The last two days (Tuesday and Wednesday) were work for Julie and exploration for me. Since Julie’s piece is boring to most let me just say that they were glad to see she made it back. I remember from my days in the consulting realm that people from overseas that worked for me would frequently disappear without warning for long periods of time. I never liked it. I especially never enjoyed the surprise reunion months later when they suddenly reappeared expecting to pick up on the work they’d abandoned. So…they were relieved to see that Julie had returned, on-time, and ready to work. One person asked if she collected her husband while she was away and then asked how long I was staying… ummm… married and in love… thank you very much.
Yesterday, Tuesday, I struck out mid-morning with two missions. Finding a place with wi-fi since we still have a week to go before our internet is connected, and, exploring the town of Balmain East. I completely failed on the first mission though I did try for several hours. Apple’s “Map” program was a total fail as it kept ping-ponging me around town without any real clue on where I was or where the public library happened to be! On the bus ride home I did finally find the library at least 6 blocks from where maps told me it would be. Of course, I was on a moving bus so I filed the location away for another day. The second part of my mission was more eventful.
I walked along Darling Street (the main drag in Balmain East) for at least 10K (5 out and 5 back) and discovered several really nifty cafes and restaurants to try with Julie. There were at least 10 coffee shops, 4 patisseries, a butcher, a baker and a candlestick maker… you get it. One of the cooler aspects of Australia is the number of shops where the designer her/himself markets the clothes they make with alterations available on the spot. There are many of those shops too. In reality, there is just about everything a soul could desire within a 5 minute bus ride. There are also two groceries which leave a bit to be desired.
On the subject of food — the grocery scene here is vastly different than back in the states. I readily admit that I am clueless on how people do their shopping and cooking so I will reserve judgement but many of the things I used regularly back in Oregon are simply not available. Can you say chicken broth? The other odd thing is the two main stores, Coles and Woolworths, are clothing/department stores in the states whereas they are grocery stores here. There is also an IGA but I hated it at home and I hate it here. Seems apparent that the way to go is to get your meat at the butcher, your seafood at the fish monger, and your vegetables at the farmers market. There is also “fisherman’s wharf” where you can collect your proteins right off the boat. That’s on the plan for Saturday.
Julie got off the ferry at 547pm right on schedule and we scored a pizza (two for one) at the local pizza place. Pizza was unremarkable but then I am a pizza snob. I managed to stay awake until 805 and Julie was out by 730. Jet lag.
Until I am working our morning ritual is simple. We make something healthy for brekky and then I walk Julie the 6 minutes to the ferry. Today, I worked on website stuff at home after seeing Julie off before striking out on the bus around 11:30. We noticed that they will be closing our ferry stop late in the year so I wanted to catch the bus for CBD (Central Business District) to see how bad her overland commute would be. The good news is — not bad at all. The bad news is — I got off the bus in territory I am not familiar with. I wandered about downtown near where Julie is working for two full hours and then caught the ferry back home from Pyrmont. Along the way I visited with a senior citizen lady from Austria on a 4 month Oz vacation and took countless picture for tourists so they could all be in the photo. I bet I interacted with people from 5 different countries in the process which is one of the things we looked forward to the most about this journey.
Darling Harbour is a hot-spot in Sydney and it’s easy to see why. So many waterfront shops and restaurants, countless places to sit along the water…it’s a special place. The photos of the harbour above are all from Darling Harbour. It’s BEAUTIFUL.
The other photos are about BIRDS. Now, many of you good people reading my boring dissertation do not know that wherever I go I collect wild birds as pets. It seems Oz is no exception. Meet my new BIRD friends that visited me as I sat outside typing this from our balcony. My reliable iPhone totally failed on the quick shots so I had to heavily manipulate them in photoshop just to make them viewable. (Make a note: Keep my camera handy at all times) I’ll have to name them once I learn how to tell male and female apart. I didn’t really anticipate that the birds species here would be so different than back home. I figured there would be an abundance of pigeons (NOT) and seagulls (NOT) but instead we are confronted with all sorts of odd looking things that make crAzY noises. It’s kind of cool.
That’s it for today. Tonight is date night for Julie so I am cooking a simple meal of salad, pork cutlets with gravy and whole grain rice. I miss my cookbooks but they are on a freighter right now heading to Sydney from New Zealand (at last check). I hope they are still useful given the scarcity of common ingredients I have used all my cooking life. I wish too I had brought along my vegetarian and vegan cookbooks. With the price of meat - we might seriously consider eating more vegetables than meat proteins.
Have a nice day one and all.
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