Lip Service

Back at work, but my lunchtime spot is still delightful.

 

Watching the Women's 20/20 as part of the Ashes series, England v Australia - Australia won on the Duckworth Lewis system by 6 runs. With just five balls left to bowl, the players were forced to leave the field - there was lightning and a downpour and each side wanted to come back on at different stages of the evening. The weather definitely played its part and if it weren't for the rain, England might have been leaving Manuka Oval with their first points of the series. In the end, despite a great run chase and some well-timed wickets, it was all a bit of an anti-climax - but that's cricket!

Down at TAMF for Friday beers, I told the boys squeezed into the booth opposite that they looked like the three wise monkeys, so they obliged with this pose. 

At Champagne Sunday, Calamity Sue had a lip plumper that she wanted to try - everyone had a go, with limited success in terms of fuller lips, but fun was had in the experimentation. 

After photos: not much difference to be seen, but everyone looks lovely anyway. 

Cricket, clouds and rehearsals

Views from a morning bike ride around Umbagong District Park and West Belconnen Pond.

'There can never really be justice on stolen land'

 

 

 

 

I haven't seen this lovely lady for far too long, so we caught up over breakfast burgers and eggs Benedict at A Bite to Eat.

Little b at A Bite to Eat

Rehearsals continue for Oh, What a Lovely War!  These scenes are from Hitchy Koo and The Biggest Profiteer. 

 

'It's the cutest little thing'

'Don't you ask me what it means'

Female ensemble taking a break

'You must understand, my dear fellow, that war is a political and economic necessity.'

'Do you stumblebums realize that there have been two peace scares in the last year?'

'We've six of the family at the front, sir.'

One of the perks of the job is tasting products to see if we will stock them. This is a range of vodka and gins from New Zealand, made with manuka, saffron, cardamom, rooibos and cacao.  

Sacred Spirits

We tried once more to go the cricket at the Manuka Oval, this time with more success. We saw a 20/20 between the Prime Minister's XI and England. England won, which was great, and we got to see David Willey hit 34 off an over bowled by Nathan Lyon. Now that really was spectacular: five sixes in a row, and then everyone booed the final boundary because it was 'only' a four. 

 

Clouds were gathering and a storm was forming as I went for an evening run. I took a couple of pictures on my phone and then played around with an app to make new images with painterly qualities and turned them into a collage. 

 

Mainly Inside a Theatre

Canberra got to host a BBL game between the Sydney Thunder and the Melbourne Renegades. We were quite excited as Canberra has not got a BBL team and we think it's rather fun. So we headed to the Manuka Oval to see the game... only to find it was all sold out (it's a tiny ground with capacity of 13,550) and of course we had not been organised enough to buy tickets in advance. While this was not great news for us, it is hopefully great news for the future of the tournament in the town. So we repaired to The Durham where we had a paddle of beer and watched it on the television instead. 

l-r: Hope Brewhouse God Save the Queen; HopDog Beerworks A Feat of Stevens; Feral Brewing Company War Hog

We drove home that night through a cracking storm. These are not my photos, but they are so good I thought I would share them. 

Photo by Theresa Hall published in The Canberra Times

Photo by Matt Tomkins published in The Canberra Times

As I have been spending most of my time outside work inside a theatre, here are a few snaps from rehearsals of Oh, What a Lovely War!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last year we watched the Australian Open final drinking BentSpoke Crankshaft IPA, which had just come eighth in the GABS Hottest 100 Aussie Craft Beers Poll. This year we watched the Australian Open final drinking BentSpoke Crankshaft IPA, which has just come third in the GABS Hottest 100 Aussie Craft Beers Poll. Not that we're creatures of habit or anything...

BentSpoke beer goggles