Found us a little fixer-upper!! We could move here!!
So, we’re jetting toward the Great Barrier Reef. It’s about a three hour flight from Sydney to Cairns and we’re on a fairly full flight on an AirStar 380 jet. I have the window seat and Ray is in the middle. He doesn’t like the fuselage as he is claustrophobic..I know, I don’t get it either but the middle seat doesn’t bother him because he says, “I can flail my arms”.
But I digress. He is seated next to an Aussie who is returning home today and may I say, he has very nice legs. An older jock, played professional cricket and I think it shows!! Wish I could take a picture but that would probably be considered rude. So…I’d better change the subject.
Below should have been up above. It’s an article I wanted you to see re: real estate. Don’t know how to move it….so here it is.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/executive-lifestyle/gallery-fn6njxlr-1226135729572?page=39
Actually, if you click the back and forth buttons, you can view other real estate for fun!! And for some more viewing. Then below this is a link I came across on my day off.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/grandparents-lesson-on-webcam-launches-internets-latest-stars/story-e6frg6so-1226138984989 we find two seniors trying to work their new webcam. In OR. What a stitch. truly a small world. I’ve been there done that and am just happy it wasn’t being recorded.
So now…what have we been doing? Well, on my day off, Saturday, I almost didn’t get dressed. Color me tired. Didn’t want to do anything so basically, I didn’t. Other than dinner, I just lolligagged around all day. Then on Sunday, we went into to Sydney with no particular place to go…other than the Wildlife exhibit on Darling Bay because we had paid for it in advance and felt we should do it. Let me preface my remarks by saying that it is not a good idea to go willy-nilly. Really. I left it to the mates to figure out stuff…so we were very busy all day going nowhere. Well, that’s not exactly accurate. We found out that the rail link between Wolli Station and the airport was closed for the weekend for track maintenance…so we thought we should, gasp, go to the airport for a dry run for today’s trip to see how it would work just in case the maintenance went into Monday. Well, how can I describe it? The authorities arranged for bus service from Wolli station in. On the rail, this would take about 5 minutes. On the bus…not so good. It took us…oh, wait, before I tell you let me digress…by giving the dear reader a blow by blow.
We got off the train and followed the signs to the bus stop but it was confusing. Ray followed one couple who had bags figuring they were going to airport. Just one problem. They didn’t know where they were going either. And then we gathered all together on the wrong street corner…but that didn’t matter too much because the bus must have only run once an hour and between the time we arrived at the wrong street corner and we chased lost people, we still had time to recover. So…we rode the bus to the domestic terminal and then exited the airport. We had to take the bus back. As we were approaching the bus, the door closed. I asked if we couldn’t get on board to a balding man with a clip board. He was also wearing a yellow jacket so he was the official in charge. “No, you can catch the next one”. Well…we were at the head of the line and so we waited the most and by the time the next bus came, he had an insurgency on his hands. That’s because buses were arriving every 5 minutes but they were only for intra-airport traffic. And the line kept getting longer. What a jerk. The bus he denied us was 1/3 full. By the time the bus we caught arrived, it could only accommodate 1/2 the waiting crowd. Oh, well. So what? Well, that sort of took the wind out of our sails. Our dry run took about 2 hours and our time to do other things was greatly reduced. But we soldiered on.
We jumped back on the CityRail at the place the bus dumped us and we were off to downtown. Here’s the thing. Ray thought he knew what he was doing and so we got lost. Plus the guys had this idea that we were going to walk across the bridge at Sydney harbor. Did I mention that the wind kicked up yesterday to the tune of about 25 mph? Well, I announced that I didn’t want to walk the bridge. And I was hungry. So, we had disembarked at Town Hall and then we walked back to Circular Quay (the station we had passed through on our way to Town Hall). We found a cafe on the wharf and ordered soup and a ham and cheese croissant to share which were surprisingly good. surprisinglyWho knew? Then we took off again. The plan was to take the ferry to Darling Harbor which is just around the bend from the Quay. Well, it would take 20 minutes and they guys thought it would better to take the CityRail…which we did. Only when we got there we discovered we went to the wrong station so had to backtrack again and then do some walking to arrive at the Wildlife place at 5:00 p.m. Luckily it was still open so we got to see some pretty interesting things…pictures to follow.
It took an hour to take in the exhibit…the good news was that we were so late on a Sunday afternoon that no one was there. We had the place to ourselves. Groovy.
By now, it was 6:00 p.m. We caught the ferry and I snapped this picture.
We migrated home via the grocery store, went to the base camp and fixed dinner. Sat down to eat at 8 p.m. And I fell asleep on the couch watching Groundhog Day.
So…our day could be summarized as “busy going somewhere we wanted and didn’t want to go”. And did I mention the steps. We must have climbed 10,000 steps with all that in and out business. Oh, well. Legs are strong. Although, they don’t look as good as the guy sitting next to Ray. Now, he has some sticks!!
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