I iz goin shoppin

Redfern burnout

Not a traditional Redfern Burnout... no cars, molotov cocktails or police involved. It did involve, however, a nice piece of Cape Grim scotch fillet.
Anyway a BBQ will have to do. Even after reading this today. I am so jealous of Matt Preston.

Grand Final Wagyu burger

The Grand Final has come and gone with the Cats falling over the line to upset the Sainters in a classic granny. Poor ol' St Kilda. So now it will be at least another year before they get another shot. 1966 must seem like a long time ago for the poor ol' buggers that have been following these perennial losers. On the bright side they haven't had to wait 70 odd years like the Swans did.
Anyway, congrats to Geelong. Realfooty match report here and here.

Geelong 12.8.80 def St Kilda 9.14.68

But on to other things. As soon as the siren sounded on went the burgers. Mmm, delicious Wagyu burgers. As good as, if not better, than last time. We threw them together the same as the first time. Click here to see how we did it (last time).

Caturday with Copernicus

Go the Cats!!! Well, Michelle and Copernicus are going for the Cats. I'm going for the Saints.
We love Grand Final day... Wagyu burgers for lunch I think.

Sepia 5

Pre-dessert of essentially a tiny apple crumble - apple sorbet on a crumble

Elements of Chocolate, Prune, Cocoa Bubbles

On the whole not bad. Some very pretty presentation but the cut of lamb we had was bit bland and Michelle found the Murry Cod to be bit meh too. Sepia is a new entry into the SMH Good Food Guide with 1 Chef's Hat and is on Sussex Street in Sydney.

Sepia 4

Bonus course because they fucked up Michelle's fish first time round. Unfortunately the poached Murry Cod wasn't cooked properly. Apparently the chef was very embarrassed so not only did he send out another perfectly cooked Murry Cod for Michelle, when that was done he sent out 2 complementary steaks;
250 Day Grainfed Angus Beef Fillet, Watermelon, Citrus Pepper, Braised Lotus Root

Sepia 3

Crispy Skin Fillet of Murray Cod, Baby Leek, Almond, Wakame, Shiso and Lily Buds

Roast Loin of Gippsland Lamb, Crisp Lamb Belly, Braised Daikon, Jerusalem Artichoke, Mushroom Infusion

Side of Creamed Corn with Lime Butter

Sepia 2

Sepia

Last minute decision to go out for din dins tonight. After a quick perusal of the Good Food Guide we set upon Sepia on Sussex Street in Sydney. The chef formerly worked at the iconic Tetsuya's. Sepia is fairly new and has just earned its first Chef's Hat from the GFG.

Amuse bouche - cherry tomato in jelly

Poached Duck Egg Yolk, Amaranth and Quinoa Grain, Braised Daikon, White Miso Consommé

Yellow Fin Tuna Tartare, Avocado Cream, Soy and Wasabi Jelly

What Perni and Shell get up to while I'm at work...

We iz on teh intehnetz.

I knew it!

Sydney dust storm all gone now

Amazing what a few hours and a bit of wind can do. Except for the dust covering everything you wouldn't even know we had just looked like we'd been through the apocalypse. The dust has been blown out to sea and is well on its way to NZ.

Click here or scroll down to check out the earlier Dust Storm posts to see how dusty it was earlier today.

Sydney dust storm 5

Some more shots of our glorious Sydney panorama today. Photo number 3 is of the iconic Sydney Opera House. Notice the the soaring sails of this outstanding piece of architecture. No? You can't see it? Photo 4 is Woolloomooloo and the Garden Island dockyards... apparently. Even St Mary's Cathedral (photo 2) is semi-hidden in a shroud of dust and she is only a few hundred metres away. The foyer of the Deutsche Bank building next door (photo 5), where I get my morning coffee and toast, had half a dozen security drones out wiping down tables and chairs that had a thick layer of the Northern Territory on them.

Speaking of the Northern Territory. Has anyone checked to see if the Northern Territory and South Australia are still there? Probably a billion tonnes of the NT and SA have been dumped on the east coast this morning. The last time a dust storm of this size hit Melbourne in 1983 the glaciers in New Zealand turned red. Yep, it blew all the way across the Tasman.

To put into context where this storm has come from, imagine if you're in the US it would be like Iowa being blown to and getting dumped on New York or Atlanta. Or for the Euro trash, if half the soil in Russia blew over Paris or London. They probably wouldn't have the pretty shade of red our dust has though.

If I was an early riser I could've seen the more red tinge to everything. The SMH has some pictures here and the ABC here.

As I write this it is about 11.30AM and dust is about the same as when I made the photos an hour or so ago.

Sydney dust storm 4

What do you do when you work in a building with a view? You duck up to the 28th floor (top) and take some happy snaps. Can you believe we're breathing this shit in? Check out photo number 7. That is dust that has settled on all the window sills in this building.

Sydney dust storm 3

Well I ducked down to the station to catch my train and get out of the dusty swirling wind. People are wandering around with face masks or scarves wrapped around their faces. I looked up the tunnel after I got downstairs to the station and I could even make out the dust coming down the tunnel a bit. So much for using the train tunnels to shelter from nuclear fallout if we ever get nuked.

Martin Place is a bit dusty. The dust isn't as thick as they were showing on the tele this morning though. Lots of red dust on the ground though. Practically every foyer I could see had cleaners with brooms and vacuum cleaners trying to hold back the red tide. I didn't notice my shoes until I got to work.

The wind has dropped a little so we may be stuck with the dust for the rest of the day. I don't think there are any flights coming from or going out of Sydney this morning.

Sydney dust storm 2

Crossing Prince Alfred park to Central Station. Again, usually you can see the city skyline no worries. It is a pretty good view... usually.

Sydney dust storm

We woke as usual to the ABC news on the radio. This morning the big news is the dust storm that is enveloping Sydney. It was at its peak a couple of hours earlier but the sky is an eerie yellowish red this morning. Everything outside has a light dusting of red dust. The car washes are going to be flat out for the next few days. The second photo below is where you can usually see the city skyline but this morning you can't see shit.

Updates

I've added a "rant" about Melbourne restaurants in one of the Movida posts here and in one of the Vue de Monde posts here.

And a big thanks to cuz Nick for showing us around Melbourne on Saturday. And Happy Birthday to Moira again.

Copernicus happy to see us

Picking up Copernicus from his holiday cubby and cat creche at Park, Bark and Purr at the airport. Poor thing looks like Hannibal Lector behind the perspex door.

So easy to fly in from Melbourne, catch the airport shuttle to the long term car park, then across the road to Perni's holiday shack and then home to order a Turkish pizza. Now we have a big night of tele ahead of us. Survivor and Fringe are back and we're getting close to the season finale of Defying Gravity.

Coming home