The Locals Here Seem Friendly!

Sunday, December 02, 2007
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
The girls are off to Sydney to look at glass art and the city sights, compliments of Tourism NSW! They've thrown in a night at the Opera House and a Bridge Climb. We'll make it round the galleries, but will we make it all the way up The Coathanger?...


Why should you win a Sydney Escape for two?
Though many deserve - who should it be?
Alone raising children, need to break free.
Theatre, Bridge Climb, surroundings serene…
Legendary Adventure for Legendary Me!


It was not one of my best, but the 4-line rhyme that I put in for a Tourism NSW competition comes home for me! A three night trip to Sydney!

Glass teacher Brenda had mentioned ONLY THAT MORNING that she should go to Sydney and establish some contacts with galleries to sell her work there. She is singularly unimpressed with my suggestion that we head off on a girls' road trip. A phone call this afternoon solves all that!..

* Return airfares to Sydney
* Three nights accommodation
* Two Gift Certificates to 'Tales from the Vienna Woods' playing at The Sydney Opera House
* Two passes to The Discovery Harbour Bridge Climb with BridgeClimb Sydney

So here we go! Abandoning children, heading north to play tourist and doing the rounds of art galleries and glass shops in inner Sydney. I am required as a condition of winning to submit a diary and some photos for their website. I think I can handle that...

SMASHING! And just a teeny weeny weekender bag this time!

 
Monday, December 3, 2007

7.00am is a ridiculously early time to have to wake up - for those of you who know me well. Still, trips to Sydney do not come my way every day, so concessions had to be made...

Brenda and family pick me up at 8.30 for the trip to the airport. Her children are eager to enjoy a MacDonalds breakfast and we girls are keen to not miss the plane. There are, after all, no refunds on these tickets.

The Virgin Blue flight sails happily into Sydney airport on time and an easy taxi ride lands us at the Hotel Ibis on Darling Harbour.

Alarmingly, they have no booking for us.

The one made on our behalf was for LAST NIGHT and has been cancelled as a 'no show'! There were beds though and we are allocated a harbour view room - perhaps a bonus, as the original T&Cs for this prize was a Pyrmont (suburban) view room. The 'Welcome Package' due on our arrival is also nowhere to be seen... Probably pulped after the no-show, we presume, and we leave it to Reception to sort out.

The afternoon is spent walking and walking in brilliant blue sky weather. Around Darling Harbour, watching some street performers, into the CBD and cruising through the magnificent Queen Victoria Building. Two 'kangaroos' on spring-loaded stilts bound through the arcades and are particularly good! Down to The Rocks area next, where the Sunday Market was in full flight. The standard of craft is very high and the infectious live Irish music from one of the many pubs invites a long rest over coffee while we enjoyed the entertainment. From there, the paths leads around under the Harbour Bridge where we watch people climbing and picture ourselves there on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Brenda has a slowly escalating toothache that she attributes to the pressure in the plane. "Often plays up under stress and settles in a couple of days" she say...


Tuesday, December 4, 2007

6.00am is a ridiculously early time to wake up - even when there is a city to explore. Surprisingly, I would have beaten Brenda up, but she is enjoying the child-free rest, so I happily oblige by laying low.

We only just made the hotel breakfast that finishes at 10.00am...

Our mission for today is to visit the Sydney distributor where Brenda buys her glass supplies. This is a 40 minute train ride from the CBD out to Revesby in the city's south-western suburbs. The cleanliness of the trains and stations is impressive, and we delight in noting that Sydney trains still retain station platform staff and conductors.

Not so delightful is the fact that Brenda is now holding her cheek, living on Nurofen Plus and complaining of pain spreading down her neck. Seems very much like an abscess brewing, judging from my extensive dental experience! Thank goodness for mobile phones...

From the train, we are able to ring the hotel to find a dentist then book an emergency appointment for 4.00 this afternoon. Yes - an abcess, one temporary root treatment, some Amoxil and more pain killers and $340,
thank you very much. Ouch and ouch! Still the pressure is resolved and the antibiotics will kick in by tomorrow. In time for the Bridge Climb.


Thunderstorms permitting...

This afternoon has had intermittent showers with some spectacular lightning. We have an enjoyable trip back to Darling Harbour from Circular Quay by ferry this time.

This evening, we have tickets to "Tales of the Vienna Woods" by the Sydney Theatre Company at the Opera House. The cast included Deborah Mailman and Paul Capsis but the plot is a little dull for my liking. Still, it is a chance to get glammed up for a night at THE Opera House followed by dinner and a pleasant walk around Circular Quay in the warm night air.

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

The view from the harbour side of the building is almost unbeatable but Hotel Ibis is not a five star venue. Light on with extras (such as wireless internet, spare pillows and a bar fridge with a freezer to freeze drinks overnight) but ideal if you plan to be out all day and well priced for families. It is certainly clean with very comfortable beds and a great location.

But the walls are paper-thin and the LOUD Englishman in the next room wakes us both at 6am as he remonstrates with his wife. Had Brenda and her tooth not been dozing, I swear I would have thumped that wall.

It's a buffet breakfast again and then off to find the Hop-On Hop-Off bus that I now excel at. Sydney has two companies, one with the familiar double decker variety of New York, London, Paris and Rome.


Both companies have an interconnecting route to Bondi as well. We travel around on the city loop as far as Central Station where we go in search of glass galleries in Surry Hills. Brenda is impressed with what she finds but none suit her objectives. The 2-hour loop around Bondi passes quickly and we reconnect with the main loop to reach The Rocks area - the location for the start of our Bridge Climb.

23 degrees, 20mph winds and 71% humidity...

The 'BridgeClimb' operation is extremely well organised. Our party consists of eight Italian uni. students and we two. We are kitted out in our very sexy grey overalls, radio and earphones and wet weather coat in a clip-on pack. In fact, everything is clipped on - sunnies, baseball hats, even hankies on elastic around our wrists! No watches, hair combs or pins and of course, unfortunately, no cameras. Dean, our climb leader, takes us through a mock climb with our 'umbilical cords' hooked onto guide wires on a practice set of steps before heading off down the street.

Our BridgeClimb was the recently opened 'Discovery Route' - through the metal structures of the lower arch.

Up the east side and down the west. Past the lights set up in readiness for the NYE display. Over 6 lanes of traffic at peak hour and under two train lines. A bit narrow in parts, quite a number of ledges to climb over and a long way down. And over 1000 stairs plus ramps! But the pace is gentle - we can only go as fast as Brenda in the lead - and Dean stops every couple of flights for a check and a story.

We reach the top somewhere around 6.30pm, stay for about 10 minutes while Dean tells more stories (42 proposals on his climbs, 1 rejection, the ring attached-up-the-sleeve system devised) and the students all sang the Italian national anthem in celebration! We can see thunderstorms slowly approaching from the west - the only reason to cancel climbs - so descent begins. Apparently these climbs otherwise go day and night, sunny or raining - 24 hours per day over summer, such is the demand! Yes, people climb at 2am to watch the sun rise.

Won't find me there...

However, the views are spectacular and we agree that it has been a good choice of time slot. Very tiring after a day of walking round hilly Surrey Hills though. Counter tea in town, slow meander home, a blog and then welcome sleep.

That Pom better be careful tomorrow. We have him marked...

Thursday, December 6, 2007

Lucky...     Mr. Englishman must have checked out.

We wake around 8.00am and wander down toward Star City Casino looking for a new breakfast venue. The Casino surrounds were surprisingly dead (compared to Crown) with only one cafe open but a little further along is an excellent one servicing the surrounding office blocks. It has the best coffee we have tasted thus far.

A taxi takes us back to Circular Quay to the Museum of Contemporary Art, currently showing two exhibitions - one of delicate drawings by a young Australian lady of Pakistani descent and the other some very confronting life-size photos and sculptures by Julie Rrap - a lady who likes to undress a lot... It is not the extensive collection we had been expecting - that is housed elsewhere we now know - but Brenda particularly enjoys the 3D works of the second display.

And that is about as much as the legs could do after 1000+ stairs yesterday. Back to get our bags, off to Mascot, on to a delayed flight home and home to children, house and those dogs who still love me.

But wait... There's no early night! There's barely a two hour turn-around before Missy Higgins' concert at the tennis centre! Compliments of FoxFM this time!

It has been a good week.

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