Back to Brisbane

Thursday and Friday last week saw me back in Brisbane for the first time since Hannah and I arrived there from New Zealand at the end of February, bought Tara the Tarago, and headed south. It was a strange sensation to be back there in proper shoes and an ironed shirt, surrounded by sights that reminded me of my backpacking days... well it wasn't too bad, certainly the $200 a night hotel room beat the hostel dorm room we stayed in previously!

My chores in Arup's Brisbane office finished on Friday afternoon, I picked up the hire car I had booked for the weekend, and headed north, in the dark, with only a printout of directions from Google Maps to guide me. I actually found the motorway fine, it was just getting off it at the appropriate point at the other end that was a tad difficult. But eventually I found my way to Maroochydore (not quite as far north as Noosa) just after 7pm, and greeted the Healys while still wearing my work clobber - quite a change since last time they'd seen me!

A quick change later and we were eating steak and seafood off of the campsite barbie. After that the adults sat outside, with only some cold beers and a 3 litre box of white wine to keep us warm, next to the behemoth 6-berth campervan that the Healys had hired. It may well still be warm during the day on the Sunshine Coast, but it's pretty cold at night... (the pic below was taken the next day, out in front of the behemoth)



The next day we headed to the beach at Maroochydore for some boogie boarding, followed by lunch at the local surf life savers' club. This is a strange and uniquely australian kind of place, which on the outside looks like a respectable kind of restaurant / function venue, but on the inside is basically a standard australian pub, complete with 'pokies' (gambling machines) and a 'TAB' (bookmakers), that also serves food, and bizarrely has a dress code that prohibits beach wear! (even though it overlooks a beach and is there to provide funds for life savers i.e. people who work on the beach). Just one of those crazy foreign idiosyncracies I suppose...

On Sunday we did a very aussie thing - hiring a boat to go fishing on the river. I suppose you can do this back in the UK too, it would just probably cost hundreds of pounds and require booking weeks in advance. We just showed up, paid some dollars, and off we went - no licence (fishing or boat driving) necessary. The three hours we were out passed in minutes and although we caught no actual fish we had a great time trying (despite Laurie often saying it was 'boring').

After saying goodbye to the Healys for the 3rd time since leaving the UK (and getting hugs off all the kids - even Laurie - must be a world first!) I drove back to Brisbane, miraculously dropping the car off with 5 minutes to spare. I also miraculously got back to the train station just in time for the Airport train, which got me to the airport over two hours before my booked flight. Then I remembered it was work who had paid for my flight, not me, so my ticket was probably flexible and so I asked at the Qantas ticket desk if it was possible to fly a little earlier. To my surprise I was handed a boarding card and told to be at the gate in 15 minutes! Serendipitous timing had saved me 90 minutes of hanging around.

After two days back in the office, I was actually back in Brisbane again on Wednesday... but I won't bore you, dear reader, of the details of the two quite tedious meetings that I attended (including a four hour 'risk workshop' - surely the worst part of being an engineer). In fact I didn't even get to leave the airport precinct...!

I currently don't have anything lined up for this weekend, but I have heard that Arup have a collection of pool cars in the basement, including an Arup-branded Smart 'ForTwo'... it might be time for some vehicular reminiscing around the mean streets of Sydney at the weekend!

Robin

Settling in..continued

Sight Seeing and Socialising:

On my first weekend in Delhi Inder and Gaurav took me out to meet their friends at a bar that wouldn't have been out of place in London, but on a big scale with loads of staff running around depositing food and drinks etc.  The music was a good mix of Indian and British mangaging us a bop.  Their friends were very welcoming, and all the girls looked so very pretty - going to a bar like this is the excuse all the women need to dress much (I mean much) less conservatively in strappy tops and skirts that show off their legs. I felt positively underdressed in my jeans and simple cotton top. Typical!

The next day, on my suggestion, we went to the Red Fort. We took the metro and a cycle rickshaw. Fun. An old walled 'city' complex that now has an appearance of faded glory. Or should I say 'striped of it's glory?' The sad thing about the Red Fort is that over the decades many of it's decorations have been stolen, like the silver ceiling in one room and the gems from the tiling in another. India's monuments and ancient buildings also suffer from graffiti and what they call 'encroachment' where the buildings are appropriated by drug users and the homeless. The red Fort is quite heavily guarded, and some of the better kept rooms we could only peer at through the glass. However, what I could see of the buildings was enough to give me a flavour of  Mughal architecture, and the tiling in the rooms was worth appreciating.

 

 

If you notice that these pictures are both wonky, then you would be right.  It was so hot on this Sunday that I was also feeling a bit wonky!

After the Red Fort we visited a Gurdwarra, or Sikh temple. Inder is a 'cut Sikh' which means he doesn't wear a turban, and visits a Gurdwarra most Sundays to pay his spiritual respects.  The experience was really interesting for me, as had I visited as a tourist I would have merely taken my shoes off, covered my hair like everyone else and peeked in.  Going in with someone of that religion means you find out what actually goes on.  Witnessing how the Sikhs observe there religion was interesting, and quick (no painful sermons here), but the best bit was the sweet cinnamon flavoured sticky cous cous type mixture ladled into your hands as you leave. Mmm, halwa (spelling?). Yummy.

We took a quick walk to get some deep fried paratha down one of the narrow lanes Old Delhi. Why scooters carrying 2 or 3 people zip through these tiny lanes, nearly knocking people (namely me) over I don't know. Narrowly escaping death at the hands of these crazies is part of the experience,  I guess!  Anyway, the food was okay, but I've had better stuffed paratha near the university, where several stalls cater to the students keema (mutton) and paneer (soft cheese) paratha needs. Mmm, stuffed paratha.....

A busy week in Sydney...

I ended the last post by recounting my lack of success with the clapped-out-van-buyers of Sydney on my first Saturday at the backpackers' car market, and to be honest the Sunday after was little better - I spoke to a grand total of five browsers. But at least my haircut turned out OK.

On that Sunday I parked the van up next to a young Irish couple trying to sell their similar-looking and similar-priced Ford Econovan. They were good company, and we passed the time trying to save our sanity (sitting in a car park all weekend really is a crap way to spend your leisure time) by inventing alternative lyrics to Bohemian Rhapsody, and scrawled them on the concrete to join the other messages of despair left by earlier sellers. Once I figure out how to connect my phone (Hannah has our camera, godamit) to my PC here in the office i'll upload some of the funnier photos that might give an idea of life in the dungeon.

A reasonable message...

Slightly desperate...

Total desperation...!

(In case you're wondering, I wasn't responsible for these, er, works)

Work was busy last week, with two days of project reviews and a 'facilitated relationship workshop' (whatever that is) on the Tuesday. This was actually more fun than it might seem, as there was good food, free drink, a view over Sydney harbour, and I even had to sing Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire to earn a bonus point for my table over dinner (don't ask). I thought I might have to go to Brisbane on Friday, but that got put off until Monday, and then got pushed back again until the end of this week. Geez, this project is a little chaotic.

Saturday came and I returned to the car market. Interestingly, a lot of the vans and cars that were present the weekend before had gone. This fact, coupled with the texted offer of $2000 that I had received for the van on Friday evening, filled me with hope. I had an offer, but maybe I could hold out for more... as it happened I didn't have to wait long; around lunchtime a young english couple showed an interest and wandered off (as many do), only to return half an hour later for a test drive. To cut a long story short, they made an offer of $2300 which I was more than happy to accept. I had sold the van at last!!! I was free again!!!

(well sort of, I actually had to wait until Monday evening to collect the cash from the happy buyers - pictured above - as they couldn't get hold of so much dough at short notice at the weekend)

So on Saturday afternoon I went into town to upgrade my by-now daggy backpacker clothes by buying some new jeans and trainers (I'd managed to get new smart gear for work, but I'd waited til now to get some fun stuff). By serendipitous timing I actually had somewhere to go on Saturday evening to celebrate my luck with the van - having made a few friends in the office, i'd been invited out to watch some rugby with a colleague's husband and a few other blokes, before joining the ladies for dinner nearby. Good banter, quite a few drinks, good food, and even a lift home made for a good way to celebrate my liberation from the backpackers' car market.

So finally I get the chance to do a bit of travel on work as it were; I'm going to Brisbane for legitimate work reasons on Thursday and Friday this week, and i've managed to stretch it out so that I don't fly back to Sydney until Sunday night. This gives me the perfect opportunity, now that I don't have to spend so much time hanging around Kings Cross, to hire a car and head up to Noosa on the Sunshine Coast north of Brisbane, where Hannah's sister Naomi and her lot will be having their last hurrah before heading onwards to the USA. Shame I don't quite have time to get to Fraser Island too...!

Robin

Settling in....I've managed it!

What can I say? I am amazed that I have settled into Delhi life, after a touch and go first few days.  Thank goodness now I can really enjoy myself!

Reasons I have managed to 'feel at home':

The Flat (again)

I have bagged the quieter bedroom that has it's own door to the bathroom. My hosts were not using it as they thought it was to hot and stuffy, but after a trial night I have found it more than comfortable and now I have somewhere I can close the door and have some 'me time' reading my book or surfing the web. Simple pleasures, but with the mayhem and noise that is constant once you are on the streets, this is just what is needed.  The 'roach problem is ever present, but the kitchen has had a good clean and the bug spray is quite effective. I am much less squeamish about them now, so I must be accepting how things are in Delhi.

The Studio

The Akaaro studio is set in some old farm buildings in a quiet village. The buildings now house some workshops, office space and a showroom all belonging to a guy called Mike Knowles. A lovely british guy who, with his wife Preeti, run a furniture making and interior design business. They utilise the skills of the India's master craftsmen and supply Habitat and John Lewis. He has been great and always has time for a chat with me each day. There may even be some work opportunity with him...who knows.  The premises is well restored and has a pool to boot. Which reminds me, I need to buy a one piece swim suit - a bikini is not really very appropriate here! 

Siri Fort

Siri Fort is a gorgeous park/sports complex where Gaurav and Inder go for a run each evening.  I have taken to walking the 1km path that circles the beautifully maintained grounds a couple of times, or simply sitting and reading my book.  It is so green and  the street noise is barely audible. A really refreshing and calming way to end the day.

Work

I have been working on designs for sample on a jacquard loom, using colours inspired by Freda Carlo.  This is the first project, but is a bit tricky as the materials I have to work with are a little limited. However, the dyer has provided the yarns, so I can do some wrappings. I will ask one of the weavers to show me how to wind the perns, which should be an interesting experience as I only know a couple of useless words in Hindi, and their English is not so good either!

The studio space consists of two rooms, and I have been working in the brightest once overlooking the grounds of the 'farm'.  Thankfully air-con has been installed which is cool, literally.

Sight Seeing and Socialising:

Bar

Red Fort

Old Delhi & rickshaw

Work: frustrating. Car market: slow. Hair: shaggy.

Meanwhile, back in Sydney...

The morning after the weekend before, I went back to work, but not before returning to the infamous Kings Cross backpackers' car market to pick up Tara the Tarago and get her a safety certificate (a pre-requisite of selling a vehicle in New South Wales). However my garage of choice (the nearest one) was too busy, and there was no parking nearby, so I had to book her in for the next morning. Grrr.

So the next morning I drop Tara off successfully, but have to go back at lunch time to collect her. It's a good job Arup are relatively understanding, as over Monday and Tuesday I wasn't really around in the office at very regular times! Finally on Tuesday lunch time I get a chance to do the paperwork to allow Tara to actually enter the market, as it were, and I even get talking to a potential buyer! That is, until I discover that he's looking for something for himself, his wife, and their two kids. With Tara having only two seats, this was unfortunately a non-starter. Back to work I went, hoping for calls from more buyers...

While i'm on the subject of work (which has become my main focus now that Hannah has flown on to India) I have found my first few weeks in Arup's Sydney office a little frustrating, to say the least. I have joined a very large project team (our project is the expansion of Brisbane Airport's domestic terminal) and unwittingly joined just two weeks before a big deadline (issue of scheme design). So I have slightly had to jump in at the deep end, which is fine, except that with the exception of a few people, it's been hard to really engage in what the heck is going on, what the project is all about, and what i'm supposed to be doing. To be honest I expected this would be the case for the first few days - engineers are often rubbish communicators - but I didn't expect this would still be the case, left almost twiddling my thumbs sometimes, two weeks later.

My frustration culminated with me writing a shitty email to the project manager (the same guy who had recruited me) explaining that I couldn't understand why they had taken me on, at considerable expense (they are paying my normal salary, and accommodation, and a daily allowance on top of that), if they weren't giving me sufficient work (or sufficiently challenging work). Punching below my weight was the phrase I used to sum it up. To my surprise this went down unexpectedly well, and over lunch with the boss on Monday I managed to extract promises that I would take on a more challenging role, looking at the interfaces between the various packages of work (i.e. the fuzzy ill-defined bits where construction projects can go wrong) and also helping to transfer responsibility for some work from Sydney to Brisbane (must be something to do with the weather up in sub-tropical BrisVegas).

So in my third week working here, things did start to improve, but by the end of Friday I was twiddling my thumbs again. This is not the best sensation given that I have come here to work, not fart around. Next week should be better, as there's some big meetings with the senior architects and the client, including a trip up to BrisVegas on Friday. But we'll see... safe to say, my working here has not yet been the making of my career... perhaps only staying three months, not six, would be enough.

Back to the car market this morning (Saturday), where worryingly there were yet more cars and vans than there had been on my previous visits. More worryingly, Tara would not start - a flat battery being the cause. Thankfully a fellow Tarago driver showed me where to find the battery (behind the driver's seat, under the bed, confusingly) and leant me his battery charger. Then he showed me why the battery was going flat - unbeknownst to us, there is a little button on the steering column above the ignition switch, which you have to press in order to turn the key right around to 'lock'. This was something we hadn't been doing, and so had unwittingly been leaving the electrics on the whole time! The fellow Tarago driver was then lucky enough to sell his van, and was kind enough not only to buy a crate of beer for all the other sellers (something of a ritual apparently), but also let me keep the battery charger. Not bad for the first hour.

 
The rest of the day was slower, and I managed to talk to a grand total of two potential buyers. Crap, this is going to take longer than I thought - there just weren't enough buyers coming to market. Some people had no interest at all, so at least I was winning in those stakes. Unfortunately it seems to be just the wrong time of year - many european backpackers are now returning home, as the weather overnight gets chillier, making it a bit uncomfortable to be sleeping in a van. It's lovely up north though, so my hope is that I will sell to a naive backpacker, straight off the plane to Sydney, who realises it's now colder than expected, and wants to high-tail it to Queensland (i.e. where Tara is registered). Maybe one will turn up tomorrow.

So i'm writing this blog now to kill an hour while I wait for a haircut at the "chop shop" on Victoria St - quite near the car market. Hannah went there a couple of weeks ago and they did a decent job of her fringe, so here's hoping for the best. I haven't had my hair cut since I had it shaved to a Grade 3 all over two days before we left the UK, and I pass pretty well for Shaggy out of Scooby Doo right now, in my faded backpacker threads. Once i've sold Tara, I will treat myself to some new jeans and trainers!

Robin

Delhi Delight (now that i'm getting used to it...)

Briefly, the flight from Sydney to Mumbai was uneventful although I did get my first curry which, for airline food, was quite tasty. As the flight was during the day time I didn't sleep, but I did manage to watch 2 films (Sweeney Todd and Charlie Wilson something or other). There was a programme on that was geared towards backpackers travelling in India which was insightful and went a (very) little way to preparing me for the next 6 weeks.

I was picked up at the hotel, which was a business hotel and therefore uninteresting but clean and well maintained. I was taken aback though when I arrived at reception to check in - the man behind the desk was european looking, but spoke english with one of the strongest Indian accents I have heard so far. So indecipherable, that in fact the Indian receptionist was far more helpful with much better english language skills. I have yet to get my head around this guy at the desk, and it was to be the first of many surprises!

I arrved in Delhi the next day safely and had a pretty slow day. We dropped my stuff off at Gaurav Gupta's flat (the guy I am working with) and then went to see the studio.

The Flat:

The noise and traffic of Delhi was not unexpected with auto rickshaws weaving in and out and generally frustrating the traffic (in fact, every one frustrates each other, be it 3 on a motorcyle, 2 on push bike piled high with 'stuff', cars, buses, taxis). The accomodation though was quite a shock......

Haus Khas is a wealthy 'village' in the wealthy area of South Delhi, and Guarav in his accustomed over exuberant style frequently tells me that it is the cool, trendy, and well off that live here. With this knowledge I was expecting a reasonable flat, but imagine my dismay when he undid the heavy duty padlock on the glass doors and showed me with pride his 'bachelor pad' that he shares with his friend, Inder. The living room is large, but sparely furnished - a coffee table, some matching chairs, a TV, a wicker rocking chair - sounds okay? It is, but clearly boys only live here. The 2 bedrooms have nice beds with lovely clean sheets provided by Inder's company (he is a home textiles buyer for a large Indian chain store), but one room is the connection between the other rooms and the living room. This is where I am sleeping at the moment, to top it off the light doesn't often work and privacy is difficult! The 'best' aspect, I say with my tongue firmly in my cheek, is the kitchen, which while having a fridge and filtered water dispenser is home to many other 'flatmates'. Cockroaches. Cockroaches galore...... At this point my disappointment was getting hard to conceal, but obviously I don't want to offend the chaps. The bathroom is clean, and the shower is interesting - two waist high taps with a bucket, jug and a little squat stool for washing the traditional Indian way! Amazingly, there is a maid (and her 15yr old daughter) who 'cleans' the flat everyday, someone else comes to clean the bathroom daily, and their cars are polished and cleaned, you guessed it - daily. You would think that the flat would be sparkling......!

If it wasn't for the attentive friendliness of Gaurav and Inder I would have run a mile by now. I think I will stay a few more days, then check into a guest house!

Hannah

Luna Park loonies and other tales

After finishing work last Friday we kicked off what would be our last weekend together for a while by visiting the Sydney institution known as Luna Park - basically a Coney Island or Brighton Pier style amusement park, beautifully situated near the base of the Harbour Bridge on the north shore. Looking back to the city centre from here you can see skyscrapers, ferries, the famous bridge and the probably even more famous Opera House without moving your head.

It being Autumn here now, it was dark when we arrived, which was perfect, given the giant illuminated entrance complete with giant clown face and scary mouth that you have to walk through.

Determined to get maximum value out of the wristbands we purchased for unlimited rides, we went on almost all of the determinedly low-fi and old-school attractions. We probably liked the "wild mouse" ride the best, which was a bit like the "crazy mouse" at the end of Brighton Pier, which we are also fans of. A wooden rollercoaster with ridiculously tight turns, it actually made us think our car would just wobble off the tracks. We went on it three times.

Other ridiculous attractions included giant slides that you slide down on a hessian mat - Hannah chickened out of the tallest one - and the "rotor", which seemed like a good idea at the time... and I suggested it! Basically you stand inside a scaled-up version of a toploader washing machine, which spins round very fast, the centrifugal force making you stick to the sides of the drum. Then the floor drops away to leave you suspended halfway up a wall. Sounds fun, doesn't it? Probably would have been, were it not for the fact that it made me so dizzy that my face turned grey and I made a loud "uuurrggghhh" sound for the duration of the ride. Hannah commented that it was this noise, more than the spinning around at stupid revolutions per minute, that made her feel the most sick. And after that we had fish & chips.

Saturday was our last day together in Sydney and we spent some of it shopping for clothes for Hannah - not that she wanted more stuff to carry, but because she'd been warned by a friend in India to 'cover up', having arrived in India with a wardrobe that was 90% useless. We spent the warm sunny afternoon in the Domain i.e. the big park in the centre of Sydney, which is on the harbourfront and has the amazing view of the Opera House with the Harbour Bridge behind it. There's a theme here isn't there...

Then after some beer and food at the Lord Nelson (great pub up the road, one of Sydney's best) Hannah completed her packing and we hit the sack - we had to get up early the next day so I could drive her to the airport (minor panic about the van not starting in the dark on a lonely suburban street on Saturday night when I went to collect it notwithstanding).

And then by 9am the next morning Hannah had passed through to security at the airport and was on her way to Mumbai and then Delhi - where she'll be for at least the next six weeks. After that she's probably returning to the UK, so although we have a plan, we don't actually yet know for sure when we will see each other again! (Sounds awful! boo hoo!). After I left the airport car park I drove to a shopping mall nearby, just for somewhere to stop the van without having to pay for parking (Sydney really is a bitch of a city for that) and gather my thoughts. It really is a big step that Hannah has taken and i'm sure it'll be the making of her career. I'm immensely proud of her going off to India on her own and not very secretly quite jealous. But my turn will come. Hopefully my remaining in Sydney will be the making of my career, or that's the idea anyway...

Despite being on my own I had plenty to do on Sunday, not least of which was figure out how to sell the van (poor Tara, she really needs to be driven by someone, or she'll just seize up, we reckon!). She's now parked up at a multi-storey car park in Kings Cross, where once i've managed to get her a safety check certificate, she can enter the backpackers car market based there. Having conducted a couple of visits in the name of research, this seems to be a rather depressing place, where bored travellers sit in the dark until someone buys their clapped-out wagon. Unable to do this myself during the week, it looks like this is what i'll be doing next weekend. Everything sells at a price though, and looking at the ridiculously hopeful prices some of these backpackers seem to expect to get (the nerve!), I should be in luck - even at $3000 we would make a profit on Tara, including what we've spent on servicing & repairs, and undercut the competition. That's less than 1500 quid for a fully equipped queen of the road (honest).

Robin

One week to go and counting....

This week I have been idly killing time in between undertaking various tasks on my 'to do list' and a bit of site seeing.

So far I have organised so me Indian Rupees (that come in large denominations - 5600INR  equates to a lot of notes, which while making me feel rich is actually only about 70 quid), I have stocked up on various toiletries so that I can avoid going shopping as soon as I arrive in Delhi, done some washing, and had a dry run at re-packing my back-pack. 

The latter being quite a feat as since leaving home I have acquired new Havaianna flip-flops (Buenos Aires, how could I not - they are so cheap there), a pair of Zara pumps  and a black t-shirt dress (Buenos Aires - retail therapy after a row), a pair of pointy toed Ked pumps (Melbourne, a bargain at a discount shopping mall),the hide of a calf (San Antonio de Areco, Argentina), a dress (Buenos Aires - retail therapy after finding ourselves in BA a second time...), a silver ring (Nahuel Pan, Argentina), a t-shirt and some tiny 'boardie' shorts (Yamba - I had to at least look like the surfie chick that I am sure I was once destined to be), a scarf (2 pesos from Temuco, Chile), a a pair of silver hoop earings (Vina del Mar, Chile) a lap top (Melbourne - again very reasonably priced and infinitely useful), a jacket (the weather in Sydney has been crappy and my Peter Storm pac-a-mac really was not cutting it in the fashion stakes I'm afraid), and finally a new pair of jeans (Kookai were having a blow out sale - my jeans had a giant hole at the right knee that was providing unwelcome air conditioning). Phew.

All I can say is that the burden of my pack was lessened slightly when I posted some things home from New Zealand, and some other things have been replacements for worn out or lost clothes (so I am not doubling up). Not to mention the couple of new things that I lost as well (one of the hoop earings and the silver ring, not that either of those would have saved me any space!). Anyway, somehow I managed to squeeze everything in, with a little space to spare for any more necessary purchases that I am bound to make in India!

So what else? Oh yes, sightseeing. I visited the Museum of Contemporary Art  at Circular Quay. It had 2 exhibitions, one of a contemporary Australian artist and one of beautiful Aboriginal bark paintings. Both were worth the visit and the sun shine over the harbour made it all the more worth while for an afternoon out.  Yesterday I went to the Australian Museum. Set in a large building it has a fantastic display of skeletons, an enormous collection of minerals (Australia seem to have an abundance, no wonder there are so many mines - apparently it is the worlds biggest exporter of aluminium and it's gold rush back in the 1800's was enough to make California's look more like the dregs in the bottom of a prospector's sifting pan), a dinosaur display, and most interestingly a lot of information about Indigenous Australians and Torres Strait Islanders, both past and present. The real stories about the Stolen Generation were heart breaking.

Last night (Thursday) we went and explored China Town. After a Malaysian (!) meal we had a silly 5 minutes in a games arcade; picture 2 slightly unfit adults prancing about on a dance machine. The object was to copy the dance move that flash up on the screen to score points, in time to some pop versions of all your favourite east Asian hits. We did find Queen to rock to at least, and left rosy cheeked, puffed out and in admiration of the teenage Chinese couple who would have clearly whipped our butts in any real competition!

Hannah

Blue mountains, beaches, and pies

After a very hard (honest...) four days back in the office, we discovered that I had picked a good week to go back to work - Friday was ANZAC day. This is a public holiday in Australia, and starts off a bit like Remembrance Sunday, with a big parade of war veterans in Sydney and solemn ceremonies held at battlefields in France and Gallipoli. Later, everyone either goes to the pub and plays "2-up" (basically gambling on the toss of a few coins) or takes advantage of the three-day weekend to get out of the cities. We chose the latter option, and after packing up a rucksack and picking up the van, we set off through the western suburbs towards the Blue Mountains.

As the road narrowed we discovered that our idea for the weekend was not exactly original, and the traffic slowed to a crawl. However we didn't have far to go so didn't mind too much, and got lunch of our first pies of the weekend at the village of Wentworth Falls. Unwittingly, pies were to become a common thread of our weekend... they're just so ingrained into Australian culture that they are almost impossible to avoid!

Driving along the main road from Sydney, you don't actually realise you're in the mountains - the road actually runs along a high ridge, so that and the fact you're surrounded by trees means you can't see any mountain tops - everything worth seeing is actually below you, and so it's not until you get to the viewpoints at the edges of the steep cliffs that you actually see anything. So we'd driven through most of the Blue Mountains national park before we got our first real view at Wentworth Falls - but it was pretty incredible. Plus we were just glad the rain that had dogged Sydney all week had stopped, and quickly descended, completely unprepared, along the tracks running under the cliffs. Had we realised they were quite as muddy and slippery as they were, we probably would have chickened out. But strangely, getting dripped on by massive brooding sandstone cliffs, hundreds of feet above a forested valley, was actually quite fun. On the other side of the deep cut valley we could see other people doing a similar walk under the rock face, looking  decidedly ant like.

Next stop was Katoomba, the main town of the Blue Mountains, with its spectacular lookout over the Jamison Valley and the famous 'Three Sisters' (actually three big stacks of rock, if you hadn't guessed). Thronged by the tourist hordes, we discovered that pretty much every bed in town was taken, even at the campsite, and so had to drive up the road to Blackheath for a night under the stars in the back of Tara the Tarago. Back in Katoomba for dinner out and a few drinks while attempting to comprehend the "2-up" being played at the pub, we dodged the cold, but it caught up with us again by morning - it's definitely autumn out here now!

Hmmm, perhaps we could just drive back into Sydney tonight, we thought... but first had some walking to do. From Katoomba we descended the knee-jangling 'Giant Staircase' 250m down below the Three Sisters, and trekked along through the peaceful forest below the cliffs. Peaceful that is, until you pass through a gate 2km along welcoming you to 'Scenicworld', and are back surrounded by the tourist throng from above, who have reached the valley via the 'scenic railway' or the cable car - sorry, 'scenicscender'. Actually this was a deliberate move of ours, as we wanted to avoid the near-vertical walk back up the cliff. We took the railway option, a remnant of an old coal mine, and apparently the steepest railway in the world. It was also maniacally fast, and we were back at the top before we could even think about soiling ourselves.

We drove back into Sydney via some more amazing lookouts into a different valley near Blackheath, and the oddly named 'Bells Line of Road' which passes through an apple-growing area called Bilpin. After passing several roadside fruit stalls we spotted one selling fresh baked peach pies and slammed on the brakes. Well, they were all out of peach, but they were just removing some family-sized apple pies from the oven. We grabbed one while we had the chance, and even about two hours later when back at the apartment in Sydney it was still warm. Mmmm, pie for dinner.

Sunday then was devoted to exploring a bit more of the city, and we drove out to the eastern beaches and suburbs. We got a bit lost on the way to Bondi (road signage here is truly appalling) but stopped at some beautiful harbourside spots on the way. Bondi itself was nicer than we had expected, although busy - and this was just the start of a run of fantastic looking beaches and beautiful homes stretching down to Coogee. It really was hard to think that we were in the middle of a big city, and with a temperature of 25 degrees in autumn it wasn't a difficult decision to get into the sea for a dip. In the evening we went to Sydney Aquarium which was amazing, especially if you like big sharks and luminous fish (we did).

Hankering for some quick dinner on the way home, the only place we could find open was called 'pie face'. You can probably guess the rest. Back at the apartment, we finished the apple pie for dessert. Mmmm, pie.

After work on Monday we went to a great pub up the road called the Lord Nelson, which brews its own beers, and unusually for Australia, doesn't have a TAB (i.e. a bookmakers) inside, so lending it some atmosphere. The food looked great too. But oh dear, what do we have here, but a Monday 'Pie Night' special. Pie, mash, mushy peas, and gravy, for $6. We gave in to the pie. It was great.

We will probably try to eat fewer pies this week.

Robin