Ships at Night

My sister works random shifts and never has a set schedule. Sometimes it's like we're ships passing in the night, with days slipping by without seeing one another. So when we discovered that we both had the same day off work, we shared conspiring grins.

Like wannabe ladies who lunch, we set off for Bourke Street Bakery.

We didn't need to fill the air with words to enjoy each others company, we just sipped coffee and read. Mish is halfway through the wonderfully addictive "Born To Run" and I'm lapping up "Little Bunch of Madmen: Elements of global reporting".

Afterwards we ambled our way to That Vintage Shop for a stickybeak.

From there we went to May Lane - where the walls, gutters, garage doors and garbage bins are the canvas for the creative.

My observational skills are fairly lackluster at the best of times, I didn't realise to what extent, until I awoke this morning having slept the night on a textbook. My brother had kindly left me a book on photography in my bed as a surprise birthday present.

Ironically lesson one in photography is to open your eyes to the world around you.

Blue Skies and High Seas...and cake, lovely cake

My sister and I attacked Sydney with an insatiable appetite on Thursday.

We started with pancakes and poached eggs at the cosy Big Brekky, before discussing Berlin over coffee and cake at Bourke Street Bakery.

Then we crashed in a food coma at a friend's place. We somehow managed to fit in more chit chat and a spot of afternoon tea at Tea Parlour, before I had to scoot to pilates. Oh to be a busy bee.

Sydney threw off it's drab, grey overcoat for shimmery sunshine and endless blue skies on Friday. Swoon!

We planned to be a tad bit more energetic, but we just ended up ambling along the Bondi to Bronte path.

We did however get our heart rates into a more aerobic zone whilst watching The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Oh the magic and mayhem of the high seas to Lands Hitherto Unknown!

To those who scoff at Narnia being a "children's" series - I pity the fool!

I've always loved the idea of Narnia, especially because I am one of four siblings - two boys and two girls, so it was easy to assign the roles of Lucy, Susan, Peter and Edmund. (Though a friend thinks we were more wild, unkempt and manic like the Weasley's, than the somewhat prime and proper Pevensies.)

Case in point - my sister and i did get trapped in wardrobe. It somehow toppled forward so the doors were pinned shut...It wasn't nearly as whimiscal as the wide open plains and tea parties of Narnia.

The Dawn Treader, reminded me of a wonderful book - Nathaniel's Nutmeg.

The exquisituvely researched book follows the history and adventure of the spice trade in the 17th century. The English, Portuguese, Dutch and Spanish race each other to the "edge of the world" find the source of Nutmeg - bloody sword fights, dirty tactics, plague, scurvy, shipwrecks and cannibalism ensues. Stuff that makes you gape in wonder how anyone survived the ye old days - sometimes the truth is even more unbelievable than fiction..including Narnia.

Lady of Leisure

I’m going to be working for the next nine days straight, so I decided that I needed to indulge in a spot of luxuriating laziness today.

Starting off with a visit to the Sweets Workshop, I broke a sweat just taking a mental stock-take of all the gorgeous art I wanted to buy. My heart (and future pay packet) was robbed by Kate Banazi’s series of Victorian Gents.

As I was on my way Bourke Street Bakery, I passed a place that my sister and I have been calling the ambiance café. With a pair of antique winged-back chairs upholstered in lime green velvet sitting on the sidewalk – we’ve been meaning to check it out for months now.

Already savoring the thought of richly bitter coffee and buttery pastry awaiting me, I suddenly decided that I needed to mix things up. Turning the car around, I headed back.

I still don’t know it’s actual name – so I’ll continue to call it the ambiance café. But it wasn’t the industrial meets granny chic setting that justified its namesake – it was the super friendly staff. Booty shaking to Beyonce and experimenting with tangy fruit juice concoctions, they bubbled with chatter.

Even though I was stuffed from a Portuguese Chicken burger, like any practiced lady of leisure I had enough stamina for a spot of afternoon tea.

The Tea Parlour hasn’t been opened long, but it has the feels like stepping into a little old lady’s sitting room. A cozy affair of mismatched chairs and soft armchairs, the vibe is deliciously feminine with crystal chandeliers, silver candlestick holders, fresh roses and china tea sets. Surveying the scene is a stuffed peacock.

A soundtrack of Kanye West and The Kinks reminds me that I’m still in Redfern and not at a CWA meeting.

It felt like I was performing highway robbery when I was charged only $6 for two enormous homemade scones, served with generous dollops of jam, lashings of freshly whipped cream and washed down with a massive pot of Chai.

It felt delightfully decadent to sip from china cups...and so worth the painfully stuffed belly ache that followed.

Read between the lines

I should have been studying this weekend. I rotate into a new department at work tomorrow and i've done diddly-squat to prepare.

But how can you stare at a textbook when the sun is belting down outside? The lines start to dance and blur...

So the books stayed closed (except for "Birds, beast and relatives" and a couple of Alice Munro short stories)

Instead i boosted my vitamin D dose with a couple of runs, replenished any lost calories with Bourke Street Bakery and a slice of an amazing cake baked by a lovely friend - a brownie base and a cheesecake top. It blew my mind too.

Tea(ser)

I stared out the fogged up kitchen windows this morning in dismay. Torrents of rain was bucketing down. Certainty not the weather to attempt to walk twenty five kilometres over the Seven Sydney Bridges. With no sign of respite, I decide that the only reasonable action to take is to pretend that i'm in London.

Kettle on the boil, i pop "Singing in the Rain" in the DVD player and let the loose leaf Earl Grey infuse. Delicious.

Only later do i venture out to Bourke Street Bakery. Double delicious.

Happy Mondays

A more perfect day couldn't be found, even if you looked under the couch cushions.

Yes i will gloat, as doesn't that just put the icing on the cake that is called life?

- A bout of boisterous dancing to Cee Lo Green's new song "F%$^ you" during a cardio kickbox workout

I may be jumping the gun here, but i'dput money on it taking out the number one spot in the Hottest 100

- Breakfast of creamy Rice porridge topped with pear, blueberries and sour cherries

- Finding unticketed parking in Rozelle

- Adriano Zumbo's sweet french bread Berry, almond, custard pastry for morning tea

- Finding brand new pale blue, distressed skinny Country Road jeans for $25 at the Red Cross Store - booyah! Preventing landfill, charitable donations and cheap jeans in one fall swoop

- Befriending a beautiful cardigan to wear at a wedding on the weekend

- Coffee and Pear & Blueberry buttercake for lunch at Bourke Street Bakery

- Lastly its Monday and i didn't have to slip into the weary role of gainfully employed and productive citizen for the day...thank golly gosh for ADO's