Tuesday, May 29, 2007

OK there may be some in-jokes in this one

It was a weekend of nostalgia as two thirds of my London 'family' had made it across the ditch from New Zealand for a few days together in Sydney. Sydney put on its best face as winter approaches with 22C days and brilliant blue skies! Here are Ollie and Jenn on our sparkling saturday.



I think there might be a cockatoo in this photo...




We walked through the Botanic Gardens and Woolloomooloomoomooloolmoo, finally reaching the spruced up daytime pleasantry of Kings Cross. It was some seven years ago that I met Jenn when we were both mixing with crazy Germans in a hostel called The Pink House (along with Melita who alas could not be present but was flying the flag in Italy). Anyway, she hunted me down, got me drunk and persuaded me to live in Nether Street in Finchley. I think she knew at the time what a great BBQ chef I would make. So whence small pink house coloured seeds doth beautiful friendship trees grow! We both have a lot to thank this place for.

It was all rather charming, reminiscing away past the drug pushers of Kings Cross, innocently taking in a 'bookshop' and getting served a drink by a woman out of her tree in a pub which I seem to remember being far busier and smoky, and not showing some lame PGA golf!

All this revisiting yesteryear was rather tiring, so we headed back to where we were staying in Coogee (via a Virgin not-so-megastore), where we later hit the highlights of the Coogee Bay Hotel, catching up for more Finchley talk with Caroline and Jill.


Sunday took us up the road to Bondi and then back again via that semi-famous walk along the shore. Again it was a fabulous day for it and though busy provided some pretty sights

In the evening, we did a good job of preparing Jenn and Ollie for Thailand by eating loads of delicious food at the rather originally named "Thai Me Down" in Coogee.
Despite a few glasses of wine we managed to make it home without getting intercepted by the Intoxication Squad.
Oh does one ever tire of blue skies? ***sigh*** Certainly not when taking a stroll in the early morning along a sandy beach such as Coogee.


Apart from a few dodgy people smuggling budgerigars, the beach was quiet and a perfect accompaniment to a morning coffee.

Later in the day we used much of Sydney's transport network, apart from the monorail, monorail, MONORAIL!


For the same price as a London Underground travelcard we took the bus to Circular Quay and then a ferry to Watson's Bay, which seemed a contender for any remake of 'The Birds' thanks to the gulls. Speaking of birds, here's Jenn on the rocks, the city in the distant horizon.

Later still it was off to the ever-popular home to developing mentalists, Manly, really just for the ride, but we had a wonder round a few of the shops and along the promenade.


Lot's of pictures of me this week aren't there? Don't tell me I never treat you now will you?!

The light faded as we boarded the ferry back, catching a glowing sky over the homes of aforementioned developing nutjobs (you know who you are!!)
By time we rounded Bradley's Head, the city lights were twinkling and we soaked up more of the city from our dinner spot on Darling Harbour. One final use of the daytripper ticket took us back to Coogee and pretty much the end of an immensely satisfying few days with the old codgers from way back when.
P.S. Some messages....
Congratulations Mr & Mrs Ferrari... we celebrated for you despite the threat of the Intoxication Squad
Happy 5th birthday Bethany, glad you liked the presents!
Bon Voyage Jenn & Ollie, thanks for the fun times and see you in the motherland
Welcome back to the motherland to Pops and Sonia, mmm Branston, cheese, mmmmmmm....

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Black Mountains, Red Hills

Rain rain rain was the headline on Friday…Broken Hill the wettest for 10 years, Goulburn, Dubbo, Orange, Parkes all getting an inch or so…oh how the farmers rejoiced in local tin sheds up and down the south east! It had stopped raining on Saturday afternoon but the sky remained threatening as I took a break in the old trusty environs of Red Hill.



The cooler weather and damp grass seems to have rejuvenated the kangaroos, a procession of 20 or so bounded along the ridge at some speed, another potential hazard to the devoted bushwalker. The sun peeked through the dark clouds once in a while, illuminating patches of the dense urban environment that is Canberra!
I walked along the ridge up to Mount Taylor, which was pretty fresh in a keen westerly wind, I guess you could say pleasantly invigorating. Black Mountain was looking black, “though every cloud has a silver lining” as thin red streaks illuminating the storm laden clouds.






It’s amazing what a difference half a day makes as blue skies returned on Sunday though the coolness was still lingering and may now last until September (when I say cool I’m talking about 16C here). Across Lake Burley Griffin, Mount Ainslie was inviting a Sunday morning stroll and it wasn’t just me who was out on the path. This, I later found out is a male red headed mouse spider, and yes, it probably does contain enough venom to make me a bit itchy but hey, let’s snap snap snap away!!

http://www.bluemts.com.au/reptilepark/animals.asp?catID=17&ID=130

I think this may be the last time I’m up one of Canberra’s hills for a while…the hills could do with a break! Sydney next weekend, probably Melbourne the next and Queensland the weekend after. Queensland in June…phew, the summer returneth!

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Sublime and ridiculous

Canberra is beautiful but after a few weeks here I find the urge to leave the confines of the territory becomes too strong, plus I need to post some pictures of stuff other than Canberra to keep all you avid readers happy! However, Canberra’s beauty was all too evident as the sun went down on Saturday evening…



…and then again as the sun crept up over the misty Sunday morning horizon.



Just under two hours from this early capital sunrise, whizzing up the Federal, Hume and Illawarra Highways, I found myself at Fitzroy Falls on the northern edge of Morton National Park. It was time to go bush! I came here once before but it was so misted in you could only see the top of the falls and little else. Today however the views were great and, along with the screeching cockatoos and fragrant peppermint gum and flowering yellow wattle, presented the perfect all round Aussie bush experience. Here’s some of the scenery…
















This is my lunch spot, probably one of the nicer places I have shared with a cheese and ham sandwich!














It sure was a lookout extravaganza…this was the last one, further west near Tallong, looking down on the Shoalhaven river.


After the sublime of Australia it was the ridiculousness of Europe, driving back to Canberra to watch a delayed broadcast of Eurovision with a bunch of Aussies… some Serbian ‘thing’ winning. Personally I was disappointed the Swiss entry “Vampires are Alive” got knocked out. As they say, strewth, ding-a-dong-a-ling-bing mate.

Sunday, May 06, 2007

Fancy eggplant

Not much to report from the national capital this week, though I did have a capital experience on Monday night, dining out with work at a tasty restaurant called Aubergine. Pretty fancy for me…apparently a few of the pollies have been known to hang out here, there may have even been some there Monday night but I wouldn’t have known better.

It was a pleasant weekend and Saturday lunchtime Lauren and I visited a little market which was a bit hippy-ish (knitted beanies everywhere) and had some Salvadorian food, which consisted of chicken and beans in a kind of cornmeal / potato case topped with chilli sauce. The market was in part of a community arts complex and Canberra being the happening place it is, the youth were out in force at the youth centre.


On Sunday I met up with a friend, Jodie, who has just bought a car and so was keen to test it out. It was a lovely autumn day and we had a little drive beside the lake and an amble through golden Weston Park, which is on the south west of Lake Whirly Burley Gubbins.


Following that we popped around the lake and to the Botanic Gardens for more of an amble and afternoon tea - disappointing cakes in Canberra terms though – but the gardens are always relaxing. From there it was a drive up the ever beautiful Mount Ainslie, where I seem to always take the same photos! Hopefully the tree adds a little different perspective on the landmarks of the Bush Capital.

Enjoy your May Day back home, our next public holiday is the Queen’s birthday which is amazing because a) it isn’t really the Queen’s big day and b) we don’t even get that day off in her majesty’s homeland (by that I’m meaning the UK not Germany). Auf Wiedersehen!