My First Aussi BBQ!

I found a really cool cinema (if a cinema can be cool) on Tuesday night. It's called Dendy and is virtually right next to the Opera House. It's only a small art house cinema that has three screens. The really cool thing about it is that it serves alcohol so you can have a beer while watching a good film. It reminds me of a mix between the Prince Charles cinema in London which also serves beer and the Watershed cinema in Bristol.

I went there on Tuesday to see Good Night, and Good Luck. It's a very good, if a little short film about TV journalist Edward R. Murrow in the 1950's. It's all very well shot in black and white and I found it very interesting. I'll have to go to this cinema again next week to see Capote. They don't tend to show the blockbuster films but do show more films that wouldn't get much time at a bigger cinema. The other big advantage is that because it's an art house cinema you're less likely to get idiots there with mobile phones and eating Hungry Jacks (Burger King) as I had last week while watching Syriana.

We (Wallingford Software employees) went round to Paul's (WS one and only Australian Sales team) house after work on Wednesday for a BBQ. He has quite a big four bed house in the suburbs. You know it's large because it has a separate drive in and drive out entrance for the driveway.

Unfortunately it rained all day on Wednesday, yes it does rain here occasionally, so the weather wasn't that great. Paul put on a great BBQ though and the food was all very filling.


This next shot is of the back of his house. As you can see he has a swimming pool as well. We all bought our swimming gear but unfortunately because of the rain no one fancied a dip in the pool.

Just to the right of the pool in the shot is a golf course. Apparently most Australians really like a house that backs onto a golf course, but I don't think I would seeing as I'm not a fan of the game. They said that they do get a few people wondering by and even a couple of golf balls landing in their back garden. It was the golf ball in their front drive which was the worrying one though.

One thing that was quite amusing was when Paul let his wife start the cooking on the BBQ. Shane and Ian (both native Australians) were quite shocked that Paul didn't do the BBQ cooking. Apparently in Australia the BBQ is the man's domain and a woman shouldn't be let near it. It's not quite as bad in the UK, but it is similar.

After such an earful Ian (on the right), Roger and Allen both did the right thing and stood around the BBQ chatting and cooking the meat.

After the BBQ we made our way home. On the way out of Paul's house there was a "small" Huntsman spider on Paul's porch. It looked like the largest spider I've ever seen native to the UK, but I was assured that this was a baby one.

Fortunately it didn't move while I stared it down and it also didn't make a move when I walked gingerly past it. I'm guessing it was scared of everyone else around me (Paul's wife helped protect me. :-0) because if I had been on my own I'm sure it would have made a move to eat me. I've been told that they aren't anything to worry about because their bite won't kill you only hurt for a bit. As far as I'm concerned it's bite would kill me because I'd die of a heart attack if anything that big was on me!