For the first time in a few years I had dinner tonight at Surry Hill’s Trinity Hotel. In a galaxy far, far, away I used to be a fairly regular patron there, especially as on a Wednesday night they had a pretty fantastic trivia competition (which my group often won). But circumstances change, and I’ve been there hardly since. I only called in tonight because it was cold and rainy, and I didn’t have the energy to head out to my other regular Wednesday pub haunt after Swedish class. I had the haloumi salad which was good, though not great. A little over-cooked on the grill, actually.
When I went into Swedish class, it was chilly, though not raining. By the end of class, it was rainy too. So much for the brief period of summer we experienced on the weekend. None of us were really prepared for the change in the weather. As I chatted on the street after class and waited for a bus with a class-mate, it also became aware none of us was all that well-prepared for class either. It was one of those “heavy grammar” nights. Only one of us in the class is really any good at grammar – that’s Grant – while the rest of us tend to glaze over a bit. I think it’s because words and phrases like dative, imperfect, passive and so on have never been part of our educational lexicon. In fact I got the giggles half way through class when we started talking about the passive form. Yes, I know… quite childish.
On arriving home, I began to catch up on the early-evening television programs I’d missed, including The Drum and the Britney Spears-featured episode of Glee. I think Glee is a brilliant show and I’m quite a fan of Britney too. Actually not so much Britney, more her regular song-writer and producer Max Martin who, it may surprise you, is Swedish. (Martin Karl Sandberg, född 26 februari 1971, i Stockholm men har även bott i Kalmar)
Over the years he’s worked with everyone from the Backstreet Boys to Celine Dione. And as Wikipedia notes
In 2010 alone, he has written and co-written 5 top 10 singles, including “Dynamite” by Taio Cruz, “DJ Got Us Fallin’ in Love” by Usher, “Whataya Want From Me” by Adam Lambert, as well as “California Gurls” and “Teenage Dream” by Katy Perry.
Aside from Katy Perry, these songs and these artists mean nothing to me. But that’s because I’m a mid 40’s bloke from Sydney. Yes, I know my musical tastes sometimes resemble those of a 13 year old Swedish girl, but I’m not entirely that classifiable.
So the episode of Glee? Highlights were obviously “Hit Me One More Time” and the re-enactment of the Madonna duet. Beyond that, I don’t know because the end of the program was chopped off. Bloody commercial television and their late starts plays havoc with PVRs!
In the meantime I continue to sneeze with this bloody dust, pollen, whatever in the air. It got worse, today, by the way, when our annual building evacuation forced us out onto the plane tree hell that is Harris Street, Ultimo. Hopefully tonight’s rain may settle things a bit.