Last weekend, it seemed unlikely that it would be a good weekend. Mark was going away canoeing and camping, and I couldn't go because my ears prevent water-based activities. However, upon making an unnecessary fuss one day in work, I suddenly found myself inundated with people wishing to entertain me!
It actually began on Thursday, when Mark commiserated my being left behind by taking me to see Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. I was so excited! It's had some bad reviews but I did still enjoy it a lot. I liked the darkness of it and I liked the bandersnatch. Afterwards we went for dinner at Atom Thai on King Street, sooo delicious. Best thai on King Street without a doubt.
On Friday we had a super early night and Mark left before 6am on Saturday. I got up when he left and at 7am met Dean (my boss) and Zane (his boyfriend) at Erko station and we caught the train to the city, then walked over the Darling Harbour bridge into Pyrmont for Pyrmont Markets.
Pyrmont Markets are a monthly organic produce market, where loads of farms and other food producers bring their wares to sell. There was so much stuff! Bread, honey, lamb, cheese, vegetables, all sorts of things. We had a good wander round and I bought an olive sourdough loaf from the Sonoma stall, Zane and I bought boxes of honeycomb and Dean bought me marshmellows from the Sweetness stall and then got some lamb.
After exhausting the markets, we walked back to Town Hall and caught a bus to Balmain to visit Adriano Zumbo's patisserie. Dean and Zane are obsessed with Zumbo, who is the new big name on the pastry/macaroon scene. He has a tiny little patisserie on Darling Street and we crowded in and stocked up on pain au chocolat, almond croissants (literally the best thing I have ever eaten, ever, and I don't even like croissants!), macaroons and cakes. All the little cakes have entertaining name and everything looks so finely crafted, yet it's not really that expensive. Mark and I are going back this weekend for more!
My macaroons, whilst waiting for the bus back to the city. Can you see I crushed the bottom one already? I fail. The flavours are, top to bottom, grapefruit and jasmine, strawberry and balsamic, pineapple.
We pootled off home via David Jones' food hall, where I bought pumpkin and lentil sausages for my breakfast (it was 10am now) and then I went back home to cook them.
I had them on my olive bread. DJ's vege sausages are SO GOOD. My favourite thing is that they are actually made in skins, like real sausages, rather than just being a clump of soy/whatever.
After breakfast I had a few hours before Aisling arrived in Erskineville, and I went to meet her at the station. We went to visit Shenkin for coffee and frappes and sat there a good hour or so before wandering up to Newtown and along King Street. Had a look in a few shops then into Max Brenner for a hot chocolate. Then we got wine in the bottle shop and went to Ice and Slice for pizza then to Madame Fling Flong for cocktails! Then all of a sudden it was gone 11pm and I was suddenly sleepy, so we rolled back down to the station for Aisling to get her train, and I went straight to bed.
On Sunday, I got up and got the train to the city for open doors day at Sydney Town Hall. They were having a special open weekend to celebrate the re-opening of renovated parts of the Town Hall, and were allowing access to parts that are normally closed to the public. It was really good fun to have a look round, I had no idea it was so impressive inside!
Centennial Hall, and the Grand Organ. The Organ is quite famous, considered to be the finest 19th century concert organ in the world and is the world's largest entirely mechanical pipe organ. It is HUGE!
Mosaic crest of the hall.
There was a room with a picture of every mayor of Sydney.
At the end of the tour, I had a look around the new exhibition they have on, called 'Unvaulted', which is a display of the City of Sydney collection of artefacts and treasures, many of which have never been seen by the public. There were some pretty good things there, various exotic gifts donated to the City from all over the world, as well as stories and photos of various state visits, including several by the British royal family. It's a free exhibition and worth dropping in on.
Following this, I walked back up through Darling Harbour to the Maritime Museum, which currently has an exhibition on Mythical Creatures on, again with free entry. This was brilliant! I am fascinated by mythical creatures and there was a lot of information there on the origins of the myths, appearance of the animals, different attitudes etc. All the well-known ones (dragons, unicorns, mermaids etc) were there as well as some lesser known ones like the Kappa, a Japanese water-dwelling creature that drags children into rivers if disturbed, and the Kraken, a sea-monster most likely inspired by sailors early sightings of dead giant squids floating at sea.
Barong costume - a creature that fights chaos in Bali.
This guy is HUGE. Giant apes existed in asia before becoming extinct around 300,000 years ago. Remains found possibly led to idea of Big Foot.
"Fiji Mermaid" - fraudulent model mermaid exhibited in side-shows in the late 19th century. It's made from a monkey stitched to a fish! I thought it was quite convincing? Haha.
Mark came back later that evening, all stinky. He wants to do all the same things next weekend, so I may have a repeat of some of the above!
