Still Sydney

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Friday 2nd March

Ow! My feet hurt. Sooooo much. I know that's exactly how I started yesterday's blog but

it remains very apt for today as well. We slept in this morning which was hardly

surprising 'cos we were both completely bushed by the time we went to bed last night.

Straight after breakfast our sightseeing began and we started today with a visit to the

Police and Crime Museum. It's a lovely little museum built in what used to be the

police station and court. The cells and court room are beautifully retained along with

some interesting exhibits - some a bit gruesome and some just downright fascinating.

And writ large above some of the exhibits pertaining to the awful life of the convicts

is a famous Oscar Wilde quote: "One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the

wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." It makes

you think when you find yourself looking at real murder weapons as well as the police

charge dockets for people who were tried and found guilty and then executed.

So after that much food for thought, what can you do other than go shopping! Lots of

people had recommended that we visit the Queen Victoria Building and they were right to

do so. There are some gorgeous shops there including way too many that you can't

actually afford to shop in. But we found a wonderful model shop so indulged our hobby

of miniature railways with some new bits for the train set back home. I also found a

lovely opal shop and couldn't resist buying a pair of black opal earings. The stones

were mined here in New South Wales so that was all the excuse I needed to buy them -

plus the fact that they go with the necklace and bracelet I already bought in Colombia!

The rain has continued unabated for most of today but having come back to our apartment

to let our feet recover from the museum and the shops, we then went for a walk - in the

rain - round the botanical gardens. When you get closer to them you realise what a

racket the cockatoos make. They have a very loud screach that they seem very fond of

issuing. And we got flown over by a group of 8 of them all screaching at once which was

very pretty to the eyes and very horrid on the ears! We saw more parrots too but we'd

gone out to get closer to the fruit bats and never saw a single one. I'm now on look-

out duty as Richard has declared he wants to run straight over if we see them. I think

the rain has put them off though and they're staying wherever they are already.

We have an interersting experiment planned for this evening - I'm going to cook! But

don't worry, it's only jacket potatoes and beans so shouldn't tax our cruise indulged

selves too much!

Tomorrow we have 2 plans: if it's dry and nice (which is highly unlikely) we'll get the

train over to Bondi Beach. If it's wet (which is much more probable) we're going to

catch a ferry out towards Parramatta and the site of the Sydney Olympics back in 2000.

The aquatic centre is now a public swimming centre and we fancy going for a dip. It

takes about an hour to get there by ferry so 2 hours on a boat is always good for us to

spend part of our day.

Hope you're having drier weather back home! We're not cold here but we are soggy.

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