Our week

In the past week we've:

• been to see "A Gun in Each Hand ", one of the stand out films of the Spanish Film Festival at Palace Electric at New Acton. It was described as a "witty and brutally hilarious portrait of fortysomething men" and featured a lot of anguished dialogue between men trying to define their changing roles in contemporary Spain where the women are wonderful (on the whole) and a lot less inclined to put up with their s--t. Wonderful film!

• celebrated NAIDOC (National Aboriginal Islander Day Observance Committee) Week by attending the world premiere performance of Hipbone Sticking Out - the story of the Roebourne community in West Australia's Pilbara and the tragic death of 16 year old John Pat in police custody in the 80s. His death was the catalyst for the 1987 Royal Commission into Black Deaths in Custody. This is a very grim subject but in the hands of the Big hArt production company Hipbone Sticking Out contained a lot of joy, celebration, emotion and culture (and even one amazing transvestite), and so much energy we felt the two act play was over before we had time to draw breath. A wonderful treat for us was the appearance of Archie Roach on stage at the end of the performance, singing his John Pat from the Journey album (and tissues were needed).

• enjoyed more quality time with the girls on Thursday afternoon. Abi was quite awestruck by her first sighting of our resident kangaroos (the ones that have set up residence in the bit of bush over the road) and afterwards we got to entertain Ella on her own, right up to dinnertime. We're loving the craft at the moment. Making that paper brooch was a hit but she was truly over the moon when I finally remembered enough from ancient history to make a paper fortune teller with her (with a bit of help from Google).

• been to the doctor's and received a shockingly long list of immunizations she thinks I'll need in preparation for our trip to India!

• celebrated a great night out with friends at Pulp Kitchen in Ainslie last night. Pulp Kitchen has had some great reviews lately and was REALLY crowded last night. They couldn't take us at the appointed booking time so shouted us a round of drinks at nearby Edgar's Inn (winning move). Edgar's was really rocking too with the crowd primed to watch the big Rugby Union match (another rout of the Wallabies) on the big screen. The pic below is of Rob in his cool new Leonard Cohen hat and his cycling and long lunches friend, David.

Pulp Kitchen is an interesting mix of unpretentious local - yet serving really interesting and carefully prepared food with a great Canberra region (as well as others) wine list.

I loved my first course - a sort of deconstructed carrot and cashew terrine - and very pretty too!

We went against our usual practice and selected an Italian Chianti Classico to complement the food tonight (very good choice).

Whenever I have the chance I always choose the duck dish - in this case duck magret, duck sausage, hand made duck sausage and duck egg with a sorrell salsa verde - DE vine!

Dessert had to be approached seriously - mandarin syrup cake, blood orange sorbet, mandarin meringue and sherbet - Yum! 

Pulp Kitchen is a noisy crowded restaurant at the moment but we had fabulous food and another fun night with our RED group friends.

We're blessed to be able to enjoy weeks like this in our winter city.