October 5 2007

What an absolutely great time we are having here in Australia. Should have done this much earlier. We do not get to tour that much as Lincoln is always working and just this morning arrived back from 5 days in Bangkok Thailand. I did not go with him as was very ill with a flu of some sort, much better at present.

On our previous posting meant to include a picture of a homeless person who lives on the edge of the cliffs at Bondi Beach, he even has a chair set up so you can visit and chat with him. I would be afraid of rolling off into the sea below, but does not seem to bother him as you can see from the picture he is set up for good at this site. You get to it as you walk along the path they have built between Bondi Beach and Coogee.

Also do not think we posted any pictures of the B&B that we stayed in for the first 10 days. It was a beautiful old heritage house built in 1872. Had about 10 rooms spread out over 3 floors. Our room was on the top floor and had a skylite to brighten the room. It was a dormer room and had windows at the top of the wall which we could not see out of so the skylite was lovely. Breakfast was served in an atrium which had been added to the building about 20 years ago. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay, and would recommend it highly. Our apartment did not have internet when we moved in and the owners of the B&B kindly let us use their facilities until our was set up.


I have just generally been enjoying the sights and talking with different people I meet while out for my 2 1/2 hr walk each day. Have met some lovely couples and have even been able to give directions to a couple when they asked.

There is also another park close to us called Hyde Park, it is usually packed with people at lunch eating, laying in the grass soaking up the sun, men in suits spread their jackets on the ground and just lay there with their eyes closed, lots and lots of people running and doing exercises, they also have groups that have a trainer leading them thru their paces.

I have never seen green space used so much by the locals. We are fortunate to have all this space so close to where we live and I use it every day. Cafes are everywhere and most are only open until 3.00PM. As I walked thru Sydney Hospital to the downtown area, I noticed that a cafe was set up in the courtyard, tables even had white table clothes and linen napkins and not a table was empty. I do not think that many people eat at home as in the evening the night spots are packed as well.


Saturday we took the Harbour Cruise offered by Captain Cook Cruise Lines, and had a lovely time. The cruise was 2 1/2 hrs and took us to a number of different harbours within Sydney Harbour and out as far as the Heads, which is the entrance to Sydney Harbour from the Tasman Sea.

There are a total of 66 harbours within Sydney Harbour, and numerous areas that are set aside to remain bush, quite an impressive sight to see the city skyline from the Harbour. It was a beautiful morning as we sailed from the harbour at 10:00am and we chose to sit on the upper deck outside, unfortunately we sat on the left side and most the sights that were pointed out were on the right side, so had to get up and go to that side to see what they were telling you about. Lincoln and I had tourned some of the places on land previously and were quite content to just cruise and enjoy the commentary.

Sunday afternoon we enjoyed a very nice Thanksgiving buffet with the Canadian Australian Club. Approx 60 people were in attendance, and once again Lincoln and I each won a door prize. I gave mine back at I had won the same item at a Mixer we went to on Friday evening in Darling Harbour. People were telling us we should buy a lottery ticket as we seemed to be on a winning streak. We then went to a Belgian Beer Pub with 5 other people afterwards and a number of different types of beer were sampled by all who were beer drinkers. We spent 3 hrs just chatting and enjoying each others company.