Dee Why

These two pictures down below were taken last week when we visited Mike’s uncle and his wife in Dee Why which is a fancy neighbourhood in north Sydney. On our way there we stopped at one of the few dog beaches in Sydney. But since Munson was (and still is) in quarantine there was not much to do until I noticed the tiny crabs occupying the rocky sands. I remember myself as a very good crab fisher when I was young and I was pleased to find out that those certain skills haven’t forsaken me. These crabs were very fast and tended to run and hide in the tiny holes they had dug in the sand.

Mike’s uncle, Llyn, took us for a walk around the Long Reef Golf Course which is situated on a peninsula not far from Dee Why. As we arrived to the beach I asked Mike why the water was in a reddish colour close to the shore and he simply answered that the sharks must have killed a couple of surfers recently. I chose to ignore that answer and let the conversation slip.

Since I’ve been ranting about how how I didn’t like the Australian beer very much Jean, my ex neighbour in France, suggested that I would review a Australian beer every now and then. She also suggested a beer that she liked, Tooheys Old, which I decided to do my first review on.

The beer came in a 0,75 L bottle, 4,4%, just more than enough to get me through a standard meal. As I’m a big fan of dark beer I had good hopes for this one and it didn’t let me down. It’s not the kind of dark beer where you feel that you’re done and can move on to another sort, such as Guinness, but one you can have a few of in the same evening. To explain further, it wasn’t a creamy kind of beer. I don’t remember the exact price I’m guessing around 4-5 dollars for a bottle which isn’t that bad considering the amount of liquid you get. I will probably buy this beer again but there are many other beers to try!

More from Sydney

Since I last wrote we’ve been visiting Munson who had to celebrate his 5th birthday in quarantine but he was happy as ever and enjoyed the chewy rawhide we brought him.

After we had left Munson we went and had lunch at Bread & Circuses and it felt as if we had died and gone to hipster heaven. My overall impression of the cafes and restaurants we’ve been at so far is that they are trying to set up some sort of organic, gluten & fat free image.

Anyways, after the lunch I bought a pair of boots for work before we headed to Ikea to purchase some new kitchen ware since our container has been delayed for another 5-6 weeks. While we’ll need more than just kitchen ware for an empty house at least we’ll be able to eat.  Before exiting I convinced Mike to buy two bottles of Swedish Påskmust. I’m not sure how to explain it to people who’ve never tried it but all you need to know is that it’s delicious. And yes, ít’s very festive.

Fish swimming in the pavement at Woolloomooloo bay.

Our friend Ben and his girlfriend Leah swung by Sydney for a few days and we decided to take them for a spin around across Sydney. The weather gods wasn’t on our side that day but experiencing a desolated Bondi beach with crashing waves was pretty cool.

At last, I snapped this while we were standing on the bridge crossing Parsley Bay, which is quite a secluded small beach. We had a swim in the rain here during our first week in Sydney.

Two dishes and a malamute

When Mike let the world, a.k.a facebook, know that we had arrived in Sydney a friend of mine was sitting at his Campus in Vancouver when he read the news. And he quickly let me know that he’d be arriving in Sydney in a couple of weeks to see his sister and to spend some time out in the sun, something that is considered a luxury where he had been for the past 4 months. So when I met up with him yesterday around lunchtime we immediately took the bus out to Bondi Beach. By the time we arrived we both felt in the mood for lunch so we went into the nearest cafe/restaurant. After skimming through the menu I ordered the kangaroo burger while Daniel settled for something less exotic, namely a chorizo burger. I was excited to see how kangaroo would taste but sadly I didn’t find the taste much different from regular hamburger meat. However, Mike later pointed out that kangaroo meat does best when cooked as steak and not minced. The servings you get here are quite large so the hamburger and fries filled us both up until the evening.

I celebrated my 25th birthday a couple of days ago and let Mike take me to his favourite indian restaurant. Served with rice,  I had beef curry, mango chicken and some sort of chick pea stove while Mike had butter chicken along with palak paneer which contains of spinach and cheese.

In other news, I woke up to the sound of my phone ringing and a woman’s voice letting me know that I had got a job. It’s located a 10 min walk from our house in Marrickville. My main tasks will be packing and unloading and I’m starting tomorrow.

I’ve posted two food related pictures already so I thought I’d break the pattern and show a picture of Sceolaun (Ske-lawn) which is the ten months old Malamute puppy we’re living with at the moment.

Autumn?

Whenever we’re out on the streets we see people wearing thin and sometimes thick coats, and sometimes they even sport a scarf. They are dressed for what Australians call “autumn”. Yet, to me it’s just another day of summer,even if the sun shines or the rain is pouring down.
Speaking of which, it doesn’t drizzle as it does in Sweden, it’s either torrenting down or not raining at all.

Starting tomorrow we’re gonna stay with a fellow malamute owner in Newtown until we can move into the house in Marrickville. This mean there will be more walking and exploring which I don’t mind at all.

It surprises me that I haven’t yet to mention the miles high quality of the coffee you get here. And it’s not like you only have a couple of cafes to choose from, no, Sydney is almost overflowing with good places with its hipster baristas who’re happy to make you a large flatwhite. And I say, keep them coming!

Just yogurt

During the almost 2 years I lived in France, one of the first things we would look for whenever we went to a big grocery store was yogurt. But since the french sortiment of yogurt didn’t exactly meet our standards we rarely bought it if we didn’t find the one brand that did. Mike used to tell me about how good the yogurt was in Australia and I could almost see a drop of drool hanging from his mouth everytime he would tell me about his favourite flavour, passion fruit.

So yesterday when we suddenly found ourselves in front of the yogurt section, he almost went straight for the mango & passion fruit flavoured yogurt while I settled with mango & blood orange. And wow, I’ve really been missing out.

A jar full of deliciousness.