A busy birthday week

Winding down from a weekend of incredible weather and prepping for a busy week ahead with some major deadlines at work.

Looking across the harbour to the CBD from Lavender Bay on the cloudless Saturday afternoon.

Since I arrived back in Sydney a week ago, things have been pretty chockas (that is the Australian shortening of "chock-a-block," which in and of itself is an Aussie-ism—unsurprisingly, with British origins—meaning packed full).

On Wednesday evening, I grabbed a pre-birthday dinner with a good friend at the Tramsheds in Glebe. The venue, which boasts a food hall very similar to Atlanta's Krog Street Market, is the adaptive reuse of (unsurpisingly) the old Rozelle tramsheds which opened in 1904, closed in the 1950s, and remained abandoned (with many of Sydney's old trams still sitting inside) for more than five decades. While the meal left something to be desired, it was nice to catch up and check out the Tramsheds.

Thursday was my birthday, and while I had lots to do in the office, a few co-workers  took me out for a sushi lunch. It was really nice to get away from the office for a bit and was a really, really nice surprise. In the evening, I ended up working later than I had expected, and rushed to catch a South Coast Line train from Town Hall to the Shire for birthday dinner; conveniently, Blake also ended up working late, and through some stellar timing, ended up jumping onto the same train car I was on as we were pulling out of Central.

Birthday dinner at my Aussie family's has been a tradition since I first was in Australia on my birthday in 2012. This year was the fifth time in seven years that Blake and I have celebrated together. This year was low key as Paul was out of town on a golf trip, leaving Janene and the kids (including the two little ones) to our own devices.

Janene cooked a great dinner of "green spaghetti"—a favourite from when the girls were growing up—which consisted of spinach fettuccine and a cream sauce made with tuna and corn. While pretty straightforward, he all enjoyed the meal, which was followed up by Eton Mess for dessert, which is basically a broken-up Pavlova topped with strawberries and passion fruit. As always, it was wonderful to catch up with everyone and we shared more than a few laughs over dinner.

The Eton Mess for dessert.

On the train ride home, and once I was home, I got to catch up with a few people stateside, including some of my former co-workers. Despite being halfway around the world (and 14 hours ahead), it's nice to be able to stay in touch so easily with Facetime.

Friday night I had a low-key evening after staying at work a bit late to finish up some e-mails. Around 5:15, the office was filled with didgeridoo music as part of our weekly lecture series which happens on Friday evenings. The special performance was in recognition of NAIDOC (National Aboriginal and Islanders Day Observance Committee) Week, which celebrates indigenous cultures in Australia.

Saturday, the weather turned out to be absolutely perfect, and my friend Simon and I decided to take advantage of the beautiful day and wander up to North Sydney. Along the way, we passed through Hyde Park, where a large festival with artists, food, vendors, and performances was taking place for NAIDOC Week.

A stage set up in Hyde Park.

We grabbed brunch in the Rocks before climbing the steps to the Harbour Bridge footpath. The gorgeous weather—you would be hard-pressed to call it "winter" as temps climbed into the low 70s F—drew plenty of people out, and the walk across the bridge was pretty crowded with others also soaking in some sun (and views)!

The Opera House and harbour from the top of the bridge.

Once on the north side of the harbour, we made our way down to the street and passed under the bridge, walking westward along the shore through the waterside amusement park Luna Park, and onward past Lavender Bay (the first picture in this post) to Blues Point. We lounged around on the sloping lawn of Blues Point Reserve, immediately across from the Harbour Bridge and Opera House for a while.

Looking across the harbour from Blues Point.

As the afternoon wore on, we retraced our steps back to the city, passing through the street markets in the Rocks before cutting over to Darling Harbour before parting ways. I spent the evening doing chores around the house.

This morning, I met up with my post-doc friend who I do fortnightly brunch with in Enmore. We enjoyed what has quickly become our usuals (amazing shakshuka and a pot of sticky chai for me) before we made the hour-long walk into the city—Soph was off to do some shopping and I was happy to join on the walk as it meant that I could catch one bus rather than transfer a few times for my afternoon trip out to Bondi.

I headed out east to the famous beach-side suburb as today was renovation day at Amanda and Beck's new place. Yesterday, a few of our friends had helped with demolition of the old kitchen and bath in their Art Deco unit, and today a crew of us began the process of getting things back together. We had a great time painting and prepping for the flooring crews to come in tomorrow.

Part of the amazing work crew on painting duty.

Tonight, I did something that I hadn't done in a while: I cooked a nice dinner (with plenty of leftovers for the week), which I enjoy doing, but don't always allow time for. The pork, mashed potatoes, and broccolini all turned out very well, and I look forward to having lunches for the next few days squared away as I expect to be very busy at the office.

Dinner!

 And, with that, another week is in the books. Bedtime on this side of the world.