Everything else

While I’ve been blogging about helicopter flights over the Great Barrier Reef and going to Champagne school, lots of other stuff has been bubbling below the blithe surface.

The eldest was sporting two black eyes when I got home on Sunday night. He used the money I gave him for dog sitting to get both cheeks pierced … directly below each pupil. I am still coming to terms with it.

The endless jackhammering and concrete sawing resulted in a patchy night of sleep and I woke up on Monday morning feeling totally miserable. I don’t know what it was, post-holiday blues, burn-out or a last spurt of menopausal hormones, but I was bleak and verging on non-functional.

There were a lot of tears.

Going to Champagne school revived my spirits. Not the booze so much, but the conversation and getting out of the house, away from my hunched misery in front of the computer screen.

But the tears flowed again on Tuesday when I drove DD to the airport. He’s gone to Europe for three weeks without me and is currently swanning around the South of France for a few days.

This is where he had lunch yesterday …

He is visiting his Northern Beaches neighbours – they have done a three-month house swap with someone who lives near Marseille.

The rest of his trip is about catching up with his daughter in Scotland, meeting his cousins in London and spending some time with friends and his brother.

It wasn’t the right time for me to go with him, as the HSC is looming. Not that the youngest has been attending school or studying because she is still crippled with concussion symptoms.

We have an appointment with a neurologist coming up later this month.

The jackhammering and concrete sawing continued throughout Monday and Tuesday nights, but I think they’ve finally finished after months of disrupted sleep. Phew.

On Wednesday night I went to a one-night-only art exhibition featuring works by the eldest and his talented friends.

They included a piece of latex moulded from someone’s chest that looked like actual skin, complete with hair and very realistic nipples. It was hung from the ceiling with fish hooks.

Above is one of the eldest’s works that was in the exhibition and is still available. Two others were not for sale, including a rotating fantasy cat’s head.

And then last night I had the opportunity to review a pop-up bar in the city. It’s called Dusk Club and has been transformed into a Cuban oasis.

Solotel’s popular late-night venue is located upstairs from the Edinburgh Castle Hotel on the corner of Pitt and Bathurst streets.

It has been reimagined with vintage-style Cuban artworks, rattan lamp shades, moody lighting, blue velvet drapes and lush tropical plants.

As it’s just around the corner from ARE Media I asked a former colleague to join me. But she had a last-minute medical emergency just as I was heading into town and had to pull out.

So, who you gonna call?

My sister! She was pretty flat out but agreed to duck out of work for a quick catch up.

It was only when we arrived that I realised the venue was where we celebrated my ex’s 30th birthday. We hired it for a private party and booked a lounge band to perform. Talk about stepping back in time.

But we didn’t dwell on that. We settled down at a table and had a fabulous time chitter chatting and drinking cocktails.

Our favourite cocktail was the Hotel Nacional, which features Bacardi Carta Oro, apricot brandy, fresh pineapple juice, lime juice and yuzu puree. My sister reckons it tasted like a boozy Pine-Lime Splice.