Dream: Gunshot in a pseudo night club

In this dream, I'm in the nightclub district of a city that I do not recognise. But I think somehow it must be in Germany? I am there with Em and her ex, and the three of us are looking for a particular nightclub.


The first thing we must do is pick up some cash, and the cash is dispensed from a shop with no ATM in sight. The cash comes in the form of a stack of bills, nestled neatly inside a cardboard box. We pick them up, feeling the gentle rustle of ancient currency - is it possibly cash from another age?


We find the shop that we are looking for, and it actually looks like a card shop. Outside are large turning displays that show a wide array of cards each in their plastic sleeves - but the cash is from an age before plastic perhaps? I want to stop and look at the cards but the other two are in a hurry, so I glance longingly at their bright colours and move on.


Inside there are more cards displayed on magazine racks, and also an assortment of clothes. We are still looking for the entrance to the nightclub, and I deduce that the entrance must be hidden somewhere inside the shop. I look around for more clues, but it seems like an ordinary shop selling knickknacks. There are lots of people around, but they all appear to be shopping.


Suddenly the lights go out, and it is almost completely dark even though it was a fading evening light outside. There is some dim blue fluorescence that illuminates people's faces, somewhat like the lighting of a nightclub. I feel confused by this sudden change in lighting.


Then just as suddenly as the darkness descended, the sound started. First it sounded like popcorn popping, discrete short staccato bursts. Then the sound comes even closer, and it is so loud my eardrums are hurting. I turn around and see Em holding a gun, and it looks like a fake gun.


I watch in slow motion as she raises the gun and points it at her ex. A real bullet (or at least it looks like a real one) comes out of the gun ever so slowly and hits him in the shoulder. He is frozen and time slows down so much that it seems like he could have dodged the bullet, but he doesn't and falls to the ground.


Next she turns towards me and there is a menacing glint in her eyes. I do not recognise this person, I think to myself. I hear the pop as the bullet is released from the gun, coming straight towards me. Again it is going in super slow motion, an elongated cylindrical copper bullet that looks almost comically like a lolly. I watch it come towards me with some kind of fascination. I lean back instinctively, hoping to miss the course of the bullet.


At that moment I glance up at the time and it is 1:30am.


Then I wake up. Did I get hit by the bullet? I don't know.

In my kitchen: February 2020

I have had a super busy month with the move to Newcastle, end of the clinical year and the chamber music society annual camp. It has just flown past, how could it be February already?

A couple of gorgeous loaves from my sourdough Barney to start 2020

So many snake beans from my dad's garden

A few chocolates my friend brought back from Russia

The last of the local beer from a brewery in Orange.

Since the dumpling master (my dad's partner) has returned to town, we have been having so many dumplings. She is truly the master of making the perfect dough (with sourdough too), the perfect filling and beautiful crimp.

Onto the Food and Music series...

We ate these lovely fresh plum tarts with my piano duet buddy who said "Sometimes in life, you just need a plum tart!" She is an incredible lady, always with some wise and sanguine words for young restless me! We ate these with a serve of the arrangement of Beethoven's String quartet Op 18 No. 3 (string quartets arranged for piano 4 hand are super interesting), Ravel's Ma Mere L'Oye and a few of Dvorak's Slavonic Dances.


One evening for my string quartet, we decided to have tagine. The other violinist made from scratch a wonderfully herbaceous chermoula and cooked it into a rich chicken tagine with deliciously plump olives and the sauciest potatoes. 

I discovered the trick to sourdough pitas. After rolling out the dough discs and letting them rest for 30min, blast them on full heat in the oven and the rapid rise creates the pocket!

A deliciously fresh fattoush salad which went so well with the tagine on this hot day.

Here is the tagine stuffed into the pita pocket. We ate these with the Mozart String quartet in D minor, Beethoven's String quartet Op 18 No.1 and the Clara Schumann piano trio.

Once a year, the Chamber Music Society runs a massive camp. About 110 people gather at the University of Wollongong for a 4 day extravaganza filled with music, food and wine. It truly is the highlight of the year. I stayed this year in a flat with my usual string quartet and Barney came along for the ride as well - freshly baked bread every day is a treat!

This cheese & tomato foccacia we enjoyed for one of our lunches. I think the sourdough at camp is going to become an annual feature. 

The highlights of my camp were not 1, not 2 but 3 Dvorak sessions (his string quintet "American", string sextet in A and piano quintet); the Brahms string sextet no. 1, an all time favourite; Death and the Maiden while drunk and the Faure piano quartet. We had such a great time playing the Faure piano quartet that we had to play the slow movement another time and I decided this would be the piece I would like played at my funeral.

I'm sending this to Sherry who hosts the In My Kitchen series. Thanks for hosting Sherry!