What was meant to be a night of bowling ended up being a night of fierce pool competition at James Squire pub. I haven’t played in literally years, but my mojo came back after a slow start and I remembered how much I love to play! It was a great night, catching up with Shell and Eric and finding out that Alec really is right about the super powers contained in his feet. With his shoes on, he was an average player. As soon as the sneakers came off, he was a pool shark. Interesting!
Four of my oldest girlfriends and their partners came over for dinner tonight. Nothing much to say except it was a really good night of catching up and eating 🙂
After a day in the outer west, we went to Alice’s new abode in the inner west. One thing I love about having vege friends is being able to eat everything at a party. Woo!
For Brandon’s last night in Sydney we went to dinner at Longrain in Surry Hills. Longrain don’t take bookings (at least on Saturday nights like when we went), so we had to wait in the bar area for an hour and a half till they had room for us. The bar area was really funky and they served appetisers and amazing cocktails.
Longrain isn’t my fave restaurant – I tend to think it’s popular because it’s trendy, not because it’s amazing. I hate to be negative, but it’s just not the kind of restaurant I like. Firstly, I’m not a fan of the atmosphere – it’s quite loud, so I find it really hard to hear what people are saying. It also take s a long time to get food, so I would recommend eating in advance – we were there at 6, sat down at 7:30 and my food arrived at 8:15. By that stage I was so hungry I had eaten two bowls of plain rice out of desperation.
Longrain is a bit of a “sharing” restaurant, where you order big dishes between several people – except we ordered our own food, which arrived at stages, so some people got food straight away, and others had to wait 30 minutes. Not cool! I also didn’t think the service was great. Very poor in face, compared with other restaurants of similar price. I also thought it was over-priced. Alec ordered snapper – it was $50. For one fish – just the fish, with nothing else. He did say it was amazing fish though 🙂 Last thing I wasn’t impressed with was the lighting – really dark and none of my photos turned out after the sun went down.
On the plus side, we had a really great night. Really great friends and conversation.
Janice and Andy want their beverages. Stat.
Self-portrait.
Seb loves his beer.
More beer!
Janice’s cocktail.
Prawns.
Oysters.
Calman chugs back an oyster.
Dessert tray.
After driving back from Newcastle Alec and I went over Bev’s for a relaxing BBQ.
Lisa photos … something. 🙂
So attractive.
Chris does a manly dance.
Attack of the killer Beverly.
BBQ-ing is very serious business. That’s Bev’s blue cheese sauce bubbling away in the pan.
Bev presides over her table of food.
Och, that tickles!
Mat and Aya came over for delicious LCC pizza and a movie – Dodgeball. I don’t usually like comedies like this one, but I love it!
LCC are my favourite pizza place, and do free delivery too. Wooo!
Pizza-tastic.
Alec’s Greek pizza.
Half dragon’s breath, half neptune.
My plain cheesey goodness.
The extra pizza pieces they threw in. Herbs and garlic. Yuuummm!
After a day of shopping, eating , hot chocolate and zombie movie, we all head over to Lisa and Matt’s place for Thai delivery and kitty cuddles.
One of my best discoveries while I’ve been sick is Menulog which is where I found Wi Marn Thai. They are located in Help St, Chatswood, have fresh, delicious food, and free delivery to Chatswood – or Wollstonecraft if you’re as persuasive as Beverly.
Alec poses because the girls asked him to. Bless you girls, look what he’ll put up with if you ask him nicely. Or offer a food reward.
Bev poses with kitty. Who’s cuter? It’s a toss-up!
Alec loves Thai. He especially loves it when I take pictures of him eating it.
Food lovers hoe in.
Who’s a crazier blogger?
Mmmm my fave dish, vegetarian fried rice.
After eating and then eating some more and shopping, Bev, Lisa and I went to Chatswood to meet up with Matt, Alec and Alec’s friend from work, Sean to see I Am Legend.
Beverly suggested the movie because she has a thing for Will Smith. I should probably have spoken up and said I don’t like zombie movies, but I didn’t realise how much of a zombie movie it actually was!
The general premise is that in the year 2009 a radical cure for cancer is discovered, but instead of being the miracle it is thought to be, it spawns a retro-virus that wipes out 90% of mankind. How this happens is skipped over however. There are quite a few plot holes and the exposition is told through random flashbacks that don’t quite fill in the gaps in the story.
There was a lot I liked, such as Will Smith looking buff and the cute dog, but also a lot that I didn’t, such as believing Will Smith masquerading as a scientist. The story could have done with more clarity around a lot of areas, such as the actual zombies and their intelligence. There seemed to be one who was smarter than the rest, but who he was and why he was smarter wasn’t explored.
After the movie we went to San Churro so Bev would try the magical churros.
Alec reluctantly posing for Lisa.
Must …. photograph … the … churros!!
To catch up with Bev, who had been in Singapore for three weeks, Lisa, Bev and I spent quite a jam-packed day together. We picked Bev up from the doctor (she had woken up with a swollen eye) and stopped in Paddington for lunch and to pick up a handbag from Belinda’s.
Bev loves Bite Me on Oxford Street, so it is now my turn to blog about it.
I loved the interior, hence the millions of pics about to follow. It has a kind of a retro diner feel to it, but 100 times funkier.
Jumbo menu when we walked in.
Can the world be a burger place? The eternal question.
The menu. I don’t know why I liked it enough to photo it, but I did.
Super-cute little wash towel thingy.
Crazy pictures on the walls.
Awesome attention to detail. I love the tomato sauce bottle.
Side-tracked. Cute magnetic bookmarks Bev brought me back from Singapore.
Poor Bev has a woe moment about her bad eye.
Who invited these crazy bloggers?
Bev defends herself from the dripping ceiling while slathering the chips in sauce. That’s dedication to the food.
My lentil burger with haloumi cheese, tomato and rocket. I would have preferred more of a stronger cheese, but it was still really tasty. It was also my first vege burger since going vego. Burgers were one of my favourite foods in my meat days, and I have missed them like mad. Was the vege burger just as good? No. Was it really tasty anyway? Yes, yes it was 🙂
Bev is serious about tomato sauce distribution.
Lisa tries some spicy horseradish.
My new sunnies. Bev was so happy I got them she needed to take my picture. Several times actually, so I could see how great they looked. Thanks Bev!
Trying to take a pic of the three of us in the mirror.
My dear Shelley abandoned me for a month to take a holiday in the USA. She came home this week and I went over to pay her a visit.
Here is Shell’s cat, Xenia, with some of the yummy American chocolates Shell brought home in the background.
Glad you’re home Shells!
