Last night we were in the city to see the Arctic Monkeys in concert. I don’t remember when exactly I became a fan, but I think I found out about them in a music magazine not long after they released I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor (can you believe that song is 18 years old?). I was very much into alternative and indie rock at the time. Let’s face it, I still am. 😛

The concert was great! It was in the Domain, an area where temporary stages are set up when there is a show or performance. I almost could not remember the last time I went to a concert in that setting or in that area—then I remembered it must have been Homebake 2012. I wrote a blog post about it, and heck, it blows my mind that that post is ten years old. But then again, there are hundreds of blog posts on my blog. 😅 Anyway, it had been a long time since I had experienced an outdoor concert so this one ended up being rather nice and the weather turned out good. I’m not sure what would have happened if it didn’t. When I photographed Groovin the Moo festival back in 2014 (got a blog post about that, too), the entire showground was muddy from rain, but it did not rain during the festival. I suspect the Arctic Monkeys concert would still have proceeded and we’d all have to bring ponchos or some shit.

Arctic Monkeys are incredibly perfect live. They are so perfect that I almost want to fault it—they are polished to perfection that I do feel like they miss a bit of personality because Alex Turner doesn’t interact with the audience much when he performs. But that is it—he is truly a performer. I am still amazed by his musical genius of putting in the work to create a completely different album of a different genre every time the band releases a new album.

I didn’t get many good photos because it was difficult to with the contrast of how dark it was and how bright the stage was, so there’s no point in me sharing a bad photo. 😆

Today we were passing through the city yet again, embarking on a long walk across the Sydney Harbour Bridge and walking through some of the northern suburbs close to the coast. Nick wanted to do this long walk to get used to walking long distances on our upcoming holiday, and next week it looks like it will be raining so it was only yesterday that we decided to go today because we could be sure that the weather would be good, albeit hot.

I have never walked across the bridge! We climbed the bridge back in 2015 (there I go sharing another one from the archives) which is an event in itself, and an activity you pay quite a bit of money for. Climbing Sydney’s icon is a great experience and I do recommend it whether you are a resident or a tourist. But even though our bridge allows traffic, and the train, cycling, and walking across, I hadn’t really experienced many of these until I was a young adult, or in the case of one of them, until today. I was still in university when I chose to take the “long way” to northern Sydney on a train, and it went over the bridge and I was so shocked because the view was magnificent and I’d lived in Sydney my whole life without ever having seen it. My parents had no reason to go into the city, and it was quite far, so I only recall a couple of trips to the aquarium and the zoo, and some of them may have been on a school excursion where we had a bus. Nick had the opposite experience, having gone to the city quite a few times when he was a kid, often going with his grandma.

So walking across the bridge was new to me! Now that I’m thinking about it, I do wonder if I’d gone on a school trip, but I don’t think I did. If I did, I don’t remember.

Our walk ended up being about 80 minutes. There were quite a few steps and hills. It was quite tough and it was hot but I kept going. I’m not unfit, but I think my body is still semi-recovering from a week of tough strength workouts, so this walk was good “active recovery”.

We had brunch at a place called Monstera Cafe before catching the ferry and then making our way back home. It was a pretty nice day out, and because we got started relatively early, we had a lot of time in the afternoon to just chill out at home.

I’m blogging every day in January 2023. Let me know if you’ll be joining in and trying to blog every day. 😊 The hashtag you can use on social media is #blogeverydamnday.