A hotel can be a public house

Point of clarification - the Unicorn Hotel is not really a hotel. It is a pub.

A public house, defined by Wikipedia as "a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on or off the premises in countries and regions of British influence." Please forgive the slack research.

Quick bit of history. Australian pubs are often referred to as Hotels. Common lore (aka I am too lazy to research this) says that at some point, pubs were compelled to offer accomodation.

There are some famous old hotels in Sydney that have since been demolished to make way for new things. One of note is the "Hotel Australia, which formerly stood on the corner of Castlereagh St and Martin Place (demolished ca. 1970 to make way for the MLC Centre). Its marble bar was dismantled and reinstalled in a basement under the Sydney Hilton Hotel, which was built on the site of the Tattersall's Hotel in the early 1970s". (yup, wikipedia.) My mother used to go to Hotel Austalia - it was a place people from the country would stay when they came to Sydney. My mother's first husband was from the country and she remembers fond fun times there and she speaks with nostalgia of the marble bar that was moved.

Australia never experienced the Prohibition, though there was a movement. So, there was never the speakeasy and nothing remotely like the quintessential "dive bar" which are my favorite in the States. This is not to say that some pubs aren't derelict. But there isn't the mystery or allure. And it is rare to find a place to drink that is small and cozy. They are mainly, well, open to the public.

cheers to the unicorn!

bad news....roosters?

right, so sports land in oz is a wee bit different.

there is cricket. it is not like baseball.

there is football. which is soccer. i have overheard that our national team is doing well.

and there is rugby. this can be subdivided into rugby union ("posh") and rugby league ("not posh").

and i am slowly being converted, rather recruited, no sculpted into a rubgy league fan. but not a generalist. no, very specifically a rooster.

yes, there is a team called the sydney roosters. and apparently they are my home team. and i have not been given a choice by my dear friend.

attending my second game this past saturday night, i was witness to a miracle. they won.

cockadoodle doo?

bobbing for apples

sunday family drive to bilpin. what a lovely day. the sky was blue, the air crisp and clear. which rivaled the crispness of the champagne granny smith apples on offer, which are granny smith's that have gone through a few frosts, making them sweeter.

and as an aside, did y'all know that granny smith apples originated in australia? tis a true fact.




bilpin and surrounds are in the blue mountains, and its cooler climate and country life lends well to incredibly fresh produce (of which i bought a lot, think organic farmer's market) and leisurely lunches by a fireplace overlooking green rolling valleys below.

and for us, it was especially nice as our mother had her first outing in months and even a bit of an appetite to eat a bit of a delicious rump steak, bilpin grown at the apple bar.


it is only an hour's drive from sydney and along bells line of road, make sure to roll down your windows, turn off the music and listen for the totally unique sound of the bell bird.

king of my ipod

are the kings of leon.

this is only rivaling learning chess on my morning commute.

oz lotto

i didn't win the $106 million jackpot.

are you canadian?

is it strange that within less than ten months i can't immediately distinguish an australian accent from an american accent? walking down the street, i hear an aussie yabbering away and think nothing of the lilt. it is only upon hearing a yank blabbing that it dawns on me that the accent is out of place.

and it is any more strange that i am picked for a canadian? not the polite, "are you a canadian?" posed to anyone with a north american accent for fear of offending the u.s.a.'s northern neighbour's citizens. but genuine confusion.

this is way different than living in spain, where suddenly i began overnight thinking and dreaming in a foreign language. that was substantial. distinguishable. contextual. everything took on a different color.

but this is twilight zone. it is almost as if i am time travelling back to the same place, but evolution is farther or not as far along.