Friday 20 May
After an enjoyable morning spent watching Ella at her very first school sports day, we eventually arrived at the airport around 1:45 and had a nice relaxing time in the Qantas Club before our 2:50pm flight.
After a smooth uneventful flight we got to Sydney airport, picked up our rental car and headed off to Tricketts B & B on Glebe Point Rd Glebe. It is a large olde worlde house, complete with magnificent ballroom. The woman who runs it, Liz, is a very quirky soul with many great life stories to share.
Once we settled in, we gave Pat a call and arrange to have dinner with him (Laura had a last minute meeting in Melbourne and couldn’t join us). After walking along Glebe Point Rd we eventually settled for a Vietnamese restaurant Saigon Saigon (which turned out to be the one Laura had wanted to try). The food was very delicious and we had a good time just sitting and chatting with Pat.
Saturday 21 May
We drove to Laura’s new place (she recently, well in the month or 2, moved into a terrace house in Annandale with 2 other girls) and had a look through before taking a walk around the harbour foreshore to a small cafe on a point for Brunch. The weather was fantastic, blue skies and warm autumn sunshine. We had a very relaxing time catching with her and taking in the surroundings.
After brunch we went to a couple of weekend markets, one in Balmain and another in Glebe. The Balmain market was small and quirky, we got a kettle for our caravan and some fresh fruit (Laura got some fruit and veg). The Glebe market was very large, with row after row of stalls selling a real eclectic collection of items.
After a short while Laura and I said bye to Deb and headed off to collect Patrick on our way to Rat Park (home of the Warringah Rugby Club). The Rats were playing Penrith and it is always a good place to catch up with old friends. We got there around half time in 2nd grade and it wasn’t long before a lot of familiar faces arrived. We had a good time catching up with everyone and enjoying a “rare” Rats win (well, rare for this season so far). After the football, I dropped Pat off at home and drove back to drop Laura off before getting back to Deb at our B & B. The traffic was incredible, bumper to bumper traffic from the “Spit Bridge” all the way to the Harbour Bridge, Laura said this was common on nice days and similar to peak hour on weekdays. (Just another reminder of how good we have it in Adelaide). I got back to the B & B around 6:45pm, Deb said she had had a wonderfully relaxing afternoon. We took a walk up the street and decided on a small Thai Cafe for dinner. The food was good and the atmosphere lively without being too loud.
Sunday 22 May
After an 8am breakfast we drove to Laura’s place to pick-up her and Patrick to go up to mum and dads on the Central Coast. (Pat and Laura had both been to the same party the night before, so Pat “slept” the night on Laura’s couch. I have seen Pat looking much brighter in the morning than he was this morning, apparently he hadn’t been home all that long before we rang to say we were on our way. LOL
Got to mum and dads around 10:15, and sat around and chatted for some time. Mum went through a few old photo albums with Laura (gave her a few old photos). Dad is just out of hospital after having a bad chest infection, (amongst other things), and he looked reasonably well, or better than I expected anyway!!
Went for a buffet lunch up at Ourimbah RSL, the food was fresh and plenty of it. We sat and talked there for a couple of hours, dad seemed to come to life a bit more up there, I am not sure if it was the company, getting out of the house or the scotch he had, either way it was good to see him enjoying himself, and mum, who absolutely loves the company of her grandchildren, and us of course, seemed to pick up a bit too. We said our good byes from there.
We dropped Pat and Laura off at Laura’s place and arranged to have dinner with them on Monday night at the Glebe Point Diner (apparently, it’s VERY nice).
Deb and I had a bit of a relax then got ready and went into town to have dinner and then go onto see Mary Poppins the Musical. Dinner was very ordinary, but convenient to the theatre (straight across the road).
We had good seats for the show, centre stage and about 15 rows back. We both thought the 2nd act was so much better than the first. I guess the first act was predictable and the second, with the inclusion of bits of back story, was more interesting. The acting and dancing were great, but overall we would not have been happy if it had been the purpose of our trip. (Wicked was just sooo much better in all respects)
Monday 23 May Happy birthday Georgiana
Slept in a bit, had a late breakfast and then got the light rail into town and then a train around to St James Station before walking down to the Art Gallery of NSW to have a look at the Archibald, Sulman and Wynne Prizes exhibits. The Archibald portraits covers a wide range of styles and most were very good and interesting, the Sulman landscapes were very mixed and then the Wynne genre painting or murals entries sure to appeal to a wide range of taste!
We then walked to Circular Quay, and took in the view over to the Opera House and the hustle and bustle of the Sydney harbour waterway. An enjoyable way to relax in the city.
We then got the train up and had lunch in the new Westfield Tower complex before doing a little shopping and heading “home” to put our feet up. It is always enjoyable to be able to spend a little time together exploring this city. We both enjoyed relaxing in the later part of the afternoon out on the front porch of the B & B
In the evening we went to The Glebe Point Diner for dinner with Laura. We were told by our host that its was one of Sydney’s top 10 restaurants, and the place chefs go for dinner. Everything about the Diner was understated, from the ambiance, to the service, but certainly not the food. We sat outside, and enjoyed the streets procession of people and traffic as we sat ate chatted and just really enjoyed ourselves.
A very pleasant way to spend our last night.
Tuesday 24 May 2011
After a quiet start, letting all the peak hour traffic go its way, we made our way to the airport, dropped the car off and made our way to the Qantas Club for a morning snack and a relax before our flight home.
It all went very easily, and we were home by 1:30pm, it all goes too quickly sometimes.
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