Sydney walkabout

Had to wake Dad up this morning at 0945, having been woken up myself by the alarm an hour earlier. I reckon that must be a first. The sun was shining so we decided to go out for a walk down Macquarie St via the museum of Sydney and then cross town to Darling Harbour, which is another place Dad has never been. The MoS was interesting - build on the site of the original 1788 government house, and containing a lot of stuff about the house, the colony and significant things like the bridge and the opera house. After that we walked past the state library, parliament building, hospital and the old barracks to St. James's church, which Dad thinks is where my grandfather's funeral service took place. Then across town to Darling Harbour, noticing a number of instances of older buildings. I had thought central Sydney would be entirely new but they have preserved some good examples of inter-war tower blocks as well as older terraces tucked away amidst the skyscrapers.




Darling Harbour has been turned from a major dock area (Dad recalls it as such, although he used to dock up at Walsh Bay by the bridge - now posh apartments it appears) to a very nice waterfront, with bars and restaurants, the aquarium and, over the Pyrmont bridge, the Australian national maritime museum. Guess where we ended up? After a very good lunch at a place on the dockside called Bungalow 8 (food in Sydney seems universally very good, in my experience so far) we crossed over to the museum. The galleries and HMAS Onslow (Oberon class submarine) and Vampire (1950s destroyer) were worth seeing too. Unfortunately the Endeavour replica was not there, as she is in the process of circumnavigating Australia.

Got the ferry back under the bridge to Circular Quay and a brief change before going to dinner at the Bennelong restaurant - in the small operahouselet at the southwestern corner of the opera house site - with Ken and Di Handley, who were greeted by name in there and, fortunately for me, picked up the tab. Nice, and probably insanely expensive, Tasmanian pinot was chosen for us. The eponymous Bennelong was, I found out in the MoS, one of the Aboriginal people who first interacted with the colonists, and he became quite a celeb in his time. Wonder what he would make of his restaurant...

Jet lag has subsided today and I felt fine. Having lunch on the wharf in the sun I could appreciate what a great place Sydney would be to live and work, especially if you were a young professional with some money to spare.

I am Deckard

Location:George St,Sydney,Australia

Eastern beaches walk

Today we decided to do a walk that had been described to us last night as fantastic (amongst other superlatives) so we got the bus at Circular Quay to go to North Bondi, with the idea being to walk to Coogee further South. Dad had never been to this part before so he was also interested to see what it was like. The bus journey was through seemingly endless Sydney suburbs, and the drop-off at Bondi was distinctly unpromising. The walk, past Bondi, Tamarama, Bronte and Clovelly beaches, was pretty unprepossessing,to be honest. There was a fine rolling swell in use by the surf dudes, the beaches were perfect sand crescents, but everything else was kinda ordinary. Suburban development has consumed the whole coastline, so to our right was an unbroken line of posh houses and flats, with hardly an inch of undeveloped land on the sea front. The cliffs were low sandstone with some interesting formations but the path was concreted and fenced almost all the way along. It wasn't a walk in country at any stage. The overcast weather didn't do it ant favours - it would undoubtedly look much prettier on a sunny summer day, when the beaches and the sea would look so great you wouldn't notice anything else. Anyway, I'm glad we did it, but there's just no competition with Lizard - Porthleven.

After the walk we busses from Coogee back to Sydney, picked up the Don Giovanni tickets for tomorrow night, and then went back to the flat for late lunch. Chilling for a bit now before going out to dinner. Still somewhat laggy and tired, but getting better.

Manly

Was woken by Dad at 0839 after a good night's sleep. Eggs benedict in the lobby then down to Circular Quay for the Manly ferry. Seeing the bridge and opera house for the first time reminded me of being in New York - the scene is so familiar it is difficult to persuade yourself that you are actually there. Manly was a trip down memory lane for dad - he talked a lot about his childhood there, the beaches where he learned to swim, who he remembered etc. Saw 77 bower St, which is still very much there although in need of some repair by the looks of things, and which appears to be no. 59 now, plus the plot of land my grandfather and grandmother bought before he fell ill, with the intention of building on it. Lunch at a nice cafe on Shelly beach. Manly is lovely and I can understand my grandmother (or anyone else, really) wanting to locate there. The house must be worth a fortune now. Got the ferry back to Sydney, and had a wander around the Rocks. By this time I was really flagging so we went back to the flat and I had a short kip. At 6ish we got the Mosman ferry over the water to meet up with Uncle A's friend Ken Handley, and had dinner at his rather nice place overlooking the harbour. His wife Di, sons David (art dealer) and Duncan (policeman) and their wives Kirsten (architect) and Angela (editor for Allen & Unwin) were the other attendees. I talked to the wives most, who were interesting people. Ken is very like Uncle Andrew in some respects, especially in the way he contributes to conversations. I felt horribly rough at the beginning of the evening due to jet lag related general gut poorliness, but after a glass of two of very nice Cab Sauvignon I felt a lot better...

Sydney

Well, I'm finally in my crisp Sydney sheets but unforts the room is on first floor so the traffic noise is considerable, plus vaguely Arab-sounding music filtering irritatingly from somewhere nearby. As is usual when I arrive somewhere like this, I am asking myself what I am doing here. Suppose maybe one of the functions of travel is to make to realise what you have back home, and I will be more positive tomorrow, assuming the melatonin plus night nurse combo I have taken wins out over the beeping taxis. It was a bit of a thrill, despite the journey, to finally touch down in real actual Australia.The flight was fine but it was very irritating to have to get off in Singapore to go through security again. About halfway through that second leg I began to really want to get off the stupid plane. At least the back held up relatively well. It's a bit sore now but not as uncomfortable as I thought it would be. Ho hum. I'd best try to get some sleep I suppose. Tomorrow we're going to Manly to see Dad's old house and then apparently we have to do dinner with the high court judge and various other family members.

The journey

Cambridge station

Said goodbye to C and the girls in too-perfunctory fashion due to general travel nervousness. Commuters piling up for 0745 First Capital Connect sardine can to KX... And it's here. In first class with academics and City types.

Heathrow Express

On the 0925 to Heathrow, slightly later train than planned. So much for their free wifi service - it doesn't work. Travelling with the iPad will reveal just how rubbish public wifi availability is I think. London rubbish generally, all full of people. Underground is like Third Reich transportation system...

A380

The big plane has USB points and enough room, in premium economy at least, for a full sized human being. Relatively luxurious in fact. The entertainment appears to consist of The Green Lantern, and.. er.. that's about it. Useless. Good job I've got the pad and the aforementioned USB port. So... a bit of reading, dinner, 6 hours kip or thereabouts I hope. Then Singapore, more food, naps, and oz on time for maybe dinner and a sleep. Missing a good night's sleep is what it amounts to I guess, and so long as this can be rectified with drugs we should be ok. It turns out we have to get off the stupid aeroplane at stupid Singapore just to go through stupid security and come back again. This at about midnight body time. Presumably this is so they can vacuum the plane and sell us stuff at duty free. I'd much prefer just to sit in my pod. On the plus side, have found the Qantas entertainment better than I first thought. Watched Source Code. Meh. Not so forthcoming with the booze as Gervaise on the Colorado to LHR flight earlier in the year. Maybe a good thing, maybe not. About 5 body time and have smacked self with melatonin and stugeron. Hello (hopefully) oblivion...

Somewhere over central Asia, unable to sleep

So much for drugs...

Singapore

A couple of hours in the transit lounge, aircon unable to fully exclude the 100% humidity. Tipping down with rain. Had to go through security again, but quickly back aboard the A380 and another glass of champagne yay! Stewardesses are now Aussie.