this ol’ town

Posted on 14 June 2021 by snail

Bankstown. Oh where oh where do I begin. I grew up in Bankstown. Mostly. Actually I grew in Concord West initially, up the road from Concord Hospital – dad had been the minister at the local Baptist church. Parents split up when I was young, 6ish I think, then lived with mum elsewhere in Concord West, before moving into mum’s old house in Bankstown when her mum (my granny) died. Mum’s parents had bought the then weatherboard house in the late 30s, converted to fibro around the 50s/60s.

We moved to Bankstown when I was 14 and had completed two years at Meadowbank Boys’ high (now a TAFE). I was very shy and hated the move. I had a love/hate relationship with Bankstown for a long time and my feelings are still occasionally mixed. Growing up, my tastes were very western, meat and veg for dinner and a roast on the weekend. I used to hang out at Bankstown Square (these days I think it’s Bankstown Central and was Bankstown Centro at some point) playing on the gaming consoles in DJs, skating at Rollarena Bankstown on the weekends.

Later on post uni (still somewhat shocked that I have a post-uni life) I became a librarian and joined the reference team at Bankstown Library, in what is now the old building. We walked past the new building today though as it’s a public holiday it was shut. I worked there for a few years before heading off to my first stint at the State Library.

My partner had mentioned visiting last year, pre lockdown I think and liking the little shops in the plaza. Today we went for a proper wander, down through the old town plaza and what is now Saigon Plaza though the entry statue didn’t exist in my day. Sadly the corner restaurant next to it is long gone though it used to be one of the best places to get phở in Sydney. Not that I had any growing up. I was too shy to ask and wasn’t game to try foods from other cultures…my loss really and thankfully I’m not like that now. The area seemed busier than I remember, greater vibrancy, a mix of ages and generations.

Today walking through the streets, it was one fascinating outlet after another, full of interesting foods, some I know, some I don’t know. Full of interesting corridors, nooks and crannies. At times I felt like a tourist, at times a local. We eventually stopped for lunch at a vietnamese place and the guy at the next table started chatting and suggesting food. At his suggestion, I tried what sounded like a tasty soup, Bún bò Huế, and asked for the spicy version. The spice was mild but just enough to integrate with the other flavours. It was a massive bowl and the vermicelli noodles were divine.

iso lunches

Posted on 16 June 2020 by snail

Back in March, we started to get things ready in anticipation of going into lockdown and work from home at some point. At the encouragement of my partner, I bought a pair of comfy sneakers so I could get some regular exercise (sort of successful) and even a haircut kit (with shaving heads of various sizes) so that I could continue to have haircuts at home. I don’t have a lot of hair and usually visit a barber for a number 4 head shave every 6-8 weeks. 3 months into iso and I haven’t actually used that kit yet and now have about 4 months of growth. It doesn’t look good, it’s not comfortable, and worse, I have occasionally bumped the volume button of my hearing aids, when patting down my hair. I suspect there will be a haircut in the near future and I reckon that’s not a bad idea.

When lockdown was finally announced, I was able to pop into work on the first day and grab my computer and a few other things. I then remembered the one thing I couldn’t prepare for: what to do about lunch. I’m not a fab cook, or food prepper; I usually get lunch from one of the takeaway food halls near the office. That option disappeared with lockdown. A few months prior we had moved house too and no longer had easy access to a bunch of takeaway places.

There are two places around the corner, a few minutes walk away. One fancy and one basic, both Chinese. I love Chinese but a bit of variety would have been nice, some Indian perhaps, Thai, Japanese and so on. Oh well. So Monday to Friday, I pop into the basic Chinese place and grab a meal to take home. Over 3 months, I have worked through almost all of their lunch menu and have a bunch of favourites. I usually try and have at least one new dish a week. They are the main people I see apart from my family on a daily basis and if I ever return to the office I will miss them.

We occasionally get a takeaway meal from the fancy place too, usually to coincide with virtual trivia hosted by the guy who ran the pub trivia we used to go to. It’s been nice to have his face and voice beaming into our home. I miss the pub visits though and hanging out with friends. While the sound is better at home, I’d rather have physical company and not hear half the stuff; the warmth of people and incidental humour.

brekky in a cafe

Posted on 7 June 2020 by snail

Seems odd being able to say that: brekky in a cafe. At a table. Lockdown eased a little a couple of weeks ago which meant the idea of sitting in a cafe become possible once more. On the first weekend after the announcement, my usual cafe continued to maintain takeaway only. I wasn’t able to make it last weekend as we visited my partner’s mum for the first time since start of lockdown. Was so nice to be able to visit another person.

This weekend my cafe had dine-in as an option, with 5 tables set up for diners. I was quite happy to continue with brekky in the car as I take a long time over brekky and didn’t think it would be fair for me to take up a table in the current climate. However only table was full and I thought buggerit, why not. It was fine, as 3 tables were empty most of the time, with a third occupied as I was finishing up. Meanwhile there was a regular stream of takeaways. Good to see the cafe continuing to survive.

I sat. I smiled. I ordered. I relaxed with a coffee and the paper. I ordered an extravagant brekky of dukkah eggs and chorizo. I enjoyed the space, the paper, the food, the people. Read a lovely article about all the wonderful food in Bankstown that made me salivate. I will go one day but not quite ready for casual shopping yet.

no moving, no travel

Posted on 2 June 2020 by snail

I commented in February on my joy in reading the travel section of the weekend papers, finding new places to visit, a chance to travel in my mind, without moving. I joked later that the Italian lockdown would be a fab time to visit Venice as there would be but locals, no tourists, piazzas empty. Naive I was, oblivious, lacking awareness of what was to come. I watched in shock as Italy increased their shutdowns and quarantine and the spread of COVID-19 rose while the death toll climbed horribly.

Now is not the time to travel.

I am in lockdown too. This is week 11 of working from home. I am thankful that I am a public servant with a fulltime job and no mortgage. We moved house a few months ago, downsizing from a 2-story 4-bedder to a 1-story 3-bedder. I’m enjoying the new house but with four adults stuck at home all the time, I miss the space of the old place a little.

On the weekends, I continue to maintain my ritual of going to my usual cafe for brekky with newspaper. For the last two and a half months that has meant takeaway food and piccolos, consumed in my car nearby, with people walking by. Initially I tried eggs on toast but the knife/fork thang felt awkward so I’ve gone with a bacon and egg roll since.

The weekend travel section is no longer published in print.

While I have been able to continue with my ritual, it is missing a key part, travel. The SMH continues to publish some travel material online but it’s not the same. The idea of travel and being able to travel has become problematic. I renewed my passport and had plans for a big trip this year, saving my leave, preparing for a 6-8 week trip in Europe across August. No more. Those plans are cancelled, my partner’s Churchill project postponed. Maybe next year.

I want a holiday and I want to go away. Not yet. I remain hopeful that New Zealand may open as destination later in the year. I have been many times and would love to go many times more. Perhaps there is a little hope.

techie librarian; meatier than a seahorse

Posted on 29 June 2017 by snail

Tag lines…whatever do you use for your tagline: the subheading of your identity, the punchline by which people establish a connection. Mostly I pay them lip service, smiling occasionally at a clever one. My own tend to refer to variations of: techie, librarian and eclectic, sometimes all 3 at once.

In a rather wayward conversation, spinning down a rabbit hole of curiousity, as things are wont to do when Matt Finch is involved, a recent conversation turned from roasting penguins to eating seahorses.

Somehow in my first activity on library island I ended up roasting a penguin #nls8

— snail (@snailx) June 23, 2017

I participated in a workshop as part of NLS8 and the first activity was for everyone to sketch a scene, in 90 seconds, on a piece of A4 using at least one of three figures on a screen: 2 humans (or human-like) and a penguin. As is my wont, I immediately gave into the dark side and sketched the two humans roasting the penguin. The second half of the activity was for each table to construct a cohesive story using those scenes as panel. They were two quick activities that worked really well as an icebreaker and got you thinking at how easy it was to come up with ideas under pressure.

The seahorses came later…or rather many years earlier:

@DrMattFinch @ALIAnls @amywalduck @sallyturbitt I'm still disturbed by @snailx eating roasted penguin #nls8
—
Clare McKenzie (@ccmcknz) June 28, 2017

to which I responded with my “meatier than seahorse” remark and commented elsewhere that while I have never eaten penguin, I have actually eaten seahorse.

@snailx @ccmcknz @ALIAnls @amywalduck @sallyturbitt new twitter bio right there
—
Matt Finch (@DrMattFinch) June 28, 2017

Many years ago, 2003 I think (really must upload those photos to flickr), I spent a few weeks on an Intrepid trip in China with friends. We started in Beijing and went to the Beijing night markets, a place where you can eat just about anything including silk worms and even scorpions on a stick. Scorpions were a wee a but scary but we figured had to be ok as noone was dropping dead. As far as we can figure, they’re bred without their stinger.

While trying to order something else, there was a language issue, and I ended up with seahorse on a stick. I think the scorpions were about 20 cents for five whereas the seahorse was a few Oz dollars for one. Our tour guide tried to talk our way out of it but the shopowner insisted. So I paid for it and ate it. There wasn’t much flavour as it was primarily shell with perhaps a tiny morsel of meat.

Matt suggested “meatier than a seahorse” as a bio and it immediately rang the right sort of bells, both physically and metaphorically. I am now using it for all my taglines :-)

time to play

Posted on 4 October 2016 by snail

I was a little disappointed that Tomb Raider for the PS4 was not out in time for the long weekend…not to mention Dishonored 2 and the updated version of Skyrim…all of which are due in October. Later in October when I probably won’t have as much time to play. On the other hand, it doesn’t really matter if I don’t get to play them on day 1, yet there is something of that sense of release day anticipation…still. I’m 48 now and I feel it at the edge of my consciousness: lurking, waiting, intensifying. It is the same of books, I have to have that book on day 1, first edition, etc…though I no longer necessarily read it that day.

Yet, day 1 desire remains.

I recently got round to playing The Last of Us, the PS4 remastered version of which was released in 2014…2 years ago, and the PS3 version was released before that. It was still a good game. Then there’s the Bioshock Collection, released in September on the PS4 yet been around for years on other platforms. I nearly bought it for the long weekend but thought no, I won’t finish all 3 by the time Tomb Raider is released. I can always play it later.

The PS3 version of Skyrim was a massive timesink and I spent over 300 hours playing it that summer. I may never have time to play that enough, nor even that amount of time to play. I was single and living alone in those days, now I have other, wonderful people in my life. I still fire up the PS3 and play a little Skyim every so often. Yet, I am also curious about starting from scratch on the PS4 and seeing what sort of game I’d play these days.

Instead, on the long weekend, I bought nothing new and enjoyed what I had. I continue to be rather fond of No Man’s Sky, though it’s more exploratory than actual game. It is strangely alluring and easy to lose many hours playing. I finally got round to playing The Order: 1886 which was generally panned on release as being short and lacking in the gameplay department. While gameplay is a little simplistic and full of detailed setpieces, it is visually sumptious and I’m hard put to think of a game that is so well realised in its visualisation of the environment. I’ve spent a lot of time just sitting back and viewing my surroundings. The story too, seems sufficient and I look forward to finishing it off.

Further to gaming I finally finished season 1 of Daredevil on Netflix which was pretty fab. I found the 13 episodes a little slow at times but the story and character development was good. I’m undecided whether to move to season 2, or watch season 1 of Jessica Jones next, and of course Luke Cage has recently dropped. I have at least read most of the comics for Jessica Jones. To top off a good three days off work, I also managed to get through the first half of season 2 of Once Upon a Time. Somewhere in there, I’d like to fit in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D but suspect I’ll need to buy the DVDs as it doesn’t seem to be on the Oz version of Netflix. I do have the DVDs for the first season of The Expanse and I’ve read the first two books.

So much to watch and play and yet I still hunger for day 1 releases. That’s a wee bit wrong.

tassie spoils

Posted on 3 June 2016 by snail

A few weeks ago we popped down to Tassie for a long weekend and amongst other things we, or mostly I, tasted quite a few whiskies and spent evenings in the Nant bar and the Lark bar. We actually visited the Lark bar a couple of times as it had a really good atmosphere and had many Tassie whiskies available as well as Lark, whereas Nant only had Nant from Tassie plus a good range of international whiskies.

We also did a gourmet food tour of Bruny Island including cheese and whisky. The final stop was the House of Whisky and the included tasting was Nant however there was plenty of time so I was able to do a flight of four tastings including:

Sullivan’s Cove Blue Label – won best whisky in the world a couple of years ago
Overeem (43% Sherry Cask) – bought their last bottle and it was from the last batch that Casey Overeem made before selling the business to Lark
Trapper’s Hut
Mackey’s triple distilled

The Sullivan’s Cove was definitely my favourite, however the Overeem was a close second. Alas, or luckily, the Sullivan’s Cove was not available for sale as it’s really expensive these days. The guy did however give me the empty box as they had about 20 empty boxes out the back. I don’t recall being particularly fond of the Trapper’s but really liked the Mackay’s.

As part of the Bruny Island trip, we had lunch and tastings at the Bruny Island winery and they make some rather yummy pinot noir so I picked up a bottle of their standard and their reserve. The final item in the picture is a colourful owl I picked up at the Salamanca markets.

festing away

Posted on 6 June 2015 by snail

For me, Sydney filmfest started today though opening night film was earlier in the week. Saw two films, The Shore Break and The Postman’s White Nights, neither at the State Theatre. I have started filmfest in a place other than I usually start. On the way to the first film in Circular Quay, I passed one of the people I used to sit with. She screamed out “I miss you!” as she dashed past and I screamed “I miss you too” :-)

We had a couple of hours between films so we caught a ferry to Mosman and back. 45 minutes cruising the harbour in the late afternoon sun for free on our opal cards. I could not have done that in my old subscriber days. There wasn’t that sort of time available between films and the State Theatre was just a bit too far from the Quay. We still had an hour to kill when we returned so had white wine and oysters on the promenade. Felt rather grand on a gorgeous winter’s day in Sydney. Even got to watch the sun set over the Harbour Bridge :-)

rituals

Posted on 29 September 2012 by snail

Brekky is my mainstay. My luxury. My space. My centre.

I’ve said as much before. The thought struck me a short while ago that in the 20 or so years that I’ve been enjoying my weekend brekky ritual, I’ve done so through many cafes and many contexts: sometimes alone, with friends, a partner, a girlfriend, and me…at peace. I had a favourite spot that managed to be a cafe despite several changes of ownership…it’s now a japanese restaurant. Admittedly, I don’t live as close to that spot either.

In recent months I’ve been on the prowl for a new cafe, as my previous favourite closed. Nothing new about that; change is the story of my life. There are no sure things, no guarantees, no sense of permanence. Change is the only constant. Of all the cafes I’ve had brekky in on a regular basis, none exist today. I think I’ve found a new regular spot; the reality is that this spot too will disappear in a year or three. That’s ok.

Keeps me on my toes. Keeps me looking. Keeps me open.

tireds

Posted on 17 June 2012 by snail

Filmfest is over for another year. For me, that’s 20 fests in 20 years. Alas, it finished with a 6 hour (2 parts with intermission) Indian gangster flick. Passable and would still have worked well at a third of the length. I’ll probably post a filmfest summary in a day or two; feeling a bit wiped at the moment.

When filmfest is on, everything else in my life stops. There’s still some washing up from a week and a half ago to do…I have at least rinsed it. I usually don’t buy groceries prior to filmfest as, from past experience, they don’t last til post fest. I barely see my home; last year I worked from home but this year I worked in the city. My daily routine was something like:

get up, shower, etc
day at work
filmfest
home and sleep

and over and over. Just prior to fest, I had a new TV delivered and the cardboard and packing foam etc are still in my lounge room needing to be broken down and tossed (recycled where appropriate). On the cusp of fest, I had 3 cases of wine delivered, one of which I’m finally sampling tonight. Thanks to a friend, I buy a chunk of wine regularly from a good discounter, though I’m also a member of a winery in the Hunter.

Dinner during filmfest is usually dominated by whatever is open near the State Theatre…and consumed quickly prior to the next film. Wine is drunk by the glass and bought from the bar in the Theatre. I was drinking their Semillon for $8.50 a glass. It was at least a nice drop this year…thankfully, as they’ve had some shockers in years gone by. Not unlike when I travel, the last week or so I’ve only been able to get wine by the glass. Tonight, at home, I cracked open a bottle of red that cost slightly more than that glass of Semillon. At times like this, drinking a $10 bottle of red, it is sheer luxury to be able to keep topping up my glass. That’s a freedom I’ve missed.