Nothing satisfies like reaching your goals. And when you’re standing at the base of a 14 metre high vertical wall, you know the only way to get to the top is one foot and hand hold at a time. Indoor rock climbing is a little like morphing in to Spiderman. It’s you versus the wall, and you need all your strength, flexibility and mental agility to defy gravity. The experts, of course, make it look like a stroll in the park, but beginners benefit from colour-coded routes, much like a ski-field’s graded slopes. Get your basic instructions and pay particular...
Eat & DrinkSydney
no bingo? bite me
Open two doors 44, clicketty click 66…flipping premium burgers is not the only thing you’ll get at Bite Me Burger Bondi on Thursday evenings. Miss Penny Tration is now host to bingo nights once a week, keeping adult diners entertained with an impressive set of bingo quips. Not quite the same as last year’s bingo commissioner Tanny, but just as infamous (Miss Tration is a seven-foot drag queen) and blessed with rapid-fire acidic wit. Three games are played during the evening, with prizes for all bingo hollers. You can join in for just one, but count on all three, as...
Design & LivingLivingSydney
intelligence squared
Every now and then a taboo topic comes up in conversation amongst colleagues or friends; the kind that gets your blood boiling, causes riffs in relationships or ends up with a strong spell of the silent treatment by the person you differ with. Brace yourself for Intelligence Squared, a series of Oxford-style debates which wrestle exactly with such themes and the concerns of the moment. Provocation is one of their mainstays, alongside information and reasoned analysis. Unavoidable when you’re dealing with motions such as China is not fit to host the Olympics, or that we’d be better off without religion....
LifestyleSydney
art in small sizes
You may not be up for an Archibald (yet) but your brush strokes have the potential. 300 or so other artists are thinking the same thing, and will be testing their mettle at the second Annual Pyrmont Art Festival. Although the subject matter of the artwork is up to the artist, there’s a level painting field with size – all works submitted are on canvas measuring 31cm x 31cm. There’ll be a plethora of paintings, sketches, sculpture reliefs, mosaics, photography and mixed media all vying for critique and a shot at $8000 in prizes. You can vote for your favourite in the...
Eat & DrinkSydney
talk, eat and drink
The Talk+Eat+Drink recipe is foolproof. Take you and some friends, add in an expert Chef’s tuition along with Simon Johnson premium food products, and you’re guaranteed an out of the ordinary culinary learning experience. Two hour seminars are now being held a few times each month within the demonstration kitchen at Simon Johnson’s Pyrmont store. For a taste of May’s authoritative line-up, you can book in for a class with exquisite pastry chef Lorraine Godsmark, Yellow Bistro and Food Store; Justin North, Becasse, for his innovative take on classic French dining; or Martin Boetz, Longrain Restaurant, master blender of Thai and...
Eat & DrinkSydney
the seafood diet
Hooked like we are on the seafood diet? No fuss and friendly, when you see food, eat it. And if that food is from the ocean, fresh is best. You can’t get any fresher than the Sydney Seafood Market. To get a different view – one usually reserved for fish mongers, providores and restaurateurs – take a guided tour of the market’s wholesale auctions. You’ll get a chance to see boxes of crimson snapper, a rare moon fish, the big seller blue swimmer crabs, and dozens of the finest sashimi-quality salmon laid out on ice. About 100 different species of...
sister city benefits
Please, no more appointments. You have them during work days and lunches; with bosses, clients, doctors and dentists. Making another one with a beautician is not high on the priority list. With your spare (and rare) 15 minutes, just walk in to Benefit’s new Paddington-based Boutique. No appointment necessary. Founded by San Franciscan twin sisters Jean and Jane Ford, Benefit is known across the globe for its quirky titled, simple-to-use, beauty fake-its and fix-its. In this, their 20th (but first Australian) boutique, you’ll find a team of professional and fun-loving aestheticians, zealous about mini-makeovers, beautifully-shaped brows, smoother legs and lush-looking lashes. Drop...
FashionFashionSydney
clever swap-style shopping
Statement 1: A favourite but you can’t get away with wearing it again. Statement 2: You got caught up in ‘shopping frenzy’ (a state of buying, knowing that you don’t really need it and are compelled to buy anyway – happens to the best of us, we know). Statement 3: The intent was to drop an unrealistic dress size, and haven’t. If any of these statements apply to a recent fashion acquisition, you’ll really like Swap My Style. Innovative, environmentally and budget friendly, this fashion event is centred around swapping fashion items no longer worn for treasured finds straight out of somebody else’s...
Eat & DrinkSydney
a dinner date with the stars
Conversations over an intimate dinner for you plus one can be often be revealing. Especially so at The Victoria Room, where you can get a banquet combined with an astrology reading for two. In the plush British-Raj surrounds of this Darlinghurst dining room and cocktail bar, pose all those questions that you’ve been burning to have answered; ‘Will I get that promotion’, ‘How compatible am I really with my new significant other / the new boss’ or simply ‘What does the future hold’? One hour into your share-style Mediterranean banquet, Damian Rocks, resident astrologer joins your table to conduct the first thirty-minute consultation. Using...
FashionFashionSydney
one stop man’s shop
The ‘smart casual’ dress code can still cause a wave of angst in so many wardrobes. Although conveniently not so for the style-savvy guys who get their threads from INCU. Their city store has just expanded with a new site entirely devoted to menswear. For designer street couture or work gear that sits somewhere between Armani and mainstream, this place meets the cut. Double its previous size, the boutique holds around two-thirds more product including bags, footwear, accessories and art installations. You can expect a balance of established directional labels, along with up and coming designers with looks that are subtle,...