A Saturday snapshot

I started this post at the Standard Hotel in Fitzroy.  The bar was packed and I was drinking a Fixations IPA (sharp, hoppy and very good).  I wasn't sure whether to go and have a wine at the Brandon Hotel next or walk home and do the ironing.  Tough call: it’s a chilly night.

 

It’s been an oddly full day.  I was up at 9am (I know, I’m ashamed too).  The morning meant laundry, groceries, coffee and ironing, as it usually does.  Midday came, and I went in SES uniform to the Ganesh Chaturthi event at Bundoora.  This is an event set up by the Hindu community, in which an image of the god Ganesh is dissolved in a body of water.  They asked for some SES members to be present as a safety measure, so five of us headed over.  I know very little about Hinduism, but the statue was a very striking one and those present were clearly passionate about it, so good for them!

Ganesh, Bundoora Park Lake, Australia

After the ceremonies, I came back to my digs and ironed a few more shirts until it was time to head off to Mass, a good straightforward service.  I'd promised myself a beer, so I caught a tram down to the Standard Hotel in Fitzroy, which is where I started this post.

As it turned out, I decided that I'd make it a crazy Saturday night and go to a second bar (yep: the Brandon).  I think I said the other day that the Brandon has the appealing quality of trying to be a home away from home.  So, there's no deafening pub band or TV showing horse races: just civilised pub hubbub and families having dinner.  I like that sort of thing.  I got myself a glass of wine and a deck of cards and played a satisfying game of Rouge-et-Noir.

Rouge et Noir and a glass of wine

I walked home from there listening to a remarkably grisly podcast about Dennis Nilsen.  All of which brings me to now: listening to Dido, writing this post and thinking that it's time for dinner.

How's your Saturday going?