Spandau Ballet Reformed

Spandau Ballet is further along....

But first,

This is a picture-heavy post on what I did on Friday.

A brilliantly sunny day meant a ferry ride to Mosman Rowers for a work lunch.  The Rowers is situated opposite Mosman Bay ferry wharf in an oldish building surrounded by moored pleasure craft and luxurious homes.

The food at the restaurant/bistro has an emphasis on seafood, with a couple of steak and chicken dishes thrown in.

(top to bottom, left to right):

seafood platter ($50 min 2 persons)); grilled salmon with chips (around $28);

pan-fried barramundi with asparagus (around $28); sides of chips and vegetables;

eye fillet steak with salad (around $30); banana split ($15) for dessert

The seafood platter had mussels, prawns and squid. I bit into a mussel that was off, so I delicately spat it out - the other mussels were okay, apparently.  Then I had barramundi in a very tangy garlic lemon butter sauce, with fried asparagus spears. The asparagus was lovely, the fish was okay. 

Others at our table ordered the eye fillet; they asked for them to be cooked 'medium', but they arrived 'overdone', which is several steps beyond well done.  It looked at tasted really dry, which is a shame as it was a good-quality cut of meat.

Dessert included 'banana split', which included a banana wrapped in puff pastry, in a custard sauce, with a scoop of ice cream. One scoop of ice cream - the picture above is after someone played silly buggers with the plate...

Overall, Mosman Rowers is alright to visit if you live nearby, but, personally, I wouldn't travel to eat there.

I had to leave early to catch the ferry back to Circular Quay, for my date with Spandau Ballet, but here are some scenes of the trip back (below):

(top to bottom, left to right):

Local Mosman wildlife on the water; closer view of the exotic wildlife;

habitats and transportation in Mosman Bay; view from the ferry

After a quick snack of McDonald's fries and small Coke, we made out way into the Sydney Entertainment Centre with high expectations.

Jack Jones was the pre-entertainment, and he was pretty good.  I don't know that much about him, but he played to an appreciative number of fans.

Then Tears for Fears came on:

'Mad World', 'Shout', 'Everybody wants to rule the World' - they played all their hits.  There was a bit of distortion in the sound of the instruments, but Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal sounded great.

Roland talked about his last visit to Sydney, 25 years ago, and how he walked through the Rocks area and was pickpocketed. He walked there again the other day and got a goat's cheese salad. As he said, "That's progress!".

Then, Spandau Ballet...

I am unashamedly a HUGE fan of Spandau Ballet, and saw them at the Ent Cent in 1985. After their acrimonious breakup in the 1990s, I never thought I'd see them again.  Thank goodness I was wrong. By the way, I got my tickets to this concert via pre-sale from Mastercard Applause - but never again: the tickets had a $50 premium (each) on top of the price, and the seats were nothing special.

But the concert was so worth it. Spandau Ballet went OFF!!!

Martin Kemp is my favourite but Tony Hadley is an incredible singer.

They played for 90 minutes, with 'Gold' as an encore.

*sigh*

After the concert, we stopped at Golden Century for supper. It's become like BBQ King - enough said. The food is still good, though.

We had pig's trotters with jelly fish (didn't look anythin like pig trotters to me), and rice porridge with preserved egg and pork, and fried dough sticks ($34 all up)

When I got home, I played my old Spandau Ballet CDs on high rotation. Then I bought the Reformation tour DVD. 

I also dug out the program from the 1985 tour.  For old time's sake, of course.

Bel {loves} Spandau Ballet 4 ever