To get to the bathroom at The Flinders Inn, you need to grab a key from behind the counter, go out the door, and walk a few metres down the street.

The walk is worth it, though, as the bathroom tiles are gorgeous. They were the source of much discussion over dinner, as we tried to remember how long burnt orange was in fashion for. And even though it’s quite some time since that was the case, we all agreed it it was a great colour at the time, and that this modern take, bathroom tile wise, was absolutely gorgeous.

We all agreed the food was excellent also, by the way. For the main, I had the most sublime pork belly with a cauliflower puree and caramelised apples. And for desert, two of us enjoyed the chocolate gateau, cinnamon bavarois with lavender salt. The addition of the lavender salt had both of us raving. I’m not sure what the others had, as I was too involved in my own meal :) The French-style menu is full of wonderful things like goats cheese, duck leg confit, and so on.

Located next door to the Captain Cook Hotel – hello Scott, hello Mark – on Flinders Street, the entrance to the Flinders Inn is rather unimposing. In fact, as I turned the handle to open the front door, I wasn’t entirely sure I wasn’t entering someone’s house. Perhaps because I had my back to the other patrons – only a few people on a wet night – I also never felt like it was unnecessarily noisy or crowded, even though it’s quite small.

Overall it was a lovely setting for my friend Colin’s birthday, and a place I will definitely return to at some point.

It was a lovely way to spend the end of my day which was, otherwise, a little stressful. I’ve got a fair bit on my plate at the moment, and, by the end of the day I was sick to death of listening to people talk, which is a bit of an occupational hazard for the industry in which I work :)

In the hour or so I had at home between work and dinner, I sat in absolute silence. On Twitter, I engaged, though, in a silent conversation with a colleague who also agreed there’s nothing quite like the bliss of those first five minutes of absolute silence when you arrive home at the end of the day.

As we left the restaurant I noticed in the mirror I’d spent the entire day with my buttons done up incorrectly. “Why didn’t any of you tell me?”, I asked my friends to a non-plussed smile in reply.

On the way home tonight, I spotted another campaign poster for the federal election. As I noted yesterday, campaign posters for candidates in the seat of Sydney are few and far on the ground so far, although strictly speaking this wasn’t one for Sydney as it was a poster in support of Lee Rhiannon’s Senate-bid for the Greens.

As I sit and contemplate my calendar for the rest of the week, and going into next week, I’ve got a bit of a blank canvas. In fact, there’s nothing planned until the end of next week.

Work-wise things will continue to be busy. In the midst of it all, I’m attending a couple of talks by some really interesting people – Jay Rosen and Genevieve Bell – which I’m anticipating as I’m sure they’re going to be absolutely fascinating and mind expanding.