Sydney subdued

I celebrated my birthday last Friday by having an "excision" performed on my face (by a plastic surgeon), for strictly medical reasons I hasten to add, not for enhancement! It needed 3 stitches and a very noticeable dressing (which quickly became blood stained), so I felt very self conscious and somewhat subdued (sub Jude as Rob termed it) for our 3 day long weekend in Sydney.

Rob did his best to cheer me up on Friday night with a lovely birthday meal and beautiful wine at our favourite Morroccan Feast in Randwick. When Saturday dawned cold and rainy he extended his good cheer to tolerate a couple of hours with me at Westfield, Bondi Junction where I was able to update my collection of Metalicus staples.

To end off a day of self indulgence we walked up to the Randwick Ritz (in quite heavy rain) to see the enthralling Mao's Last Dancer. Although the critics don't seem to be overly excited about this film, we just loved it. I felt so proud to see that the amazing choreography in the dance sequences had been devised by Graeme Murphy, with dancers from the Sydney Dance Company and the Australian Ballet.

We explored the Danks St, Waterloo area on Sunday - another cool and rainy day in Sydney. We discovered the wondrous Sanoma bread at Fratelli Fresh Food (the bread Tetsuya uses), ordered organic coffee at Wholefoods House and checked out the groovy and stylish Danks Street Depot.

I was expecting the foodie delights. What I hadn't expected were all the beautiful quality homeware and interior design showrooms. We found Abode Bazaar in Danks Street very much to our liking and brought this beautiful antique Zulu meat platter home with us to celebrate my truly unique sub Jude birthday in 2009.

No one in the Eastern suburbs seemed to be showing any interest in the NRL final game on Sunday afternoon....until we just happened to be walking past the infamous Coogee Bay Hotel at 6.00pm on Sunday. The bars and courtyard were crammed with excited people and masses of balloons in the Storms and Eels colours (I can't believe I knew the teams!). I guess it's reassuring that the CBH has found its groove again after the great icecream debacle last year. The beachfront itself was pratically deserted in the grey, windy dusk with storms threatening all around us.

It took us longer than usual to do our end of stay clean up yesterday. I guess I had been too sub Jude when we first arrived to really notice the thick layer of red dust on all the window sills and skirtings. Our apartment obviously isn't very airtight in a dust storm.