Upside-Down Birthday - Year 3

Finally on the first leg of my journey back eastward to Atlanta. I can’t say too much positive about the experience thus far, between unannounced gate changes, unexplained delays, inexplicably high baggage charges and quite a bit of turbulence. I’ve just filled out my passenger arrival card for NZ and have a few hours to catch up on the backlog of activity since my last post.

I have had a fantastic trip, but I think it would be a lie to say it flew by. I accomplished a lot in two weeks, had a fantastic time, saw a lot of sites, met up with old friends, and made a few new ones to boot. The conference, meanwhile, seems like ages ago!

On Saturday I slept in a bit, finally getting a move on about 10:00.  Millie was out at yoga, so Max and I got ready for the day before she got home and we all headed out to run a few errands for them and then grab breakfast. We spent the morning (and early arvo) in the high street area of Lane Cove, one of the small suburbs on the northern shore. We found a table outside a café in a pedestrianized plaza and had a good breakfast. I had a bacon (and by bacon I mean rasher bacon, almost more ham) and egg toastie with bbq sauce, which was quite good, and a chai tea to kick off my birthday. After we’d finished up, they drove me down to Kirribilli (the harbourside suburb just to the east of the Harbour Bridge – I had explored it last year, passing by the Sydney homes of the Governor-General and Prime Minister).

From Kirribilli, I started my trek southward into the city, starting with climbing up the stairs to the Bridge and making the walk over the harbour – stunning as always, and a perfect day with perfect weather for the occasion.

I snapped a few photos along the crossing and then headed down the stair to Argyle Street and west, over Observatory Hill, to Millers Point. My intended destination was the cliff overlooking Barangaroo, which is quickly rising where there were empty wharves two years ago, and a big construction pit last year. At the Darling Harbour end, the first tower has reached 26 storeys, and the foreshore park is beginning to take shape in the north. It’s fun to be gone for 11 months and see the massive changes that have occurred in that time.
 

I spent some time wandering Miller’s Point, the old part of Sydney (like the Rocks), which are still public housing in the old terraces that sit atop the hill. Of late, the state government has announced they will be evicting the residents and selling the land.  While I understand the concept of social justice, I also understand the economics of the decision – pragmatically it makes very little sense that some of the most historic homes, set on some of the most valuable real estate in the city, and therefore the country, and therefore the world, should probably not be held by the government when they could divest and be able to accommodate many more people in another place while increasing the tax base in the neighborhood. At the end of the day, the outcome of the battle being waged seems an inevitability, but it was interesting to see how the neighborhood is attempting to fight the decision.

From Miller’s Point, I headed down Kent Street, passing, along the way, a site that I had assisted on an approval for and carried out feasibility studies for the addition of density to a heritage listed building which fronts Kent and Castlereagh, with access to an alleyway on Skittles Lane.  The project is moving forward, and it is cool to think that I played a part in shaping the site. I continued down Kent for while into the CBD, crossing up on King to Castlereagh to pass Grandma’s (my favourite little basement bar) and Sweeney’s (my favourite little rooftop bar) across from Town Hall, which is still undergoing ongoing restoration on the outside).

From Town Hall, I made my way down George, which soon should start its transformation to a transit oriented corridor, to Railway Square. I passed into the Devonshire Concourse, under Central, and out into Surry Hills, where I walked down Devonshire all the way to Bourke.  This corridor is set to be transformed into a light-rail right-of-way from Central, stretching all the way out east to Kensington to service UNSW. It has been contentious as, at Bourke, there is a park where the street grid shift, necessitating the removal of the park and 69 housing units for the tramway to navigate the shift.  As is always the case, people are up in arms, but I side with the government on this one, in that transport service is long overdue in that direction, and in the long run the project will rejuvenate the corridor and improve the lives of lots of people, making it easier to access the University. Not that anyone asked me…

At 3:30, I met up with my friend from the architecture school, Kim, who had helped me out back when I was doing my thesis and needed pictures in Sydney while I was in New Orleans. We found a hotel at Bourke and Cleveland and had an afternoon drink, sitting on the sidewalk enjoying the nice weather and conversation.

After that, I headed down Cleveland and back up to Devonshire to Central, taking Elizabeth north through the city as the sun set.  While many of the plans I had made for my birthday fell through, and I was a bit bummed about that, I was enjoying the walk enough, and Max and Millie had invited me along to a party they were going to up in Fairlight, just to the west of Manly, for a friend of theirs birthday. I headed toward Circular Quay to catch the Manly Ferry, crossing Elizabeth through Martin Place down to Pitt. It never ceases to make me smile when you turn from Martin Place onto Pitt, and in the canyon of skyscrapers you see the Harbour Bridge and the flags (one Australian, one Aboriginal as it is NAIDOC Week) flying over it. My birthday might not have been going as planned, but I was walking through Sydney at dusk, catching the sun as it turned the sky behind the Bridge orange and pink. I wore a stupid smile on my face on the rest of the walk to the wharves.

 

I arrived just after the 5:30 ferry had left, and purchased my ticket for the 6:00 service, giving me some time to wander around the (quite busy) Quay and snap some dusk photos of the Opera House and Bridge.

I boarded the boat just as it was getting dark and headed up to the top deck to snap pictures as we pulled out of the Harbour.  I had only taken the Manly service once before, with Jason and Rebecca, more than two years ago.  I remember it being quite cool and very windy out on the deck that time, but Saturday night it was perfect. No breeze, comfortable, and I think I managed to get some great night shots before the ferry passed around the headlands and downtown Sydney vanished from sight.

I headed to the back deck to get one more shot of the entire Harbour before grabbing a seat inside for the last fifteen minutes of the journey through the darker part of the Harbour around the National Park.

We got to Manly at 6:30 and I headed down the wharf toward the Corso, where the street was alive with people. I grabbed nachos at Guzman Y Gomez (my favourite meal with Tif when we would go for a bite near my house on King Street in Newtown) and Max and Millie met up with me as I finished dinner.

 

After a quick stop at the bottle shop, we caught a bus up a big hill to Fairlight and made it to their friend’s house – a very nice place.  I was introduced to a few people and more people came in throughout the night. Quite a few of the people at the party were (1) expatriates and (2) music industry folks (maybe explains the nice house). One of them had just interviewed TLC while other had just finished working on a new music video for the Griswolds (which I didn’t realize I knew until I heard a song by them and recognized it from the radio during my Tassie trip).  It was a very fun party with lots of good food and I will definitely call it a successful birthday.

We caught the bus back to Cammeray and had a fifteen minute walk back to their place.

Yesterday we all slept in a bit and, while Millie was baking a cake for a party they were going to in the afternoon, Max and I headed over to Neutral Bay to go to Woolies. I bought some goodies to bring back Stateside (yes, there are Tim Tams currently flying over the Tasman en route to America), and Max did some shopping for the week. We headed back home and found Millie making breakfast. While that finished up, Max and I went to the garage (pronounced, of course, geh-rahj – emphasis on the first syllable), took look over their collection of toys, including two motorcycles, a drum set, bikes and skateboards.  We made it back into the house in time for some rasher bacon, avocado toast, eggs with fresh parsley, and some tea – a great breakfast – before we loaded up the car to head to North Sydney Station.  We all caught the same train, with them alighting at Town Hall and I continued on to Central.  RailCorp does repairs to the train lines at the weekend, and to get to Sutherland (where I would spend the afternoon and night) I had to catch a rail replacement bus for the rest of the trip.

The train ride out to Sutherland Shire (the Shire, as they like to call it) normally takes about 40 minutes, and the bus trip took a bit longer, finally breaking free from traffic south of Moore Park and making its way south along the coast.  It was a pleasant enough trip on a very empty bus, and Jasmine and Jade (Janene’s daughters, with whom I have now celebrated three birthdays) met me at Sutherland just past 1:30. I loaded my stuff in the car and we headed out to Cronulla, stopping to pick up Jade’s boyfriend along the way.

The trip to Cronulla was for a rugby (NRL) match between the two worst teams in the sport – the Cronulla Sharks vs. the Newcastle Knights.  It was an entertaining game and we were three rows back from the field.  It was funny to be watching professional sports in a stadium the size of the venue the Sharkies play in. It sits a few thousand with standing room on grassy slopes to accommodated about 18,000 in total.  I explained that some high schools in Texas have bigger stadiums than that, which the Australians had a hard time believing - and that the largest college stadiums seat over five times that amount.

 

The Sharks seemed as though they could pull out an improbable win, running up the score 18-6 in the first 40:00 half. Unfortunately (not unlike Tulane) I think they forgot that there was a second half to the game, and the Knights came back to win it 31-18; clearly the Sharks are the worst of the worst.
 

After the game, we loaded up in the car and drove over to Jannali, for birthday dinner for Blake (Jasmine’s husband) and I – a celebration we have now had for the last three years. The same group of people were there, a few family friends and the family, except for Janene who is studying abroad in England for the winter at East Anglia.  She called in to say hello to everyone and we had a phenomenal dinner of road lamb and pork, veggies galore, and other munchies, all prepared by Paul who did a masterful job in the kitchen. After dinner we broke for gifts; they really go out of their way to make me feel at home, and I got an Aussie cookbook (I really look forward to using that!), some Australian treats (including homemade rocky road – which I just finished on the plane as I can’t bring it into NZ), and an Australian flag onesie; I can’t promise that will see the light of day.

Once gifts were done, it was dessert time.  Which I had been looking forward to for a month.  I had requested a pavlova, and boy was I not disappointed.  One of their family friends, who “makes the best pavlova” did just that – it was to die for, and I wish that I could have brought some back with me! I had a big serving, plus a bit of chocolate ganache cake.  It was a great, great birthday and a wonderful way to spend my last night down under.  I am so glad to have my adoptive Australian family!

I packed last night after everyone had left, getting my bags to weigh in perfectly. I went to bed around midnight and woke up around 6:30 to get ready to head to the airport.

Paul drove me to the airport, and thankful school is still out for a few days, so with the little bit of traffic it only took a half hour.

This flight is almost over, and I will have a few hours in the Auckland airport before boarding for LAX.