Bourke Street Bakery and More

Mine was an awesome weekend. Our catch ups with friends at BSB have reinforced to me that you really don't need any specific event or objective, nor a stunning location to have a great time. It is the people you spend the time with that makes it. We have spent time at various places this weekend with different friends. We've also taken time out for 'just us' time, and it has been great.

Above we have Jon & Gordon who joined us at BSB for the first time this weekend. I think they fit the ambience well. They'll have to come back. Brenton (below) was ubercool and ever-reliable coming despite multiple fractured ribs and crushing soft tissue injuries from collisions with poles and mishaps getting tied up... All this exercise is certainly getting him ready for summer!! Christiaan was notably absent, but he's in a whole other world right now anyway.

Spring is here and Summer is decidely in the air. I am so looking forward to it.

BSBSBSBSBSBSBSBSB

Okay I had some rocky days there - but I've worked through it - thanks everyone who lent a hand. Chink in the armour repaired, but no anticorrosion guarantee... Hell, life's no fun without feasts and famines now is it?

So we got together at the usual - Lindt Cafe was just too good for us last week, and hell, I don't think enough people could hear us there. So back to the great outdoors, and the ever increasing queue at BSB in Surrey Hills. Guest star this week was Sir Richard, whose name might disappear from here if he objects to the publicity, or maybe not.

I didn't save the world this weekend, but I had a lot of fun not doing it.

The BSB crowd outvoted me to see the French film 'Inside Paris', though Sir Dick managed to avoid commitment, and I was saddened to have missed the movies I had voted for - some great new Australian movies that I wanted to see and support... (has anyone seen The Home Song Stories, or Jammed ?) And at the end of the film most wished they had not voted against me. I wanted to fall asleep in the first half - almost made it - but the second half revved up and became quite insightful and even beautiful in its dealing with humanity. The Frenchman very much enjoyed it for this reason - (and because he's French and can't help himself) but agrees that it started off poorly. The brother is quite cute by the way...

I'm going to try to get to bed earlier for a while. Emphasis on TRY, but we shall see - and maybe you can too - or maybe I'll edit the time postings so you'll never know... (yes I can do that, the wonder of technology).

There's lots in my head - so you may get to hear a lot more from me this week - beware...

BSB @ Lindt

'Twas a dark and stormy day...

And sitting on crates outside the regular Bourke Street Bakery wasn't quite so appealing. So to try something different we headed to the Lindt Cafe in Martin Place Sydney. I've known it's existence for some time and had always planned to get there - but never quite made it. Today was perfect for it, and so we did. Lynnette was in town and needed to be spoilt, and spoilt we were! The hot chocolate was decadent, as was everything, I mean we even had linen table cloths, fine cutlery and even crockery, none of which are a specialty of BSB. The menu consisted of columns of delicious desserts. Not great for one's waistline, but god it's good. Melt in your mouth Heaven.

Here I am below on the very wet street after we spent some time at the Argyle hotel (above) - see more about that at 1234men - I'm wet in the photo - but we were saturated by the time we got to our cars. Thankfully I had towels, we really needed them!

Bourke Street Bakery Afternoons...

Who needs plans when you have friends who can be spontaneous! We headed to our regular haunt, with Special Guest Corey - ate some new delicacies, discussed life the universe and men... scared a few children, parents... and dogs, and then did the same in multiple locations (including a cinema) throughout the city into the night. Even managed the mandatory swim in there somewhere. Perfect.

In Heaven @ BSB

Back for a week - and time for Sunday afternoon at BSB. It seems the place is getting even more popular these days as there were no chocolate tarts or even crumbs of same left in the display today - and we weren't late! The best thing about this is it makes me try other things - today it was a flourless chocolate cake - to die for (as you can see from my expression here). Brenton and the Frenchman were there - we swam beforehand, creating a bit of an appetite (no one seems to notice aussielicious swimming or drinking coffee completely naked any more, maybe it's a winter thing) - and two revelers from our Croatian escape came as well. Again too much fun - and too much chocolate - takes me back to the French Patisseries... I never would have thought that as I grew up I'd be increasingly accustomed to sitting on milk crates outside undersized eateries! What next?

BSB @ Elsewhere

Me, Brenton & Christiaan @ almost BSB*.

A Saturday escape to the big smoke saw The Frenchman (missing from the photos because of his penchant for mystery) and I catching up with family and friends including the regular BSB crew transplanted to a whole new cafe (some other bloggers were frightened of getting wet). I don't think we really care where we meet up anyway - it's just too much fun regardless of where it is. I just pity the people around who have to deal with our animated conversation, and relentless paparazzi. But it will be the last BSB event for a few weeks now as The Frenchman and I are off to the warmer northern hemisphere later this week.

It has been a week of unexpected pleasures and moving and shaking. Just how I like it. Life should not be about the status quo and moving on the path of least resistance.

Look into my eyes, not around my eyes... it's the 2 million visit man. Brenton looks like he's got his eyes set on the stars... what next can we expect from the ever-popular Aussielicious, the blog of the public nudity challenge?

I'm not really a musicals fan - but Theatre this evening with Christopher & Keith our regular theatre buddies was a delight. Laughed a whole lot I did to the one liners from "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" playing now at the Sydney Theatre. We continued to stress Keith to the max with dessert (4 Belgian Chocolate Tarts) ordered with just enough time to get to the theatre - worth every second!

The Frenchman and I do have a habit of driving the time-conscious people in our lives to the brink of despair. Many apologies - we do love you - even if we do it later than others.

* for the uninitiated - BSB is the Bourke Street Bakery - the centre of many a discussion on a weekend afternoon, with consumption of many a fine coffee / hot chocolate and various tarts.

secrets

What are your secrets? Hidden deep inside? Things you don't talk about - to keep you safe from ridicule, from harm, from embarrassment; or because it just doesn't seem proper. Things you don't say to protect someone. Memories you just keep for yourself. Things you don't think anyone else will be interested in. Things that scare you, things that you think might happen, that don't. Things that have happened to you. Things you have done...

You may have heard of postsecret - the blog that publishes home-made postcards with peoples' secrets sent in anonymously. It's worth a look. It's quite cool.

We all have secrets, but sometimes being able to share them relieves a certain pressure inside. It liberates us. It can even bring us closer to people around us. Sometimes shared secrets are much more fun than ones kept to ourselves.

There are secrets we share at BSB, and ones we keep. The Patient Man, Aussielicious, The Frenchman and myself are here on the left from a Sunday rendezvous, but who is who, and what are our secrets?

What's YOUR secret? - comment aloud or anonymously, or email me a postcard you've made and I might just post it here...

BSB - The Lens is Turned

A perfect day in autumnal paradise. Work in the morning was refreshing, it's nice to be appreciated. But weekends are not for work. We headed to Paddington for a spot of shopping before meeting the regulars at BSB. En route there were scores of men in various stages of undress being photographed (frequently self portraits) one assumes for a certain aussielicious public nudity challenge... Our scoring was a little different to Brenton's... And having a camera handy is good for those perfect 10's out there, thanks for the memories... The Patient Man wasn't so patient and practiced the art of being obvious with my camera - Jake, Jason & Julian who had their whole own BSB experience just the thickness of glass away from us (and whose names are completely fictitious until proven otherwise) were the subject of his musings, one of whom can be seen below. Could the man in cargo shorts please report to base?

Aussielicious signed autographs as per usual - more naked men than just him this time meant he didn't seem so out of place. The decadent hot chocolate keeps one warm regardless of how little clothes one has on. A useful fact for Aussielicious as winter heads our way. But today was a day to farewell Sam. One of our original BSB'ers, Sam is heading to Sudan. 6 months sans Sam will feel like 16. (perhaps even more - but I'll keep you posted) and his farewell was not at BSB but at the clock tower hotel a hop, step and jump away. A delight as always, Sam has entered the blogging world - and when I have his address will publish a link. In the meantime here's the man of the moment - soon of the Sudanese moment.

Mother's Day at BSB

The queues are getting longer and the food is running out - it feels like we've arrived in the communist bloc, or maybe too much free blogertising has taken its toll... perhaps we need to find a new BSB? These questions and more will be dealt with another time, but today at the bourke street bakery we discovered that The Patient Man got his (or is that Collette's) dresses in the front pages of the popular press this week (though he was too busy exploring the wonders of American men to revel in his glory), Much About Monty was revealed but not discussed, The Sailing Penguin got lost somewhere on the Croatian coast in his quest for a Superchilled Race Around the World Title (and during his latte got beaten by a Canadian in Sri Lanka), The Frenchman infused his haemoglobin with a caffeine chaser while the always delicious Aussielicious explored American culture with The Patient Man in preparation for a hotilicious date (in between signing autographs from all and sundry including two big fans with small dogs, and a Japanese tourist who only recognised him when he disrobed, again) . It was hard to keep up, but the hitherto unknown (to this blog) Rick was in the wings taking notes for a tell-all tale on a blog yet to be unveiled.

I think I overdosed on chocolate, one shot of the BSB hot chocolate and you're already over the legal limit - and then there were the chocolate-cherry biscuits... heaven on a milk crate. I managed to swim it off at the pool afterwards - definitely performance enhancing. Thanks BSB boys, fabulous as always, but where was Sam of the original fab 4?

Oh, and I miss Byron - the weekend was great, but Byron... well, it's just a world away.

Oops almost forgot, Happy Mother's Day!

BSB & the weekend

I said I'd get to bed early - but that was meant to be pre-midnight... oh well.
Here are some images (above) from Sunday afternoon at the bakery. Great time as usual, then 'The Lives of Others' at the movies - a German film certainly worth a look, powerful and moving. Thanks guys for a great afternoon / evening. Bed is calling - and really loudly - so I'm off. The week begins again! I need to be awake for it.