K+S In The City: Day 6- Sculpture By The Sea

Wednesday Kristin and I headed to the beach where we embarked on the Coogee to Bondi coastal walk. It was an absolutely beautiful day (one of the few we had), and the entire walk we took in stunning views of the coast.  

Cooggee Beach

All that's missing is the Little Mermaid

When we reached Tamarama, the center point of the walk, we had the additional benefit of viewing artwork along with the coastline as part of Sculpture by the Sea. Sculpture by the Sea takes place in November only and is an art exhibition in which the coastal walk is "transformed into a giant sculpture park of over 100 sculptures by artists from Australia and across the world" (www.sculpturebythesea.com). This, in my opinion, is most definitely the best way to view artwork- with soft, white sand as the canvas and a piercing blue ocean and sky as the backdrop. Kristin and I roamed among the statues which were scattered across the sand, rocks and grass which lined the water. Around each bend we discovered new statues, some of which were hidden within the landscape surrounding us. Below are some of my favorites we saw that day.

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a statue!

Made entirely out of plastic bottle tops

The circle of life...

This would make a cool slide

Recycled icicles 

The aliens have landed

That evening I had to work again. It was hard to drag myself into the restaurant and get into "work mode" after such a lovely day at the beach. However, this evening turned out to be perhaps the best night I've ever had at work, the reason being that I finally consumed my first meal at the restaurant. Day after day, week after week, and by this point month after month, I stood at the hostess stand watching the mouth watering starters, mains and desserts pass my by on trays. Smelling the tantalizing aromas of the food, I tried with all my might to halt my salivary glands and suppress the hunger raging in my stomach. I fought this same battle every night. But on this Wednesday night I had the unexpected pleasure of eating those dishes I had dreamt about eating for so long. Finally, I surrendered the battle and gave into the temptations before me. Why? Because for some reason my manager Maricia thought I deserved a Summit meal. "Sarah, " she said at the start of the night, "have you ever had anything on the menu before?" When I replied no she seemed taken aback. A few hours later she came over and handed me a menu. "Here," she said. "Pick out something you'd like to eat. I'll put in the order and we'll have dinner after your shift." I was psyched. I don't know why she was offering me a meal, but I wasn't going to question her motivation!

For my main meal I selected Michael Moore's signature dish, the twice cooked pork belly. The menu description is as follows: glass crackling, royal gala apple & radish salad, apple vanilla marmalade & apple balsamic toffee, roasting pan juices.  Delicious. For a side we shared broccoli with red chilli and garlic butter. It had been a while since I had fresh broccoli, so this simple side was especially enjoyable to eat.  And for dessert (yup, I had the works baby!) I selected the hot raspberry "meringue souffle", served with a raspberry custard and clotted meander valley cream. Heavenly. Maricia also ordered the cheese platter which, as you know from my trip to Hunter Valley, I thoroughly enjoyed. All this was coupled with a few glasses of wine. And viola! There was my first (and probably last) Summit meal. It was splendid. Not only was I thrilled to finally dine at the restaurant, but my joy was enhanced by the fact that it was free of charge (always a bonus). Yes, I would have splurged on a meal at the Summit before leaving Australia, but now I don't have to thanks to my awesome manager. Thank you Maricia for pleasing my taste-buds while enabling me to hold on to my nickels and dimes (lots and lots of them)!

The pork belly dish

The raspberry souffle

Now do you understand why my mouth watered every night?! This girl was happy.