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  • Marc A. Price 1:43 pm on September 27, 2009 Permalink
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    Coming around again 

    image1505856667.jpgSo we are back in Sydney for a couple of nights. We are staying at the Radisson Plaza, a very nice hotel indeed.

    We went to the Orbit bar which is on the 47th floor of a tower block. It is a rotating bar that takes 1hr 45 mins to do a complete turn. The views from that height are pretty amazing but unphotographable with the little cameras that we have.

    Still we had lovely cocktails and then headed off to Darlinghurst for another couple. Sydney sure is sleepy on a Sunday night. We ended up back at the hotel and ordered room service. It was a midnight feast that I am still digesting the following morning.


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  • Marc A. Price 10:53 pm on September 26, 2009 Permalink  

    Roos are really real 

    Having been in Australia for a matter of weeks an never seen a kangaroo I was beginning to think that they were a figment of A. A. Milne’s fevered imagination. However, last night we went out the back of the apartment to take out the trash and there were some. They weren’t to happy to see us and after a staring competition they bounced off.

    I was taken by surprise as to how awkward they seemed. Every bounce produced a really loud thump as the animal hit the ground. These boys were wearing pretty big hobnail boots it seemed.

    Anyway I can tick them off my list. Crocodiles next…


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  • Marc A. Price 6:09 am on September 26, 2009 Permalink
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    Footie on the telly 

    Our last day in Queensland is much the same as the others. We have nothing planned except to laze around relaxing. We have just cracked open a bottle of wine and are watching the AFL final between St. Kilda and Geelong. This is a good game. AFL is a very entertaining sport, brutal but entertaining. St. Kilda lost the game by the way.

    We went into Palm Cove for dinner and then home to pack. This week has been super relaxed I’m left feeling so very chilled. It is lovely to hear the sea beating down on the beach. Sydney tomorrow…


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  • Marc A. Price 2:50 am on September 22, 2009 Permalink
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    Queensland 

    Been really quiet on the reports of the trip because we have been doing pretty much nothing. High quality, indisputable nothing. It’s fantastic. The apartment in Clifton Beach (just north of Cairns) is excellent, spacious and overlooking the beach.

    After settling in we wandered up to Palm Cove where the nearest bars are. We had a mildly disappointing dinner and then a few drinks and a chat with a nice Melbourne couple that we met.

    The following morning we had to get up at 6:15 to go snorkelling out on the reef. Curiously Catriona didn’t feel very well and the bus ride into Cairns did nothing to improve her condition. After a lovely cruise out to the Great Barrier Reef we had a good snorkel around. I got to see a turtle and I most definitely found Nemo. It was a wonderful experience. Frankly I would do it every day if I could.

    Yesterday was kind of cloudy and hazy and was designated a resting day. So we did just that. We ordered a pizza in an watched TV. Lovely.

    Today we booked flights back to Sydney. We fly out on Sunday spend a couple of nights there, then one night in Melbourne and then off to KL. The highlight of today was that I wagered $50 that Cat could not finish off her big plate of potato wedges as well as her salad. ’twas a foolish bet in the extreme. Slowly but surely she polished off the spuds but was barely capable of speech afterwards.

    We have no real plans for tomorrow, there is a kind of lazy vibe in the air. If we can muster the energy we might go on the Skyrail into the rainforest.


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  • Marc A. Price 11:32 pm on September 20, 2009 Permalink
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    Buckaroo Bondi 

    image524927456.jpgYesterday we walked to Bondi beach. It didn’t look very far on the map. Funny that. However, it took a good hour and 3/4 to get there. It was in fact a nice walk, in beautiful weather; it just longer than I was expecting.

    When we got there we had a nice picnic. Relaxing was a little difficult as behind us there was a gang of youths teasing a beach bum. (Gang of youths?When did I start to sound like an old man?) the poor fella was getting really agitated. Someone had to intervene in the end.

    Then the clouds came over and it started to spot with rain. So up we got and packed our stuff away. By the time we had done that the rain had stopped. We had a little walk along the beach to where there was a skate park. There we saw the funniest thing. A small boy of no more than 3 years was skating along with the rest of them. The little lad had absolutely no fear at all. All of the larger skaters were speeding around him an he was blissfully unaware. He was beaming from ear to ear, having a great time.

    We got the bus home for an early night. Early flight to Cairns… ugh.


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  • Marc A. Price 4:13 am on September 19, 2009 Permalink
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    Legendary homos and a beer 

    image1197344748.jpgWe slept in a bit this morning. However, we managed to make breakfast. I had the slightly surreal experience of having an Irish breakfast in a Turkish cafe at 1pm.

    After that headed off down Oxford Street, where parties were still going on from the night before, to the Paddington Markets. Along the way Catriona found some shops that sell pretty things. Sometimes the shiny things of the shops can be a distraction.

    The Paddington markets were also full of shiny things. Not like the tat that we found at the Victoria market in Melbourne, this market was all goods aimed at folk with money. Gourmet dog food, expensive hats, high quality signs for the toilet door and so on can all be found here if you look hard enought. If that is your bag.

    We headed off back down Oxford street to the Opera House where we were meeting up with Catriona’s cousin Anne and family. After a couple of drinks and a chat we headed back to the hotel to change for dinner.

    Tonight’s feast was Lebanese. It was nothing special, a fairly ordinary plate of falafels served with some of the restaurant’s legendary homos (sic) and a beer.

    After dinner we went to the Internet cafe next door to book a hotel in Cairns. It looks like we have somewhere nice but more of that later. I also checked the flight time for Monday. 8:40 ugh!

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  • Marc A. Price 7:59 am on September 18, 2009 Permalink
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    Strolling in Sydney 

    image975444763.jpgToday (Friday 18th) we wandered from our hotel down to the Circular Quay. We had a poke around the Opera House. The place is amazing. What is weird is that the building is not as white as it appears in pictures. The way that light reflects off the surface is quite magical and unpredictable. It was quite wonderful.

    What was remarkable was that we were sitting in a place that seemed familiar, because it is such a famous location, and yet it was at the same time unfamiliar. It was a strange feeling.

    After that we went to the Botanical Gardens to have a picnic. We sat in this beautiful space for a while and then pottered around the gardens. It is huge and stunning. One if it’s biggest surprises was the large pack (?) of flying foxes that hung in the trees. There were so many if them hanging there like fruit.

    After a quick stop back at the hotel to shower and change we went back to the Opera House to watch a performance of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The Mikado”. The show was great fun, brilliantly realised in terms of performance, costume and scenery. An excellent night out.


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  • Marc A. Price 10:01 am on September 15, 2009 Permalink
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    Great ocean road 

    image1037266581.jpgYesterday we went on a tour down the Great Ocean Road. Travelling in a small six seater coach we went from Melbourne to Torquay and then along the coast road until we got to Port Campbell. Sadly we didn’t get as far round as Peterborough. It would have been cool to visit the place named after my hometown.

    Along the way we took in some breathtaking views. We failed to see any kangaroos. I don’t see how they can be so much of a pest as they seem to hide very well. We did however see quite a few koalas. We saw one with a baby. Sadly it was not very close up as the trees they live in are pretty damn tall.

    It was a pretty tiring day being driven from 8am until 7pm although we did manage to get some good sleep in on the way back. I’d say that this trip would be better done over a few days because you hardly get a chance to take it all in.

    On returning to Melbourne we met up with the Christensens for cocktails in this mental bar called Der Raum in Richmond. None of the cocktails were recognisable. Catriona had something that was served in a small whiskey bottle in a brown paper bag. Someone else had a cocktail that involved a jam jar, a sherbet pill and a syringe. Mental place.

    After that we went home and watched Seven Pounds. It was an entertaining movie and all but we only counted six.


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  • Marc A. Price 9:31 pm on September 14, 2009 Permalink  

    Tram ride 

    Last nght we spent the evening on Melbourne’s tram restaurant. We were treated to to a delicious menu while the tram rolled through Melbourne’s centre and suburbs. It was a lovely evening punctuated by the jokes of the waiter and the night sights of Melbourne. This trip is definitely recommended for anyone spending any time in this city.


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  • Marc A. Price 9:20 pm on September 13, 2009 Permalink
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    The Birds 

    For the first time today I really felt like I woke up in a foreign country. Because we were no longer in the central business district of Melbourne I could hear birdsong when I awoke. What was really noticable was that I hardly recognised any of the bird calls. They all sounded to exotic. It is odd that it takes something as simple as this to alert me to the foreign-ness of my surroundings.

    The really overhelming thing that I have noticed about Australia is how famliar everything is. So to find that it *sounded* alien in the mornings was something of a shock. (Well that and the fact that it is 6:30 in the morning.) When we were being driven to the Yarra valley yesterday even the place names were familiar. There were signs for “Doncaster”, “Croydon”, and “Kent” and other such familiar places each one raised a smile.


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