12. A Departure Checklist

If you’re anything like me, the excitement of a holiday either hits you hard at the very last minute, as leave work on a Friday afternoon at 6pm before you board a 10pm flight — or you spend six months counting down to it, crossing off the calendar days, triple-checking the weather forecast, picking out movies on the in-flight entertainment program in advance. There is no happy medium, no sliding comfortably into the warm knowledge of an upcoming trip. It’s butterflies-in-the-belly one way or the other. It’s silly, really, to get so worked up over a holiday, but I can’t help it. I have the travel bug bad.

I find the only way to combat the mind-churning, heart-pounding, sleepless nights, is to do a brain-dump, and make a checklist. With just a few weeks to go, these are a few things that I need to tick off – perhaps you should add these to your list as well? Continue reading

10. Leonard Cohen, Acer Arena, Sydney 2010

He steps into the spotlight with the deliberate slow of an accomplished Casanova. Polished top-to-toe; seemingly a proper, suited gentleman, my cohen-virgin eyes betray me.

sugarpopblue | in search of inspiration

Source: ticketsinventory.com

The band is readied;
the audience hushed;
the theater dimmed.

And like a tawny port sliding silk-like into the core of your being on a brisk, winter evening, Leonard Cohen intoxicates in the smoothest and headiest way. He croons and charms his way into your heart, the lyrics washing over you in delectable waves, and you can’t help but become helplessly drunk on the deep, dark liquor of his voice.
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09. Placebo, Enmore Theatre, Sydney 2010

The one thing that Placebo always does right in order to put on a successful gig is book the Inner West’s Enmore Theatre – an intimate venue with the best acoustics I’ve ever heard.

That being said, it takes two to tango.

The sound that erupts from the trio and their band is the pure, aural manifestation of sex. Master song-writer and front-man Brian takes center-stage, shying under a single spotlight, fingers working his guitar like a lover under his thrall. His voice bleeds bedtime stories of love and hatred; the eternal pendulum of life and love. Darkness and oppression theme their latest album, Battle for the Sun, but the only thing that hits me front and center is their overwhelming success.

in pursuit of | Placebo
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08. Restaurant Review: Bourke Street Bakery

One brisk Saturday afternoon in June, we decide to try the esteemed Bourke Street Bakery in one of it newer, humbler locations.

The quiet side-street in Marrickville is flooded with wintery sunlight. We perch ourselves on a pair of rustic, wooden benches under an ice-blue canopy of cloudless sky, and um-and-ah over the mouth-watering menu, finally ordering ourselves a couple of soy latte’s, a pork and fennel sausage roll, and a ginger brulee tart.

YUM.

sugarpopblue | in pursuit of earthly delights
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