Thursday, September 17, 2009

I'm going to miss Chinatown - Continued

I'm sure I'll find new diversions and favourite food haunts but these are some the spots that I'm sure are unique to this neighbourhood:

The best dang Vietnamese rolls around...

The centre of the Chinatown food universe...

The Gateway to Paddys...

Emperor's Puffs, gooey bliss - 4 for a dollar...

And Comic Kingdom - way too much time wasted here...

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

I'm going to miss Chinatown

On show in the window of Mamak Malaysian Roti & Satay - This guy (and another next to him) does this all day, every day. They're consummate artists - performing with the same unconscious grace you have when tying a shoelace.


I think he got a bit camera shy, though, and tore a wee hole in this one. 

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Wes Anderson Festival promo

Unfortunately not one we can make it to

Wes Anderson Trailer from Alex Cornell on Vimeo.

It's always Fairweather

Chuffed over to the AGNSW this lunch break - beautiful day - the sun catching the Archibald fountain and the Gymea lilies as I skirted Hyde Park.
Didn't have an agenda but the wall of Ian Fairweather works caught my eye in a way that they  hadn't before. 
I guess, like provenance in an antique, a back story affects your appreciation.
Leonie had recorded an ABC doco about this Scot born painter who I'd never heard of previously. Turns out he was a true painting obsessive. And eccentric plus. 
So, I stopped and really took them in - and was rewarded. Get a small taste here but go and see them for yourself. And if you can learn a little about him before you go - so much the better.
Also worth a unrushed look is the "Printmaking in the age of Romanticism" - many super-natural visions of master printmakers working with the likes of Turner. 

Paying the Ultimate Price in Ultimo

Cycle paths are great. Even those shared with pedestrians - in over 40 years of darting 'round 'em I haven't hit one yet. (That doesn't stop a lot of them recoiling like they think today's the day)
But there's one moment when cycle paths turn into something bad - when they join cars.

Every other day I see hotshots (usually easily recognisable - not just by the skinny-tyred street machines or clinging colours but also by their dinky backpacks) zooming down off the Anzac Bridge on the circular flyover that goes down into Ultimo. 

Speed is all so they shoot straight onto the road with nary a glance in the direction of where a car has a very real chance of appearing. 

Every other day I also see cars come swiftly up the same stretch of Quarry Master Drive. 

Sooner or later grim coincidence must occur. I know from my own personal and painful experience that it can.

Monday, September 7, 2009

Vertically Challenged - Hard to Top

That structure looming in the background of 'Bridge to Nowhere 2' is the MLC Centre - man, has that got a view from the top!

I always have a small back pack, so I easily pulled off the old "Hi, I'm a tourist over from NZ" routine (laying the accent on thuck...)

Went up to the Bank of America on the 64th floor, figured Yanks'd be soft for the story - true, as it happened - that I was last up there 30 years ago with an American backpacker (OK  - he was Canadian, close enough) - and would love to see how the view has changed...

Sure! "Shir!" Would you like to go into our boardroom to take some pictures? Indeed I would... wow! Pity the light was a bit flat but, never-the-less - Like I say - hard to top...

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Bridge to Nowhere 2


This is just getting silly - hovering over Castlereigh St is another bridge that goes... nowhere!

Actually you can get in at one end (through the Sheraton) but the other end is the dead kind - I'm seeing party venue (why are the lights on?)

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Operation Tikka


I was given a recipe for Chicken Tikka but Leichhardt, it turned out, was not the place to find requisite ingredients like Tikka masala...
So - heard about an outlet in Surry Hills - Googlemapped it & set off
It's on Crown St down almost to Cleveland St
Crown is so full of funky shops and cafes I almost wished I was walking -


(I did stop to poke my nose in here - a groovy boutique on a corner with a red Vespa and sign pointing to Brett Whiteley's studio - cool)


- but I'd need hours to do Crown St justice and, besides, I was on a mission



Moments later I was at the destination - "Shalimar Movies and Spices" - one step inside and my nose told me this was the place...

You don't see this much on the Anzac Bridge





Gobsmacking