Sunday in Sydney - Catching up with the blogging (almost)

Today's post is about a quiet Sunday, spent at Mass and in the Hotel before going to a Nigella recommended restaurant in the evening. So, let's go back to the beginning of the day.

Morning

I got up at 5.45am upload yesterday's daytime photos and started on editing the ones we took last night's at LuMi. 

Drew woke at 6.30am, so I made a cup of espresso for us each on the machine in the room. He is sounding a little like Lachlan Scott, the famous Australian Basso Profundo singer or as Drew puts it: "My James Cagney impression is much easier with this voice." [Co-pilot's note: "You dirty rat, you killed my brother, you dirty rat."]

We began our ablutions at 6.45am and we were both finished and ready to go down to breakfast for 7.30am.

Drew's Breakfast

Haydn's Fruit and Nuts

Haydn's Main course of breakfast

Having had breakfast we go back to the room by 8.00am

Sunday Mass

I have the amazing luxury of being able to choose from a wide range of Masses. Most times on holiday, well at home too, I tend to opt for the Saturday Evening Vigil Mass. As an wise old woman, now deceased, once said to me: "I like getting my Mass obligation sorted early in the weekend, in case I don't survive to the next morning!" This was soon after the Vigil Mass tradition was re-established in the church (read the Acts of the Apostles, Sunday was a working day, so for all the early Christians Saturday night was when they gathered to celebrate the Lord's day as so many of them came from the Jewish tradition where days run from Sunset to Sunset not Midnight to Midnight.)  

But in Perth, due to flight delays and in Sydney, due to restaurant bookings, I'm going to Sunday morning mass and have an astounding range of choices. I decided yesterday not to choose until this morning when I knew what time we had. 

There are three churches within 0.7 of a mile of the hotel. The Cathedral, the furthest, with Masses at 7am, 9am and 10:30am, St. Columbkille's with Mass at 9am and, the nearest, St. Canice's with Mass at 8.30am and 10.00am.

I leave the hotel at 8.15am for the six minutes walk to St. Canice's and arrive at 8.21am. 

The church is an old building, with some lovely Stations of the Cross. I What's Apped Drew to ask him to come down with his posh camera to take some photos after Mass.

Mass

Mass was concelebrated by two priests, one from Queensland and the other from South Africa. The readings at Mass were from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. Until recently all English speaking countries apart from America and Canada were using the Jerusalem Bible translation. But with the decision of first the Indian and then the English, Welsh and Scottish Bishops to adopt the English Standard Version (ESV) - other English speaking countries have adopted alternatives to the more formal language used in the ESV.

In Australia this means you can use the Jerusalem Bible (a 60 year old translation),  the Revised New Jerusalem Bible being used by the Irish Church and the New Revised Standard Version which was used here today. I like the opportunity to hear familiar words in a slightly different form as it prompts you to think afresh, not be stuck with a translation that I've been hearing since 1966. The language of the NRSV is much simpler and direct than that of the Jerusalem Bible, which is refreshing.

The focus of today's Mass is the challenge from Jesus to his disciples that "If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me." (Mark 8:35) or as the NRSV puts it: "‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me." 

The priest did a good job of highlighting the fact that this isn't about denial of good things for good things sake, or creating fantasies to object against, but to be willing to put others before ourselves as Jesus did. He explained it isn't about making up crosses but discerning what part of our lives Jesus invites us to give more fully to him. A rousing, yet challenging reflection.

Photos of the Church

With Mass over at 9.10am Drew, with his sore throat and deep voice arrived and managed to get the whole set of photos taken before people started arriving for the next Mass. I met a pleasant gentleman called Derek, whose wife was doing teas and coffees at the back of the church after Mass. So, while Drew photographed I chatted to him. He had worked eight years in London, so when I mentioned that I came from Swansea originally he said: "I remember Swansea as the place for the DVLA as I had to apply for a UK licence while I was in the country." He had also done some visits to Wales, though mainly to the castles in the North, not in my part of the country. He left to go and visit his father in a nursing home near by and Drew and I said our farewells.

Here are the photos Drew was taking while I was talking. Note some of them look strange, this is due to the way google creates these collections - the full size ones are available on Flickr - from here onwards:

Back to the Hotel

We walked back to the hotel arriving at 9.45am. Drew's cold is full on now with a runny nose joining the other symptoms, so we decide that we would use today as a catch-up day and make full use of the hotel room, which since arriving in Sydney we have barely used, except to sleep. 

I updated all the photos right up to date. I clearer the Parish emails I had filed for future action earlier in the week. Sorted out some Parish Hall bookings that had come in then focussed on completing blog posts that I should have written a week ago. Luckily I had plenty of notes and photos to refer too and managed to get four complete posts done in the day. In between times I was making tea (Lemon and Ginger for Drew, English Breakfast for me) and coffee. 

I did the pre-Check-in with Avis Car Rental for our trip tomorrow and checked which of the two airport check-ins we needed to use - it is the Domestic one. We'd decided to rent the car from the airport rather than from the city centre, so we could drop it back there in two weeks time when we are flying to Japan. 

We had a restful but pleasant day until it was time to go out to dinner. 

Porkfat

Today's dinner is at the restaurant called Porkfat, perhaps not the most appealing name for a restaurant - but I guess using the principle of what you see is what you get, it was just right.

My sister had sent me a link to Nigella Lawson's Instagram comment on Porkfat, where Nigella said:

Oh Pork Fat, how do I love thee! Let me count the ways.

Oh Pork Fat, how do I love thee! Let me count the ways. I adored the Queensland tiger prawns, exuberant in a southern-style curry and then with the skinniest of noodles, rich with pork fat, oyster sauce, Chinese rice wine, sesame and ginger, with a fresh hit of Chinese celery on top. Oh, and then the pork jowl, first grilled with smoked Chilli nam Jim with fish sauce, tamarind, lime and roasted rice, so juicy, simple yet intense, and then in a fragrant green curry with lychees. I have to mention the whole roast Barramundi with Three-Flavour Sauce (the sourness of tamarind, sweetness of palm sugar, and saltiness of fish sauce) with an abundant sprinkling of crispy garlic and shallots and deep-fried Makrut lime leaves and Thai basil: a headily layered and many-textured delight, but perhaps my favourite was the @porkfatsydney Larb: If you go to a restaurant called pork fat, of course the larb comes with a tumble of golden cubes of – yes – pork fat on top! Sensationally good – but then, absolutely everything was. I ended with Amphawa’s Homemade Coconut Ice Cream with toasted peanuts, jelly-like palm seeds and candied pumpkin, so fresh and bright. What incredible food comes out of this kitchen. If you’re in Sydney, you have to eat here! 

So we did!

We left the hotel at 6.10pm and walked the 1.5 miles to Porkfat arriving at 6.45pm and were seated straight away.

We began with Papaya Salad with Salted Duck Egg, this crisp salty start to the meal, needed extra chilli, at least for our tastes. To be fair they provided it as soon as we asked, making the salad remind us of previous lovely versions of it in the Thai House in Cardiff. 

Our second starter was Crispy Pork Belly with Chilli Lime Nahm Jim. Like I said they follow their name. I've not had Pork Belly cooked like this - the astringent sauce is full of nuts, chillies and vinegar. 

It didn't take long before we saw the decoration on the plate. 

For mains we shared a Porkfat's Larb. This was a Larb moo (pork), less spicy than we are familiar with, but fresh and tasty all the same, we again asked for extra chillies which were brought straight away. 

Our second dish was Sun-dried Spanish Mackerel with Green Mango Salad. This was a surprising dish to us in a Thai restaurant, but one with a lot of flavour and not a single bone! Someone had done all the hard work for us. The mackerel was deep fried.

We had a side of Stir-fry Chinese Broccoli with Shiitake Mushrooms, these were garlic and soy rich, this didn't need extra chilli but was just right for us.

It became clear during the meal that we had underordered - having eaten so much the previous three nights we wanted to be on the safe side, so had only ordered two mains between us, even though in other Thai restaurants we would normally share four. We then ordered an extra plate of Grilled Pork Jowl, our second Pork Jowl in four days! This was tasty, but unusual, unlike many Thai dishes which balance meat and vegetables, this, apart from a sprig of mint, was entirely pig's meat. Very tasty pig's meat, but not quite what we had expected. Still, it all went, so we clearly can't complain. 

It now being 8.15pm while we were still eating, we were asked if we wanted any more food as the kitchen was closing in 15 minutes. We had noticed the early time Australians' have dinner since we arrived, but never have we been given the hurry up before 😁. Drew wasn't up for any dessert, so we completed our meal and headed off at 8.30pm.

It still being so early and Drew having his second lens, the one that is great for photos in darker settings, we decided, instead of returning to the hotel straight away, to visit the Bridge and the Opera House again. This video selection of photos shows those images. It seemed like a fitting farewell to these great icons of the City which have given us so much pleasure these last few days.

We left Circular Quay by train at 9.35pm and, with one change at Town Hall, were back in the Hotel room by 9.57pm, ready for an early night and a drive tomorrow.