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.



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!



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.



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



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.



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.



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!





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!



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



Taylor looking GORGEOUS in the Speak Now era.



Witchy Willow Taylor in the Evermore era.



Bad Blood (1989 era) pyrotechnics!



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



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.

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.





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.



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.



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



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.



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!

Sydney Eras Tour 2024 Day One: Mother Chu's

Hello friends, a non-Midweek Munchies post! Remember I mentioned going to Sydney last month to see Eras? Well, now is the time to share some food photos with you. And a sprinkle of Taylor photos, of course.

We arrived into Sydney on a Saturday afternoon, and once we were settled in our hotel room we headed out for dinner. We went to Mother Chu's Vegetarian, a vegan restaurant that was only a short walk away from the our hotel. This is what we ordered.

Steamed BBQ Buns, because I can never go past these on a menu.



We also shared some Tofu with Sweet Miso Sauce, which was incredible! The sauce was dengaku sauce, but on tofu instead of eggplant. This dish normally comes with chilli on top as well, but they left it off for me.



My friend ordered this Birds Nest style dish, which had chopped vegetables, mushrooms, and vegan ham in it, plus cashews, served in a crispy noodle nest.



I continued to be the most basic b*tch (/aff) (god I spend too much time online these days) vegan in the world by ordering some tofu, assorted mushrooms, and snow peas in a brown sauce. It was delicious! My favourite sort of dish to order at vegan Chinese places.



On the way home, we stopped by a Woolworths and got some vegan ice cream sandwiches, not pictured. And then spent the night making friendship bracelets on the bed, eating ice cream sandwiches, and listening to Taylor Swift songs like the 42 year old adults we were, living out very best life!

I'll share some of the bracelets tomorrow, but this post I want to show you the fun decorations our hotel had! They had gone full Eras themed, Taylor Swift stuff everywhere, staff wearing Taylor Swift t-shirts (ala Red Era), and non-stop Taylor Swift music in the lobby.









More Taylor and Sydney coming to you soon!

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Eloise, being very helpful while I was packing to leave.

Midweek Munchies

It's that time of the week again! Nature's Kitchen at Coles has a vegan pesto, and I ended up with a jar of it. I'm not the biggest jarred pesto fan, I find them too oily generally, but I gave this a try. I made some pasta for it with tomatoes, peas, and butter beans, plus I added a bunch of nooch as well.





Ferrero Rocher had an accidentally vegan giant chocolate ball that I found last Easter but didn't end up eating until several months later. It is a hollow ball, with bits of hazelnut stuck in the chocolate.





I really enjoyed this Pana Hazelnut Chocolate. Unlike Vego spread, that I find far too sweet, this had a much better flavour for my preferences.



Still on the chocolate spread train, this Mayver's Hazelnut, Cashew, and Cocoa spread was also quite lovely, and even less sweet than the Pana one.



Loving Earth brought out a range of kind of silly superfood chocolates. Of course I bought them all to try. The blueberry one was a bit meh, and the one with lemongrass one tasted medicinal, almost like eating a Strepsil. But the other two flavours were great and I would buy those ones again!



I got these Keep It Cleaner protein bars on sale, and will never buy them again. They just taste like chalky protein powder. Yuck! Unfortunately I still have some, I need to foist them off on someone who likes that kind of thing.



Finishing up with these Chocolate Buttons, which were very much like Smarties. Not the US kind of Smarties, the Australian/UK kind of Smarties. Which are similar to, but have a different vibe from, M&Ms.



Hope everyone is hanging in there!

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Flash back photo to Dim Sim. I just wanted to share her with you all again.

Midweek Munchies

Hi friends, thanks for being lovely. Here are some munchies.

This is the KM Foods Lemon Meringue Cheesecake. I got it from the freezer section at The Green Edge, and it is lovely! As with all the KM cheesecakes, the base needs some work. It tastes good but is a bit too soft. But the tart lemon filling and the fluffy sweet meringue, delightful!



These vegan wontons were hanging out in my freezer for AGES. I had plants to make some wonton soup with them, but then that all became a bit much and I ended up just cooking them and eating them. After all that anticipation time, they were kind of bland.



There's this great little Japanese grocery store just down the road from me, and one visit there I picked up this vegan friendly soy milk corn soup. It was SO GOOD! It is like a cream of corn soup and just delicious and I need to go back there and buy a bunch more. Incredible with toast spread with a little nuttelex for dipping into it.



Chicken Flavor Ramen Noodle Snack sounded nice, little crunchy bites of chicken flavoured ramen noodles. BUT, oh my gosh friends, these are SO SALTY. Imagine just opening up the seasoning packet from ramen noodles and putting it straight into your mouth. I died. I ended up putting them in a mug and covering them with boiling water to turn them into a noodle soup, which was much better. That flavour needs some dilution.



Balsamic Vinegar and Caramelised Onion Seed Crackers were really nice. They had a really good flavour, and were great with hummus.



OmBar is a newer chocolate brand here, and I got this Fruit and Nut chocolate on sale. It of course was a bit too sweet, but I do love a fruit and nut chocolate bar.



My favourite Fry's Vegan Brioche Buns have vanished, but this new brand is around now. They are not as good as the Fry's ones, but they are not bad. RIP Fry's buns.



Finishing off with this Super Vegan lasagne. You can see from the photo that instead of making a regular vegan lasagne, they decided to cram as many superfoods into it as they could. And I must ask, why? Just make a regular vegan lasagne. The miso mornay part was good!



That's it from me this week! How are you all holding up?

In three and a half weeks I will be on my way to the UK! So that's something that is happening.

Also just started planning a visit to the US for next year.

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Please enjoy this photo of Mirabelle making Eloise lick her head. It happens several times a day, Mirabelle just presents to Eloise with her head down. LICK MY HEAD PLEASE! How long it takes Eloise to get sick of it and bop Mirabelle instead varies.