We've been counting down the days til my sis and brother-in-law land in Sydney for their 2-week visit this coming Saturday!!! While a lot of time has been spent planning and prepping for our holiday with Kerry and Brad, I thought I'd just post pics from a few other random happenings lately. We've seen Art (in human and sculpture form) and had our first visit from family just last week...
A few weeks ago, we caught another concert. This time, at a small venue called the Bald Faced Stag, one of the oldest pubs in Sydney. Pickle, who became an Everclear fan in middle school, along with his die-hard fan friend, John, is part of the dwindling (but loyal) fanbase, so when the band's frontman, Art Alexakis, was slated for a performance in town, our attendance was a no-brainer. (Fun fact: we actually stood in line for security checks at the Sydney airport once with the entire band...Pickle yelled "I love Everclear!" and Art said "Well, at least someone does!" Pickle told Art that he was best friends with "license plate guy" - John's plate was EVRCLR and he used to take it and hold it up at the concerts...it became a thing. They chit chatted a bit, and then we (awkwardly) passed them another half dozen times or so as the line snaked around.)
A few weeks ago, we caught another concert. This time, at a small venue called the Bald Faced Stag, one of the oldest pubs in Sydney. Pickle, who became an Everclear fan in middle school, along with his die-hard fan friend, John, is part of the dwindling (but loyal) fanbase, so when the band's frontman, Art Alexakis, was slated for a performance in town, our attendance was a no-brainer. (Fun fact: we actually stood in line for security checks at the Sydney airport once with the entire band...Pickle yelled "I love Everclear!" and Art said "Well, at least someone does!" Pickle told Art that he was best friends with "license plate guy" - John's plate was EVRCLR and he used to take it and hold it up at the concerts...it became a thing. They chit chatted a bit, and then we (awkwardly) passed them another half dozen times or so as the line snaked around.)
While we didn't expect to see a huge crowd, we were a little concerned that when we arrived, there were only 7 of us waiting to get in. We soon discovered we were there about a half hour prior to the doors open time (not the concert like we'd thought), and Art wasn't actually going to perform for another 2 hours. When the doors opened, we casually walked to the front of the club (behind three very enthusiastic and very nice girls who bolted to the stage as if there were crowds rushing a celebrity) and secured our spot behind the front railing to commence our hour and a half long wait. I think it took Pickle back to the days that his bestie, John, would bring him out about 8 hours before the concerts to wait for the best vantage point and to meet the band. While our wait was nothing like the all-day marathon he used to endure, he's a bit older (and a bit more curmudgeon-y) now ;) and I think the 2 hours was about his limit!
Prior to Art's appearance, a 15 year old kid came out to warm up the crowd and gave a phenomenal performance of mostly original music. Pickle warned me that Art would not be as impressive. He wasn't - but he did a good show. He joked that, while the gig was supposed to be billed as "Songs and Stories" (because he provided some of the backstory to the songs he performed) under his name, it had been advertised as "Everclear" - he said he assumed because they weren't sure they could sell tickets to his solo show! It was a good show though - and definitely more our current speed than what was indicated by the "No Stage Diving" and "No moshing" signs (I honestly didn't even realize that people still "moshed" in 2016)!? #WaaaayOver18 He played several hits from Everclear on acoustic. Pickle was glad to see Art (and to share photos and reminisce with his buddy, John, who texted to ask how the show was before we even went to bed that night), and that made me happy :)
This past week, Pickle's second cousin, Erin, came to crash with us in Sydney for a quick 23 hours. Erin had been hiking Central and, most recently, Western Australia over the past several months and took a long layover in Sydney before flying on to New Zealand to hike the length of the country on the Te Araroa for the next 4 months. This is one cool chick - she works her butt off half the year as a substitute teacher and nanny and takes the remainder of the year off to hike (and hike and hike) for months at a time. She's been doing this for the past 5 years or so, and has currently hiked over 11,600 miles! Her trail name is Wired, and she keeps a very detailed blog of her adventures, so if you're interested, you can follow her here. We picked her up from the airport and hit up The Potting Shed (at The Grounds of Alexandria) for dinner. The next morning, Erin got up early to check out Circular Quay for some snaps of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge, walked through the Botanic Gardens to Mrs. Macquarie's Chair, took the bus to Bondi and then walked to Tamarama Beach, as the Sculpture by the Sea exhibits were on. (This was all before 9:30am...on her "day off" from hiking - I think she came by her trail name honestly!) Pickle and I collected Erin from Tamarama, and we all spent the afternoon at Featherdale before returning her to the airport.
Erin noted how cool Sculpture by the Sea was, and I'd wanted to catch it this year since we missed it last year, so we decided to check it out this past Saturday, even though we knew it'd be pretty crowded, being the last weekend it was on. The first thing we ran into was a shoot for MasterChef India at Bondi. We weren't supposed to stop and gawk, but the security guy was pretty nice as he noted out loud that he was looking away while a snuck a few pics while walking by and high-fived me on our second pass through ;)
We stopped for lunch at The Grounds by the Sea (a cute little pop-up that The Grounds of Alexandria puts on every year during the event). The vibe was great, as it was all decked out in a Southwest theme and blasting Latino music - it reminded me of when I lived in Florida. Pickle started with a chocolate ganache and kettle corn covered muffin, and I had a tasty (non-alcoholic) piña colada smoothie with fresh mint while we waited for lunch time to roll around so we could order the poke. Unfortunately, the poke wasn't worth the wait (this is the second time we've tried poke in Sydney, and neither experience has even vaguely resembled the deliciousness you expect if you've had Hawaiian poke). The highlight for me was the free gelato the super nice guy from Cow & Moon handed to me while we waited for lunch. They had a booth set up just outside The Grounds, and he just randomly dipped up a big scoop of coconut lime gelato (which was amazing!), stuck two little spoons in it, and passed it over the wall to me...it was so tasty, I didn't even have time to get a photo!
We walked around the Bondi area and had planned to go further, but the winds were CRAZY. It was all we could do to keep our food from flying off the table at lunch, and all the flying sand and dirt launched Pickle into a full on allergic meltdown, so we called it on account of sneezes. There were many more very cool sculptures along the remainder of the walk, but I took some photos of the ones we encountered. The photos don't really do the sculptures justice (between the midday sun creating harsh shadows, the crowds of people and the fact that I literally couldn't see a lot of the shots as I was trying to capture them!), but it was definitely something I'd like to catch next year...ideally around sunrise or sunset...on a weekday :)
While the forceful winds and crowds detracted from the experience a bit, being at Bondi and walking even just a little of the coastal walk was a great reminder that this is a pretty awesome city to call home!
Looking forward to showing off our beautiful city (and taking a little jaunt down to Jervis Bay and mini-holiday to Brissy) when Kerry and Brad arrive...in JUST 4 MORE DAYS!!! AAAGGGHHH!!!!! =D