Arrival: 4.56pm

First drinks: MINISTRY OF BEER PALE ALE Easy drinking pale. Pineapple, citrus with a lightly hopped and pleasantly bitter finish. BAROSSA VALLEY, SA – 4.6%

2026 Geoff Weaver SAUVIGNON BLANC

Second (and final) drinks: LOBETHAL BIERHAUS BRITISH INDIA PALE ALE Richer in body and piney. Lighter notes of malt with some toffee and fresh bitterness. LOBETHAL, SA – 5.9%

ESPRESSO MARTINI Cafeto, Plantation Dark, Cacao, Coffee, Salt

Interior Design: no candles, but table lamps. Natural vegetation including vines and ferns. Booths, high and low tables

A painfully proximate table of middle-aged women who’re on their third drink and are seemingly oblivious to their escalating decibel levels: tick

Playlist Highlights: Piano Man by Billy Joel. Fantastic storytelling. Rousing. Like Khe Sahn and Hotel California, a song that was great but became annoyingly ubiquitous and then, one day, I heard it as if for the first time and remembered why it endures.

Reckless by Australian Crawl. Kapunda Swimming Pool, 1983. Somebody’s radio cassette player. Towels huddled on the lawn. Bush biscuits. Enigmatic, sparse lyrics including

A Russian sub beneath the Arctic
Burke and Wills and camels
Initials in the tree

Waterloo Sunset by the Kinks. Among the most beautiful songs recorded with a gorgeous melody and lyrics that are at once fragile, sad, and hopeful. Hearing this in the Canopy Bar, Claire and I promised each other that this December we’ll walk along Victoria Embankment and out onto Waterloo Bridge, look up the Thames toward Westminster and Big Ben, and murky British winter permitting, take in the most London of sunsets.

Not ordered for dinner: FANCY VEGEMITE, COMTÉ, SCAMORZA, TRUFFLE OIL, SMOKED SALT (toasted sandwich, $13)

Departure: 5.52pm

Ordered for dinner: Medium chips from Tapleys Charcoal Chickens. Lightly salted.

Vinyl played at home: Christopher Cross (yacht rock). You know, the bloke who sang Sailing and Ride Like the Wind –

And I’ve got such a long way to go
To make it to the border of Mexico

Episodes of Escape to the Country complete before Michael fell asleep on the couch: none