Tuesday 2 April 2024

Sydney Eras Tour Day Three: Shift Eatery and TAYLOR SWIFT DAY

Monday morning dawned, at it was TAYLOR SWIFT DAY!

It was also walk to the vegan deli and bakery to get breakfast, lunch and pre-show dinner day, so off I went. It was awfully humid and by the time I got back I had to have another shower because I was so hot and sweaty, but I was successful. I then spent the rest of the day resting in the hotel room before the concert that night. It was weird spending a day in Sydney and not doing anything, but I knew I needed a very chill day if I was going to survive Eras.

The deli I went to was called Shift Eatery, and it has been on my Sydney list for YEARS! I was going to go ages and ages ago when I was last in Sydney working at OzComicCon, but that was the time I got so horribly sick that they idea of going anywhere extra was too much. This was long before COVID, just you regular garden variety make you so sick you wish you were dead virus. But finally I made it!

I ordered two sandwiches to take back to the hotel. The first was the Vegan Salmon Bagel, but they were out of bagels so I just had it on bread. It had house-made tomato lox with nori, cream cheese, capers, cucumber and fresh dill. It was really lovely, I enjoyed the smoky tomato lox.

Cream Cheese and Carrot Sandwich from Shift Eatery


I also got the Reuben's Vegan Brother Steve. I love reubens, and there is no where in Brisbane I can go to get a vegan reuben, which is rude. This had house-made corned beef, sauerkraut, russian dressing, cheddar cheese and westmont pickles on toasted sourdough. Also very good!

Reuben from Shift Eatery


They had a drinks fridge, and I couldn't not get this Hibiscus Kombucha. It was so good, I wish I could get it here! I also got a Funky Fudgy Brownie (not pictured), which are some of the best brownies ever. It has been so long since I've had one.

Delicious Kombucha


The other place I stopped by was Miss Sina, their second location. They had a bunch of Taylor Swift themed doughnuts there as well!

Sweets from Miss Sinas


I got a chocolate croissant (not pictured) and a French Onion Savoury Danish. This was delicious! I wish we had places doing inventive things with pastry around me.

French Onion Danish from Miss Sinas


I snacked on those throughout the day, and then it was time to head to Eras! This is me, in my pink Evermore-inspired dress that my friend made for me. Mask firmly on my face, of course.

Eras Tour Sydney


And my official Taylor Swift Eras light up bracelet! During the show they all lit up different colours, sometimes making patterns in the crowd. It was incredible!

Eras Tour Sydney


Eras Tour Sydney


Our seats were in E section, so pretty far back, this was out view. But it was fine because there were big screens and also just being there was enough!

Eras Tour Sydney


The Eras Countdown Clock! The palpable excitement in the stadium as we started counting down! Like nothing I've ever felt before!

Eras Tour Sydney


Taylor looking GORGEOUS in the Speak Now era.

Eras Tour Sydney


Witchy Willow Taylor in the Evermore era.

Eras Tour Sydney


Bad Blood (1989 era) pyrotechnics!

Eras Tour Sydney


I have several more blurry photos and some videos, but I'll just leave you with these few. Eras was INCREDIBLE, and I just feel so lucky that I was able to go and see it because a lot of people missed out. Crying during Marjorie and screaming FUCK THE PATRIACHY with over 80,000 people during All To Well 10 Minute Version are just a few of the highlights. For those of you who know Taylor, our surprise songs were a Would've Could've Should've/Ivy mash up on guitar, and a Forever and Always/Maroon mash up on piano. Incredible!!!

We got back to our hotel very late, and had to get up a few hours later to go to the airport to fly back. And then I had a delayed fibro flare/crash the following week. But you know what? Worth it!

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post

Eloise


Despite giving no indication that she missed me while I was gone, or when I first got home, Eloise did come to join me in bed for a snuggle that night.



Monday 1 April 2024

Sydney Eras Tour 2024 Day Two: Ordering In From Many Places

Two posts in two days? Who am I?

When I woke up on Sunday, the travel of the previous day kind of knocked me around. I didn't end up getting out of bed until quite late, and I wasn't even hungry. Fibro fun times. But eventually I dragged myself out of bed because I had exciting plans to catch up with my wonderful friend Leigh, who I hadn't seen in so long.

We had planned to watch the final three episodes of OFMD together (we fell down the OFMD hyperfixation hole together), but alas technical issues kept us from our favourite pirates. But we still had a great time talking (yes, a lot of it was about OFMD) and ordering in a bunch of food for delivery for lunch!

We went all out on vegan pastrami, including a Pastrami Sandwich from Suzy Spoons and a Vegan Reuben Burger from Mama B's Vegan Pub Bistro. They were both very good.

Reuben Burger from Mama B's Vegan Pub Bistro


Pastrami Sandwich from Suzy Spoons


We also got an assorted sweet box from Miss Sina, a vegan bakery that had been on my list to eat at for a long time. They choose what goes in there. We had two cinnamon sugar dougnuts (my favourite kind of doughnut), a creme brulee doughnut (incredible, it had a crunchy hard coating and custard in the middle), fruit danishes (always a good time), a cinnamon roll (ruined by so much icing I like them nekkid), and two Taylor Swift themed doughnuts. Everyone was in the Eras mood! The Look What You Made Me Do doughnut had blueberry jam on the inside, which was lovely. And the Peace doughnut was just a straight up doughnut.

Sweets from Miss Sinas


As you can imagine, I was very full. I took some of the sweets back to the hotel for my friend I was travelling with. It was her birthday, and she'd been out to lunch with a Sydney friend. We reconvened back at the hotel and decided on trying out BellyBao for dinner. My friend ordered their Beyond Baoguer, essentially a beyond burger but on a bao-style bun. I ordered an Eggplant rice bowl, and a side of greens.

Beyond Baoger, Eggplant Bowl, and Greens from BellyBao


We spent the rest of the evening watching TV and making more bracelets. I'd also made a bunch of bracelets before we left. Here are some of the bracelets I made... half of them were related to OFMD rather than Taylor Swift, but I had to go where the mood took me.

First up, the bracelets I was keeping. These included:
Taylor Swift Related: Ivy, Reputation, Lover, Enchanted, Paper Rings Shiny Things
OFMD Related: Ed hearts Stede, Stede hearts Ed, Boyfriends, You Wear Fine Things Well
Cross-over: Our Flag Means Taylor

Friendship Bracelets


And the bracelets I made to give away. These were all Taylor related except for three saveofmd.com ones that I made to share the petition. They were Afterglow, 22, Fuck The Patriachy, Taylor Say Don't Go, and Folklore Evermore.

Friendship Bracelets


Then we went to sleep, because they next day was The Big Day!

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post

You get two photos today! Leigh's lovely cat Momo!

Momo


Momo