Australia Part 1

Christine:

We arrived in Sydney, Australia almost a week ago now, and are heading out this Friday.

Uncle Jac picked us up from the airport last Friday after another great flight on Singapore Airlines. On Saturday, we headed up into the Blue Mountains for one night. We visited a friend of Uncle Jac’s called Jules, who has a beautiful little house in a village in the mountains and is tons of fun. Then we went for a short hike until we decided we had descended far enough. What goes down must come back up, so we did and were glad we hadn’t gone any further down! Then we checked into our hotel, which was a lovely old historic hotel that had undergone many facelifts. The latest was lovely, but only a portion of the hotel was actually open. We went through the unused portion of the hotel and found lovely Art Deco spaces going to waste, along with a pool complete with a dolphin fountain! It was all so lovely and so wasted! We met Jules for high tea, which was extended to include a bottle of wine when it started raining, thus preventing us leaving. It stopped in time for us to head back to the hotel and get changed so we could go out for dinner at Darley’s, an absolutely fabulous restaurant with exquisite food. We ended up with a private room (through a series of fortunate events) and were served by the executive chef. We had dinner with another friend of Jac’s, Gary, and it was a great evening overall.

The next day, Sunday, we stopped by the Three Sisters viewpoint and then headed back to Sydney, where Uncle Jac was having a cocktail party in our honour (also in celebration of his 10 years lecturing at Macquarie University) in the afternoon. We did a blitz shop for the food and got it all prepared and set up in time for the guests, who started arriving shortly after 4:00. It was a great evening. Jac has such wonderful friends. Some of them I had met at different times over the years, some of them I had never met but just heard about. The last guest left around 11. We really had a fun time, and I managed to embarrass myself by falling over while I was holding four plates of cake and flinging it all over the carpet (in my defence, it wasn’t entirely my fault!).

Monday, Barry and I wandered around Sydney a bit while Jac was at the University all day working. Today it rained most of the day, so we just hung around the apartment and I went for a manicure, pedicure and facial (Lyn from the party, a close friend of Jac’s, owns a salon and gave me the “family discount”). We popped out and got fresh prawns for supper and had them with and Tuscan-style spaghetti and asparagus.

Tomorrow the plan is to hit Bondi Beach for a sculpture exhibition and then maybe the Rocks, which is where the original convicts settled and is now a tourist area – some of the buildings there are still original, such as the prison. In the evening we are heading to Philip and Mike’s place (some friends from the party) for drinks. Thursday we’re not sure where we’re going during the day, but we’re ending up at John and Maria’s place for a Greek BBQ. I met them a couple of years ago with Jac in Greece – she works at the university with him and they were at the same conference in Greece. They are both Greek Australians.

Friday we fly off for the Cooks Islands!!

Barry:

Well we have left KL via Singapore, and are in the land of Kanga and other such marsupials such as the Kings Cross street walkers that ask me if I am “looking for business” every time I wander away from Christine. What a colourful city! The weather is changeable currently, either V hot or rainy, ie either shorts or overcoat.

Jac has been very hospitable, holding a party for us to meet everyone and a very enjoyable evening it was too! My hangover has almost gone and I have my vision back in one eye and with time the other may return. We are busy wandering around the City and soaking up the local culture, the Australians seem to be a very happy race of English ex-pats that have arrived here over the last 100 years or so and they seem to have made the place their own. The only element I am struggling with is the language; it is almost as hard to understand as Canadian.

Soon we leave for the Cook Islands (named after the famous cook Gordon Ramsey) where we can fully enjoy the PURE holiday experience of lying about in the sun with impunity, taking cover from the heat of the day underneath Christine’s enormous new hat.