Rollin' With The Celebs

So, I didn't mention it as we thought it was pretty insignificant at the time, but towards the end of our dinner at Catalina's on my birthday, a big group of very fancily dressed people came in and sat at a table right next to us. The were all clutching 'Vogue' goody bags and seemed to think that they were all pretty important. Pah, whatever, the Birthday Princess was in da house. They aint got nothin' on me and my galz.

One of the waiters asked us if we wanted to move as he expected that group to get pretty noisy but we said that we were fine, mainly because we were enjoying people watching. There was one women who was wearing the most ridiculously ostentatious dress I have ever seen, so much of it that she could hardly sit down, but so little of it that you could see right through the fabric to her bar legs. Very strange for a restaurant... what a silly dress. Goose bumped into her in the loos and chirped up "Oh you look... nice, where have you been?" and apparently she just gave her a blank look and muttered something about a Vogue magazine launch. Oh really? Cool. Well, we're just going to carry on with our evening and not really pay you much attention, giving you funny looks as you kind of float above your seat because you can't sit properly in your big pretentious purple poofy dress.

Until, a couple of days later, Goose spotted this....

Oh. 

Shit. 

So dress lady was kinda important then. And her silly dress? Oh, just a bit of Dior haute couture we've got there. What a RIDICULOUSLY EXPENSIVE MAGICAL FAIRY QUEEN DESIGNER silly dress. I wish I'd touched it. It's still a silly dress, and that's $50,000s worth of purple netting wasted on, well, still being able to see her legs... but I'll never get that close to a dress like that ever again. 

Perhaps Erica thought Goose was just trying to play it cool when they were in the loo together, or perhaps she realised we were just clueless British girls who don't know any Australia celebs. (I still don't know who she is....)

You can have a little look at her Vogue interview here and some more shots of her big celebratory day as a Vogue cover girl with all her other famous fashionista pals here. 

Even though it feels like a bit of a whoops on our behalf, I quite enjoy that we were completely oblivious to the fact that she was famous and just carried on as normal. That dress though....

B

Piggies!

Harry, Goose and I decided we wanted to go out to dinner to somewhere a bit different, and so my boss suggested going to a dim sim Thai restaurant called the Chef's Gallery on George Street. The restaurant has it's name because all down one side is literally a 'gallery' looking into the kitchen and you can sit and watch the chefs make your noodles. It's a bit like watching a fish tank, but pretty interesting to see them doing their thing! Who knew that noodles were made that way!?

Harry being annoying and standing in the way...

We spent ages looking through the menu and trying to decide what to have, in the end chosing to share a dim sim sampling platter between the three of us, and then Harry and I went for duck noodles, and Goose chose pork noodles. The dim sim arrived in a little bamboo basket and sadly we snaffled them up pretty quick and I didn't get a chance to take a photo....

This is what they looked like though...

Check out the menu, it's amazing: http://www.chefsgallery.com/pdf/menu-dinner.pdf

After our mains we decided to try one of the deserts and we chose these little sesame bun which were shaped like piggies! When they arrived at our table we got totally over excited and took hundred of photos. They were pretty outrageously adorable for a desert though, you gotta admit...

Piggies!

Well, at least we thought they were cute, until we opened them up and THIS happened...

It looks disgusting but it tasted like chocolatey peanut butter and was delish. Shame about the pig poo connotations though....

Afterwards we went for a walk around the city and Goose and Harry, the children, found some balloons...

They were actually having a good time, promise. 

Sydney is surprisingly lively at night, not taking into account your normal club/bar lot, but I guess the summer season is beginning and the weather is getting warmer so from here on in it's going to be rammed with tourists. All the shops will stay open later and at the weekends it's going to be a pretty crazy place to be.

Harry's back off to the Hunter Valley in the morning but I'll see him again in two weeks for more fun restaurant/bar adventures. We're going to make it a fortnightly thing to go and explore what Sydney has to offer. Watch this space! 

B

The Locals

Last night Gus took me to out with some of his friends so that I could meet some locals and get out of uni. Him and his friend Tom swung by and picked me up and we drove to Double Bay to go and have dinner. We chose a mexican restaurant called El Topo which is a rooftop restaurant above a bar called The Eastern. 

The staff there were really cool and very Spanish and sat us in a little wooden booth at the side. The menu there is basically made for sharing, and so we orders quesadillas, spicy soft shell crab and pork tacos to share between the three of us. Gus and Tom hadn't seen each other for 9 months and were enjoying catching up and dishing out all the gossip about their friends who I would meet later. Another girl was meant to come and join us but she got caught up so it ended up just being us three 'amigos', as the waiter referred to us. 

The decor in there was really colourful and fun. I didn't get a chance to take any photos but here's a couple from the website...

After we finished we headed on to a place called The Sheaf which is basically like a big bar and pub at the same time. Gus and his friends go there all the time and it's recently been renovated so it's really nice. There's loads of different levels and a big outdoor area, and even a cocktail bar which made me very happy!

Tom and I grabbed a cocktail, and Gus went for a 'tequila soda lime' (yuck) and we found a nice spot outside to wait for the others. The barman made me something elderflowery which was very tasty, and Tom ordered an expresso martini as he was shocked I had never tried one before! It was... well, just like cold alcoholic coffee basically! Finally the others arrived and we partied late into the night out on the terrace where the DJ was. All the boys were very generous and I had endless drinks bought for me which was so nice! They insisted that I was their 'guest' and didn't let me anywhere near the bar to repay them, and in the end I just gave up - not sure how long this 'guest' thing will last so I decided to take advantage whilst I could!

It was such a fun night and so nice to get out and spend some time with some locals. They've all promised me that they'll take me to all the fun places around Sydney, and even have some other English girls they know who they want me to meet. It's also super useful as they all have cars so I just get driven everywhere!

Feeling a little worse for wear this morning but still made all my lectures and am steadily curing my hangover with my new found addiction....

SO. DELICIOUS.

Got to go and battle my way through some spanish work now... hopefully all that mexican food will give me a little helping hand in some way. Sadly though, I think the tequila may counteract that... 

B