Today we walked over to the Paddy’s Market. Housed in a building in the heart of Chinatown, this market sold the best of Chinese made junk and also sold fruit, vegetables, spices and other foods.
We shopped the endless isles of merchandise we couldn’t live without. This market was like a live version of Alibaba (Chinese Amazon like seller). We took a break at a table and had lunch. Terri did purchase some food we needed back at the apartment.
After lunch we decided to drop the goods back at the apartment and take our reading material out into Hyde Park. It was a beautiful, sunny day and we found a bench in the shade. An hour or so went by and a reporter and camera man came up to me to ask if I would comment on the story of a man who “wee’d on the War Memorial in the Park”. She wanted comments from a typical Aussie man. I guess the hat fooled her?
I did tell her I wasn’t a native and she said she I could still give comments. I did and they were on their way.
Turns out the man who was arrested was a frenchman who pled guilty and was fined. I had an immediate flashback to an incident at DHS where a french musician, Pierre, was invited to speak to the music staff. He was caught by security peeing on a wall outside of the cafeteria. Dan Blessing, fellow music teacher, quickly renamed him “Pee-There”. We were told this is normal French behavior.
Dinner was at a Darlinghurst Restaurant called “Jack and Knife”. We had 5 o’clock reservations and the restaurant was empty. Turns out they open at 5:30 but the waitress seated us anyway.
Unique restaurant. How many times have you seen “Popcorn” listed as a starter on a menu? After the popcorn, I had a beef dish and Terri a chicken dish. We shared a salad. The food was outstanding. The chef came out (I’m guessing he was Jack?) and spoke with us after the meal. Nice touch. Our waitress was originally from Brazil. Her english was flawless. I said, “No Australian accent” . “Ooooh noooo”, she replied, as to suggest that was an accent she didn’t care for. She had been here about 2 years and came here with her boyfriend to seek work. I asked if she considered Portugal and she said, “never”. “It would be like living with my neighbors from Brazil”. We gave her a long Australian “yeeeeeeeeeaaaaahhhhh”, finished our drinks left.
Tomorrow we have tickets to see the Opera Carmen. I have seen it before and also was a musician in the pit for a production years ago. Great music. Entire opera is in the original French language. I am looking forward to also seeing the inside of the Opera House.