Wed 16 and Thu 17 Feb
Today (Wed) and today (Thu) was a confusing travel day. We woke up very early and headed to Maui airport for our connection to Honolulu. I left La to check in the bags while I returned the hire car (easy peasy, Thrifty in Maui are very friendly) then very stressful wait for the car rental shuttle to the terminal which the staff kept assuring me would only be a minute. 20 minutes later it rocked up (I could have walked to the terminal and back at least once in that time!) and was reunited with a slightly anxious La (where were you? what took so long?).
The flight to Honolulu was short and uneventful. We then had a boring 2 hour wait for our flight to Sydney during which we tried to spend some of our remaining US dollars on coffee and cinnamon buns. The flight to Sydney was quite empty so we commandeered a spare row and La managed to get 40 winks pretty much lying stretched out across 4 seats. Meanwhile I watched 3 movies (shared screen: bummer) - 'Convicted', 'Unstoppable' and 'Salt'. Sometime half way through the flight we crossed the International Dateline and lost a whole day in a matter of seconds. To be fair, we'd been gaining time ever since we left London so we could afford to lose some. But a whole day!?
On arrival in Sydney we of course declared everything that might have been on the food and animal products list at customs, having watched too many episodes of 'Nothing to Declare'. In fact, I was looking forward to being questioned, just to say I had been and to see if they would clean my running shoes or something. Alas, there were such long queues that our declaration of food (4 choc-chip macadamia biscuits and 40 tea bags) and animal products (two lei made from small shells) were waived through with disdain and the next minute we were in the Sydeny arrivals hall and receiveing a very warm Aussie welcome from my friend T, and her sons B and T. It was sunny and hot and lovely to be with close friends. G'day mate, welcome to Australia!
Temp: 26 Deg C with 80% humidity
Time: -3 hours but crossed the date line so lost a day (GMT +11)
When we got home, my friend's husband A, my best mate from school and best man at our wedding, was home from firing people at work. We relaxed and chatted and had an awesome meal (grilled tuna; T is a fantastic cook!) and chatted some more and caught up. It was great to be in Australia.
Noon, noon, night. Day 32/33
Fri 18 Feb
Apparently February in Sydney is often humid and sticky and hot and in this respect it did not disappoint. However it is apparently not common to have neighbours angle-grinding roof tiles and sawing aluminium sheets at 07:30am, but we were nevertheless treated to both of these. Ah well, at least on the weekends this would only start at 8am!
Spent the morning with T, jump-started their spare car and got a new battery for it and went shopping. She drove us to Bronte beach, we parked and then we did the beautiful walk along the rocks that runs from Bronte to Bondi. Sydney has beautiful beaches with white sand and big waves and blue ocean. It was wonderful. At Bondi beach we strolled across the sand and were amazed at how many beach goers there were out on a working day. Also amused by the school groups doing surf lessons.
Had fish and chips and my first Australian coffee (a 'flat white' of course!) at a cafe next to Bondi. Delish. Nice and fresh and the batter was light and crisp. Then we walked back along the same path to our car and back to T&A's place. La and I took their spare car for a spin and did some shopping at one of the many Westfield malls in East Sydney. This one (East Gardens), in common with many other malls in Australia, has a huge fresh fruit and veg shop in what would otherwise be a thoroughfare. I think I counted 6 different types of peaches and 3 nectarine variants. La was in heaven.
Back at home, T had collected their two young boys from school and then I watched in awe as she made fresh pasta from scratch, mixing and kneading the dough, then rolling it into fettucine and leaving to rest before supper was started. She made it look enjoyable, if not quite effortless. For Shabbes supper, some of their friends came over, also with kids of similar ages to B&T. Supper was awesome - challah and hot smoked salmon, then the fresh pasta with tomato sauce or pesto (both homemade by T) and then fruit, ice cream, wine and coffees.
Shabbat Shalom all.
Day 34
Sat 19 Feb
Woke up and A made lattes (fresh ground coffee and an espresso machine with milk frother - the whole experience!) then headed off to Rose Bay to meet up with my former boss B and his wife G and son A. They had left London to return to Sydney last July or thereabouts. We had a delicious breakfast (La and I both had scrambled eggs on Rye toast which were much better than that sounds!) at Sugarloaf Espresso then went for a walk with ex-bossman and crew along the sea-front of Rose Bay, one of Sydney Harbour's gorgeous inlets. Yachts, seaplanes, kids learning sailing, standing boards and harbour beach (no waves).
As it so happened, our next arrangement was lunch in a few hours, also in Rose Bay, so we walked some more the opposite way round Rose Bay and surrounding streets. Lunch was at Den sushi with some friend's of La's mom. The food was again superb and I was introduced to the friends and their daughter and husband. After lunch we returned to T&A's place in Maroubra (technically Kingsford, but the Maroubra side!) to chill a bit and I went with T to another shopping mall (Pacific Square) which has a meditteranean deli that makes awesome biltong and has a huge selection of olives and 6 different types of fetta. Also the local supermarket there stocks South African products so bought some Ouma Rusks. Very cool.
For supper we were out in Vaucluse visiting our former upstairs neighbours G and N and baby J. They live in a flat in Vaucluse, near Diamond Bay, with an almost sea view if you stand on their balcony. Their area is very windy which in the humidity was a great relief. G braaied boerewors and steak for us guys and the girls had mielies and stir fry. Delish. They had also left London for Sydney sometime last year and it was great to catch up with them. N had rudely missed La's hen night as she went into labour that afternoon and J was born the next day and he's now almost walking and has grown so big.
It had been a very busy but great day in Sydney catching up with friends from London and SA.
Day 35
Sun 20 Feb
I was up early and had a cold shower as it was so humid and hot. Besides being a keen barrista, A also loves to bake, so for breakfast we had fresh Rye bread and cinnamon buns. And coffee of course. Yum.
Have I previously mentioned that Australians have very high standards in coffee making? Coffee culture is huge here and pretty much every restaurant and bar will be able to sell you very good, fresh coffee. Espresso based drinks are the norm. In fact, unless you walk into Starbucks (which is very uncommon and hard to find, thank goodness), you will struggle to find plain old filter coffee anywhere.
We took a bus to the city with A and younger son T (wife T and son B went to a birthday party but would meet up with us later). The bus route took us past some Syndey landmarks like the main rugby stadium and Centennial Park, Oxford Street (full of Asian take-aways, strip joints and bars) and Hyde Park (much smaller than you'd expect) and terminated at Circular Quay which is sandwiched between the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House. Awesome views of both from the Quay and then we walked to and around the Opera House. Amazing. And it was a glorious day (ignoring the humidity) with sunshine and blue skies and the harbour is fabulous. The harbour actually refers to the whole set of inlets from the heads westwards and includes several beaches and wharfs and piers and neighbourhoods. Enormous.
We bought ice creams and then took a ferry to Watsons Bay. The ferry route offers mroe incredible views of the bridge and opera house and makes several stops along the way. T and B had finished at the birthday party and boarded our ferry at Rose Bay and then we all continued on to Watson's Bay. La and I were trying to spot the house used during Masterchef Australia 2010 which is somewhere in Diamond Bay and we probably did!
At Watsons Bay we had fish and chips from Doyles for lunch then walked along the beach and quayside and took a stroll up to The Gap - a cliff-side lookout point over the Pacific which is also unfortunately a popular suicide point. We all bussed back to Rose Bay and then drove home. The afternoon was hot hot hot and we didn't know what to do with ourselves. While the kids had a bit of a nap La and I ended up in T&A's bedroom with them (no, none of that!), which was the only airconditioned room in the house. Heaven. I don't think we even spoke to each other, just read and relaxed in the glorious coolth.
That evening we had an early supper at some friends of my sister and she had invited a whole bunch of old friends drom our youth movement camp days. A busy evening, but nice to catch up and meet this one's boyfriend and that one's kid. Our supper host runs a deli so we had awesome bagels and cold cuts. After supper we still had one more arrangement and met up with La's first cousin, originally from Pretoria but who moved to Sydney many years ago. Drinks and catch up with her family rounded off a very busy day.
Day 36
Mon 21 Feb
It was much cooler this morning. Apparently the wind had shifted from hot easterly (from the desert) to cool westerly (from the ocean) and this is known as The Change. Whatever, it was a great relief from the humidity. I went for a jog down to Maroubra beach, about 4km away. Then had a nice big breakfast as reward for my run and then drove about an hour to the North to visit D, a friend of La's mom in St Ives (aka St Africa due to the high number of South Africans living there). D was at school with La's mom which meant she was at school with my aunt. And she was also in the same hall of residence at Wits as my mom. Looking through some of D's albums we found photos of my aunt and mom as students; incredible.
After a refreshing tea and croissant, D then drove us around North Sydney, taking us to Manly (beautiful palm tree-lined beach and great cafes and shops) then on to Dee Why, where we had an awesome lunch at On Shore cafe (I had a steak sandwich, La had Greek Salad). We pressed on northwards past Collaroy beach and on to Narrabeen Lagoon, then headed inland to the Ku-Ring-Gai Chase national park, a huge, lush forested area. In the park we visited the West Head lookout point with awesome views of the Tasman Sea, Pittwater and the back of Palm Beach. Then back to St Ives (stopping first to pick up D's grandkids from school), to pick up our car and drive back to the Eastern suburbs.
A and I had a guys night out planned so I changed into something slightly smarter than flip-flops and shorts and bussed into the city. We started off at a very cool bar frequented mostly by city types (I was with one!) then continued with some pretty incredible Japanese food in The Rocks area (sashimi and teriyaki chicken). Rounded off our night with a whisky (Irish) at the Blu Bar (top of the Shangri La hotel) which has an incredible view of the Sydney Harbour bridge and Darwin Harbour. It was so nice to catch up with A, comparing wedding ring tans and giggling like school boys. An awesome day!
Day 37
Tue 22 Feb
Today La and I took a bus to the city for a good wander round. We got off at Circular Quay and headed straight for the International Passennger Terminal. There were three good reasons for this. First, it had started to rain so we needed to take some cover (we'd left our brollies in London!). Second, we were on the hunt for restaurants featured in Masterchef Oz and Peter Gilmore's Quay Restaurant was there (photos taken of the outside!). Lastly, the Queen Elizabeth ocean liner was berthed. Boy is it huge, and we could just about imagine what it would be like in the upper deck rooms, each with its own ocean facing balcony. Awesome.
From there we walked around the quay a bit, popped into the Park Hyatt (mainly to use the loos but also the views of the Opera House and the Bridge from its terraces are incredible) and then strolled around The Rocks. This area is a few blocks of shops and cafes and museums located more or less where the first British colonists settled. We had a forgettable lunch (but with great coffee) at the Fine Foods Store then went to the Rocks Discovery Museum. The museum takes visitors through the history of The Rocks development and the early life of the first colonists, and there was a nice exhibit showing the growth, changes and decline of European colonies over the last few hundred years or so.
We then cut across town to the botanical gardens, gorgeous plants and trees, although the wrong time of year for most of the flowers. Also in the gardens were hundreds of bats, most roosting in trees, some flying around, all making an incredible amount of noise. We even stopped for coffee (excellent) at the cafe, located more or less under the bats. From there we made our way to the Woolloomooloo Bay side of the gardens to have a gawk at the Queen Mary 2 ocean liner, which is older but bigger than the QE. Then back along Mrs Maquarie walk, saw her chair (a rocky outcrop more or less bench-shaped) and along the waterside to Farm Cove (towards the Opera House) and passed Government House, all still within the gardens.
We bussed back to T&A's place where T had just finished preparing fresh gnocchi for supper and rounded off a busy day with a glass of wine and game of '30 Seconds' where La and I thrashed T&A. Yay us!
Day 38
Wed 23 Feb
This morning after breakfast and T had taken the boys to school, she joined us for a bit of retail therapy at Bondi Junction, a huge mall in Bondi. We managed to find gifts for our hosts and sons without T noticing as she had some serious bookclub business to discuss with the soon-to-be-closing Borders there. She joined us for coffee (La had awesome hot chocolate, I stuck to flat whites) and then we drove into the city to pick A up who had taken the afternoon off to spend time with us.
Lunch was at Dolcissimo in Haberfield, the area of Sydney where the best, most authentic Italian bakeries and restaurants are found. It was salad and pizza all round and we concluded our meal with Affogatos (shot of espresso served over a scoop of ice cream). Delish. Back home to T&A then La and I went to Maroubra beach for my first swim in Sydney. It was great. Big, powerful waves. Cool but not cold water. Beautiful.
La and I headed to the city for sundowners, a return visit for me to Blu Bar at the top of the Shangri La and a first for La. This time it was still daylight when I was there and the views of the harbour and the bridge and the Opera House were even more spectacular than the night views a few days earlier. Then it was a quick walk down to Kings Street Wharf to meet friends of La's mom for dinner. We had an incredible meal at Malaya, delicious and the courses just kept on coming - in fact we had so enjoyed (and were full from) our starters and the stir-fried main dishes, practically licking the plates clean, that we were totally surprised when they brought out the curry dishes. Yum. Somewhat heavier, La and I walked across town for our bus home, sated and another great day in Sydney over.
Day 40
Thu 24 Feb
Today was more a rest day. We caught up on emails, did a bit of shopping, ate leftover pizza, spent time with T&A and kids, and had chilled supper at their house.
Day 41
Fri 25 Feb
Up not too early and went for a run around the Centennial park, about a 4km perimeter route, surrounding a lake, horse bridal way, sports fields and some foresty bits. After breakfast, La and I drove down to Rose Bay shopping area where our friends from Sunday night have their deli - Biancas. It is a wonderful mix of home cooked Jewish foods like gefilte fish and hamentaschen and South African goods. Chatted for a while with B who does the cooking and bought some boerewors for a braai Saturday night.
Did some more grocery shopping for T and bought very missable (wish I could forget) pies for lunch. La was more sensible and had a salad. My coffee was nice, of course. T picked the boys up from school and I joined them at Maroubra beach for a swim.
Shabbes supper was at A's brother and fam who put together an awesome meal of challah, antipasta (incredible feta and olives and homemade sushi and salad) and mielies, potatos, braaied tuna and salmon. Dessert was fruit and icecream and T's homemade Mars Bar chocolate sauce. Delish.
Shabbat Shalom all.
Day 42
Sat 26 Feb
We were all up early for our day trip to the Blue Mountains. This is a really beautiful, forested area West of Sydney and so-called (so they tell us) for the blue hue caused by the gases emitted by the Eucalyptus. We got out at Scenic Point, took the cable car down the cliff, wandered round the forest a bit, past old coal mining gear and exhibits and then back up the mountain on a fernicular/train, apparently the steepest in the world.
Lunch was at Leura Gourmet, a cafe in the town of Leura. For dessert, the boys had ice creams and we had coffees then headed back on the road to Sydney. A and I had time for a quick swim at Maroubra (awesome water, waves, quite busy even at 5pm) then back home in time for a braai with G and N and little J (our previous upstairs neighbours) who came over to us for dinner. Boerewors and chicken for the meaties and vege 'not burgers' for the veges. Delish!
After the guests had left, La and I packed (Melbourne tomorrow) and then joined T&A for a '30 Seconds' rematch over chocolate and teas. La and I must have had too much wine at supper as we were not on our game and they easily beat us. I guess that makes it 1-1 which means they will have to visit us in London for the decider. A fine end to our Sydney stay.
Day 43
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