A beautiful day dawns as promised by the weather forecast, clear blue skies and up in the mid 20s. We are one down in our convoy as Alana is off with her school friend for the day, much to our Sarah's disappointment.
On the drive there, Tom is desperate to travel with Axel and Finn. I relent, to keep her ladyship happy, I get to sit in the back seat with her and sing with my 'good' voice. Oh well, there will come the time, that my singing will be an acute embarrassment to her.
We follow Axel and get caught up in some infamous Sydney traffic snarl on the way to Manly but we still get there in over an hour ( how cool is that to be so close to such a fab beach ?! Am so green). Another great beach, much busier than any of the beaches which we had we have been on the north coast but with lots of potential for people watching, or in Robs case gawping.
Tom does his usual and befriends some girl on the beach and they play happily in the shallow waters. I get talking to the Oz Dad and he says it's his eight year old daughters first time on the beach, she is clearly loving it. They are somewhere from the Murray river ( location of which I am clueless). Amazing they havent made it to the beach in 8 years! But I suppose it gives an idea of the vastness of Australia and the distances to be covered.
Note: Again, we are lucky with our choice of day for Manly. The next day, the beach is evacuated as a shoal of sharks are spotted!
The thing is about Oz beaches is that the patrolled life guard area is quite small in comparison to the vast length of the beach. It will never cease to amaze me that people continue to swim elsewhere. Poor life guards are shouting through loud speakers to get these people to move or get out of the water where there are prominent danger signs. Maybe I'm a bit hard but perhaps there should be some natural selection... that's why they can keep making Bondi rescue!
(I have a healthy respect for the sea, probably as a result of being rescued as a child...twice. One of the times, big sister Mairead and I decided it was a good idea to sneak off with the airbed when there was an offshore breeze. A man from Cork brought us back as we headed off out in the Atlantic and poor Mum was running up and down the beach with baby Sine in her arms.)
After a couple of hours, the troops start getting hungry. Delicious fish'n'chips beside the ferry port. Next we hop on the Manly ferry, destination Circular Quay. What a way to commute to work! Rob is a bit disappointed as the light is all wrong for taking pics but it's great to see Sydney from the water, sail boats and motor boats zipping through the water, catching glimpses of houses right on the water. There are also areas of national park dotted around the harbour. It doesn't feel like a city, in a good way. We get a prime seat right at the front (the sea farers can tell me the proper term).
After docking, time for another ice-cream. We pass what looks like the same bloke from yesterday playing the Diggerydoo. For some reason, it feels more tuneful..but am still not buying a CD of it.
Next, a walk around that iconic landmark the Sydney Opera house. Up close, it looks like it's covered in beige kitchen tiles! Very impressive. All the kids really tempted to walk up and slide down the slopes but alas for them there are signs not to do this. There is a walkway around the OH and there is a strong breeze which is very refreshing as the day is hot, great views of Harbour bridge. Have to pinch myself, the harbour is stunning. There are preparations in place for New Years Eve at the OH. Lucky sods who get to sit in this prime spot to see the fireworks. There are lots of carefree (read child free) people catching a drink at the OH bar, the cold beers look to die for but we head back to the ferry as the kids are tired.
Poor Sarah gets whacked on the eye as she goes through the barrier, the ticket says it admits 2 children but that's not what the small red mark on Sarah's face is saying. She is a brave soldier and doesn't cry for too long.
On the drive back, both Sarah and Tom travel with Axel. The car is weirdly quiet on the way back as no contributions from the back seat: squabbling over who gets to sing jingle bells, requests for me to sing christmas carols, speed limit advice, general driving tips etc etc.
Christine (Sarah's mum) has offered to babysit so us parents get to go to a restaurant with real napkins and proper table cloths! Whey hey man! We have travelled to the southern Hemisphere and end up in a place called the Eurolounge ;) Strange choice of music playing, lift/elevator/porn (am I allowed say that ?!) Sarah really wants someone to order the dessert that is flambed at the table but no takers, we all feel we are stuck in some sort of 80's vortex. The waitress has a face on her like a slapped arse (Sarahs description!) Whatever, it's great to be out pretending to be real grownups and not selecting from the McD menu ;) Nice steak but it wasn't medium rare. Puddings were yummy.
Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
No comments:
Post a Comment