Before Christmas we managed to grab a couple of tickets to see an outdoor movie recently in the Botanic Gardens. Tried to do this last year but all the tickets for all the showings sold out in 45mins. This year I was prepared and got them just after they went on sale. The screen is actually in the water, and you get to watch the film with the city and opera house in the background. It was pretty cool and the weather was perfect, but I actually preferred last years one. It was much more rough and ready (just and inflatable screen on a cricket pitch and everybody brought they're own chairs). We arrived this year prepared, with extra clothes in case it got cold and snacks and dressed for a Saturday morning. However when we got there were loads of people dressed up for the night, people were eating and drinking at a wine bar set up for the occasion (I think some people stayed there for the movie too) and the seats were packed in together. Lots of people looked like they'd just stepped out of their high-flying financial jobs in their 30th floor offices. When we arrived early I thought there were lots of empty seats but practically all of them had been reserved - one person would just reserve 10 seats for his friend and in such a way there was almost no where to sit. The movie itself was pretty good (black swan) apart from the audience busting out laughing at one or two bits that I don't think were supposed to be funny.

Sydney has managed to hang on to plenty of nice art deco buildings, be they pubs or hotels or cinemas. The latter have lasted much longer and better than their counter parts in Ireland, where if they haven't been torn down, they're now bingo halls or warehouses. I got a chance to go to one of them on the north side called the Orpheum; pretty classy joint with statues holding torches, interiors looking like 1950's cadillac's and actual curtains in front of the screens.

I've never gone to a drive-in movie, or watched a film outside for that matter, so it was pretty cool to sit out under the stars (and the awakening bats) and watch Sherlock Holmes in a cricket ground in North Sydney. Back in December I tried to book tickets for this but they sold out within an hour of going on sale. Just as with the New Years fireworks, we arrived completely unprepared, whereas the locals were packing fancy picnic baskets and expensive fold-away chairs. There was plenty of BBQ food sizzling away and on sale anyway so it didn't really matter that we didn't bring anything. And though the backdrop was perhaps not as spectacular without Opera House and the Harbour bridge, but it was pretty cool nonetheless.