Round the World part 6 - Sydney

Before we got back to Australia, we had a little trouble in Auckland. We had returned late, and all we wanted was room service and a shower. Auckland City Hotel has no room service! So Deanna asked who would deliver. Most restaurants have signs that there will be an extra charge, say $4, to use plastic. By this time, I only had $6 in cash. The Chinese take-out place would not take credit cards at all! The only other choice was Pizza Hut. They would only accept a card if we spent $20. We ordered garlic bread and onion rings with our pizza. They delivered! Shees!

This is a really long blog post. We were in Sydney for a whole week!

Super Shuttle to the airport at 3 am, arrived at Lachlan Orr's place about 10:15 am. Deanna found it on airBnB.com. It's in an old brick corner building in a Sydney neighborhood called The Rocks.

 We were on the left side of this picture. The next-door cafe has the tables outside, and the corner is the convenience store.

But best yet, it's across the street from the Lord Nelson Brewery! It's a classic British pub. The bar towels and staff T-shirts all have sayings like "Praise the Lord"! We had Monday's special - meat pies for $7. It was gravy under mashed potatoes under a beef pot pie, topped with mashed green peas. Yum! Another day, I had a Quayle Ale, also yum!

The Rocks is the name of the neighborhood - because it was built on these rocks.

That night, I kept myself and Deanna up with my coughing. I was so desperate for breath that I used her inhaler, which helped. Short term. Once Lachlan got up, I got his doctor's phone number. They got me an appointment that day. I had another coughing attack in the waiting room, which caused them to try to shoo me away from the other waiting folks, but I couldn't stop coughing long enough to move. Dr. Kathryn Hogg prescribed an inhaler with steroids called Symbicort. After breathing that, I made it through an active afternoon just fine. I blew my budget with the doctor, the x-ray and the prescription, though. Stupid body.

We spent the afternoon (now it's the 26th of Feb) touring the Sydney Opera House and the Botanical Gardens. I had lightened my load by not carrying my camera.

This building is so crazy! They spent 4 years while the foundation was being laid trying to figure out how to build it. It's not the best for opera, either, but it sure looks great. 

That evening, we went to the store for painkiller and were told that my $50 bill was counterfeit! There was no name under the face. Australian money is polymer and has a hole through it, so counterfeiting it must be really hard. The clerk said that the bank would replace it, since people are getting these bills from banks (as I did). So the next morning, we find a bank. Guess what? Names are not on all of the bills. It's NOT counterfeit.

The 27th was probably our last sunny day, so we took the ferry to Manly Beach. Aussie beaches are wild. There were 2 flags that were only about 50 yards apart that marked the only safe part of the beach. There are waves and rip-tides out there! But they had surfboard school going on, and tons of school-age kids with matching t-shirts running in patterns in the surf, doing body-board relays, and having a great time. 

On the ferry leaving Sydney

Manly Beach. Summer life-guard camp?

We got front-row (except for tables) seating at the Bob Downe Celebrity Roast. Mark Trevorrow invented Bob, a flamboyantly gay guy with an Ellen DeGeneres blonde wig and polyester 60's style clothes. His roasters were 8 characters whom he chose - mostly. Ida Downe, his "mom", told hysterical childbirth and baby stories. She's supposedly unaware that he's gay. She was cleaning and ironing on stage to "keep herself busy". Gretel was a depressed smoker who claimed Trevor was Bob and her love child. They were in the midst of a custody battle. She wanted Bob to take Trevor. And so on...

Deanna met Mark Trevorrow in San Francisco when he came to visit. He came to the Stud, where Deanna was taking money at the door. Mark was on the free list, and she got to talk with him. He had a Monday night free and wanted to do a show. Charlie's Cabaret was the only place doing live anything on Mondays, so Mark asked Charlie if Bob Downe could show up. Charlie said okay, not realizing that that invitation would lead to an overflow crowd. Now he knows who Bob Downe is.

The Powerhouse Museum is awesome! It's the science and design museum. We went to see the Wallace and Gromit exhibit on inventions, Go Crackers with Contraptions. Very much fun! We sang in the shower. We watched a bit of the new episode, "A Matter of Loaf and Death".

Getting in - tough security!

A not-so-successful invention

Much more successful inventions

They also had an exhibit called Make Lace Not War. Hundreds of different items of "lace" - meaning anything where the holes were the most important part (my definition). There was also a space exhibit. It had a vertigo-inducing exhibit where you think you're in the weightlessness of the space station. Their website had downloadable walking tours of Sydney, which we used. The Powerhouse - great museum!

Deanna and I went to the Mardi Gras Museum Friday. 1978 was the first parade. It started as a fun parade, morphed to a police trap, and ended with Rupert Murdoch's paper outing those who were arrested. Many lost their jobs. But now, it's an international draw. Friday afternoon, Dean Disaster put on her tux and mustache, and we went out to Bondi (pronounced bond-eye) Beach for the Drag Races, where guys wearing high heels race through the sand carrying trays with drinks (Dainty Dune Dash), or throw purses in the Handbag Discus. We arrived at the beach to see sideways rain, huge breakers, and no people. It was cancelled! What a storm.

Saturday was the day of the Mardi Gras Parade. Everyone told Deanna that we had to get to Oxford St. early to pick our piece of sidewalk. Lachlan told us to pick up some milk crates to sit on. Deanna got dressed in her most outrageous outfit. I remained Rosie Cotton.

Only the volunteers beat us to the route! We were sooo early.

Feathers! Sequins! Killer heels!

Fireworks were great to watch - twice.

Wonderwomen

This was the first year that the military were allowed to march in uniform. There were also fire departments, police, and doctors' groups. Many paraders ran over to Deanna and gave her air kisses and welcomes.

Our last day in Sydney started with a big Sunday brunch at Swagman's Cafe. Then we did the Rocks Walking Tour, followed by the Harbor Bridge Walking Tour. We had ice cream at Luna Park.

Sydney is a great place to visit. I hope you enjoyed your simulated visit!