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Please Send Me Evenings and Weekends
Nov. 12th, 2023 02:39 pmThe past few days have all been about "evenings and weekends" as one of my favourite bands made a point of expressing. Apparently, I'm making good use of a modicum of free time I have outside of working hours. Work itself included an interesting morning tea session which included a rather sensible restructure proposal for our group. Apart from that most of my work has been almost entirely spent fulfilling one of my annual requirements of reviewing training and workshop material - along with arranging final courses for the end of the year (which filled up within 90 minutes). In non-work but IT-related matters, I've been successfully playing with ways to get around Youtube's misguided war on ad-blockers, and fixing a Drupal-site that WSODed after an upgrade, and not for the first time; which does make me wonder whether I should just return to a html, css, and javascript site instead.
The social activities started on Wednesday evening with an interstate visitor that came in the form of the delightful Lara D., who knowing my tastes well, took me to see the "BBC Earth Experience" which combines my love of the animal world and geography. After that we had dinner at the fairly well-known Yakimono restaurant (the salmon was beautifully rich) which we concluded with Clase Azul México and then a drink at Chin Chin. The following evening was drinks and dining with Alison B., where we started at Ponyfish Island. Whilst I walk past the place almost every day this was the first time I had ventured within. The view was great, the cocktails wonderful, and the atmosphere spoiled by the overwhelming blasting of music. Afterward, we made our way to an Italian restaurant, Park Street Pasta, whose outdoor dining on a quiet street was just perfect for the spring evening.
Music in the right context is, of course, quite a joy of mine. On Friday night I caught up with Liana F., and we ventured to The Astor to seek the 4K remaster and 40th anniversary of the Talking Heads movie, "Stop Making Sense". Well-prepared for the inevitable, the staff had prepared the stage and stalls as a "dancing area". It's not often that an old art-deco cinema effectively turns into a nightclub, but this was certainly one of those evenings, and many of those present (myself included) could not help but pay some tribute to David Byrne's more unusual dancing style and moves. For more a relaxing event, last night was spent with Brendan E., whom I haven't caught up with for a few months, and such visits are always a pleasure.
The social activities started on Wednesday evening with an interstate visitor that came in the form of the delightful Lara D., who knowing my tastes well, took me to see the "BBC Earth Experience" which combines my love of the animal world and geography. After that we had dinner at the fairly well-known Yakimono restaurant (the salmon was beautifully rich) which we concluded with Clase Azul México and then a drink at Chin Chin. The following evening was drinks and dining with Alison B., where we started at Ponyfish Island. Whilst I walk past the place almost every day this was the first time I had ventured within. The view was great, the cocktails wonderful, and the atmosphere spoiled by the overwhelming blasting of music. Afterward, we made our way to an Italian restaurant, Park Street Pasta, whose outdoor dining on a quiet street was just perfect for the spring evening.
Music in the right context is, of course, quite a joy of mine. On Friday night I caught up with Liana F., and we ventured to The Astor to seek the 4K remaster and 40th anniversary of the Talking Heads movie, "Stop Making Sense". Well-prepared for the inevitable, the staff had prepared the stage and stalls as a "dancing area". It's not often that an old art-deco cinema effectively turns into a nightclub, but this was certainly one of those evenings, and many of those present (myself included) could not help but pay some tribute to David Byrne's more unusual dancing style and moves. For more a relaxing event, last night was spent with Brendan E., whom I haven't caught up with for a few months, and such visits are always a pleasure.
