Handbags and Gladrags....

I can't believe it.  I've come all the way to Sydney and ended up the day today shopping for handbags with my reluctant dad and panic stricken mum....but more of that later.

I spent Wednesday wandering and waiting.  My sister had told me that she needed to come into the city to get a few things and that she would give me a call when she was on her way about 9am.  So there I was, up early and ready (this was the waiting bit).  Kay rang just after 11am to say that she was just leaving home and that I should walk down to Myer, the department store where I could hire this elusive suit.  I got there, looked around all 6 floors and organised the hire of my suit before Kay arrived.......

We then looked at children's books and toys before Kay announced that one of her jobs was to get her eyebrows done - not very exciting, so I arranged to meet her for lunch after this.  Lunch was in a food court underneath the department store where we ate from Hokka Hokka, a great Chinese food place.  Kay's next job was to find some nail varnish (this was the wandering bit), so I left her to it and walked down through the city to Circular Quay, the ferry port, cruise terminal and home of the Harbour Bridge and Opera House.  I mooched around the quayside for almost 2 hours, taking photos of the sights and trying to be artistic:

After a couple of hours I decide to go and have a play on the ferries, for those that haven't been to Sydney, the ferries are a fantastic way of getting around and I could spend most of the day moving between ferries and returning back to Circular Quay.......There was a serious side to the ferry adventure, I needed to go round to Darling Harbour and find the restaurant for Wednesday night and also to find the way to walk back to my apartment from there after the meal.  The restaurant was found with considerable ease, mainly because when you get off the ferry George's Mediterranean is the first place that you come to.  Restaurant found I headed for my apartment, a short walk of about 10 minutes.  Restaurant found I headed there for the meeting time of 7pm, to find that I was the first there,,,,The meal was nice but the company was better, there were 23 of us in total including both sets of parents, bridesmaids, ushers, best man, bride and groom and the rest were just odd friends and hangers-on (myself included)!



Both sets of proud parents

Thursday came and will now be known as handbag day.  My mum and dad had arranged to come to my apartment, from where we could go and find mum a new handbag and also pick up my suit.  The story of the handbag goes like this.  Mum brought her handbag and shoes, carefully chosen from home and when she got to Kay's house she realised that in the picture of my brother's wedding (hanging on sister's wall), the same shoes and handbag were in situ......

Apparently to wear the same shoes and handbag is somehow worse than committing genocide so new ones had to be bought immediately.  Luckily enough they stopped off in a shoe shop just outside the train station on their way to me and found the perfect pair of shoes - which created handbag hell for the next few hours trying to find a matching handbag.  I lost count after the 789,145th handbag shop but eventually one was found that was of a decent match and price.  We also went back to the department store where we found this creature made from Lego:

After handbags at dawn, and all afternoon we headed across to Manly (where mum and dad are staying) on the ferry for a barbecue on their balcony.  However on the way we got slightly distracted by a bar called The Four Pines, where I was ordered to sit down as my drink was coming.....I was presented with a wooden rack containing 5 different glasses of 5 different beers.  This was the taster rack and as the bar brewed it's own beers they did this so that the customer could choose the beer that they liked best.  A great idea for micro breweries to take on and cheap enough too as each glass was only a small sampler glass....



Taster racks at The Four Pines

 The barbecue was great, excellent steak and sausages with salad and couscous and after a very pleasant evening I headed back to the city via ferry and train to my apartment.  I tried to take some nighttime photos and a video of the city from the water, some of which worked, most of which didn't.  One day I will learn how to take proper photos and maybe even invest in a proper camera that you have to think about before just pressing a button!

Anyway, I have stayed up late in order to speak to Luke, Harry and Claire after school and it's now approaching 3am as I've also been writing this for you.  I have a wedding to go to in about 12 hours, where I must simultaneously shoot video and take still photos so I had better get some sleep.  I'll leave you with a couple of the night time shots of the Opera House.  Next time I write will be to tell you about a wedding......




John Utzon's finest





Opera to Koalas

After a slow start settling into Manly and getting the shopping done for our stay here we finally hit tourist mode on Monday and boarded the ferry into Sydney. Manly is a 30 minute ferry journey into the city centre and this is the view that greets Kay every morning when she travels to work. The ferry docks between the Opera House and the Bridge and then it is a short train journey to her office - all this (and back again) for £20 a week.


Our first stop, naturally, was the Opera House we walked to it, then around it and decided to go inside. This was a bit tricky as the 1956 design didn't really allow for access and we had to be escorted by staff to a lift in the area where sets were being made up for the Opera later in the week. Once inside we asked about performances but were told if Luke made the slightest noise we would be thrown out as Australians are very intolerant of children - best not bother then. We did book a tour, which was fantastic, and Luke managed to just about stay quiet for the hour. The Opera House looks amazing at any angle but close up takes on a whole new beauty. It has now been listed as a site of historical importance. We spent the rest of the day wandering around the quay to the Sydney bridge and back through the area called the Rocks - the first settlement in Sydney - before meeting Kay on her way home from work and catching the ferry back to Manly. If you ever get the chance to go and don't have children with you there are plenty of regular events you can go to experience the Opera House - I liked the look of High Tea where a singer will give you (and the 50 or so other guests) a private performance. Back at Kay's we had Kangaroo steak for tea!


Tuesday we decided to use the tickets that Kay bought us for Christmas and visited the Sydney Tower. Rather than catching the train we walked up the main shopping street. There is lots of shopping here - each train station, like our underground, is situated under a shopping mall. The Sydney Tower was no different and after searching in vain for a lift that worked we finally gave up and used the escalator for the pushchair. Luke has given up on walking and after losing him in a supermarket on Sunday for about 2 minutes we've given up caring about how much he's using the pushchair. The tour starts with OzTrek that takes you through the sights and sounds of Australia and ends in a virtual reality cinema - luckily Luke was too young for the moving seats so we got to sit in the stationary ones! The views from the tower were amazing and we could just about see Manly in the distance. We found it hard to pinpoint exactly what everything was but eventually worked out where the Olympic Stadium and Chinatown were. We could also see the afternoon rain clouds coming in and managed to get back down the tower before the rain really started. We then walked, in the rain, to Kay's office to meet her for dinner - we took her to Chinatown, which she hadn't been to before, a few blocks away. We were finally allowed to use the train (as I was dead on my feet) and ended up being very late back but it meant we saw the bridge and the Opera House lit up (and Luke saw the moon).

Wednesday we decided to have a day for Luke and used our tickets for the Aquarium and the Wildlife Park which are next to each other in Darling Harbour (two ferries away) - another place for shopping and eating. Luke spent most of the first crying because he wanted to go on the train and most of the second playing his Leapster and shouting Go! Go! Go! from the pushchair - I'm afraid all of our tempers were frayed. Lee and I loved it. The highlight was having a photo taken with a Koala - we weren't allowed to touch them but she did nearly fall on my head at one point. Because of the train issue we took the monorail from there into the city and then got the train back to the quay - only just making the ferry back to Manly.


Today we are probably going shopping and Friday is the day that Lee and Kay are going to climb the harbour bridge - I'm (luckily) looking after Luke.