So, we arrived in Sydney and stayed in one of the YHA hostels. This is a book in itself. It was a useful time to observe human nature and cultural differences. The basis of youth hostels is that it is not a hotel, and much care and cleaning is the responsibility of one’s self. This basic tennant had not filtered through to a significant proportion of the incumbents. The kitchen was dirty, with dirty dishes and the like, and when washing up was done, the idea of putting scraps in the bin was a thought too far. The place was very busy given the time of year, and full of lots young people, again no surprise. I assume young means not yet expected to look after self independantly, and still expecting mum to do the washing up. Am I just a MG? Lots of Brits around, young and older, some for the cricket. Easy to spot-sat in corner of lounge with box of wine. Italians came out top of the mini-poll. Ate communially, proper meals-yes pasta, cleaned up and drank soft drinks with dinner. Germans and the like-lots of hard stares, little alcohol, but when did Bacardi and rum at rate of knots. I will leave description of other facilities to Sara.
Barmy Army HQ ws just around the corner, which S & I did the once. It was a bar,quite empty and expensive, but a least a different venue, with a few people dressed up as Monty P, all the rage.
The rest of the Sydney sights are as they have been for a long time and worth the effort. We went to the early version of the New Year’s Eve fireworks. We did not have the best viewing point, as that would have meant sitting out from about 11am to bagsy your spot. We had a reasonable spot and enjoyed the bangs and whizzs. The opera house looked impressive, just a shame everything was booked up. The trip to Manly on the ferry was great, and as was a fun family trip to the zoo. We went to the Observatory and they had a telescope even bigger than MM’s. We got to look at Venus and direct views of the sun-cool man. Unfortunately, the night view tours were booked up.
A trip to Bondi and Coggee beaches was like a trip to a nightmare Spanish resort. This time of year what do you expect?
We watched cricket on TV and moaned. Joe and I did go to the SCG hoping to get a ticket, but too many buyers and sky high prices. Anyway, crap cricket. So dad and son off to the pub. Anyway, I have now been to the SCG-sort of.
So for a holiday based around the cricket-it lacked a certain amount of cricket. Oh well. Still got sunburned.
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The passage of time in Wellington and elsewhere
