Future sailors (reprise)

It's been another hot weekend in Sydney, with wall to wall sunshine. Do I have to go home? Oh hang on, yes I do, and I get to spend four weeks in India on the way. Hurrah!

As well as the fab weather, the weekend was good because Mal and Krellis came to visit and helped me 'tick off' several things from my to-do list. So here's a brief account of what went on.

The boys arrived late Thursday and after probably a few too many quiet beers at my apartment we got up early to make the pick-up for our day tour of wineries in the Hunter Valley. It's a little over two hours' drive north so we needed to be up early to make the day worthwhile, including a stop for lunch where we devoured not only fish & chips but also an awesome lump of cheese...

There were only seven of us on this tour and we only visited small out-of-the-way places, so we all felt like we'd learnt something. Although we'd drunk so many different wines by the end of the day that I'm not sure any of us could tell you what that was. You might be able to tell from the facial expressions in the photo below...

Driving back towards the city, clearly at least one of us felt that a nap was in order...

In the evening, after a mini pub crawl around The Rocks, we met up with an old friend of Mal's (Dan) who's been living in Sydney for two years. Then ended up at a rather surprisingly upmarket bar in Kings Cross with Dan and Dan's girlfriend and her mates, drinking expensive table-service cocktails until 2:30. This was a surprise given all the wine consumed earlier in the day! The evening ended well with pies, stacked up with mash, mushy peas and gravy all precariously balanced on top, eaten standing up, at the infamous Harry's Cafe de Wheels in Woolloomooloo, something of a Sydney institution. Two things ticked off the to-do-list already!

Hangovers successfully acquired, we set off mid-morning on Saturday for Middle Harbour Yacht Club, as Krellis had organised with a friend of his to get us out on the harbour sailing for the afternoon. Now, Mal and I were initially a little apprehensive, as being total novices we didn't want to look like fools or be a hindrance... we were actually going to be racing, after all. However our fears were allayed by the news that we were in no way integral to the crew. In fact there were probably even a few too many of us on the boat, so Mal and I performed a job essentially of ballast, flinging ourselves from one side of the boat to the other every time we tacked, so keeping our feet out of the water and trying to avoid having our heads knocked off by the boom!

'Crewing' for yacht owners / skippers is quite a popular pastime in Sydney, as these people generally need some extra pairs of hands to help them do everything there is to do on a boat, and as it's free this is obviously the cheapest way to get out on the water. Everyone's a winner, and the scene is nowhere near as snobbish as the sailing fraternity in the UK... there are just so many boats in the harbour, it's too accessible to be that snobbish.

You can see in these pictures that I'm wearing a hat... it lasted about three hours before a gust of wind caught it and flung it into the harbour. Mal said that was his highlight of the day, if not the weekend. Ha ha indeed.

After the sailing we joined Krellis' mate Anna (who'd hooked us up with the sailing for the day) for an impromptu barbie at her place in Manly, overlooking the ferry dock. Absolutely stunning. It was there that Anna received a text from the skipper informing us that we'd actually won the race we had competed in! Not quite what I had expected from my first proper taste of sailing!

Sunday morning came and we got up too late to see the Sydney marathon going past my window. The bridge was closed but was open again by the time we wandered up to the south-east pylon... from where there is a great viewing platform at the top. At $9.50 it's much better value than the bridge climb, and you get pretty much the same view. Great for Mal, who wanted pictures of himself in front of lots of landmarks to send to his nan for her birthday. To be fair Krellis and I indulged a little in this too.

After that we got back on the water, taking the ferry over to Watson's Bay to eat fish & chips from Doyles and drink some beer in the sunshine. Which was great. Plus there were lots more 'tourist in front of landmark' photo opportunities for Mal.

And that was the weekend over, in what seemed like a matter of minutes! So now it's Monday and this time in a fortnight I will be in Mumbai... seems kind of surreal but really looking forward to it. Just need to get around to doing some research!

Robin

Spring has sprung!

Just a quick post to say that spring has definitely sprung in Sydney, so much so that on Saturday it felt more like summer! Out in the western suburbs the temperature got up to about 30 degrees, so I headed out to Bondi Beach... as did half of the city it seems. The last time I'd walked along the beach, just three weeks ago after golf up the road, it was freezing (OK it was getting dark). So I was amazed by the number of people on the beach...

I got my feet wet at the water's edge but that was it... freezing! All the surfers were wearing wetsuits, after all. It wasn't quite so warm as in the city down on the beach with a chilly sea breeze but what the hey, couldn't really complain.

Sunday's weather was rubbish in comparison, but it made for a nice shot of a rainbow behind the city towers illuminated by the setting sun...

Getting quite excited now by the fact that my mates Mal (living in Melbourne) and Krellis (Perth) are coming to Sydney from Thursday night for a long weekend... going up to the Hunter Valley to do wine tasting i.e. drinking on Friday, then hopefully back to Bondi on Saturday... forecast is for 28 degrees!

Robin

Funny Business. Canberra.

OK so it's half six on a Wednesday night, and apart from washing some shirts (woo!) I don't have any exciting plans for the evening, so I've finally got time to update the blog...

As an aside, Hannah has much more exciting news than I do, being back in India as she is... I keep trying to get her to post something!

As I've slipped more and more into the life of a 'young professional' Sydneysider (I have to keep reminding myself that this was supposed to be a backpacking trip!) I've done some cool stuff over the last few weeks. Two weeks ago I went to a stand-up comedy night above a pub in Glebe, featuring amongst (funny) others a bizarre rant from some guy from the western suburbs about Emmanuel Kant sitting on a ceiling fan in a mixed business (corner shop) in Mount Druitt. Don't ask! And a week ago I went with some folks from work to a cabaret night at Sydney Uni, put on by a colleague who, when she's not delivering our post, runs a theatre company. The best act was probably 'depression - the musical'. Very funny.

On the last Saturday of August I saw the Sydney Swans (NSW's only AFL team) last game of the season at the Sydney Cricket Ground, universally known as the SCG. I was very keen to get to a game at the SCG as just recently I've been lucky enough at work to do a scheme design for their new stand, to be built in time for the start of the cricket season at the end of 2009. I was lucky too because I got the tickets from a colleague, who overheard that I was keen to go, and gave me four members' passes that he couldn't use for that game for free. Sweet! The members' pavilion itself was interesting in an old school sort of way, and the whole experience was a bit bizarre because of the strict dress code... I turned up looking like I was going to the office.

Then last weekend I ticked off something on my 'to do' list by hiring a car and driving down to Canberra. I mean, when else would I ever do this? Bill Bryson described Canberra as 'exceedingly dull' so to satisfy my curiosity I just had to see the place. Besides the weather forecast for Sydney looked crap (lots of rain) and it hardly ever rains in Canberra. So I picked up a car and headed off down the Hume Highway.

The drive was quick, about 3 hours if you don't stop. An unexpected highlight was driving alongside the curious 'Lake George' about half an hour outside of Canberra. I say curious because it was completely dry. Stopping at a lookout, a sign explained that the lake has no outlet to the sea, so its level goes up and down depending on how much rain falls and how much evaporates or infiltrates into the ground. The press keep saying how Australia is basically in drought conditions, and here was definite evidence of it.

Canberra is often derided as being too spread out and so difficult to walk around. This it may be but I didn't really care because I had a car! It's supposed to be a great place for cycling too, at least compared to the murderous streets and drivers of Sydney. In fact driving in Sydney is a pain in the butt too, with loads of confusing one way streets and expensive parking, even out in the suburbs. So it was with no small amusement that after I checked into my hostel, the first thing I did was drive up to the Parliament Building and park right underneath it for free. I mean, where else could you do that?

I did the tour and had a bit of a wander, including up on the grass-covered roof, which is a nice touch. The whole parliamentary system mirrors the British system so much it's weird, for example the colour scheme of the lower house matches the green of the House of Commons, and that of the upper house matches the red of the House of Lords. They even have maces and despatch boxes. In a building only completed in 1988. Odd. Anyway I got a few nice piccies including the obligatory giant stainless steel flagpole...

After that I went to the very entertaining National Museum of Australia, with an exterior that is actually more fun than the inside. I only mention this here because I wanted to post this photo:

There are lots of worthy sights and cultural things to do in Canberra, but most things shut at 5pm. So I spent the last hour or so of daylight enjoying the view from the telecoms tower at the top of Black Mountain, which is pretty much the only 'sight' open late. From here I could appreciate that Canberra's setting is actually quite beautiful, surrounded as it is by mountains, with the Snowy Mountains (home to Australia's only skiing region) just over the horizon to the south.

The Australian Capital Territory is also notorious for having very relaxed (by Australian standards) laws on porn and fireworks. I thought it would be funny to put together a little postcard-montage of some of the shopfronts that Canberra is slightly notorious for...

Part of the reason I stayed at a hostel in Canberra was to start easing myself back into the backpacker way of doing things, before I head off to India in (gulp) less than four weeks' time! I must admit I didn't do too well on this score, forgetting as I did that you don't get a towel at these places. And I forget my shower gel. Doh.

Anyway Sunday was spent moseying about the Old Parliament House, and especially the small Aboriginal 'Tent Embassy' incongruously camped across the road. This started as a protest against the 'occupation' of their land and has been semi-tolerated by the bureaucrats for decades. Kind of reminds you of some of the dirty past around here (mainly the fault of the Brits, of course...)

Back on the road again in the late afternoon, after buying some nice food from the 'old bus depot markets' and making a stop for some wine tasting at a winery by Lake George, I pulled off the highway into Goulburn, for one reason,and one reason only, The Big Merino. I hadn't seen any of the famous 'big things' since I'd last driven past The Big Banana in Coffs Harbour on the way to Sydney, just before I started back at work in April.

I wasn't disappointed... look at the size of it! Much bigger and better than The Big Banana, let alone the Giant South-West Gippsland Earthworm in Victoria.

I think I can safely leave Oz without seeing another 'big thing' now.

Robin