Being a culture vulture

Doom Watch
Originally uploaded by BombDog.

This weekend I have overdosed on the good things in life. For the last 48 hours, I've done things that I've never done before and had a wonderful time doing them.

I spent all day Saturday trudging up and down the stairs to the laundrdy in the building next door but, as a result, every stitch of clothing - and all the sheets and towels - are as clean as a whistle. Ever the geek, I even cheered to myself when I realised that my cute winter coat with the fluffy collar and cuffs is actually machine washable - yeehaw. So in it all went, and in between waiting for the loads to finish and the dryers to do their thing, I vacuumed and mopped and cleaned the bathroom. I generally just kept moving to get things done that I'd been putting off for days.

Saturday night I went off to an Aussie drinks reception at SOFA, the annual festival in Chicago that celebrates "Sculpture and Objects of Functional Art". For three days each year, Navy Pier hosts exhibition halls chock full of funky artwork from all over the world, that you can even buy if you want to. So the Australian Trade Commission hosted these drinks and nibblies to celebrate the Aussie contingent. Admittedly, SOFA never interested me last year because I'm an ignoramus when it comes to art in most of its forms. But SOFA is awesome, in the literal sense. The scale of this event has to be seen to be believed. Carrying our wines through the exhibits, Lexie and her friend Beth and I had a wonderful time ooh-ing and aah-ing at the displays. But as we were walking towards the exit and I very nearly sloshed my chardonnay over a glass bowl - with a price tag of US$50,000 we figured it was time to leave very quickly.

Fast forward through a hungover Sunday and brunch at the delightful Austrian cafe I hit last weekend (fabulous breakfast blend coffee by the way). Tonight I took Courts out for her pre-birthday dinner. I'm going to be in LA from Tuesday through Sunday, so I'll miss her actual birthday. But it was important to me that I recognise the celebration and so I bought us the last two tickets to a five-course food and wine dinner at a funky little wine bar/restaurant in West Town. It's called The West Town Tavern, but is not like any smokey, fish & chip tavern I've ever been to. This place is funky, sleek and very modern. I was a little nervous about my capacity to get through all five courses, but it wasn't has hard as I thought. The servings were generous but the evening was well-paced and allowed you to digest what you'd eaten well enough before moving on. We worked our way through appetisers, fish, chicken, duck, and finished with pecan pie, thick cream and caramel sauce. Yummo! The wines were equally delicious, and ranged from Australian sparkling, travelling through California, to France and Spain and Italy - and they were wonderful complements to the meal, even the sweet dessert wine to finish the dinner, and I don't even normally like sticky wines.

I think that Courts had a good time at the dinner too and it was nice to be part of a mass event like that but still have a table for 2 to ourselves so we could chat and catch up.

But of course all this culture has primed me for LA-LA land on Tuesday. My mission? Aside from learning all I can from our Consulate over there, and have some meetings with Aussie companies, I want to see the Hollywood stars and the Chinese theater, but also go to Marilyn Monroe's house. I just hope I get enough time to mix business and pleasure this week.