Monthly Archives: October 2014

My REM hacked my memory

I’ve always wondered how my dreams work because I get some weird ones – not just in terms of what happens but also the timing. I’ve had crazy dreams where I’ve had part 2 before part 1, and episodic dreams. They’re pretty amazing if somewhat trippy.

So last night I had this great one where I was at a set of markets, where there were all sorts of stalls, but there were three distinct ones that I interacted with – a stall where I bought a pastry and promptly lost it, which was a reference to the handmade croissant I left behind on my trip back to Adelaide from Sydney; a portuguese tart stall which had custard in a bucket and would put the custard in as you ordered and they had a special that was 3 for $4, and in my dream I knew it was a good deal but didn’t get one; and lastly a pastry stall that I bought another pastry from to replace the first.

As I was walking I entered a watch shop, where I was acquainted with the watchmaker from a past dream – though I can’t actually be certain that it was truly from a past dream. In my dream I remember it being a real past dream, but I’m not so sure. Looking for a watch, I initially tried on a silver one, but I didn’t really like it, so I asked for another. I wanted something more elegant, so out came an Omega, a rose gold watch, and at the time it reminded me of the one that Nicole Kidman modelled. Full of rose gold, with diamonds to indicate the hours. However, I didn’t like the colour against my skin, even though it was a very pretty watch.

At the end I asked for the price, at which point he jokingly said $9. I knew it was in the thousands, so I asked if it was 10, and the answer was yes. That’s when I said I couldn’t afford it, but that I’d come back for a watch one day – a watch that would capture my heart. He seemed to understand.

And with that, I gathered the pastry crumbs that I’d spilt while trying on the watches and walked off.

The end!

City Social

It was a Benedict Cumberbatch tumblr that prompted me to consider booking a place here. Plus, it was new, and also, it boasted a great view. One thing lead to another, and I’ve decided that I will now attempt to visit at least one Jason Atherton restaurant when I visit a city where one exists. Whether or not this will actually work, who knows!
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Dinner by Heston Blumenthal

Lo and behold, San Pellegrino Top 50’s Number 5 in 2014 – Dinner.

I was recommended Dinner over Fat Duck, and I have plans to try and attend Fat Duck when it opens in Melbourne – so to Knightsbridge I went! This actually will be a text heavy post, as opposed to most of my restaurant posts that are spammed with food.

They had beautiful menus set up, with bits of trivia to read while perusing the menus. We were also lucky enough to be seated right in front of the kitchen, so we had a great view of flames and ovens and a total head count of about 15 chefs in that small space. It’s a fairly large restaurant from what I could see, and it blended into a bar in the Mandarin Oriental.
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London, September 2014

Oh wow, London. This is going to be a massive post with a lot of pictures!

I’ve been tempted to go to London for a while now, but New York is still the place I want to visit the most. I took advantage of the fact that I was going to be in Shanghai to travel through the Northern hemisphere, and managed to get a very beautiful stopover at Helsinki too – a place that’s a little bit of an in-joke with my friend from a radio play called Cabin Pressure, but also because I think Finland is a cool place – and the view from the plane is certainly pristine and amazing!

I guess I start at Hyde Park – the first place we walked through as it was near where we stayed. I absolutely love the royal gardens here, and it’s a bonus when the birds aren’t afraid of people, so I could get fairly close them and take all the pretty photos.

 
I had a few goals in London, the default is always to find coffee – and lucky for me I had a list created, but me being me, I have my own methods too, which simply involves walking around until I see something interesting, and two, following the conversational trail when visiting places. First stop is the cafe where my barista used to work – Workshop Marylebone. It’s small and pretty, and I can see where my barista got his idea for the wooden benchtop from.

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