My birthday
My birthday started well. I got tea in bed and then lots of presents.
My best present was a playstation, along with an Australian version of Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) - I think it's called something like Dance UK XL Party. Apparently it is not possible to buy the original DDR in Australia - if I miss it too much we will have to get it from eBay.
I also got some shiny new books, including "The Best Australian Essays 2005", "The Communist Manifesto" (I shall read this as a prelude to Das Kapital, which I have coming in the post) and a book called "Great Speeches".
I was very busy during the day working (with a quick half hour out at lunch for DDR). I had been planning on buying a cupcake from the cupcake shop to eat for breakfast but there wasn't time. Still, I thought, I owe myself a cupcake.
We went out for dinner and a play at 6pm - The History Boys by Alan Bennett in Sydney Theatre. Sydney Theatre encompasses a bistro where you can have two courses before dinner and then pudding in the interval (how good is that?). We turned up 15 minutes late (Sean had had trouble getting back from work) but ordered quite promptly.
The starters came very quickly - they were both cold and so had clearly been pratically ready already however they were both really nice. I had King Prawns with noodles and some other chinesey flavours and Sean had Pork Belly.
We had to wait a little longer for our mains (reassuringly) and they were both excellent when they came. Sean had Lamb Cutlets with Lamb Canneloni, which certainly looked interesting and I had sweetcorn and Mascarpone Ravioli with peas, bean and basil. Mine was possibly a little heavy on the sweetcorn flavour, but I don't feel I can really complain about that. Sean ordered some Chats (apparently just potatoes) with Rosemary and they were absolutely gorgeous.
After eating all my pasta and stuffing myself with Sean's potatoes I couldn't face a dessert, not even at the interval. Sean ordered some cheese that said it came with Muscatels. The only disappointment of the whole meal (apart from being too full to eat dessert) was when Sean asked for extra cheddar instead of the blue cheese and they said they couldn't as the cheese was already plated. There was much muttering about how this wouldn't happen in France over the cheese!
The grapes turned out to be semi-dried and absolutely gorgeous so I ate those in lieu of pudding. The service had been so efficient that we still had time for tea before the play.
The play itself was absolutely fantastic. I had wanted to see it in London but not got round to it. When I booked the tickets, they only had C reserve seats left, with a restricted view. Then the lady found me some B reserve tickets (slightly less restricted) so I snapped them up. The only restricted part of the viewing was missing the edge of a video that played intermittently in the background with non essential footage so it was no problem at all. C reserve would have been fine.
It was a very British play, which made it quite strange that we were watching it in Australia. The best scene was one where the teacher let the boys act out a brothel scene in French. (In French: "Where do you want to be today boys?" "In a brothel" "Hmmmm OK then but a brothel where everyone speaks in the conditional".)
If it comes to the UK again, you must go and see it as it is an amazing play. I think they should make a film of it: it will become the new Dead Poets Society.
My birthday started well. I got tea in bed and then lots of presents.
My best present was a playstation, along with an Australian version of Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) - I think it's called something like Dance UK XL Party. Apparently it is not possible to buy the original DDR in Australia - if I miss it too much we will have to get it from eBay.
I also got some shiny new books, including "The Best Australian Essays 2005", "The Communist Manifesto" (I shall read this as a prelude to Das Kapital, which I have coming in the post) and a book called "Great Speeches".
I was very busy during the day working (with a quick half hour out at lunch for DDR). I had been planning on buying a cupcake from the cupcake shop to eat for breakfast but there wasn't time. Still, I thought, I owe myself a cupcake.
We went out for dinner and a play at 6pm - The History Boys by Alan Bennett in Sydney Theatre. Sydney Theatre encompasses a bistro where you can have two courses before dinner and then pudding in the interval (how good is that?). We turned up 15 minutes late (Sean had had trouble getting back from work) but ordered quite promptly.
The starters came very quickly - they were both cold and so had clearly been pratically ready already however they were both really nice. I had King Prawns with noodles and some other chinesey flavours and Sean had Pork Belly.
We had to wait a little longer for our mains (reassuringly) and they were both excellent when they came. Sean had Lamb Cutlets with Lamb Canneloni, which certainly looked interesting and I had sweetcorn and Mascarpone Ravioli with peas, bean and basil. Mine was possibly a little heavy on the sweetcorn flavour, but I don't feel I can really complain about that. Sean ordered some Chats (apparently just potatoes) with Rosemary and they were absolutely gorgeous.
After eating all my pasta and stuffing myself with Sean's potatoes I couldn't face a dessert, not even at the interval. Sean ordered some cheese that said it came with Muscatels. The only disappointment of the whole meal (apart from being too full to eat dessert) was when Sean asked for extra cheddar instead of the blue cheese and they said they couldn't as the cheese was already plated. There was much muttering about how this wouldn't happen in France over the cheese!
The grapes turned out to be semi-dried and absolutely gorgeous so I ate those in lieu of pudding. The service had been so efficient that we still had time for tea before the play.
The play itself was absolutely fantastic. I had wanted to see it in London but not got round to it. When I booked the tickets, they only had C reserve seats left, with a restricted view. Then the lady found me some B reserve tickets (slightly less restricted) so I snapped them up. The only restricted part of the viewing was missing the edge of a video that played intermittently in the background with non essential footage so it was no problem at all. C reserve would have been fine.
It was a very British play, which made it quite strange that we were watching it in Australia. The best scene was one where the teacher let the boys act out a brothel scene in French. (In French: "Where do you want to be today boys?" "In a brothel" "Hmmmm OK then but a brothel where everyone speaks in the conditional".)
If it comes to the UK again, you must go and see it as it is an amazing play. I think they should make a film of it: it will become the new Dead Poets Society.
posted by Zoe at 5:43 PM
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