Markus Anderson moment: “7) Feed the cockatoos at dusk in Centennial park (a loaf of bread will do!)”

Destination: Paddington Neighborhood, Sydney (Centennial Park, Pearl Jam Concert, Gilda’s Place)

Inspiration: Markus Anderson from Soho House London (they say he’s the Angie Banicki of London or perhaps I’m the Markus of LA. Ha!)

Actualization: Markus knows me better than I thought. There are 3 reasons why Markus tops my list today:

1: His number one thing for me to do in Sydney was meet Gilda. Gilda is amazing. Gilda, her best friend, sister and I drank wine, ate pizza, and talked about boys and travel last night. You cant beat that for a Monday night. It was exactly what I needed. The way Gilda talks about family reminds me a lot of how I feel about mine. She’s the oldest like me. She’s crazy fun, works super hard, and cares a lot about her family.

2: Because of Markus, I was able to get Gilda to go cover my Ben Harper/Pearl Jam moment for me. As I sat on my Virgin Blue flight, she ran over and took my seat at the concert. THANK YOU RHIANNON!! I did everything in my power to get myself to that concert. I even bought TWO FLIGHTS! However, I couldn’t have picked a better candidate to take my spot. She reported back exactly what I wanted to hear. Amazing seats. Some boy next to her flirted with her and got her number…he was Ben Harper’s friend. (In actuality and in Angie form, Gilda said he was shady and got the number pretending to call his friend from her phone.) She was disappointed PJ didn’t play BETTER MAN or DAUGHTER….those are the songs she knows best and me too! She met a cute band. They were sitting in the seats in front of her. Of course, Gilda is cooler than me and was like, “well they’re in a band and they looked familiar but whatever I just kept asking them when Better Man or Daughter would be coming on!” All this and then Gilda came and picked me up from the airport. You cant ask for a better friend.

3: Markus sends me to Centennial Park for a run. Ok fine, I was supposed to feed the cockatoos, but I forgot about that part when I got excited about running. My run was a bit of a hullabaloo. It started off when I ran to where I thought Centennial would be and asked a woman on the street corner if Centennial was ahead. She nodded and said yes. I hesitated worried she hadn’t heard the Centennial part through the rain and asked again. Again she imitated me and pointed across the street and nodded. Hmmmm. As I started running I realized the yes yes and nodding doesn’t mean a thing if you don’t speak English and the same question was asked. Why didn’t I say, “is that a spacecraft yonder in the park?” “are you going running in your dress in the park”. A million things would have worked. Instead I just asked, “this way to Centennial?” In my defense, I think subconsciously I do this because I love running and when I get lost it only forces me to run more. So I end up at the rugby stadiums instead and then when I get to the opposite end, I find myself at the start of Centennial park. Brilliant. Rugby fields were a warm up. I need to burn off the pizza anyway. I keep running and running. Past ponds and horses, soccer practices and old people, I avoid all the midway turns and keep heading farther…. busby pond towards Bondi…..
I look down and realize I’ve lost track of time and I’m going to be late for my facial moment…a scheduled appointment. Eek. I start to plan in my head it’ll be fine. I need to get this run finished and then I’ll just lie and say I got lost and go to the appointment a little late. I mean it is a big park.

News alert: Angie cannot lie without at least part of the lie coming true.

It’s a problem I’ve always had which I suppose thankfully I’m a bad liar. However the times I try to get away with it, like today, somehow I put it in the universe and it happens. I guess that can be a good thing for making positive happen….but when it’s raining and you want to get your tired body home and ready for a facial, you shouldn’t put it out there that you got lost.

Well somehow, I end up on York road. Thinking I’m not far I turn up and I find myself running on broken beer bottles, NOT on Oxford where I need to be and a broken iPod. Battery dead iPod = no music inspiration = Angie cant go. I start walking and come up with this plan. Highly recommend it, turn the iPod music really quiet and pick a non-rap song, one you know the words to, so when iPod dies, you can sing your run on in your head because you can barely tell if it’s still playing or not. My suggestion: Moby – Run On.
Anyway thanks Markus for a good run. I never made the appointment, but again thank god the Aussies are so friendly and I got to reschedule….probably because it was the truth when I told Aussie Sharon that I got lost.

Realization: Don’t plan a lie in your head, unless you are prepared for it to be the truth. I’m thinking about lying that I wont be home till Christmas…..hmmmm

Your moment:
Soho House
Moby
Centennial Park
Ben Harper
Pearl Jam