Australia and other stories

This is the last week of double work. For sure. This month, anyway - ha!

I firstly apologise for not checking in late last week. What I wanted to say was I went to see The Handsome Family at The Famous Spiegeltent and they were sublimely, darkly folk and absolutely hilarious performers. Ness and I then went to Azuma's and had the $77 banquet, which was really good (dare I say, much better than Tetsuya's?).

Ness was telling me about how she wrote a three-page letter to Tetsuya's about the less-than-glorious experience we had, then last week the restaurant manager wrote back and invited us to a rematch. So we're going to Tetsuya's again sometime soon.

That weekend I was going to go to AR Rahman at Parramatta Park but a combination of lack of public transport and possible thunderstorms quashed that and I ended up at Sir's parents' place in The Hills with her relaying the context of the songs' movie roots and guest singers all night, which was cool.

That Sunday I went and saw Skippy's palmist, a guy named Max Coppa who is Brisbane-based but comes down to Sydney every month. The news I wanted to share was that he gave me a nudge to quit my job earlier than I had planned, so I'm now going to leave in mid-April (after I move) instead of mid-August (after three years there). I made a promise that I'm going to leave whether or not I have another job ready. I know I'm going to be able to find another; it's actually a case of what I want to do.

My second apology comes from the fact that I didn't check in yesterday as usual. Was having too much fun with the girls (Ass, Beq and Sir). We went to 'Smoke & Mirrors' at The Famous Spiegeltent (... long digression as I try and find out which spiegeltent I saw in Edinburgh). It was my Christmas present to them all. The show was excellent. Am still thinking about it today. The performances, music and costumes were all pitch perfect and we really enjoyed ourselves.

The past week has been hellish. Lots of time spent on work and work-related things and yet the deadline still looms. Tomorrow is the big one, then gotta try and get everything else done by Friday before it's a repeat for the next edition.

Did manage to get a massage in all of that, and also some music (Camera Obscura at the Beck's Bar), film ('Up in the Air') and theatre ('Oedipus Loves You'). We were going to do some picnicking on Saturday for Symphony in the Domain but as we arrived a deluge greeted us and we had to call it off and relocate the picnic to our place. Shame!

A lot on this week, the last of the Sydney Festival. I'm going to Dirty Three tonight, 'Rogue's Gallery' on Thursday and 'Six Characters in Search of an Author' on Saturday. And two films: 'Departures' at the Starlight Cinema tomorrow night and 'This is it' at the Moonlight Cinema on Saturday.

Looking forward to ripping work bandaids and getting on with it. Life, I mean.

Happy Australia Day!