The kids are alright

Abi and Fraz arrived last Sunday after a long 24 hour flight via Abu Dhabi. They flew out with their mum and nan. The kids spent the day with me whilst the adults rested!

After a shower and breakfast we headed out for a walk around Darling Harbour - the weather was none too favourable



so we took a break and treated the kids to their first taste of yum cha

I'm not sure how well it went down - we realised half way through that they were falling asleep - so we headed back home and allowed them a quick nap. Determined to get them onto Aussie time asap, I woke them after an hour. This proved to be a challenge - so I forced them out of the flat for another walk. Hmmmm.....reports of zombies in Pyrmont soon followed

Fortunately the fresh post rain air and all the ions soon woke them up........Sydney weather to the rescue.

Catch up

I've been a bad blogger - failing to keep my vast audience updated with my adventures down under. Mea Culpa. Sorry.

So here's a quick catch up of the last few things we've been up to.

Trip to Northern beaches

Sydney is divided into those who like the Southern beaches - Bondi, Bronte and Coogee and those who like the Northern ones - Narrabeen, Mona Vale, Avalon & Palm Beach. Living smack bang in the middle of the city - we don't yet have a preference - especially as we had yet to visit the northern ones. Quite a few of my work colleagues live in on the northen beaches so we decided to see what all the fuss was about. A 20 minute drive took us over the Spit Bridge and along into Narrabeen, where we stopped for a coffee. After suitable refreshment we went for a stroll along the beach

It's a lot less touristy at Narrabeen and clearly popular with all the local surfers. Plenty to look at especially when they are stripping down out of their wetsuits!

We moved on from Narrabeen to Mona Vale - stopping along the way for Gus to photograph the coastline

This is the view over Warriewood beach towards Mona Vale.

And this is Mona Vale itself

There's a rugged beauty about this part of the coast that reminds me of North Wales where I spent a lot of my childhood. Unsuprisingly I quite liked these beaches, and I think we are northern beach converts.

And that has nothing to do with the hot surfers...

Hunter's Hill & Woolwich
I drive past the turn to Hunter's Hill every day on my way to work, so we decided to explore it last weekend. It was a sunny day (for a change!) We enjoyed a pleasant walk along the headland which took us to Woolich Dock. This used to be the main dry dock for Sydney and is still in operation - though the lock type mechanism for draining the dock as seen below is sadly no longer there.

We did get some great views of the Harbour. It was quite a windy day so the sailors were out in force.

Hunter's Hill Sailing Club was enjoying a race day, and we watched as all the yachts were launched and prepared for a day of competitive sailing.

These boats are far too small for me - I will only step foot on martime craft that are big enough to have a pool and people to serve me drinks.

Night Noodle

We finally made it to night noodle - this time there were no firemen needed. It all takes place in Hyde Park in the centre of Sydney. We got there about 6pm - and wow was it busy. Clearly the place to be for the post work crowd. We grabbed some food, and pounced on a table as it was being vacated. Our friends joined us , and we had a great evening - top Asian food and plenty of wine. And to finish it all off - coffee from Toby's Estate and some rather fab mini pancakes. It's a good job this in only an annual event - otherwise we'd be there every week.

where there's smoke...

Tonight we were planning to go to the night noodle market. I left work early (ie 5pm) and took the motorway and bridge route home - paying the toll - so that I could get there quickly. As I got out of the car in the underground car park, I said aloud to myself - gosh there's a strong smell of burning. As I said that - the sirens started in the car park. I headed into the building, and the fire alarms were going there too. I decided not to take the lift (elevator) to our floor, and exited the building. I walked round to the front of the apartment block, expecting to see a crowd of evacuees. No one was there, and I was concerned about Gus. I entered the building and could see a lot of smoke in the hallway. Our neighbour was just opening her door to leave, and we commented on the strong smell and obvious smoke. By now I was quite worried as to why Gus was not on his way out. Entering our apartment, I saw Gus in the bedroom - and told him he needed to leave immediately. Why - he asked? Cos the alarms are going off and there's smoke in the hallway.

At this point he says....I wonder if that's because I've burnt something on the stove.....

I went into the kitchen and lo and behold - on top of the stove is a saucepan, with blackened contents.....apparently it was meant to be a caramel sauce.

We exit the building, and join all the other householders who are beginning to stream down the emergency staircases. By now there are three types of alarm going - the sirens in the car park, the alarm in the building, and then the external sirens for all the five apartment blocks in our complex. It sounds like WW3 has come to Sydney.

2 fire engines arrive and 12 firemen disembark.

In full gear. Hazmat suits. Oxygen cylinders. And axes.

Axes........!

At this point, Gus somewhat sheepishly has to approach one of the firemen and admit that it might be our apartment that is the source of the problem. He leads 12 firemen into the apartment. (Now that's a line I never thought I'd write about Gus!)

Wow - great apartment, they say. Before taking one look at the saucepan. At which point, 11 of them turn around and leave. The boss stays behind, to cool down the pan, and check that Gus is ok. He is.

I have my suspicions that if one of the hot fireman had asked this question,. Gus would have fainted into his arms.
The alarms are swiched off and the firemen leave.

The apartment stinks. We abandon plans to go to the night noodle market, and decide to air the flat instead.

Throughout all this, I have struggled to stop myself laughing. Poor Gus is in a right state. His face when the firemen arrived was a picture. Especially when they took his name and a note of the apartment number. At some point, he will see the funny side of all this.

Because I can hardly type for laughing.

Whatever the weather....

Be careful what you wish for......after the red dust coated the city, I'm sure all Sydneysiders were hoping for a bit of rain to wash it all away. Well our wishes came true - and then some. The last 10 days has seen atrocious weather - dramatic thunderstorms, lightning, strong gales, and a substantial quantity of rain. Last weekend was a holiday weekend and we had more rain over those three days than during the whole of August and September.

For the first time since arriving in Australia, we have spent quite a bit of time in the apartment. It was just too wet and cold to go out - especially as we had Gus' mum staying with us. We did venture out last week to the Pyrmont food market early on Sat morning - but a persistent drizzle drove us back home. I even brought the takeaway chorizo sausage & egg rolls back with us so we could breakfast in the dry.

This bout of bad weather has made me realise just how much I have been enjoying the outdoor Aussie lifestyle. Each weekend we have done something new or gone somewhere fun - and it's all been possible because the weather is ususally predictably good.

This changeable cold wet weather reminds me of home....sniff, sniff

Yesterday we took a chance and headed out to the food market over at The Entertainment Quarter. This was a part of Sydney neither of us had visited before, and it was quite good. It was a smallish food market - smaller than the Pyrmont one, but with quite interesting stalls. Lots of places serving takeaway food - from the standard breakfast rolls, to bbq chorizo, and a dim sum stall. As always, we picked up coffee from the ubiquitous Toby's Estate, and paired it with breakfast rolls. These didn't quite fill the spot, so we added some delicious pastries - a cherry one and an apricot one.

We picked up a few things for lunch - some fancy bread and fresh goats cheese. Not the cheapest of places to shop - $13 for 2 loaves! but it's only once a month. Whilst we were there, we found a shop called Bay Swiss - this is a homewares shop, part of the Freedom Group. Gus has been looking for some type of outdoor lamp - and they had one that matched our colour scheme - we are so on trend. Annoyingly they only had one left, so we had to go to the store in the city centre today to get another one - has to be a matching pair. Now we are all set for our candlelit dinner parties - just as soon as that rain stops.....

Dust to dust

Quentin Crisp - the author of "The Naked Civil Servant" and the inspiration for the Sting song "An Englishman in New York" never cleaned his New York apartment. He claimed that after the first five years, the dust never got any worse. I am not sure what he would have made of Wednesday, when Sydney awoke to a bright red dawn. Strong winds had picked up thousands of tons of topsoil from South Australia and brought it over 1000km to our doorstep. The dust itself had a high iron concentrate and so was actually red in colour. The large amount of it in the air also refracted the light so that everything was red

It was a day of travel chaos as the ferries were cancelled and planes grounded. Gus' mum was supposed to go to Brisbane - her flight was cancelled as the dust storm had moved on there and so the planes couldn't land.

Gus had gone to sleep on Tuesday night with his contact lens still in - he woke in the middle of the night with a sticky eye, which prompted him to remove his lens. In the morning, he got up, threw back the curtains and panicked that he had somehow damaged his cornea!

The dust changed the look of the city. Our view of the harbour went from this

to this

By early afternoon it had largely settled - leaving a layer of red on every surface. Gus - who as you all know - is Mr Clean - soon set to with the Dyson and a hosepipe to remove every last trace of Martian dirt from our balcony. Sadly, his valiant efforts were in vain, as this morning, the dust was back. Not as dramatic as the other day, but still eerie.

That photo above reminds me of Manchester...on a smoggy winter's day. I am so used to Sydney being about clear blue skies. Let's hope it stays that way.

Walk, don't run

Sydneysiders love any excuse to be outside. They also love exercise. And they are passionate about Sydney's icons - the Harbour Bridge and The Opera House. So no surprise then that today's Blackmore's Sydney Running Festival which featured a course that took in the bridge and ended at the opera house was so popular. Over 32000 entrants. What will surprise you all is that Gus and I took part....along with Gus' mum, who is here for a holiday. Of course, she now realises that life with Gus is never a holiday.....

There were several activities in the running festival - a marathon, a half marathon, a 9k run and a 4k family run / walk. We went for the family run. Well actually we were invited to join Florida Girl and her family and friends. We were all supposed to meet up at the start and complete the course together. Hmmmm - you know what they say about the best laid plans.....

So we got up early - much to the chagrin of Mrs Mostert - who was not impressed with her son's idea of a Sunday morning activity! Gus had checked the public tranpsort website the night before - we had to get the bus from near the apartment to Central Station, and then the train to Milson's Point. The whole event was starting from there. We pinned our event numbers to our chests and headed out (free public transport was provided for participants). We get to the bus stop for the 6.40am bus - only to discover that all the buses in our area had been cancelled as the marathon route ran thru Pyrmont. We head to Star City to get a cab. For the first time ever there are no cabs at Star City - just a queue of bedraggled all night revellers trying to get home. Off to the light rail station - beginning to panic that we are going to be late. By the time the tram arrives, we have accepted that we are not going to be able to join up with everyone else - especially as we receive a text telling us that Florida Girl and her family cannot make it. We board the tram and pay for our tickets - no free tranport on here as the trams are run by a private company. Now getting a tram that goes thru Star City at 7am is not for the faint hearted - it is clearly the morning after the night before for most of the passengers. There are a few others heading for the marathon - we all have our numbers on - and the contrast between the beer ridden masses and the health conscious few is quite apparent. And the smell of alcohol in the air is overwhelming. After several minutes breathing in this air - I feel quite tipsy.

Arriving at Central we head to the platform for the train to Milson's Point - and suddenly are surrounded by people all wearing running numbers. The only liquids beind drunk here are Sports Hydrators! The train fills up at each stop until we all get out at Milson's Point - leaving behind a few bemused and numberless passengers.

It is chaos as we leave the station -and the only bit of the day that is not well organised. No clear signs as to where to go we head off in one direction, only to be told we need to turn around and head elsewhere. Eventually we find the start area - just as they are closing the start for the family fun run - "You're late" barked one of the officials at us. Well we've already completed a bloody marathon just getting here I thought, as we began our official 4k walk.

At the back.

With no young children with us to justify our position in last place.

It brought back memories of school cross country when I was always at the back - only this time I didn't cheat and take a short cut.

Crossing the bridge in the centre of the 8 lane highway was a surreal and quite cool experience, and as we headed down the Cahill Expressway we took in some great views.

The whole atmosphere was great - lots of families out having fun. We reached the finish line, and joined all the other particpants in the "Recovery Area" (I so need one of these at work) We had to be de-chipped and then we collected our medals. I did think about collecting medals for the half marathon instead, but soon realised that no-one would believe me anyway.

Time flies

Well we've now been here 3 months - wow how fast has that been. I guess it's gone quickly because we've kept ourselves busy. The decision to move down here was quite a tough one to take, as it meant leaving my kids behind. Sometimes being a dad means taking the decisions that are right for the family, even if it means some heartache along the way. And moving out here has given us some financial security for the next few years - which I didn't have back in the UK. I miss them all so much - to be honest, I try not to think about it. And that's why we get on and do stuff. There's just no point wallowing in homesickness or sad feelings - we are here for the next two years and so we are determined to make the most of our time here. So we treat it all as one big adventure. I think of it as the gap year I never had as a teenager - but without the backpacking!

Last weekend we headed off to the Blue Mountains - they're about 2 hours away. It's an impressive area full of breathtaking natural beauty - check out Gus' facebook pages for the full photo album. We stayed in a quaint heritage B&B - it was a bit twee - goddawful carpet and decor - but the owners were welcoming, the location great and the breakfast was excellent. Full of bacon and egg, Gus faced his fear of heights and we went on the steep scenic railway to the floor of the valley. Actually I had no idea that Gus was scared of heights - not sure how he copes with being that tall - I spend all my time staring up at him.

This weekend we hace just chilled at home. We had a celebratory meal at Wok Station on Friday evening - our local Thia restaurant. It was great - as good as Busaba...now that's a compliment. Today we headed out early and picked up some fruit and veg at Paddy's Market (why is it called Paddy's when all the stallholders are Chinese? Does anyone know? And who was Paddy?) Then after lunch we wandered down King St in Newtown and looked in all the secondhand stores. Gus bought a china cup, saucer and plate set - he is building a deliberately mismatched tea set. We christened the first two cups in the set with afternoon tea on the balcony, as we watched the cruiseliner Sun Princess depart.