Catchup – Not the Kind You Eat
Wednesday May 29th
Today is dedicated as lazy Wednesday. I pretty much stayed around the house the entire morning working on my journal (playing catch-up) and doing a bit of laundry. And watching Margy and Janie play.
However doing laundry here is quite the challenge. The machine agitator is either broken or likes to eat clothes. After about half way through the wash cycle the machine just stops, and when you look inside your clothes are balled up around the agitator and it is actually pretty difficult to get sorted out. The clothes are soaking wet at this point so the goal is to get them unballed, spread out, and then turn the dial to Spin and try to get rid of some of the water. Some times you have to do a Spin cycle 2 or 3 times else when they go into the dryer it will take 2 hours to get them dry. As Jenny said, “the results of the clothes washer are suspect.”
With laundry spun out and dried I relaxed with some Aussie TV. It cracks me up! I saw an episode of Dallas: The Reunion, tons of cooking shows, local news, and found out that Australia has their very own 60 Minutes. It is the very same format as US 60 Minutes only with stories about their local states/country. Australia also has The Mole, The Biggest Loser and a few soap operas. All in all pretty much the same as US TV.
No more time for relaxing as I ventured out to Redfern via train to meet up with some friends that moved from Orlando to Sydney. We met at this cool place called Arcadia where they pride themselves on having a better selection of craft beers. I had a Young Henry Pale Ale and had fun times talking with locals about what to expect when visiting Wellington and Auckland in New Zealand. Boy, I’ve got a lot on my list for next week!!
After a few rounds at Arcadia some of the group split off and went to Darlinghurst. We got out of the taxi, walked across one street where we saw a coupla guys just standing outside of a black door. The door was closed, no signs (paper or lit up), and no way anyone just stumbling by could know this was a bar. All of a sudden my friend Steve is greeted by the “guys” and the door opens to the coolest bar ever called Shady Pines! The lights were low, the music was a mix of Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, and local “country”, and they had peanuts in the shell for your taking.
Gazing upon the menu I noticed their very impressive selection of Kentucky Bourbon! I took a picture of the 2 pages worth of selections and then just had to chime in when a patron asked the bartender what the best one was. I said, “If you have a lot of money then go with the Pappy Van Winkle. If you don’t go with the Eagle Rare.” I’m not sure which one he chose but I knew he couldn’t go wrong with my suggestions.
I ended up with a Mornington Sorachi Kolsch.
The walls in this joint are covered, I mean COVERED, with deer heads, a moose head, stuffed animals that I couldn’t even identify, and loads of fish. It is a trophy hunter’s dream! In fact, one of the girls we were with said the owners of this bar also own 3 other bars and they actually did hire their own taxidermist to do all the work to make the other bars look just like this one. Ted Nugent really needs to visit this place.
p.s. This review is way more colorful than mine and paints the picture nicely: http://www.au.timeout.com/sydney/bars/venues/3325/shady-pines-saloon#picture0
K. Dana Morris 