Sydney Revisited (Part 2)

On the second day, we went to Pancakes on the Rocks for breakfast, which was to die for.  I had black forest chocolate pancakes and Kurt had plain buttermilk pancakes with strawberries and vanilla icecream.  I think mine was better, but he disagrees.  

After this, we walked past Martin's Place where a TV news show called Sunrise is broadcast.  I'm not posting any photos of this.

Then, we stopped by the Opera House:

And Sydney Harbour Bridge

And took lots and lots of wonky panoramas of said House & Bridge

And a large number of selfies:

And found a cruise liner and Kurt liked the ropes so I took a picture at this angle to try to get how massive the ropes were... but it doesn't show all that well.

And Kurt tried on an Australian hat thing, and looks very Australian in this picture...

And we watched Dragon Boat racing from the bridge in Darling Harbour

And that took us about to lunch time....

Sydney revisited

I'm so sorry, people, that it has taken me this long to get around to posting pictures of our trip to Sydney, but here I am, and better late than never!

Bondi beach was lovely, but even though a major tourist attraction, it was not as nice as all the amazing beaches we have up in Queensland.  I already knew that of course, having visited it previously, but as I said to Kurt, the Bondi lifeguards are SO much hotter than the ones up in Queensland...

Yes, I have watched all eight seasons of Bondi Rescue.  I am that sad.

And yes, someone brought a paddling pool to the beach for their small child.

And here's me... wrapped in my favourite beach towel from Noosa and looking not a little foolish.  Just to prove that I was really there.

There is a skateboard park at the beach, there is in fact one of these at most beaches and parks in Australia, which I think is cool.  This was some eight year old kid who was skating rings around everyone else.

The beach from above.

Off for dinner, we had to wait an hour for a table - what better opportunity to get a couple of cocktails? The one on the left is a salted caramel martini (which was amazing) and on the right some sort of lemon/cointreau/apricot liquer creation.  Also very good.

We even found a British SWEET Shop - I did complain that they called it a Lolly shop and the shop assistant snapped back that "Australians would not understand what sweets are".  Kurt objected to this and said that yes they would, so we had to end that conversation fairly quickly...

I introduced him to blackjacks (he refused to try), fruit salads, drumsticks, and many other of my childhood favourites.  Unfortunately no sherbet fountains.

We then walked slowly back to the hotel via the Westfield Tower, from which we could see all of Sydney, but unfortunately there were a ridiculously large number of lights on so everything had a reflection and also there were many grubby finger prints on the glass, so it wasn't a great experience for $26 each !

I couldn't take any photos from the tower - I did, but they're useless - due to the above, so have settled for one from the bridge in Darling Harbour:

And that was Day 1 !

I can't believe it's already November.

Back home in Ireland, I imagine the leaves have turned golden and rust, and are coating the lawns and paths, ready to be raked up.  It will be fire in the hearyh weather, all bundled up in sweaters and scarfs, perhaps even a few blankets.

It was 31 degrees here today.

Last night, there was a command party put on by some of our newly upgraded captains.  It's a tradition in our company that when you get your first command position, the difference between your last first officer salary and first captain salary goes on a bar tab - for all of the other pilots to drink.  This time, we had six new captains providing drinks not just for the pilots but also the cabin crew and office staff, and it turned out to be a great party.  This morning, we got up late and lazed around for awhile, and then headed out to Bunnings to buy yet more stuff for my garden.

I even took some more pictures.

Here, in the first one, you can see four sunflower plants at the back - now about a foot tall - with a thin line of carrots in front of them, and then at the front some flowers - yes, I went there.  Marigolds and some random slightly cactus-y things, I can't remember what they're called.

At the other end of the garden, past the courgettes (zucchini) and tomatoes, we have the beans at the back, with a newly-erected frame in case they need something to lean against.  Nine out of the eleven seeds sprouted, which is pretty good going.  To the left of the line of beans, is the fifth sunflower, which I transplanted this morning (it was getting cut off by the courgettes) and it is looking rather sad and wilted as a result.  Under the wigwam is the cucumber plant, to its right is an eggplant and then the red capsicum, which has several tiny still-green capsicums on it now.  And all around the edge are more marigolds, petunias, and the cactus-y things.

Here are the tomatoes and courgettes.  There are five courgettes on the plants now, unfortunately most of the flowers appear to be male, but google says that this is normal, so I live in hope of more fruit.  In between the tomatoes I have planted some basil, which apparently keeps flies away from the tomatoes and also helps them taste good !    In between the wooden chopsticks are a few more carrots.  Yes, they are actually chopsticks.

You may notice the pretty little metal & ceramic bead butterfly in two of the photos... I fell in love with it and decided it had to join the plants in my garden.  :)

The garden grows

The garden is continuing the grow at an an alarming rate.  The sunflowers are beginning to get a little dwarfed by one of the courgettes which is a pity, but hopefully they will grow above him before too long.  As you can see, there are five sunflowers... but the one almost under the courgette is a lot smaller than the two in the main sunlight!

In front of the sunflowers is the carrot line - which I weeded yesterday - which I don't know if will survive...

Courgette flower!

Cucumber plant and capsicum plant complete with pretty little white flower.

Sydney water playground

On walking back to our hotel yesterday, we spied a boy desperately pumping on an old-fashioned water pump.  Interested by this, we went to investigate.  Here are the series of water pumps with troughs that funnel the water downhill:

Below the troughs, there were a series of channels, with little gates that opened and closed to change the direction of the water flow, and also drawbridges that you could lower to fill a lake and lift to release the dam.

Kurt letting some water out:

The little gates:

In between some of the gates, the ground would be sloped up so that to get water from one side of the playground to the other, you had to fix the gates just so to raise the water level enough to flood across.

There was a wheel that would bring water up from the main stream to flow into the raised channels, every half turn sent water either left or right.

Also a corkscrew - twist the handle and the water would climb the corkscrew into the pool at the top.

Half of the water playground hill.

We could have stayed and played awhile but, we didn't stay too long... I suppose Dad will find this disappointing ! 

Sydney Teaser

Hurricane's Grill.  What can i say except Best Ribs EVER.

25/10/13

For the record, and simply so that I don't forget the date, I must add that today I bought three more seedlings: a red capsicum, a cherry tomato, and a cucumber.

This afternoon, I am going up the coast with Kurt to have lunch with his cousin and her boyfriend.  The first stage of meet the family... will I survive this encounter intact?  Should I panic now and run a thousand miles?  Am I dressed suitably?  Are flip flops appropriate?

Also, the lawn needs mowing.

Also, I dug up most of the new carrot seeds to plant the cherry tomato plant.  This means that there may be one or two carrots that grow beside it, that could be interesting.

Did I mention that tomorrow morning we're going to Sydney and are going to spend the day with some hot lifeguards on Bondi Beach?  Unfortunately, it being Sydney, it's going to be considerably cooler than Brisbane, but I shall take a hoody and hope for the best...