Heart Palpitations

You give me heart palpitations. Let me explain how. It actually makes a lot of sense. So I think of you and it's random and the thoughts pop in and I push them out and they keep coming. I make a coffee. Distraction seems my best hope. Normal tasks and hobbies and chores don't stop the ideas and repeated conversations. I make a coffee. An early dinner cooked with effort and detail. I make a coffee. Then the seeds need watering. They are peeping their tiny sprouts through the soil that looks a lot like coffee grinds. I make a coffee. Finished another book. One I'd read before when I was ten. I drank all those coffees I made. You give me heart palpitations.

October was a Good Food Month

A macchiato from the Museum of Sydney cafe

October 2008 really was Good Food Month in Sydney.

This year I experienced the Noodle Night Markets multiple times on the way home, two Let's Do Lunch events and one amazing dinner.

Yummy food from the Noodle Markets

The Night Noodle Markets are always my favourite part of Sydney's Good Food Month. The atmosphere reminds of markets in Darwin where we ate asian food and sat under the stars with hundreds of other people. Thing is, I think more people visit the Noodle Markets in the two weeks they were on this year than live in Darwin. I still rate the Darwin market food better - certainly the sticky rice and mango.

No matter what kind of food you like, you will find it here as long as it has noodles in it :) There are also dutch pancakes, yum cha, wine, beer and good desserts. Don't plan to visit on one night but make a habit of it over the time they run. G and I walk home through them every night so we stopped there three times. It was a lovely scene.

Lastly, I can't forget the fabulous night we had at Bilson's. Bilson is best known as the guy who taught Tetsuya what he knows and this dinner was certainly a homage to European style Japanese food.

Going to Bilson's is always perfect with it's large tables, amazing food and disappointment at the fact that I won't be eating just like this for a while again. In Good Food Month, it's even worse since you know that they will never be putting on this spread ever again. At least I got to be one of the few to experience it.

The wine was very very good with the food but my night was topped off by the discovery (yes, I'm slow) of freshly grated horseradish. There is pretty much nothing nicer of a piece of beef than that.

If you choose one thing to go to next Good Food Month in Sydney, choose Bilson's.

Surry Hills

photo by Giles

People always ask about what I'd recommend in Surry Hills. They ask because Surry Hills is my home and a place I love to be. There is something for everyone in Surry Hills. Next time you are here, this is what I recommend you try...

Coffee: The Wall Cafe - 80 Campbell Street

Fish & Chips: Mohr Fish - 204 Devonshire Street
Thai Food: Spice I Am - 90 Wentworth Avenue
Pub: The Clock Hotel - 470 Crown Street
Bakery: Bourke Street Bakery - 633 Bourke Street
Cocktails: Longrain - 83 Commonwealth Street
Tapas: Bodega - 216 Commonwealth Street
Pizza: Pizza Mario - 421 Bourke Street
Theatre: Belvoir Street Theatre - 25 Belvoir Street
White Table Cloths: Marque - 355 Crown Street
Breakfast: bills - 359 Crown Street
Mexican: Mad Mex - 241 Crown Street
Indian: The Nepalese Kitchen - 481 Crown Street
Turkish: Erciyes - 409 Cleaveland Street
Communal Dining: Table for 20 - 182 Campbell Street
After Dinner Drinks: Sticky Bar - 182 Campbell Street

My Starbucks Name

When I go to Starbucks, they insist on taking my name so that they can pretend to know me when they call out that my coffee is ready.

This used to result in a ridiculous outcome every time. I'd give my name, they'd write down their version of it and the next fool would call out some other interpretation of it. It was chinese whispers when I was happy to be called "a tall latte with skim". That's much better than Dana, Rachel, Alana, Damian, Daryl and my favourite... Dot (not sure if it just said "." or actually had "Dot" written on it).

My solution to this is to create a new and easy to write and read name. It's never the same: sometimes I'm Jess or Sam or Felicity, once Tinkerbell (no double take, she wrote it down and he called it out), another time I was Bunny but often I just stick with one that works without fail... Dot.

Day 12 - Caffè Latte Patches

Someone needs to invent the caffè latte patch for the recovering caffeholic.

This morning involved a lot of rushing around. When I finally settled down, I felt the need for a coffee but not for the taste of coffee or the hit it gives but for that warm mug of X to hold in my hands as I read the paper (online of course) or watch bad pop music.

The similar need a smoker has to hold a cancer stick between their fingers was replaced by a cuppa hot chocolate. It was nice. Not as heavy though. Not as warm. Not the same.

Headaches 0; Tantrums 0; Deaths 0.

Day 10 - Feels Like it's in Binary

The tiredness is the worst part. My sleeping patterns seem normal but I have not really been awake for 4 days. Each day I feel more and more sleepy. To combat it I've tried exercise, drinking lots of water, cold water splashed on my face, talking louder than usual and shaking my head like a wet dog. Not scientific... but something has to be tried.

Other side effects include hightened intolerance for stupidity, the sudden need for 3PM naps and walking slowly by the coffee shops to smell that which must not be named.

Thanks to Sanson for the only good advice I've recieved. Others have offered alternative addictions but I will pass on those for now.

PS I've also had to edit this post 4 times.

Day 9 - No Damana! No!

You might be wondering where day 0 - 8 went, well ask anyone who goes cold turkey and they'll tell you that those days zoom by before consciousness hits!

I have not had a cup of coffee for 9 days.

For the first few days, there were headaches and grumpiness. Then came the odd feeling of my brain waking up on its own in the morning... that was about day 5. Now, after three nights of sleeplessness (not sure what induced this) I am sitting at my wage slave desk and wondering how the hell people stay awake without coffee.

If you have any tips, please let me know. Do not suggest I drink coffee.