Saturday, July 11, 2009

Three weeks' worth of ravings (you may need a cuppa....)

I'm baaaack! Man, I have really missed blogging the last few weeks. It's such an outlet for all that stuff you just have to say, that you know if you didn't have a captive audience, probably wouldn't get listened to anyway (you can still get out of it now you know!) That being said, I have so much to write about. Some of it may even be interesting.........
Well, our trip to Sydney that we were looking forward to for so long, is now a distant memory. We had the best time - the flight down, though very delayed was enjoyed by all of us. Harri couldn't get enough of looking out the window and asking "what's that down there, where are we, is that a river, is that a car on the road, is that a cow? etc etc
And many thanks to Nev's boss, we stayed in a beautiful hotel, The Radisson, a block away from Darling Harbour. (If you look carefully you can see Ellie ordering room service - too many episodes of "Me Eloise" I think).

We explored so many interesting places - museums and other things that we normally wouldn't have had the chance to see. Nev had conferences all day on the first day and was gone from 8am to 11.30pm (he was very busy being schmoozed by Fuji and Nikon over lunches and dinners - poor thing!) so the kids and I went absolutely flat out. We went to the Sydney Aquarium.....
and Sydney Wildlife World where we got up close and personal with more than the wildlife! Bondi Vet was there in the flesh mmmmmmmm

We went up the tower and spent ages looking out over the city - somebody in the planning department was having a bad day when they let the new city buildings obscure most of the view of the Opera House and bridge!

Darling Harbour was absolutely fascinating! There seemed to be things going on at all hours of the day and night.


The National Maritime Museum was incredible. We thoroughly explored the Naval Destroyer "Vampire" and the submarine "Onslo". Harri was very quiet while we were in the submarine - it was a little bit freaky - but once we were above the water line, he could hardly catch his breath for the amount of questions he asked. I answered as many as possible and then said "you're not thinking of joining the Navy and going on a submarine are you Harri?" He replied "oh, aren't I?" and then smiled at me quite alarmingly.

I loved the historic district of Sydney "The Rocks" - we were all captured by the museums, beautiful buildings and the stories of early settlers. It all felt so...old and historic. We loved the markets and I managed to pick up a rather unique souvenir.........(you are forgiven for thinking it's a really bad photo of just a chunk of wood......


but look what it does........


Beautiful eh!
We also took a guided tour of the Opera House which was absolutely fascinating - we all had to wear headphones on the tour which the children thought was awesome!


(I just have to share the most bizarre set of facts that I learned on the tour - so bizarre that I cannot get them out of my head. The pipe organ in the main concert hall of the Opera House, has 10, 183 pipes - only the first 183 can be seen from the front. It took 10 years to build the organ and a further two years to tune! What the.....)
On our last night in Sydney, we all headed off into China Town to have a proper Chinese meal at a proper Chinese restaurant. We were all exhausted but determined to finish off with this little bit of culture. The children were very excited by the prospect until Ellie realised that chicken nuggets and chips were not on the menu.....

Just look at that face!!!!!!!
After studying the menu, she finally chose chicken in a peanut sauce, and after she actually tried it.......

All in all, we had a wonderful time, but I was so glad to get on that homeward bound plane. I had completed most of what I had set out for us to do, and in the process completely exhausted myself and everyone else. Still, I managed to smile at the song that was going on in my head "I just got back from the Windy City, the Windy City is mighty pretty, but it ain't got what we got".......thankyou to my friend Sue for too many nights sitting up watching Calamity Jane. Pathetic really.

3 comments:

Tamra said...

oohhhh, jealous!!! Bondi Vet is a hottie!! =)

Sounds like you had fun. Nice to hear from you again =)

SF said...

Finally, I get to read the update and see the photos. :) All looks tremendous, don't you love all that culture?! I just love Darling Harbour.

Queen of the Natives said...

Have missed you Helen, so nice to see you back online after your adventuring. It looks like you really maxed your time on your trip, don't worry, I am exactly the same. I loathe to waste an opportunity :) I love your relationship with your parents. I'm so lucky to have my Mum close by, but I really wish we had Matty's parents on hand too. The folks can be so valuable. Brisbane is so close but yet so far :(