House of the Rising Sun

During my Newcastle youth, there was a Chinese restaurant called the House of the Rising Sun. I think it was in Charlestown – my friend Megan will know for sure, she has a photographic memory of our past.

The House of the Rising Sun also introduced me to cocktails. It served Fluffy Ducks, Blue Lagoons and Black Russians – Newie friends, am I right?

What I know for sure is that I can still taste my favourite dishes from that era – Chicken with Cashews, King Prawn Omelette, Mongolian Beef, Satay Chicken – yuuuum.

But this blog post isn’t about dodgy Anglo-Chinese food. It’s about sunrises and how much I love them these days … even more than Chicken with Cashews.

I haven’t seen many up close lately because I don’t generally sleep over on the Northern Beaches – I like my space to toss and turn while lying on my preferred side of the bed. But I made an exception on Sunday night in the hope of scoring some choice photos of crimson-streaked sky.

As DD and I were driving to the Avalon headland at 6.40am, I asked what he tripped over in the middle of the night on his way to the bathroom. He said it was a suitcase that he’d forgotten was there because he doesn’t normally sleep on the left side of the bed.

Sorry … WHAT?

It turns out that for the past seven years, due to some long-forgotten confusion, I’ve been sleeping on his side of the bed instead of my side of the bed. My brain hurts just thinking about the pointless insanity of it.

Every now and then DD would offer me the left side of the bed and I’d say no, no, I’ll be fine. He’s a poor sleeper, so I didn’t want to interfere with his shut eye.

But it turns out I’ve been on his side all along. FFS. That would also explain why I spent half the night squeezed onto 10cm of mattress, clinging to the edge – his subconscious was trying to get his body back where it belongs.

Anways … the sunrise at Avalon headland was very pretty, but it had nothing on the one my friend Corrine photographed on the Gold Coast yesterday morning …

Whoa!

It didn’t matter, DD and I still had fun snapping away, trying to beat each other by taking the best Northern Beaches shot.

These were my fave pics that I took …

And this is one DD posted on Facebook:

He also took a couple to show off my newly coloured hair gleaming in the early morning sunlight …

After happy snapping, I drove home to let the dogs out for a wee and settled in for another week of Groundhog Day-style lockdown.

Hurrah.

Fortunately, today is cooking day and I have three recipes planned to keep me busy. Stay tuned for the menu later in the week.

And I have a tequila tasting with a distiller via Zoom at 2pm – that should put a kick in my afternoon!

Song of the day: The Animals “House of the Rising Sun”