catching up is hard to do, part one - food and books

Ooops.  I have been meaning to update - I even have ideas for two yet-unwritten posts - but PMS exacerbated my sadness at CNN going back to school and my rejoining of the lonely hearts club for one.  I definitely was not in the mood to blog.  That's not to say we haven't been busy though...

We have been sampling local restaurants.  Corn fritters for breakfast certainly brighten up a grey Saturday - especially when it's followed by a trip to Newtown.

Despite what everyone has told me, Newtown is most certainly NOT the Bethnal Green of Sydney.  We didn't have the best start to our visit as we were both a little grumpy when we arrived but we got into the swing of browsing through clothes we couldn't afford (for those who worry about me, please note that our cash flow issues have ceased now that my husband has had a pay day) and a visit to Elizabeth's bookshop helped too.

CNN has been reading from (and collecting) the novels in a book list for men put together by Shortlist (oh how I miss it's sister magazine!) and he found a novel that is apparently very hard to get secondhand.  He also purchased the Arden edition of Hamlet for work.  I spied The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell for $16 so that had to come home as well.

My sister called today and I gave her a mini-review of The Thousand Autumns thus far (I am just under a third of the way through).  My basic premise is that whilst reading Cloud Atlas and number9dream is like taking drugs: lots of crazy things happen and you have a great time, but you can't remember what happened when it's over, The Thousand Autumns feels much more grounded.  My sister pointed out that mindfuck part could happen at any point.  She's a smart lady but part of me wishes she hadn't told me that.  I feel like I'm trying to look around the corner all the time now, on high alert for it all to unravel.