Today marks 4 weeks since the start of our trip. This is now the longest holiday we have ever had by some margin. The time has just flown by, but it does seem an awful long time ago that we set off for the airport.
It was also the first day we woke up to a really cloudy and dull start to the day, Rain had fallen over night and the wind had got up. Sydney looked grey and less inviting and this contributed to a low key start to the day and perhaps prompted more of the feelings in us both of missing the boys. Technology is great in allowing us to keep in contact but its just not the same, especially when one son is the master of the one word response!
After breakfast, I decided to wander to the local launderette as our request to us facilities at the other Holiday Inn had been declined. Now Karen as you expect had packed more than enough clothes to keep her going until we got home, but I was facing a severe ‘Pants’ shortage. Even wearing them inside out and back to front would not see me through to the end. The launderette was easy to find and easy to use (with the help of the Chinese Lady owner) and before I had time to finish reading the paper, I was able to return back to the Hotel with a full bag of clean undergarments.
We caught the train to Town Hall and wandered down to Darling Harbour. The weather was definitely cooler but we were still comfortable in T Shirts and Shorts (and clean pants). Darling Harbour is a pleasant area to visit, with lots of museums, hotels and cafes lining each side of the harbour. We ambled around enjoying the views and the atmosphere especially around Barangaroo, which was very busy with the office workers having lunch.
Now one of my daily questions I ponder, is whether there is actually anyone left in the Far East. Wherever we have been on this trip, there have always been coach loads of people from this region. I have no problem with this, but why oh why do they take some many photos of blinking everything? Every information sign they see, every view from every angle, every single person on the trip and then again with every permutation of every other person with them in front of everything. Don’t even get me started on the number of selfies they take whilst standing in queues for things. Why do all the youngsters pout stupidly for the selfies as well? And whilst I am ranting, whats the point of wearing jeans with not just holes but whole parts missing?
Most of this just sums up much of my ignorance of the world. I wish I could differentiate between some of the languages they use so that I could tell if they are actually Japanese, Chinese, Malayan, Korean or whatever, just out of interest. It is very small minded of me to put them all in one category and I wish I was better informed.
We stopped on our way back round the harbour to partake in a happy hour promotion in one bar for some cut price sparkling wine which we enjoyed. We then wandered to a salad bar where I had my usual Caesar salad and Karen some sort of fancy yoghurt type of thing. I thought it looked like frog spawn but apparently it was fresh passion fruit.
After wandering then around Darling Quarter we walked back and got on the train to the Hotel. Tonight we decided to go to a bar recommend on Trip Advisor for our meal. But we couldn’t find it and so ended up back at the Italian we had visited previously and ended up having another good meal. We also had a real giggle about the fact I tried to convince Karen that the waiter was actually Chris Martin’s brother. This led to a hilarious discussion about his current beau which got Karen more and more confused. The night was ended with more sparkling wine back at the Hotel as it happened to be on special offer here as well and it seemed rude not to take advantage.
Today was much more low key, the weather was cooler but it was still very enjoyable.
