After a certain amount of debate this morning we decided that instead of heading for les montagnes bleues we would go north to Whale Beach and sponge off more Handley hospitality. The weather wasn't that great, it was a long drive up to the hills, my back was hurting and in any case I favour doing people things over sightseeing things these days. Dad phoned Duncan Handley and secured us an invite for lunch. We felt bad about this momentarily as they had a couple of friends plus medium-sized children up there already. D phoned back to cancel, but were told we had to come, insist, no problem etc. and so forth, so honour was served. Got the car from Avis in Kings Cross and then drove up through the uninspiring northern suburbs of Sydders with its reasonably hellish traffic, and reflected that while living in waterfront style in Manly or the centre might be great, it's not how most of us would get to live. Eventually got to the place, which was of course in a fantastic location overlooking the beach, and had genuine Aussie barby for lunch. Invited Duncan and Angela to Cambridge as is only polite.
Drove back via rainy stop at Palm Beach where we were going to climb up to the lighthouse but didn't because it was raining and we stupidly had not brought waterproofs. Stopped on the way south at Newport beach where I got my feet wet in the Pacific for the first time. Water temperature: warm Cornish.
Then to North Head where we admired the view and looked at the very nice new houses being built on seminary land behind Bower St. Back to Mantra via a supermarket to buy some quick dinner, and watched the ignominious England performance on the hotel telly. Supermarkets here don't sell booze. And I thought this was a civilised country...
0 comments:
Post a Comment