus to Kakadu National Park. This is some of the most ancient land in Australia, where many indigenous people still live in conditions similar to those they were found in when the first white settlers arrived. There are many communities in the Northern Territory which have more in common with those ancestors that with the Western way of life. The landscape is beautiful, and I saw some aboriginal rock paintings which were thousands of years old. Quite mind-blowing really.
I have such a great respect for the aboriginal culture and I enjoy learning more about it. I also took a boat on a billabong (a lake formed by a river changing its course) and saw some fascinating wildlife, including... crocodiles! Eek. They're pretty scary in the wild and I would not want to get in a fight with one!
While I was in Darwin, Australia had a general Election, which then took 4 weeks to have an outcome.
Luckily we have one now -- the country's first female Prime Minister, and a parliament where the balance of power lies with a few radical independents. Going to be an interesting three years!
Now I'm back in Sydney, where the temperatures are less balmy and Spring has sprung. There's a lot going on, I'll try to blog about it soon!
Winter is one of my favourite times of the year on the Sydney cultural scene. Although summer has the fabulous flashy Sydney Festival, there's still a lot going on in the city in the colder months. A couple of weeks ago I caught the free ferry out to Cockatoo Island -- the largest island on the harbour -- where they host the Biennale every two years. You may remember when I visited in 2008.
The island used to be an old shipbuilding hub, among other things, and many remnants of that industrial era still remain. Although the whole place was peppered with incredible art, sculpture, video art and more, sometimes I was more fascinated by the buildings and leftover machinery than the art itself!
My two favourite pieces were actually video art, so I have no photographs. One was an incredibly moving piece by Isaac Julien about the Chinese cockle-pickers who died at Morecambe Bay -- it was projected onto seven screens suspended from the ceiling and was quite incredible, and very moving.
Quite outrageously it's taken me four years to get myself over to Manly, which is just a short ferry ride from Circular Quay. Even mum and Keith managed to get their when they visited a few years ago! But finally I visited last weekend, as my German friend Ariane lives there and she's just got a gorgeous new apartment.
Manly is on the northern side of the harbour mouth, where the harbour meets the ocean. It has harbour-facing beaches and ocean-facing beaches and is popular with surfers. It's got a very village-y feel to it, and as we walked along the coast we bumped into several people Ariane knew.
After breakfast in a gorgeous cafe run by the Italian mafia (!) we set off on Saturday morning for a bracing walk along the coast towards Dee Why, pas Curl Curl and Freshwater. Very silly names, but beautiful and almost deserted beaches. Winter doesn't bring many tourists to Manly so it was pleasantly quiet.
After lunch in Dee Why we bought some provisions and headed back to Ariane's flat, where we cooked up a gorgeous beef casserole and quaffed copious amounts of red wine, putting the world to rights along with her Colombian friend Claudia. One of my favourite things about Australia is its multicultural nature -- we're from all over the world and yet we all feel at home in Australia. The very nature of Australia is this melting pot of different cultures and backgrounds.
Following a resounding win by the German football team and a bit of sleep I headed home to Bondi on Sunday. Commuting by ferry to the city must be one of the best things about living in Manly. Definitely a place I'll be visiting again.
A couple of weeks ago I flew up to Brisbane for a conference for work. This was an annual conference run by the Australia Council for the Arts, bringing together my peers from almost all the arts organisations in the country, including theatres, symphony orchestras, productions companies, festivals, galleries and the rest. It was fantastic to spend three days away from the office meeting people who are all engaged with finding audiences for the arts in Australia. I won't go into the content here as it probably won't mean much to you folks far from Aus, but while I was in Brisbane I also tried to see a bit of the city.
Brisbane is about an hour's flight north of Sydney, in slightly warmer climes, and is quite a modern city built on a river. I spent most of my time there on the South Bank, which was the arts district, but was creepily similar to London's South Bank, with its concrete brutalist square architecture and a wheel that seemed a copy of the London Eye.
Brisbane's GOMA is a star attraction, the Gallery of Modern Art. I really enjoyed a Ron Mueck exhibition there. If you don't know him, he creates incredible lifelike human sculptures from silicone and real hair, only their dimensions are either tiny or absolutely huge. I found his work unnerving while strangely intriguing.
I also caught an exhibition from London's V&A museum (which I do miss terribly!) of Hats through the ages. It was beautifully curated and quite astonishing -- hats from the 1200s were placed next to Dior creations from last season -- and the through lines were wonderful. A surprise hit of my trip.
It's taken me four years to make it up to Brisbane, and although it was a flying visit for work, I made sure I popped in on the rellies. Yes, my mum's cousin Sean lives in Brisbane, and I stayed with him and his 12-year-old daughter Caitlin, and their very cute Guide dog that they're training.
It was a very brief trip but I really enjoyed myself. The conference was energising, and I got to see enough of the city to make me want to plan a return visit.
I'm now back in Sydney riding out the winter and longing for the Spring. My new heater's making it more bearable, but it's so cold! The other day it got as low as 6 degrees and I just couldn't get warm. What a softie I've become!
Infected by Masterchef-fever, two teams of intrepid wannabe chefs (ie me and my friends) embarked on the Great Beef Wellington-off last weekend. Or in Australian, Beef Gumboot.
Team Boy got off to a good start, barricading themselves in the kitchen while the girls loitered in the bedroom talking tactics, but we were soon neck and neck.
Beef Wellington is a pretty convoluted recipe so we began by dividing up the tasks and preparing the different elements: crepes, a mushroom pate thingo, seared beef etc.
After pausing for our starter we got on with the task of assembling the Beef Wellington. First the seared beef was basted with mustard. Then it was wrapped in the mushroom layer encased in proscutio.
After popping it in and out of the freezer, wrapping it in crepes, pastry and making a little 'valve' for the top, they were ready to go into the oven.
It was about 11.30pm at this stage so we were pretty hungry. We'd also neglected to find an impartial judge to decide on the winner, so instead we each had a slice of the boys' and the girls' beef wellington. To be totally honest with you, they were both delicious, and we were too full of pride in our achievements to declare an overall winner.
Not to do things by halves, the girls also prepared dessert: chocolate cake with raspberry coulis, whipped cream and raspberries dipped in melted chocolate.
What a fun way to spend a day! The recipe was so complex I probably never would have tried it on my own, but the combination of teamwork and healthy rivalry helped egg us all on. I'm hoping this becomes a regular occurrence, as I love cooking with friends and trying new recipes. Looking forward to the next Masterchef challenge!
