My House My Rules!

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DAY 534


Anzac Day in Australia Dawns, but as we were exhausted after yesterday and the fact that we are going to have a busy day ahead of us we were not going to the Dawn Service, and it was raining, heavily

Andy of course was up early but not quite as early as yesterday, but again it was easier for me to sleep without Andy being restless! I surfaced at about 7.30 everyone else was already up, including the Lorikeets who were happily feeding themselves on the balcony.

Ted for the second day in a row cooked some breakfast for us, today we had omelette and English Muffin which set us up nicely for the morning ahead. After a shower we were soon ready to head down to Rydalmere to catch the city cat into the city.

The tide is out and the water is low, Jan explains that they put a bus service on from Rydalmere to Paramatta (the next stop up) when the water is so low as the city cat cannot get any further up the river.

We took the express ferry, in other words it does not stop anywhere else but Circular Quay so for $6.60 each ($2.50 if you are of a certain age!) the city cat, named the Marlene Matthews, was soon underway toward the city. We are sitting inside the ferry on this cool morning, as we were likely to get wet from the spray if we stand up front.

We see the sights of Sydney as we head down the river towards Circular Quay, passing the now heavily developed riverbanks where the prices are considerably higher than the water!

It seems that every spare piece of land will be built on with the exception of the heritage listed buildings that stand out amongst the modern.

In no time at all one of Sydney’s famous icons stands out above the rest, as we advance the Sydney Harbour Bridge comes into view, it appears high above the land ahead of us.

We pass the wharf where we once stayed at the Sebel Pier One, right opposite Luna Park, both Andy and I have fond memories and remember how we felt when we first came into Sydney and saw these amazing sights.

The ferry passes under the bridge which is huge and makes me feel dizzy just looking up at it and of course remembering how it felt to climb it way back in 2007. If you look carefully you can see people at various stages of their bridge climb.

Before long we were quayside and amongst a huge crowd of tourists, day trippers and people celebrating Anzac Day. On the way out we saw a didgeridoo player, he described himself as Italian Aboriginal, I am sure much less of the aboriginal but an excellent didgeridoo player, there was an aboriginal chap and his son accompanying the didgeridoo player and posing for the tourists.

I put a gold coin in the hat, took a couple of photos and we walked on toward the Opera House, where we would sit and have coffee whilst soaking up the sunshine and the atmosphere while watching the world go by.

Coffee was accompanied by a late morning snack of some banana bread and carrot cake to add to our portions of 5 a day along with a warning from the waitress to watch the seagulls who would ruthlessly swoop to steal the cake.

We see the Sydney Jet Boat dancing around the harbour waters giving its latest batch of tourists a soaking, again if you watch closely you can see people on the bridge and we just people watch while we chat.

We have a bit of a reality check here, sitting and looking at the Opera House, it seems so hard to believe that we have just popped over here for a weekend! As we walk around the edge of the Opera House we marvel at its impressive structure, I do hope one day that we can go to the Opera House to see a show.

We wandered around to The Rocks area, where we see various other street artists doing their thing, which included a woman lying on the ground and proceeding to fold her legs right around the back of her neck and a silver man pretending to be a statue.

We see some Sailors wandering around in their full dress uniform, others men and women alike are laden with medals.

The markets are a bustle with tourists, the bars and the cafes around us have people spilling onto the streets and for one day only that it is legal to play in Australia we witness the game of 2 up. Betting is in abundance amongst the moments of deep breaths that either give way to loud cheers or deep groans of disappointment. I try to perch on a barrier to see over the top of the crowd but I cannot keep my balance, so could only see the action every time the crowd momentarily parted.

The market has some great local produce by Australian artists, there are photos, paintings, jewellery, woodcraft, leather craft etc. even a glass blower demonstrates while he makes an intricate glass slipper, I looked in the crowd for Cinderella, but alas she was not there.

Eventually it was time to head back to the city cat for our return journey to Rydalmere so we now find ourselves sitting on the Yvonne Goolagong where we chatted to a guy about the dawn service and march that he attended with is very unsober friend who happened to be sporting a significant amount of medals.

Back at Jan and Ted’s there was time for a cup of tea, feet up and a quick freshen up before we were off out again and this time to Natalie and Justin’s for Sunday dinner, where we also find Jenny helping to prepare this magnificent feast.

Adam, Natalie and Justin’s son, was pleased to see us, he took great delight in showing me all of his toys in the hope that I might want to play with them and Erin was busy helping out by setting the table and making sure everyone had drinks.

That evening we tucked into a tremendous roast lamb with all the trimmings followed by a beautiful pavlova.

We of course had to have a game of Razoo before the kids went to bed, so we all settled down for this Australian game, I wont go into too much detail about the ins and outs of the game, we have mentioned it before, but lets just say that I had a good run on this game and following my purchase of a footy club membership, a bbq, a ute and a Blue Heeler I won!

With the kids now in bed the real challenge of the evening was ahead of us, over the last couple of days various gauntlets had been thrown down with the Rummikub challenge including one from a very confident Justin.

During the challenge Natalie raided the sweetie jar so we had a bit of frivolity playing with the milk teeth and gummy bears, however the game was a serious challenge so we all directed our concentration back to what was happening on the table. Justin took his game very seriously and was not going to lose, the concentration in his face just showed that he wanted to find a way and he did, three times!! There was no way any of us where going to win that night with Justin in the chair, they played by slightly different rules, but they were all clarified at the beginning so we knew how we were playing it, but respecting the rules of the householder - Justin’s House Justin’s Rules!

It was late and our beds were calling us, so at around 1.00am we were back at Jan and Ted’s and gratefully slipping between the sheets after yet another exhausting, but fun day.

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Photos

You Know what
You don't need us to tell you what Iconic Building this is.

A greatday in Sydney
Ted, Jan and me

And the winner
Of Razzo is Caroline

Comments

[Wen and Tone]

Oh what memories!
It seems a long time ago that we were there - in the pouring rain with a huge dose of jet lag! Sigh, fond memories of meeting up with an old school friend who's lived there 20 years. It was good to type with you the other day. We'll have another catch again soon. All the best Tony and wendy