Australian Adventure 2013 - 12

The remainder of Friday (25^th) was largely domestic and catch-up, especially emails and newspapers on my part, as well as publishing a new episode of my blog and Flickr pictures.  We leave again on Monday and the weekend was to be a bit social.  We went out to dinner, a fair drive but worth it.  There is a true “English” fish and chip shop a couple of suburbs down the coast, large and thick pieces of battered cod and very nice chips (fries).  It was really nice and worth the drive.  While we were waiting Pam and I walked a few shop-fronts down to an “English Shop” that would have had Marissa drooling within 10 seconds of entering it!  Pam bought some Pork Pies, Eccles Cakes and Bakewell Tarts for our subsequent enjoyment.  It was just the three of us as Peter went straight from work to stay with some former school-mates in Toowoomba for the weekend.

Saturday morning started with some mild excitement for me as I found myself, when stepping into the shower, to be sharing the room with the largest spider I had ever seen outside of a zoo environment.  Talking to Pam a little later I found out that it was a “Huntsman” spider, and at a mere 2 ½ inches across a relatively “small” specimen of the breed.  They are also quite harmless, but distinctly unattractive!

The day continued to be largely chores.  I helped Nick cut down and subsequently cut up a couple of bamboos that at over 20 feet tall would thrash around in high winds (a not-uncommon occurrence especially in the afternoons) and impinge on the bug-screen mesh around their top floor balcony.

In the middle of the day Faye & her two came for an extended lunch.  Rebecca gave us a demonstration of her abilities on the clarinet and for dessert we fired up her present to her brother for his birthday during the past week which was a chocolate fountain.  Pam had strawberries and blueberries to use as the base for covering with chocolate sauce.

In the evening Pam put on a delightful and delicious semi-formal dinner as Lynn and Chris Boyce came to dinner.  Michelle will remember Chris as one of the B’s in the former BKB of Eastbourne, Nick being the other B in the partnership years ago.  They are delightful people and conversation flowed freely over a number of topics.  All in all it was a very nice evening indeed.

Monday morning was another early start, up, pack, grab a quick bite and then Peter, bless him, ran us to the airport in plenty of time to check our suitcases and then head to the gate.  The flight was decent and on time.  Claire, despite the distance, came over to pick us up.  There was a slight delay as Claire’s battery went dead while she was parked and waiting so we went and had a coffee while help came to jump start her.  It was a good long drive through very pretty countryside with all of us talking our heads off.

Once home we met Rod, settled in, and had lunch.  The day was delightfully cool, damp and English-style dismal but the heavy rain that fell while we were flying had ended.  Rod took Nick & I into the little town of Ballan and showed us around and after we were back one of Claire’s daughters, Elaine, and her two small children came over for a visit.  While in town I learned that since I have been here postcard postage has gone up so now I am wondering how many of the cards I sent Annie actually went with the stamps I bought the first day in Brisbane.  Later we had dinner and in the evening all the other’s voted to watch the movie “Gladiator” on DVD, so we did.

Tuesday was Pam’s birthday.  We left mid-morning for the hour drive into Melbourne and parked under the Art Museum, which was actually closed for some reason, but was a good central location.  We spent the rest of the morning doing the “downtown walking tour” largely small streets (rather like The Lanes in Brighton) and various lovely arcades.  When we ran out of steam we took the free tourist tram back to our starting point and went to a nice restaurant overlooking the river for lunch, my treat.

After lunch we elected to buy tickets, quite cheaply, for the 1 to 1 ½ hour tourist bus tour with both pre-programmed information supplemented by an actual guide.  It was a great way to see the city as a whole and not just the concrete canyons of downtown and all four of us thoroughly enjoyed it (Rod had a commitment for the daytime).  We then headed back to Ballan for tea and the consumption of Pam’s birthday cake.  Afterwards the three guys played several games of pool, in various combinations, on Rod’s very nice table.

Wednesday was in a series of segments.  For increased comfort two vehicles were used with me and Nick alternating in the “ute” with Rod and the other three in Claire’s car.  First stop was the home and paddocks of their daughter Elaine to see a 30-hour-old foal with its mother.  It was a nice visit but decidedly chilly out with the animals, various.  After a quick pass by the home again we headed on out through the countryside (very English-looking) to Hepburn Mineral Springs where natural soda water can still be pumped out of the ground.  It is a beautiful area and we walked around for quite a while.

We left there and traveled to a very nice country pub where we had a lovely lunch, very upscale.  Another substantial drive took us to a really lovely and large nursery where we wandered around for a good while.  Yet another drive took us to Daylesford where we parked and had tea and pastries.  Then we wandered slowly around the main shopping boulevard with its surprisingly deep stores and multiple places to eat of all types.  We all enjoyed the browsing but little was bought other than a kitchen gadget which Pam wanted.  Finally we headed out through lovely countryside in bright sunshine back to home base.  There we socialized and eventually had dinner.

Thursday morning started gently and we packed our bags ready for departure later.  In the morning we headed into Ballarat, a gold-rush city built with lots of money and in wide open spaces, making it quite lovely even today as it has huge wide boulevards, lots of grass, flowers, fountains and statuary.  We spent the morning walking, both outside and in some quite large stores and in the process Claire and Rod booked a European river cruise.

We then went to the edge of town to the artificial lake created for the rowing events at the 1952 Melbourne Olympics (and still used for rowing) and had a really nice lunch in a restaurant right on the water’s edge.  Rod left (we had taken two vehicles again) to do something and had an emergency call so we had to say our goodbyes by telephone.  Meanwhile Claire had returned us to her home to pick up the luggage, have a cup of tea and then she drove us to the airport, another pretty drive.  We said our goodbyes and thank yous and started on our return home.

 The only downside to the day was that (probably at Brisbane airport, or possibly on the plane) someone had infected me with an “Australian” common cold which I had been trying to wish away for a couple of days but clearly hadn’t succeeded.  This made the flight rather more uncomfortable than usual.  We took a taxi home and had a light supper and then I went to bed and managed to get in a really good night under the circumstances.

Australian Adventure 2013 - 11

Saturday was a catch-up day.  Nick left early for a full day of coast-guarding, Peter settled in to 18 hours of computer game-playing, Pam did lots of laundry and baking, and I played catch-up with my PC.  In the morning Pam and I went down to the Saturday morning market as this is the one weekend a month when the crafty people are not there and it becomes truly a Farmers Market.  Pam bought steaks, pasties, vegetables, etc. as well as an unusual plant for cousin Margery.

After a pass by the house to unload stuff Pam slipped off to the supermarket to fill in some gaps.  Once she was back we headed to the airport, parked, went through security to the gate and waited for Nannette’s plane to come in.  Nannette had been traveling for 24 hours back from Canada and was totally overloaded (and overwhelmed) by the amount of luggage she had insisted on taking with her, so we effectively (as planned) became her porters helping her get all her stuff over to the train station.  She still talks as much as she did 50 years ago!

After lunch I did a major sort-out of all my “stuff” including papers of various kinds.  My MasterCard bill had come in, staggeringly large, but I have effectively already paid my “share” of our combined adventures including those yet to come.  I was very happy for the physical sort-out and am now neat and organized again, and I was able to match all the charges, including every last separate “currency fee” of 3% on every charge which made the bill very lengthy.

Sunday morning was quiet and gentle until a little before noon we headed across Brisbane to the cousins’ side.  We picked up Hilary and Narawi from their small & extremely cluttered flat and went a few more blocks on over to my cousin Margery’s house, also very cluttered.  Margery put on an exceedingly nice cold lunch, followed by a home-made English Christmas pudding with a few fresh strawberries and thick English-style cream.  I nobly passed on dousing my pudding from the jug of sherry on the table!

I had taken my PC and was able to show them, not all at once, our pictures from both the Sydney trip and the Hamilton Islands trip in which they all expressed serious interest.  I was also able to pull up some ancient “Priddis” pictures for Margery and, to settle some queries, also pulled up my Priddis as well as my seriously old Priddis family trees in which Margery and Martin were interested.  Martin requested that when I got back that I email the two family charts to him.

We had a picture-taking session as it is unlikely we will all be together again.  After a lot of chatter and reminiscing about the deep past they also served us tea and pastries, so we were well and truly fed.  We eventually managed to leave gracefully with hugs all around and headed part way back stopping at the Goodyear’s.  We got the tour of their remodeled and largely reorganized house (after weeks on end of chaos), had a cup of tea and threw up my pictures of Sydney on their big TV.  Then we headed home for a quiet and relaxing evening.

Monday morning went gently, a light breakfast, an early lunch and general packing both individually and the car. We then embarked and headed northwards to the “Sunshine Coast”.  We arrived in Noosa Heads found our rental townhouse, very nicely equipped, and moved in.  After a bit of a rest we headed out again to a Woolworths and laid in our food supplies for the week, as we will be here until Friday morning.

As with our other trips, this is as much a holiday for Pam and Nick as it is for me.  We are located on a river, fairly close to the ocean but not directly on it.  We have had glimpses as we drove up of the endless shallow sandy beaches and the steady breaking waves of the Pacific Ocean thereupon.  However, by mutual agreement we are not rushing about but relaxing and reading this first day.

Tuesday morning we went into town fairly early, but only just in time to find a parking space and wandered about the shopping area a little.  I managed to find another small memento that will hang on my Christmas tree in one of the tourist shops.  By and large the shops are pricey – like any town that survives on tourists.  We took a quick peek at the beach, at high tide and still not very busy.  Then we went to the edge of town to a National Park (primarily an area protected from development) and took a nice long walk along a paved trail right above the, at that end, rocky shoreline.  On the opposite side of Noosa sandy beaches run continuously quite literally as far as the eye can see.

On our way back we checked the beach, now a little deeper but absolutely thick with humanity, so Pam & I elected to swim in one of the salt-water swimming pools located right outside our townhouse’s “garden”.  Later in the day we went the other way and took another walk, along the river bank this time, but by and large this has been a lovely restful day with all of us reading assorted books.

Wednesday’s primary activity was to go over to Eumundi to the huge market there.  Even though we arrived soon after 8:30 AM all free parking was gone so we contributed to Eumundi’s charities in order to park in a field.  We cruised and browsed for a good two hours.  Pam bought a great sun hat, Nick bought some pastries J, and both Pam and I bought from the glass fingernail file man, she for herself and me for my favorite manicurist.  In the afternoon Pam and I went down to the main riverside and took a long walk in the relatively high wind.  Otherwise our day was quiet and relaxing.

Thursday was touring day.  We went south for a while before turning inland (west) and then up, and up and up into the Blackall Range where a number of views were really impressive, but as usual the Australian haze meant that photographs came out poorly.  I’ve been here five weeks now, it has rained – briefly – maybe four times and the odd gray sky has passed over and despite almost endless sunny skies I have yet to have a truly “clear” day anywhere.

Our primary stop was Mountville up in the hills which has a really nice collection of “nice” tourist-type shops, most of which we “did” at our leisure.  I finally found a real Christmas tree ornament, in fact a whole lot of them making a selection difficult, but I finally settled on one that has significance to me.  When I showed Pam the shop (she had been unsuccessfully clothes shopping next door) she was also impressed and bought a whole set of similar ones for herself.  Before leaving we enjoyed a gelato.

We took the “scenic” way back that included a good few miles of unpaved road with steep drop offs and no safety barriers right through a largely forested area as we descended down and down.  Even when we were back on paved roads it was still pretty.  We finally got back for a very late lunch.  After another lazy, relaxing afternoon we went down to the riverside and upon advice from the doorman of a fully reserved restaurant went a few door down to a Thai restaurant.  Getting a server’s attention was a major difficulty but once our order was placed it came much more quickly than we expected and all three of us found our chosen dishes to be magnificent, large and very tasty.

Friday morning we rose, breakfasted, packed and before nine o’clock were on our way back to Wynnum.  This is a rare gray skies day and we even ran through a few light showers.  We are here for the weekend and are off to Melbourne for day or three next week.

Australian Adventure 2013 - 10

The weekend was quiet, just pottering about and miscellaneous shopping.  By Saturday evening I had published the blog and at least sorted all the Hamilton Island/Reef pictures so that when we went to the Goodyear’s for dinner, almost exclusively cooked by Peter, I was able to take my PC and display the pictures on their big TV screen.  I managed to get the rest of the pictures published between getting back home & going to bed.  Sunday we made a quick trip to the market accelerated by Nick’s need to get back and not miss any of the 7 or 8 hours of televised car racing!  It was a 1000 Km Australian race followed by a Formula 1 race.

Monday was equally quiet.  Pam and I did the morning walk thing.  They both had things to do in the morning, Nick consulting to a fellow architect and Pam going to Wynnum to commit to a seriously high end sewing machine to make her quilting & related handicrafts a lot easier.  In the afternoon we did some running around during which the Brons bought a new camera, essentially for Pam, as her old one produces every picture looking as though there were water droplets on the lens and in this day and age “fix” is the poorer choice over “replace”!

Despite living in each other’s pockets for almost a month I find it amazing how much we still have to talk about to each other, either one-on-one or as a threesome.  Tomorrow, very early, we depart for Sydney.

Tuesday (October 22^nd) started early with a 5:00 AM alarm, followed by rising, completing packing, a light breakfast and then Peter ran us to Brisbane airport before heading off to work.  Aside from a slight delay the flight south was uneventful, followed by the usual airport routine and then a taxi ride driven by an Iraqi speaking Arabic into his cell phone almost the whole ride to downtown Sydney.  We checked into the Meritor Towers serviced apartments, but were far too early to take possession so we left all our luggage in the lock-up.

It was quite cool, but not unpleasantly cold, and since from the Meritor to Circular Quay was essentially all downhill we elected to pass on the shuttle bus and walk, not quite in a straight line.  Nick was finding merit in every building but to me the buildings were merely big and tall or they were true skyscrapers.  At street level were an impressive number of shops of all sizes and kinds.  The Quay is the main terminal for the harbor ferries so we bought tickets for one going way across towards the main entrance to the harbor from the Pacific Ocean, to Watsons Bay just on the inside which is Australia’s oldest fishing village having been founded in 1788.  Pam & Nick, used to the traditional & slow ferryboats were astonished at how quickly we got there on one of the newer catamaran ferryboats.  Needless to say, despite only having my regular lens with me for the camera, I took several shots of both the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House, although I hope to get some better ones tomorrow or the day after.

Apparently any Australian worth his salt who has visited Sydney has to admit to having had Fish & Chips at Doyles, founded in 1885.  The original beachside establishment still is going strong even though the company now also has several increasingly upscale fish restaurants a hundred yards or so inland.  We opted for the beachside “carry out” one, although it does provide lots of indoor tables and chairs at which to eat if one wishes.  We wished.

Afterwards we got our exercise for the day climbing slowly up to the cliffs in the company of a great many pesky flies which we had not anticipated.  We went upwards and to the right, or south, until we were high enough to simultaneously see both the North Head and the South Head which delineate the true Oceanside entrance to Sydney Harbour.  We backtracked and Nick peeled off in order to avoid the risk of overexposure since none of us had hats with us.  Pam & I headed up to the South Head, but were frustrated by the path being closed for major repairs/improvements just before the top and hence a clear view.  We came back down, and down again to join Nick and in due course to board the ferry again as soon as one arrived.

Back at Circular Quay we boarded the free shuttle bus that runs up into town and has a stop less than 200 yards from our building.  We checked with the desk to get our keys (and elevator pass key), retrieve our luggage, and headed up to the 67^th floor!  We are in suite 6701 with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, a large living and dining area and an amazing view.  Although we are blocked by parts of the building from seeing the Opera House or the Bridge we can see everything from Finger Wharf in Woolloomooloo Bay out to The Heads and the Pacific Ocean and all of the city to our east.  The view really is spectacular.

After a cuppa tea and a decent rest period we went down, walked about 50 yards and headed underground to a huge shopping plaza and Coles (Pam’s usual supermarket in Wynnum, although this one was a lot bigger and more crowded).  We bought breakfast supplies for the next few days and easy-fix meals to have tonight, although we will probably eat out hereafter.  I can’t wait until tomorrow.

Between Mother Nature (me) and forgetting to turn off her alarm clock from yesterday (Pam) we were up very early by Brisbane time but almost normal here as New South Wales is on Summer Time and Queensland is not.  At least I got to see the sun rising up out of the Pacific from our lovely high vantage spot.  We have realized we are not quite as high as it seems since the street-level lobby is the 10^th floor, although what is below we don’t know.  But we are high.

Once again we took the long and healthy walk, mostly going against the flow, down to Circular Quay.  I am struck by how little obesity one sees in big cities where everybody has to walk a lot despite buses, trains, subways & ferries.  We bought our tickets for the morning “Coffee Cruise” on the Captain Cook cruise line, and since we had some time to kill did a bit more walking around The Rocks neighborhood, blessedly preserved from high-rises.  We saw a couple of Capt. Cook catamarans take off, one going whale-watching and one a step-on/step off sort of ferry and assumed we were in for the same, but when our ship pulled in it was a 4-decker, three enclosed and one open.  As it turned out the highest enclosed deck was in fact closed so we alternated between the inside, where they served the coffee after a while along with a goodie box of several Aussie cakes & cookies, and out in the sunshine & breeze up on top.  The 2-hour narrated cruise was gentle and all around the entire “harbor” even going under the Bridge towards the end.  Interestingly, despite its long history and superb protection the actual Sydney Harbour is no longer used for commercial shipping (which now goes to Botany Bay) other than cruise ships, some of them seriously large although none were in port today.

After disembarking we walked all around Circular Quay and out to the Opera House for an up-close-and-personal look at it, even slipping into one lobby which was open as there was to be a performance in the afternoon.  I had not realized that the entire outer surface of all those “sails” was tiled, and really glisten in the sunshine.  We then retraced our steps (plenty of exercise today) all around and back to The Rocks (I suppose somewhat akin to The Lanes in Brighton) where we found a nice little place to get a pie, salad & home-made apple juice which we ate in a shady old courtyard behind the tiny storefront.

We slowly meandered our way back to the head of the terminal (and edge of “downtown”) where Nick sat in the shade and Pam & I cruised a large “tourist shop” with fairly decent success.  I now feel I don’t have to keep looking for stuff to bring home and can merely buy whimsically, or not.  We then boarded the free shuttle bus, which since there had obviously been a delay somewhere started full and at each stop became more and more packed.

Several times on this trip my watch strap has popped out but so far I have always caught it and been able to fix it right away.  This time it popped off as I was trying to change the hour as we approached Sydney airport so I had to put it in my pocket.  However, it was many hours before we were in the apartment and I could try & fix it again & somehow the little “pin” thing had got lost.  Since I can’t live without a watch before coming in to our building we descended to the subterranean mall on the corner & found the equivalent of Dollar Tree so I am now the proud owner of an all-plastic (apart from battery & chip) $20AU wrist watch!  Finally we came in for cups of tea and a bit of a rest after our exertions.

Once we were rested and the sun was beginning to sink we headed out, again on foot, and made the shorter journey to Darling Harbour and its attractive approaches before wandering down one side & finding a nice restaurant with outdoor seating who were still serving “early” specials.  We each chose something different for the main course but all had the banana crème brulet for dessert.  All of our meals were delicious.  We left just as we were beginning to feel chilly, now that the sun had well and truly set and meandered our way back, via a shop or two, to the apartment.

Wednesday, although we didn’t realize it at first, was another day when we were blessed with good luck, or at least good timing.  We moved respectably quickly in the morning, Pam & I went to a nearby (underground) supermarket to get supplies for a picnic lunch, and well before 8:30 AM we had rented a car and were on our way to the Blue Mountains.  The Blue Mountains are so-called for the same reason that the Great Smoky Mountains at home get their name.  The prevalence of gum trees causes the air to make everything distant become a fuzzy blue shade.

We made good progress (and were glad we were outbound from Sydney rather than inbound like the commuters) and we arrived at Katoomba & found a British-style “pay and display” parking lot.  Rather like the western US beauty spots we found the Japanese much like one of the Plagues of Egypt.  There were hordes of them, all pushing and shoving and acting like the rest of the world’s population didn’t exist as they each took endless pictures of every other one of them while blocking most of the good viewing spots.  We managed to work around them, but fewer would have been much nicer!

The day, up there, was incredibly windy, so much so that Nick put his hand in the small of my back in order for me to hold steady while taking photographs some of the time.  However, while cooler than Sydney it was not by any means cold.  We wandered around a bit taking “views” of the area in general and across the steep valley in particular.  We took a trail down a bit for a closer view of one of the features but I wisely declined to join P & N in their descent down “steps” (later described by Pam as more like a ladder) which had a warning sign saying only fit and strong hikers should attempt it.  As we subsequently returned up the more gently sloped trail it was clear that my breathing rate was a lot less labored than theirs!

After sitting and having some lemonade we then made our way across the valley and parked at the “Scenic World” attraction.  Inside we bought tickets for the complete circuit.  It starts atop one of the cliffs and first one takes the cable railway (which slopes at 52 degrees & claims to be the steepest such in the world) sitting on tilted benches in a nice enclosed string of cars.  Then we could wander, at our own speed, along a well-maintained boardwalk down in the valley amongst the trees with many good information signs and some re-creations.  A very long time ago there was a coal mine near the bottom and that was the origin of the narrow-gauge railway tracks used for hauling the coal up in skips.

It was beautifully peaceful down there and very dramatic and (apart from a large herd going in the opposite direction) delightfully Japanese free.  When we felt we had wandered sufficiently we turned off to the cable car “station” and in due course were gently whisked back up to the top.  After wandering through the inevitable gift shop & snack bar area we then took a very much more dramatic cable car ride, straight across the valley.  This time we got the full effect of the howling winds and it was probably good that there was not enough time for seasickness by those with that tendency.  We did not disembark but rode back again, this time taking pictures from the other side mostly of Katoomba Falls, which must be amazing after a rare rain but were merely pretty in this drought.

We departed in the car and found a nice overlook at which to park and have our sandwiches and fruit, but all in the car as it was blowing very nastily indeed outside, raising dust and shifting everything about.  So much did it blow, quite obviously bringing down small, and not-so-small branches that we elected to leave for home as we had really seen all the major things & views there were to be seen.  After we had been on the road for a little while we started seeing lots of emergency fire marshal vehicles and soon afterwards fire engines some passing us from behind and many more on the other side of the road heading up.  We began to see distant (and not so distant) smoke & suspected something was seriously wrong.

We continued smoothly to Sydney, and right on through, heading for the famous Bondi Beach resort/town and, of course, beach and surfing breakers as the bay inside which it sits faces directly on to the Pacific.  We parked for a few minutes (pay & display again) bought ourselves a cup of ice cream each and took in the view.  I then headed up the hill to one side in order to get pictures of the whole thing without too much wasted foreground.  Unfortunately we did not get close enough to the beach itself in order to admire the sun-bronzed surfer dudes and their equally sun-bronzed bikini-clad admirers!

We headed back into town, and with some difficulty eventually managed to find where, six floors underground, to park the rental and then took an elevator up to ground level to turn in the key before the really unpleasant guy working the counter shut up shop for the night.  A short walk, a 57 story elevator ride, and we were back in the flat and able to have a cuppa tea.  A rather broken up call from Peter Goodyear while we at Bondi Beach alerted us to turn on the TV and learn that there were no less than 7 out-of-control wildfires up in the Blue Mountains and some of the towns were already being evacuated, making us very glad we had opted for an early return ahead of the excitement and subsequent chaos.  Then we began to notice the pall of brown smoke covering the city and how the beautiful blue of the Harbour waters now appeared a murky brown color.  What a contrast to yesterday!

Friday morning we initially took very gently but by 10:30 AM were fully packed and ready to check out, leaving all our bags in the concierge’s lock-up.  We set off on foot and retraced our steps of two evenings ago, paid our small “concession” entry fee and went into the Chinese Gardens of Friendship – originally a gift to Sydney from their Chinese sister city.  Much like a Japanese garden it is an oasis of peace and calm and beauty, of rocks, water & waterfalls, and plants, even including a display of the Chinese version, again similar but differing in detail, of Bonsai.  We wandered all through it at some length.

Our next move was to walk a few city streets again until we came to Sydney’s Hyde Park with its War Memorial, pool, fountains, grass and trees much of which had been visible from the windows of our apartment.  After ambling through it we crossed a few streets and entered the Botanical Gardens although we stayed to one side most of which was planted in roses – nice.  A little more walking, down a flight of century-old steps, and we were again at Circular Quay.  We bought sandwiches and drinks and ate them slowly while we people-watched.  To end our activities we again took the free shuttle-bus back to the Meritor World Tower, retrieved our luggage and hopped into a taxi.

Here our incredible luck with the timing, weather, and choices we made finally ran out.  We had to kill a good half-hour before we were allowed to check our bags.  All was well through security and along the concourse, with a little shopping (I finally found something to hang on my Christmas tree) and to the gate.  However after we had waited a while they announced that due to very bad weather (storms) in Brisbane the Traffic Control had insisted that our departure from Sydney be delayed an extra hour.  The only upside was that the delay meant Peter would be able to pick us up at the airport, rather than fighting for a taxi.  In due course we got home, unpacked, Nick shot off for some Coast Guard duty, Pam & I ate and we resumed our electronic connectivity with the rest of the world.  All in all it was a simply splendid week.