Tag: the f sydney

Virgin Active’s latest gym makes working out feel luxe

Virgin pilates

Spanning across not one but five levels, Virgin Active’s latest gem is a venue not to be missed. The gym is so schmick, it will convert non-gym goers into working out. Gone are the days of a sweaty, dark, gym. Bligh Street offers so many first-of-its-kind experiences you can’t count them all on one hand. With top-of-the-line equipment, ozone cleaned boxing gloves and cycling shoes (finally!), cold scented towels post-work-out, luxurious amenities like ghd straighteners and Dyson Supersonic hair dryers (no, this isn’t a dream), a members lounge with work facilities, and in-house café offering healthy food and drink options, you truly have to see this gym to believe it. Not only that but Bligh Street Virgin Active members will have access to five revolutionary classes – Boxing, Reformer Pilates, Yoga, Cycle and Grid HIIT. Plus, they’re all held in state of the art studios that are purpose-built to deliver an immersive and irresistible exercise experience. If Bligh Street isn’t the right spot for you, don’t sweat it, Virgin Active Australia has three more gyms opening in 2019, including 60 Margaret Street CBD, St Leonards and Bondi Junction.

Panama House on Bondi Beach: Mexican inspired food by the beach

Panama House

For the times you need a decent feed, inspired by South America but without the effort of having to travel, think Panama House. Right on Bondi Beach, it’s open plan, airy, got views for days and a menu that’ll have you wanting to come that often, too, serving up Mexican-inspired goods that are simple, honest, easy and delicious. They specialise in brunch and dinner, honing in on what makes the best of their menu worth the seaside trip and why their dining room is in such high demand. With a menu that stars the likes of huevos rancheros with flour and corn tortillas, scrambled eggs, cheese, veracruz beans, guacamole, sour cream, pico de gallo; fajitas of spiced beef cheek, green mole chicken, confit pork jowl, slaw, veracruz beans, pico, guacamole, sour cream, flour tortillas as well as bourbon-smoked corn fritters with avocado, poached egg, ranch dressing, it’s pretty whole and damn nice. For those after something a touch more substantial, think buttermilk fried chicken burgers with mixed leaf, apple-cabbage slaw, american cheese, lime aíoli, hot sauce, hand-cut fries as well as tacos, salads and a full range of cocktails with super fun names. The creative cocktail list stars winners like “Once Apon A Time in Jalisco” made of vanilla tromba blanco tequila, pampelle grapefruit aperitif, passion fruit, pineapple, lemon, egg; “Caught In The Rain” concocted from plantation pineapple rum, passion fruit curd, coco-pina puree, tempus fugit banane liqueur; and a sweet, kicky “Beneath The City Lights” made with waqar pisco, lillet blanc, pierre ferrand curacao,… Read More

Oscar and Lucinda in Sydney: Carriageworks, Sydney Chamber Opera produce world premiere

Oscar Lucinda

Australia’s artistic triumph of a book by the same name will make it onto the stage thanks to Carriageworks Sydney and its resident opera company, the Sydney Chamber Opera. Composer Elliott Gyger will join forces with librettist Pierce Wilcox to transform Peter Carey’s novel Oscar and Lucinda into a new Australian opera from 27 July – 3 August 2019.  Directed by Opera Queensland Artistic Director and CEO Patrick Nolan, the work reimagines the love story between the orphaned proto-feminist industrialist and the man who believes he is touched by God. Having nothing in common, except their addiction to gambling, Oscar and Lucinda find each other in colonial-era Sydney with a wild dream: to build a cathedral of pure glass, and to walk it into the Australian outback. “Elliott is one of this country’s greatest composers, with an originality, refinement and savage beauty that sounds like no one else. Seeing the score develop into our most ambitious and large-scale new work, filled with astonishingly vivid characters, colours and sounds has been a deeply exciting experience. Elliott has created a modern Australian epic without ever relying on the tired clichés of Australiana – a feat worth celebrating as we interrogate the history and stories that make up this complex country. Give him one instrument and he’ll make a world; give him 16 instruments and 6 singers and he’ll create a universe,” said Sydney Chamber Opera artistic director Jack Symonds.  Tickets on Sale 3 May, 2019 at the Carriageworks website.

If crab’s your thing, it’s Muddy Mania at Kingsley’s Woolloomooloo this April

Kingsleys Woolloomooloo crab 5

With Mother’s Day creeping up on us, it’s time to start thinking about where to take Mum this year. If you’ve done high tea to death every other year and looking for something different (don’t worry…we’re not suggesting skydiving), then maybe you should consider getting Mum’s hands a little dirty at Kingsleys in Woolloomooloo. It’s called Muddy Mania and this six course, crab-inspired menu is available all through April and will feature at Kingsleys Woolloomooloo up until Mother’s Day 2019. Showcasing delicious Queensland mud crab, you’ll have the opportunity to sit back and enjoy the view at Woolloomooloo wharf while you indulge in several iconic crab dishes – breaking a leg or two! First up on the menu is the ‘snacks’ course, which features three delicious crab dishes, including Alaskan Snow Crab croquette with smoked garlic aioli. The ‘entree’ course features a heavenly gnocchi, mud crab, sage butter and porcini dish. When it’s time to get in the thick of it, Kingleys kindly provides a stylish white bib to protect your clothes when you start the main event. This includes mouth-watering salt and szechuan pepper crab, Singapore chili crab, and chilled crab with a tangy cocktail sauce. For those who like to pair meals with wine, there is also the two hours of bottomless wine option, featuring Cape Mentelle wine from Margaret River, Western Australia. Available to book for throughout April up until Mother’s Day 2019 | $120pp including wine | $90 without wine Get your crab on at Kingsleys Woolloomooloo, 10/6 Cowper St Wharf… Read More

Something new on Sydney Harbour: West Side Story by Opera Australia

Opera Australia West Side Story HOSH dance

It’s not often Opera Australia strays from the respite of centuries-old, well-loved scores by the likes of Puccini, Bizet and Verdi to try something more contemporary. But the latest production of West Side Story by Opera Australia that headlines this year’s annual Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour does just that, and has done so well. Complete with mid-way surprise fireworks as is now customary by the production company, and a range of 40-strong cast that can easily blur the lines between opera singer, dancer and actor, it’s a remade musical that pays homage to the original, the book and the tale; just makes it better. Directed by Jerome Robbins, the entire production of West Side Story is a shining testament to the classic story that’s given us some of the world’s most memorable show tunes. They were all there in the script. Think Maria, Tonight, America and Gee Officer Krupke to name a few. All of them just as hilarious as they are telling in the play about the horror to come. With OA names like Julie Lea Goodwin and Alexander Lewis as Maria and Tony; Mark Hill and Waldemar Quinones-Villanueva as Riff and Bernardo and Karli Dinardo as Anita, the musical adaptation is done wonders as the story of race hatred and a blossoming romance unfolds to the backdrop of the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge. Opera Australia’s artistic director, Lyndon Terracini has been wanting to produce West Side Story on the HOSH stage for years. Something about the backdrop and the… Read More

Sydney Dance Company is celebrating its 50th anniversary in a massive way with Mardi Gras and CINCO

Sydney Dance Company CINCO 4

Rafael Bonachela is the artistic director of the Sydney Dance Company and responsible for most of the epic dance pieces the troupe puts on in Australia and around the world. He does it well. So when his baby turns 50 and celebrates its birthday in quite an epic was as it has, you know he’s behind it, doing nothing but the best for the dance company responsible for Forever & Ever and ab intra just to name a few. In addition to the milestone in itself, the Sydney Dance Company participated for the first time in the annual Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras and is putting on a new double bill production, headlined by the new work, CINCO (you can win tickets here). “Mardi Gras was an incredible thrill, for me personally and for the Company. Believe it or not, it was the very first time that Sydney Dance Company had participated in the parade,” said Rafael. The entry of the Company signified 50 years as a diverse organisation that hires and is involved directly with many people who identify as LGBTIQ+ and their friends. “We employ a significant number of LGBTQI artists and staff and we have a long tradition of welcoming the LGBTQI community to participate and express themselves through dance,” he said. And they did it well. Rafael doesn’t even shy away from admitting their float was essentially one of the best ones out there on Oxford Street. “It was an explosion of gold glitter, complete with a ballet bar, mirrors, and… Read More

Win tickets to see CINCO by Sydney Dance Company this March

Sydney Dance Company Cinco 1

Sydney’s famed Sydney Dance Company pumps out shows quicker than its dancers can take pilates classes, but this month’s is a real winner. It’s a part of the Sydney Dance Company’s 50th anniversary, and this year, the number 5 is taking centre stage in the production. For Cinco, Rafael Bonachela‘s brand new work, the choreographer has turned to the world of numbers and mathematics for inspiration. The work features five dancers to perform all five movements of a string quartet composed in the 1950s. Not to mention, it’s also the Company’s 50th Anniver The latest instalment by choreographer Rafael Bonachela, CINCO, is on in Sydney this March and is promising a thorough trip through the creative expressions of the Company’s lead. It’s all combined with the award-winning lighting of Damian Cooper, the imagination and skill of designer Bianca Spender with celebrated Argentinian composer Alberto Ginaster. Enter below to score yourself one of 10 double passes to see the show on 26 March 2019. Entries close 11:59PM AEDT, 24 March 2019. Loading…

German, hippy and traditional, Gowings Bar & Grill at QT Sydney has a new chef

Michael Box chef

The German, hippy and traditional elements aren’t in Michael Box’s genetic make-up, as much as they are in his new menu for Gowings Bar & Grill at QT Sydney. He’s the new chef there and giving things a healthy turnover with the new menu, due to be unveiled later in 2019. QT Hotels’ new executive chef Michael Box is welcomed to Sydney’s dining institution Gowings Bar & Grill because apparently he matches the high-energy service and dedication to local produce they’ve made themselves known for. Hes already been a around a bit since 2015 when he was executive sous chef in 2015 before joining QT Canberra’s award-winning Capitol Bar & Grill as executive chef. It was in this role he developed an unrivalled pedigree in championing a food first philosophy driven by local produce. Incremental changes to the lunch and dinner menu are already underway. He’s going to be reintroducing guest favourites including the “I Only Have A Minute” Steak and QT Canberra’s award-winning QT Rib Eye. In addition, returning to the in-room dining menu after popular demand is the infamous Not So Club, winner of the Gourmet Traveller Hotel Guide Awards Best Club Sandwich in 2016. Meanwhile, updates to the Gowings Bar & Grill breakfast menu cater to the needs of the CBD power breakfast crowd as well as guests looking for a lazy morning brunch. Going well beyond typical hotel buffet fare, the à la carte menu includes Buckwheat Strawberry Pancakes with lemon ricotta, the nutritious Brain-Food Bowl of turmeric rice, za’atar avocado… Read More

Mardi Gras gives planet a shimmery glimmer of hope and goes green

Maxi Shield drag queen Mardi Gras 2

There is arguably no more a glittery or gay an event than that of the topless men, drag queens and colourful parade goers at Sydney’s annual Gay and Lesbian Mari Gras. This year though, offers something different. Revellers are trading in their sparkly rainbow stripes for something a little more eco-friendly with event organisers revealing that the major event is going green. Sydney Mardi Gras has not only committed to phasing out glitter (shock), but balloons and single-use plastic water bottles from their major events, too. When talking to The Sydney Morning Herald, Terese Casu, Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras chief executive revealed, “we used to bring in about three tonnes of glitter from China.” “That goes in the gutter, it ends up in our oceans, our fish eat it, you find it in crab shells and oysters. We must be responsible and make really urgent changes,” she said. Production manager, Liz Carter, is joining the campaign helping many of the parades iconic floats “go green” by encouraging the use of LEDs, lanterns and fluorescent lights. “You have to think about the environment. Every festival has a carbon footprint and everyone has to think about that,” she said. For those looking for an equally shimmery environmentally friendly option, there are plenty of options available such as BioConfetti or Glitterazzi. See more at the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras website.

The bard is back: Shakespeare by the Bay is on again in Sydney

Shakespeare Sydney 3

Back by popular demand, Shakespeare By The Bay by Bard On The Beach, Watsons Bay Boutique Hotel and the Woollahra Council, brings world-renowned Shakespearean performances to life. Get your ‘tithers’, ‘whithers’, thines and mines and all your oxymorons ready as the magic of the words of William grace the beach to the stunning backdrop of Sydney Harbour. It’s kind of like the Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour, only Shakespeare. The troupe will be putting on classics like The Life and Death of King John as well as The Comedy of Errors all from Robertson Park in Watsons Bay. Performances will run during the evening over two weeks 1st March – 10th March, from Friday through to Sunday. And you can even bring your dog! This year will also introduce Bard & Bark for the performance on 3 March of “The Comedy of Errors”. A dog friendly evening for you to enjoy the works of Shakespeare with the WHOLE family. See the wonder of William’s work at: The Life and Death of King John: Friday 1st, Saturday 9th, Sunday 10th The Comedy of Errors: Saturday 2nd, Sunday 3rd, Friday 8th Time: 7:30pm – 10:15pm Get tickets at the website.