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Of cars, wine, and singing taxi drivers
I picked up my car today, which, after various comedies of error, I did literally 10 minutes before the place shut at midday. Getting a call from work because the mail server that was supposed to have been decommissioned 4 months ago (all it does is send bloody email and faxes from SAP) decided to have a minor melt-down didn't help. Still, fixed, collected car.
They tried to find a new seal for the screen, but unfortunately didn't in time. However, they did get the only screen that would fit that was left in Sydney. It's laminated, so it has a faint tint of exactly the colour I intended to get my windows tinted anyway. (Greyish.) So, yay, extra bonus.
I bought a bottle of Nick O'Leary Riesling, which is the first Canberra region wine I can unhesitatingly recommend. Most of them either have a peculiar taste that I don't like or they're ridiculously over-priced for the quality (viz. Clonakilla wines, which are nice enough, but not worth $35+, at least not the ones I've had). So, the riesling - very dry, very slightly astringent, lime flavours and a very very slight floral note, almost honeysuckle. And it was actually very nice with pizza. Pizza with anchovies. :-) $25 and worth it. Apparently he makes a rosé, which I must try (it's hard finding decent rosés!), and a shiraz. Haven't had any Canberra region shirazes yet - I wonder if they're more like the NZ-style syrahs, with the climate here.
Finally, yesterday, I caught a cab up to uni because I missed my bus, and I desperately wanted to go to the gym before my lecture. The cabbie, who was an elderly chap, was listening to some AM station with country music, and regaled me with stories about Slim Whitman (who was playing at the time) and Paul McCartney. Then some chick came on singing Country Roads, and the old bugger joined in with the track on the radio, warbling along happily until we got to my destination. I have to say that I can't think of a true C&W song that I can bear (I don't mind some Anne Murray and Linda Ronstadt, but the more MOR end of the scale), but it was a cute moment.
Oh, and I'll be in NZ NEXT FRIDAY. For less than a week, but I'm going on a road trip from Wellington to Auckland, which will be FUN. I'm also going to take lots of pics, because I am fucking sick of certain people saying "Yes, the South Island landscape is spectacular." So is the North Island landscape, actually.
ETA: YouTube nostalgia of the evening: Fleetwood Mac (yes, late-70s soft rock, but Stevie was hawt, and I still love Rhiannon, Dreams, Sara and Landside, the original one, goddamit. And Tusk. Stevie Nicks twirling the twirly thing, OMG.), the Eurthymics (don't read the fucking comments on Annie's gender), The Cure (don't read the racist comments from morons who never heard of Camus, not that I like Camus) and this fucking fab fan vid of Placebo's My Sweet Prince.
ETA2: Ok, sometimes YouTube comments aren't that bad. Someone characterised PJ Harvey (yes, I was perving at her again, sue me) as: Polly Jean... the product of Iggy pop fucking Kate Bush.. Rock on.
They tried to find a new seal for the screen, but unfortunately didn't in time. However, they did get the only screen that would fit that was left in Sydney. It's laminated, so it has a faint tint of exactly the colour I intended to get my windows tinted anyway. (Greyish.) So, yay, extra bonus.
I bought a bottle of Nick O'Leary Riesling, which is the first Canberra region wine I can unhesitatingly recommend. Most of them either have a peculiar taste that I don't like or they're ridiculously over-priced for the quality (viz. Clonakilla wines, which are nice enough, but not worth $35+, at least not the ones I've had). So, the riesling - very dry, very slightly astringent, lime flavours and a very very slight floral note, almost honeysuckle. And it was actually very nice with pizza. Pizza with anchovies. :-) $25 and worth it. Apparently he makes a rosé, which I must try (it's hard finding decent rosés!), and a shiraz. Haven't had any Canberra region shirazes yet - I wonder if they're more like the NZ-style syrahs, with the climate here.
Finally, yesterday, I caught a cab up to uni because I missed my bus, and I desperately wanted to go to the gym before my lecture. The cabbie, who was an elderly chap, was listening to some AM station with country music, and regaled me with stories about Slim Whitman (who was playing at the time) and Paul McCartney. Then some chick came on singing Country Roads, and the old bugger joined in with the track on the radio, warbling along happily until we got to my destination. I have to say that I can't think of a true C&W song that I can bear (I don't mind some Anne Murray and Linda Ronstadt, but the more MOR end of the scale), but it was a cute moment.
Oh, and I'll be in NZ NEXT FRIDAY. For less than a week, but I'm going on a road trip from Wellington to Auckland, which will be FUN. I'm also going to take lots of pics, because I am fucking sick of certain people saying "Yes, the South Island landscape is spectacular." So is the North Island landscape, actually.
ETA: YouTube nostalgia of the evening: Fleetwood Mac (yes, late-70s soft rock, but Stevie was hawt, and I still love Rhiannon, Dreams, Sara and Landside, the original one, goddamit. And Tusk. Stevie Nicks twirling the twirly thing, OMG.), the Eurthymics (don't read the fucking comments on Annie's gender), The Cure (don't read the racist comments from morons who never heard of Camus, not that I like Camus) and this fucking fab fan vid of Placebo's My Sweet Prince.
ETA2: Ok, sometimes YouTube comments aren't that bad. Someone characterised PJ Harvey (yes, I was perving at her again, sue me) as: Polly Jean... the product of Iggy pop fucking Kate Bush.. Rock on.