Cowboy hats in Canberra?

Last night I went to dinner and a pub with my new friend Jen. She and I met at the inspection for my apartment - luckily she didn't apply for it, so I got the apartment, thus we were able to become friends. We've started doing a yoga class together on Tuesday nights. Last night we went to dinner in Dickson, a neighborhood in Canberra I hadn't been to yet. It's a younger crowd than the crowd in Kingston and Manuka, the two neighborhoods I've been hanging out in. Dickson is where all the Asian restaurants are - and I can't wait to try them all!

We went to a woodfired pizza place, though, as Jen's favorite noodle shop was packed. We had an 'Americana' pizza - tomato sauce, cheese, salami, oregano, and we added pineapple. Yum. We then went to the Old Canberra Inn, to see her co-worker's son play in one of his bands - The Re-Mains (http://www.croxtonrecords.com/remainspage.html) - they played really good country rock 'n' roll, and I counted no less than 7 cowboy hats in attendance. I haven't even seen anything resembling country here yet, so I was quite pleased to find this. There is a radio station that I ran across the other night that, at the time, was playing early 90s country by women - Reba, Tammy, LeeAnn, etc.. a bit sappy for me.

But I digress... The Old Canberra Inn (http://www.oldcanberrainn.com.au/) is a 'dodgy pub' as Jen put it, but I felt like I was in the Saloon in Nashville. (I think that's the name of the place, on Broadway - ah the memories... E and C!! apologies again to E - the best wingmate a girl could have!) It was great to listen to some live music with a good country feel to it. There was a keyboard and a banjo and a couple of guitars - it was a good sound.