Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Byron Bay Day 4: A Moment’s Respite

After our longest lie-in yet (until 11!) and a resurgence of the headache I had the first day, we set off with the intent of getting breakfast at a café, then seeing Quantum of Solace. Got to the café we had chosen, only to realize they had stopped serving breakfast. Feeling slightly bad (and getting dirty looks from the waitress), we finished the coffees we had ordered, assuring the waitress that was “all we wanted” and scuttled off to another café. Which was also not serving breakfast. Our third choice had the breakfast menu up on the blackboard, so we assumed it was still on. Wrong. Oh well. Luckily this was the Twisted Sista café, where everything (including the cups, salads, quiches, sandwiches, and smoothies) was huge, interesting and good. Tanja had a vegetarian frittata, and I had a very fresh tandoori Panini. It was during this brunch that we saw our first bit of blue sky since we arrived. Huzzah!

After lunch, shopping. Tanja bought two shirts she had her eye on. I had to tell her afterwards that one of them was a men’s shirt, despite the odd cut and plunging neckline (it was for hipsters). Still looked good. Also got more books. Tanja got a book of Byron Bay stories, and I got Ben Caniader’s Cuisine De Moi.

After shopping and walking, we felt we deserved a glass of wine. To the pub! After some chardonnay for Tanja, and some inferior Riesling for me, I went to the bar to grab something more palatable. Luckily, they had Mount Gay Barbados rum, and I was a happy chappy.

Once emerging from the pub, we realized that it had become a full-fledged blue-sky’d sunny day! The wind had blown away all the cloud and it was finally Byron weather. We wandered up and down the beach (tacitly deciding that we would see the later 007 show), then swung back into Byron for fish-and-chip dinner. Then back to the pub. We’d been at the beach! We’d had fish and chips! We needed beer! Unfortunately, my headache decided that was the moment to come back, and trip to the chemist for Panadiene was required.

Then the Bond movie. I won’t spoil, don’t worry. Boatloads of action, like tons, and a bit shy on plot, but it IS a Bond movie, after all. Tanja seemed to get more into it than I did, but that’s not the movie’s fault. It seems that ever since Iron Man, for some reason whenever I see movies at the cinema they leave me rather cold. It happened for Dark Knight, the new Indiana Jones, and now for Quantum of Solace. I don’t know what it is. I find myself having trouble following/getting into the plots and feeling a bit under whelmed. I’m weird, though.

I think it was the sun today (which was covered by late-breaking cloud in the evening and a thunderstorm in the last 20 minutes), but it felt for part of the day like we had just arrived and that we were re-energised. It was good.

4 comments:

Electric Chikken said...

"I find myself having trouble following/getting into the plots and feeling a bit under whelmed. I’m weird, though"

This is because almost every Hollywood blockbuster is horribly formulaic and generally exists in order to turn a profit rather than for the purpose of making something interesting/life-changing. You didn't notice?

Glad to hear the weather's no longer being ironic.

Lucas said...

Yeah, yeah, Art-House-Ted. This from the guy who liked Dark Knight WAY more than I did. :P

Taqwa said...

Buuuurrn!

Electric Chikken said...

My exact words were "Not that mindblowing for a film in it's own right, but pretty good for a Batman film".

I'll leave that one for both of you to think about.

Bam.