Halloween weekend

Today is Halloween but we obviously went out hard last night instead.  I had a full weekend...

On Friday night Jaime invited me to a place called Shh Bar in Kings Cross.  Now we all know that I love Kings Cross, so the answer was obviously yes.  We went with one of his friends that I had never met, and no one really knew how to get there.  We had the address, which turned out to be around the corner from World Bar and Hugo's, in a dead end back alley that reminded me of my weekend in Melbourne last month.

We didn't see a real entrance and asked a few guys smoking beside a backdoor if this was Shh, and they said it wasn't.  We got to the end of the dead end and saw a few cooks dumping water out of a door to the right and a glowing keypad on a door to the left.  One of the girls with us walked up and punched in a code given to her by a friend and the door opened.  How random.  This article does a pretty good job of describing it.

It was a pretty small bar with a locked door in the back that connected it to Le Panic, a bar that fronted the main street next to World Bar.  Once inside we were greeted to everyone in costumes... except us.  Pretty awkward.  We made our way to the bar where the bartender hooked us up with a great drink without a name, so we called it "The Shush":

• Shot of vodka
• Shot of Midori Blue
• Shot of Malibu
• Two squeezed limes
• Sprite
• Splash of Grenadine
• Served over ice in a tall glass

Later in the night everyone was pushed out of the bar into Le Panic, where we spent the rest of the night.  It's definitely a place I will go back to, I just have to get that password.  I didn't stay out too late because I have gotten in the routine of playing soccer every Saturday morning.  I met up with the Russians and played for about an hour and a half and then rushed home - I wanted to get some beach time before our Halloween party.

I bought a wetsuit a few months ago and haven't had a chance to use it.  I went down to Gordon's Bay where Tim and I went snorkeling back in July.  The water was cold and there were more people out of the water than in it.  I took my waterproof Sanyo camera to try to get some shots, but it wasn't as waterproof as I thought.  I got one picture and then dove about 10 feet and it stopped working.  Oops.  I guess it wasn't THAT waterproof.  It's ok though, since I found it at a bar.

I didn't see all that much, which was disappointing.  There is supposedly big blue grouper live in the area, but they have eluded me so far.  I saw a bunch of Sydney Lifesavers walking along the rocks, easily recognizable by their yellow shirts and goofy looking hats.  They had a few boats in the bay that were driving around, so I thought they were doing training.  I went about my snorkeling and then got out after about an hour to give me enough time to get ready for the night.  As it turns out, I was wrong about the Lifesavers... very wrong.

I was browsing the Sydney Morning Herald online when a headline with Coogee in the name caught my eye: Shark warning: Coogee Beach closed.  So while I was snorkeling, the beach just on the other side of the bend had been closed for a shark sighting.  Now I really don't think that the shark picture is representative of the shark they saw, but still.  I guess I should keep my eyes open.

I rushed home and cleaned up and then went over to my friend Steph's house in Glebe.  She lives near a costume shop so I went there and picked up a top hat, bow tie, cane and mustache to complement my black slacks, white shirt and black coat.  Charlie Chaplin... easy costume and someone that has been in the news recently.  We went to a party at The Argyle, a bar in the middle of The Rocks that was hosted by a Canadian Ex-Pat club.

Australians as a whole don't celebrate Halloween, but these did to some degree.  They all seem to dress as someone scary, so more than 50% of the crowd was a vampire, devil, ghost or some other traditional Halloween character.  Most kids don't trick-or-treat and there were almost no decorations, except at the bar.  Steph went as a ballerina, Ben a cowboy, and Francisco a Mexican (see pic).  The bar was pretty full, but no where near the full capacity crowd at Park Tavern's Spiralween last year.

On Sunday Steph and I walked around Darling Harbor and had lunch at the Sydney Fish Market, which is a great place to go if you love seafood.  I also walked by a bunch of guys playing soccer at Wentworth Park and found out they play at 3:30 every week.  Now I have a Sunday game, though it's a bit of a trek for me to get there.