Maxwell's Silver Hammer

My GOODNESS I have neglected you so long once more, dear readers. Although I do seem to begin most blog posts now with words to this very effect, therefore they are most probably redundant as you have likely grown used to my lengthy pauses between flashes of news and ponderings.

Many events have occurred and ponderings pondered over the course of time since I last opened up the white box of blogspot entries on my laptop. I shall write what I did this weekend I suppose, since it is freshest in my lovable little memory box.

As a brief preamble: last Wednesday, we baked a macadamia, date and beer cake. So named as it contains macadamia nuts, dates and a nice cup of Hoegaarden. It is a beautifully tasty fiend. Unfortunately little remains of it now.



So. On saturday morning we pootled our way in to a garage sale. Teenagers in Tokyo, a Sydney band, were selling many of their belongings in order to shift themselves over to London and live in a house all together and make music and generally have a lovely time.

I picked up a copy of Haruki Murakami's Dance Dance Dance for the princely sum of $5, and we indulged in several of their homemade cupcakes. The sale was in the garden of a photography gallery, so we poked in that a bit, there was a Lomo shop in the gallery too. I really want a fisheye lomo a bit, but I'm not sure I'd ever really use it after the novelty wore off...



Grabbed a coffee in the cafe next door then poked in Paddington Markets. It's nice there, it's like a big version of the Glebe Markets, although more newer stuff and therefore not quite so interesting. But it made a pleasant stroll, and then we had a look in some of the Oxford Street shops, before ending up at Ampersand for salad and chai latte. Then because we saw these shoes with square toes we got obsessed with The Witches (because they have no toes which makes normal shoes uncomfortable for them) so we tried to get a copy of that.



We enjoyed the presence in Ampersand of 'Stirling Macoboy's "What SHRUB is that?"' I believe this would make a good basic concept for a new TV quiz show.

By now much of the city end of Oxford Street was becoming cordoned off and busy for the Mardi Gras parade.



We sat in the Cricketers beer garden for a while and had a few beers.





Then we escaped into Darlinghurst and found a cheap and cheerful thai restaurant for some dinner - well under $10 for vege mains but surprisingly tasty. Up the road is the Victoria Room, an amazing cocktail bar. It's how I imagine a really luxurious bar would have looked in colonial Africa or something. All opulent furnishings and indoor palms.





After some gin, we headed back down to the Mardi Gras parade. It was so amazing to watch! It's meant to be the biggest gay pride event in the world or something. There were so many floats representing so many things....drag queens, aboriginal gays, scottish gays, asian gays, big shiny corporate floats like foxtel and ANZ, high school lgbt communities, atheist gays, catholic gays, jewish gays, raelian gays ("f*** homophobic religion, love UFOs"), S&M, dancing lifeguards, sex workers unions, mature age gays (with a glittering pink triangle and the words "lest we forget" on the back of their bus), bears (bears have their own flag, aw), Amnesty International ("in 77 countries, love = prison; in 7 countries, love = death"), equality for same-sex couples campaigners, campaigners for same-sex civil unions, furries..... but mostly just a lot of happy people in a lot of glitter having a great time. There was such a brilliant atmosphere of love and acceptance there.





I love how Sydney is such a tolerant place. So different to what we are used to in the UK. It feels like somewhere where people can really accept you for how you are, like a little pocket of sense in a silly old world.

My leggy pegs ached SO MUCH after all that.

On Sunday, we found a new café in Glebe, Clipper Café, that had only been open since Friday. It was really lovable, all decorated clean and cosy, and did lovely juice and lovable sourdough toasted sandwiches. The staff were all really friendly, seemed like they were really interested in what you thought of the place and if you had any suggestions. I will definitely return.

Then I felt ill so we went home. I can't remember what I did then. I watched about 764872 episodes of House I think.

Now I am sleepsome. It is monday night, I am going to watch the end of Amores Perros then get the fast train to slumbertown.