Hobart: Day 2 - Evening

Dinner was a struggle this evening for a number of reasons. After a LOT of indecision ("Seafood? Or something else?") we finally settled on the Drunken Admiral as tonight's culinary choice. It was only a short walk from the hotel, but the temperature was dropping and the wintry weather didn't make for a pleasant, relaxing walk. We wanted to get into a building, and a warm one at that!

We arrived at the Drunken Admiral, only to find that it was booked out for the evening.. so we walked to Mures, which was across the pier. Didn't really like what we saw, so we then decided to head over to Salamanca, which was about 10 mins walk away.

By this time the overcast skies had decided to mix a light drizzle into the already chilly atmosphere, and we slowly started to collect rain in our hair and clothes as we hurriedly walked towards the string of restaurants.

Salamanca is a bit like the Rocks in Sydney - similar stone buildings and an air of history about the place, but not as many nooks and crannies as the Rocks offers. I enjoyed the location, but every restaurant we walked into was packed out - the first place (which a Melbournian man recommended to us on his way out) had a waiting time of 45 minutes, so we said F-that and moved on. Having walked most of the street, we settled on a 25-minute wait at the Ball and Chain. We were just glad to be out of the rain.

Eventually we were seated upstairs, and although the place looks very nice, the mains took ages to arrive after the entrees (maybe it's because they only use charcoal to cook the steaks) and my pepper steak was VERY peppery! The first mouthful was enough to provide internal heating to my gob.. too much in fact. We agreed that the pepper coating on the steak was so overpowering that you couldn't taste the steak, but I finished it nonetheless because it was a good medium rare. We'd had a lot of sides and entrees so everybody was pretty stuffed by the end of our meal, especially considering that we were all content after completing our entrees.

The walk back to the hotel was FREEZING. I was so cold that my tongue wouldn't behave properly (no I wasn't drunk) and I couldn't speak properly. The unavoidable shivering wasn't helping either. Needless to say I cranked up the air con to 26 degrees Celsius when I got back to my room, and really enjoyed the hot shower.

Work was more productive than yesterday. My client contacts are really friendly and we can share a laugh together, which makes me happy and allows me to enjoy my work more.

Had breakfast at 6.30 again - I've discovered that apricot slices and dry corn flakes are a tasty combination, as the cornflakes soak up the syrup and also stick to the apricot slices themselves. Yum!
They also played some good music during breakfast - a female cover of The Beatles' "Imagine", and Ben Harper's "Diamonds on the Inside" followed by "Steal My Kisses". Doesn't get any better! In fact we've been hearing quite a lot of good music around, i.e. the radio station we listen to in the car and in the hotel restaurant section. It's been a good mix of 90s pop favourites and more recent stuff, songs that I recognise but don't know who they're sung by.

Listened to Beth Rowley's album "Little Dreamer" as I got ready for work this morning. Currently listening to Goldfrapp, and was listening to the Soweto Gospel Choir from my phone's Walkman whilst showering. It took me back to memories of the Soweto Gospel Choir concert I went to earlier this year**.. that was such a special night for me. It was like seeing my heroes on stage. I don't consider the Choir as one of my heroes - in fact I don't really have any heroes in particular (although I do like to say "Ben Harper is my homeboy") - but I really love their music and the energy they have.

(**I've just written an email to the contact I obtained whilst at the concert - that night I asked around to try and see if I could get a photo with the whole choir, and although I wasn't able to, I got in touch with their manager and was able to write them a group email instead.)

I was thinking about this the other night - I really love African "township"-style and gospel-style music, but I don't listen to it that often, and I think I've realised why. It's because with African music, so much is lost in an audio recording. If you watch a Soweto Gospel Choir concert, or the DVD "Gumboots", or Ladysmith Black Mambazo in concert, you'll understand what I mean. I believe dance/physical movement in general is an essential part of African music, as well as the sense of community. For instance, watching Gumboots makes me so happy, I find it difficult to sit down and watch it. I have to get up and dance/shuffle along to the rhythms and sing along to the call-and-response melodies. African music is really beautiful and feels so essential to life in this regard, like breathing.

Haven't watched any movies yet. Watched the first ever episode of the Animals of Farthing Wood last night, and could barely stay awake through the 22-minute show. There's just not enough time at night to do anything else because dinner takes a long time, and then I'm too tired to stay up, and I end up staying up to blog because I'm so convinced that I need to blog at least once a day while on this trip.

Things I would like to do on this trip:
- Do some drawing (I brought a book and crayons)
- Make sure I keep a journal of Melbourne in my "Melbourne" book (same book as the one referred to above, and so-called because it was a gift from Melbourne)
- Write in my handwritten journal at some stage
- Keep reading Time magazine in the mornings at breakfast (I still haven't gotten to the article that I specifically bought this magazine for)
- Watch at least one TED.com video, if not more
- Read a few passages from my Spanish learning book - haven't touched it since getting here! :(
- Attempt to watch at least one DVD that I brought (tried watching a bit of DMB Live at Folsom Field yesterday morning but didn't last long)

I think that's about it. I am SO buggered. Time to hit the hay (or fall asleep to a DVD).. damn these blogs take up my time.