Frankie's Pizza

Today after work I met up with a buddy to head to Frankie's Pizza. Wow, this place really surprised me. One part tries to be an old fashion Italian pizza place. But you walk through a door and the other part becomes a type of metal-music playing bar. And the beer they serve is great. They even had the Green Flash IPA (one of my favorite beers; hails from San Diego).

With the pizza I ordered I also asked for a Red Duck Pale Rider.

This was a tasty pale ale. Of the American pale ale tradition. Red Duck brewery is from Victoria. Success! I found a truly tasty Aussie micro brewery (although I noticed this place also served some NZ beers, too).

I struck up a conversation with one of the bartenders (had long, rocker-style hair and tattoos. He definitely fit in with the theme of Metallic posters). He mentioned some other good places I could go for some beers and that Frankie's was getting a new shipment in next week. Loving this.
I then tried a Grifter Pale Ale (Sydney brewery).

Wow! So tropical and floral. A fantastic beer. I should have never lost hope. There's good beer to be found everywhere.

Yes, I indulged and capped the night off with a Prickly Moses Red Ale. Very caramel-y. Not my favorite of the 3 (that's probably the Grifter), but a good beer.

Well, it just took 2.5 months, but found awesome beers in Sydney!

Rain

Well, I'm still getting used to waking up on a Monday and checking my fantasy football scores once I get into the office. Thankfully, this week was much better than my 0-3 week last week. Vick is rewarding me for trusting in him one more year (please stay healthy) and Marshawn Lynch turned in a dominating performance. If all goes well on MNF, I should be 3-0 for the week (I'm in 3 leagues).

Not much else to report on today. Just wrapping up one job while waiting for another client to get its act together. Just some rain today. Glad I brought an umbrella (brelly) to work. Although heading to the gym I got soaked.

Eating bugs

As I mentioned in my post about my first trip to the Sydney fish market, bugs are lobster-like creatures. I've never seen them in a supermarket before, so I figured I better eat them before I leave Australia.

Each one cost about $8

Three of us decided to cook them up for a Sunday dinner. So off to the fish market to pick up 3 bugs. It's nice because they offered to cut them in half for us. Heck, they even packaged them up for us.

I found this recipe that inspired us.

First we blanched them for 1 min.

Then we fried up some butter, garlic, mushrooms, and olive oil and pan fried them for 3 minutes.

When the time was up, we popped them into the oven for 5 minutes at 450 degrees (about 230 degrees Celsius).

And then, of course, the plating.

Not as good as lobster, but tasty. Weird little creatures, but glad I tried it.

Robbery, Beach, and Sports

I was working from the office on Friday and someone mentioned there was a robbery at Westpac. Westpac is a major bank here (the bank I use. They have a deal with Bank of America, so no transaction fees for me). Turns out someone ran a car into an ATM and made off with some cash
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/masked-bandits-ramraid-westpac-bank-in-sydney8217s-cbd-were-8216in-and-out-in-two-minutes8217/story-fnii5s3y-1226718404502

The crazy thing is, that's the ATM I've used (first one I used in the city, actually). It's across the street from the office.

For dinner, a group of us went to The Grill. A fancy-ish burger joint. Wow. This burger (and the seasoned fries) was the tastiest I've had west of California. It was a lamb burger with goat cheese and humus.

And they had Tabasco sauce!

Moving on to Saturday, a group of us was supposed to go to Bondi Beach. However, the forecast changed and the weather was now supposed to be kinda crappy and rainy. However, on Saturday afternoon it seemed nice enough so we ended up going anyway.

So, after some good sushi at a decent price, we headed out.

Mmmm... sushi

As you can tell from the picture below, we were fooled. Not really a beach day.

It was windy and not that warm. In fact, I was shivering half the time. I think the only people there were Irish tourists. But, hey, we made it there.

Don't have to worry about the towel blowing away with so much sand... And yes, my towel screams tourist

After freezing and being sandblasted at the beach, we went to an AFL game. It's the playoffs and it's the #1 seed Sydney Swans vs the Carlton Blues (#9 seed but became the 8th and final playoff spot after the Bombers were DQed for PED use. I saw the Bombers and Blues play in Melbourne).

Our seats were pretty good and as before, a fun game to watch.

One of the best parts is listening to the fight/team songs at the beginning, and then the winner's at the end. Straight out of the 1950's. Hilarious. (We are the red and white! We stay with you day and niiiight)

Sydney dominated the game, especially in the 3rd quarter. However, they took the 4th quarter off and the score got closer, but never really in doubt.

86 to 62

A co-worker from Scotland and I then went to a bar near the stadium to watch an English Premier League game. It was Manchester United versus Crystal Palace. Not much of a game (Man U was in full control).

After this, I got home around 12:30am. As you may have guessed from the previous post, I then watched the Nebraska vs UCLA game. It started at 2am. I set my alarm for 1:45am but somehow slept through it and woke up at 3:30. Nebraska was winning at halftime. Yes!!! This is going to be good! I went to the bar I planned on watching it at, but they didn't have ESPN 2. So I went to the casino.

I had them put the game on and that's where my depression kicked in as I watched our offense stumble and our defense give up 38 unanswered. *sigh*

Afterwards, I thought about staying up and watching the Alabama vs Texas A&M game, but decided 5am was early enough. I went back home. The weather matching my mood.

Oh well...

I'm writing this on Sunday from outside Wine Odyssey Australia, a cute little wine bar I actually visited at the beginning of my secondment. I'll post about my Sunday later.

Nebraska

Ugh... so I woke up and headed to the casino to watch the Nebraska versus UCLA game. I didn't wake up at 4am to watch us give up 38 unanswered points and lose. This is depressing. I'm headed home for bed. A better, more uplifting post to follow.

Trivia Night and Laser Tag

Three weeks from today I head home! Crazy. It seems like I both have been here forever and time has flown by.

I figured as I wait for my laundry to finish I should post about the last couple of days. On Tuesday night 7 of us met at Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville for trivia night. But before that I met up with a co-worker at King St Brewhouse to try another one of their beers (and to grab dinner). As I've mentioned before, Tuesday is when many restaurants have specials, so our entrees were 2 for 1. Woo hoo. And guess what? I got to see (not hear) some sports highlights and Around the Horn.

I miss ESPN...

Anyway, we then went to Margaritaville and dominated as team The Internationals (we had 2 Americans, an Aussie (well, technically he was born in the US, moved when he was 1 to Bangladesh, then to Sydney), a Ukrainian (an Ukrainian?), a Scot, a Northern Irish, and a South African. Dang. Talk about diversity. Our prize was a $50 bar tab (which doesn't go nearly that far in Sydney).

On Wednesday we went to Kingpin Bowling. For $30 each we got unlimited bowling and laser tag. We bowled 4 games (me sucking but enjoying trying to bowl like the pros and give my ball a spin).

Cool place. Although it often struggled setting up pins...

I made up for struggling in bowling with a dominating laser tag round.

My gun was called "Ewok"

Currently wrapping up 2 jobs and starting my final one while I'm out here. However, that client hasn't been ready for us yet. Hopefully that doesn't delay us too much. After all, I'm gone soon.

Black Mamba IPA

After work I hit up the gym. After eating and showering, I decided to go for a walk with the intention of visiting a wine bar a block or so from my place. However, I guess it closes by 9pm on a Monday. So, I did an audible and walked down to the harbor. I was looking for a place I could grab a drink and work on my laptop. And then I saw it. Australian brewed beer. On site. King Street Brewhouse. I ordered the Black Mamba IPA.

Interesting IPA. Looked almost like a Guinness. Really creamy looking and ended up being quite smooth and creamy tasting. Just a hint of bitterness. A confusing IPA, but not a bad beer. I might have to venture back here and try another craft beer on tap.

While at this brewhouse I was able to get a few personal things done and do a bit of planning for my upcoming trip to the Great Barrier Reef (my last trip outside of Sydney). Time is flying by. I come home in 24 days!