The week leading up to Easter we decided to hire a camper van and visit Monkey Mia (a world Hertiage site) www.monkeymia.com.au where you can paddle with dolphins that come up onto the beach, but after an entire day spent on the telephone trying to arrange accommodation at campsites and drawing a complete blank, we had to cancel it. I think if our business plans fail, that’s what we’ll do – open a camp site. At least if we’re empty the other 51 weeks of the year, we guaranteed to be fully booked at Easter as everywhere in WA seemed full!
The worst bit was that we’d told the kids and they were really looking forward to a break (almost as much as we were!). So Paul got on the phone to the Flight Center and twice the budget later, we were booked on a flight to Sydney! We were travelling on Saturday to return on the Wednesday, late in the evening – fab! Proper shops, people and restaurants. Yippee! But wait! What if we like it more than WA? As we only every visited Perth prior to our visa application, what would we be like if we liked Sydney more? With the type of visa we are on, we have to live in WA for the first 4 years at least. How frustrated would we be if we found somewhere we liked more????
Anyhow, excitement took over and we threw a fortnight’s worth of possibilities into a case and headed for the airport. We fly with Virgin Blue a ‘low-cost’ no frills airline. They weren’t bad, but there were NO frills at all. All food had to be paid for and the new entertainment system that could be hired for the journey had ‘manufacturing issues’ and wasn’t available. So we had a four hour flight with three very excitable kids and a packet of crayons.
Yes, Miss Parcel really did wear her ears and tail to fly to Sydney!
When we arrived it was dark and we had a 45 minute taxi ride which took us over the Sydney Harbour Bridge and gave us our first view of the Opera House. It looked great all lit up and twinkly. Unfortunately, when the taxi driver asked us if we wanted to go via the bridge, we should have realised it was a scam as it probably added another 20 minutes to our journey to the hotel and the taxi bill then came to $100! Nice view, but it wasn’t worth that much!
We were staying in Manly, a beachside suburb to the North of Sydney. It was nice – they had a promenade and it felt like a cross between Spain and a UK coastal resort on a good day – OK a VERY good day! It’s quite a trendy area with lots of couples/or maybe with one child that is SO pampered and protected it is unreal. The restaurants are quite trendy too, with cracked pepper on your breakfast sausage and freshly squeezed ‘jus’. But it made a nice change to having to drive ten miles to pick up a takeaway and having more than a choice of pizza or chicken – they even had an Indian - but it’s still not the same :-(
Darcie poses by the famous bridge.
So, on Sunday we ventured into Sydney and saw the Opera House at close range and the bridge from every angle – unfortunately, Sam wasn’t old enough to climb it as you have to be ten or older. I think Paul was relived – both for the fact that he would have had to of climbed it with him and he doesn’t ‘do’ heights, and also for his wallet which would have been considerably lighter if Sam had insisted! We went on the monorail that took us on a scenic tour round Sydney (I think it only had 6 stops in total – it was a bit like Groundhog Day as I think we’d gone round twice before we noticed we were going past the same landmarks!). Adam loved that – especially when he looked down and saw the train lines below – he froze with excitement. I hate it when he does that, I’m sure I could snap him over me knee – he just goes rigid! I remember Sam did that one day going the pre-nursery. He had a complete paddy and wouldn’t get in his car seat. He went completely stiff as a board, so I karate-chopped him in the tummy, he crumped, and I managed to get him safely installed into his seat! I don’t know where I learn these nurturing mothering tips – certainly not from a Miriam Stoppard book – perhaps I should write a book of my own with all the things that the books don’t tell you that are invaluable to know – I consider myself an expert on most things!)
Sam by the Opera House
So we got off the monorail at the markets and Sam haggled for a remote control flying saucer for $16 (that he flew in our faces for the rest of the weekend!). Nothing else was worth buying – it was like being in Hong Kong – all the stall holders were Chinese and it was the same tat they were selling there for more money.
We headed off to Darling Harbour where there is a lot for the kids to do. Sam and Darcie hired a peddalo for fifteen minutes. How hilarious was that! The two of them went round and round in circles and as the guys running the stall weren’t paying attention and were relying on the kids to come in when their fifteen minutes were up, Sam and Darcie eventually navigated back to the shore after 1 hour, 20 minutes! Sam made the mistake of putting Darcie in charge of steering (don’t you remember the boat incident?). They had lots of fun and we got a chance to sit and have a coffee, before they were off and moaning about the next thing they wanted to do/buy.
How much fun can you have for $12?
The next day we stayed around Manly and the kids played on the beach and Sam hired a boogie board. The waves were very big and the ‘safe’ swim area kept getting smaller and smaller as the surf lifesavers kept moving the flags closer and closer together. In Sydney over the last week they’ve had freak high tides where the waves have been over ten metres high. Luckily they’d calmed down a bit, but they still looked too rough to me! Adam and I snuggled under a towel whilst Sam surfed and Paul held onto Darcie for dear life so she wasn’t swept out to sea like a Little Miss stuffett-Mermaid.
Then, Monday night, disaster struck as Adam went down with a tummy upset. I have never felt so sorry for a chamber maid in my life as I did in the morning! Our room had a cloud in it! I’m not kidding! It’s own layer of Adam-induced fug. He had a very high temperature, so we spent the day round the hotel. We did have a table booked at the Sydney Tower for lunch, but we had to postpone that until Wednesday – fingers crossed Addy would be up for it…… We have learnt lots about little things we want for our new house on this trip also. Scattered between our photos of the kids by the Opera House is a picture of a sink we like, or a balcony (how sad are we!), but it’s made me realise no matter how chic or trendy, I am NEVER, NEVER having white bed linen as after two days it would be a relief map of illness, bed wetting and assorted stains. No, give me a busy floral pattern anyday – hides a multitude of sins. Hey, white may be fashionable, but a pattern is like me, built for practicality, not style!
Wednesday came and he seemed brighter. Still on lots of calpol though. We made it into Sydney and up the Tower. www.sydney-tower-restaurant.com God, that thing’s tall! Paul made a scene when he refused to sit by the window as he had turned green…. The food was naff, but the view was fab! Then, in true ‘curse of the Delaney’s’ fashion, the revolving restaurant stopped revolving! Eventually someone wound it up again, or put another 50p in the meter and we started up again. Only to have the piped music play ‘Bright Eyes’ Paul’s all time saddest song, to be followed by ‘Bridge over troubled Water’. Could they make us any happier?
We headed down from the Tower to take a boat trip round the harbour. This was great, apart from the fact we were ‘invaded’ by Japanese tourists who were all over the boat like fleas! Everywhere you turned, there was a big set of teeth, a pair of glasses and a camera in your face – and they are SO rude and loud! One of them almost stood on Adam’s pram to get that vital two inches of ‘lift’ to get the Opera House at a better angle! That’s when I went down with the lurgy and christened the boat in my own fashion! Thanks, Adam!
Sam's on the right - in case you were wondering!
Luckily after a quick rest at the hotel it was time to go to the airport. Stopping off en-route to say fairwell to Sydney in my own way, we drove at break-neck speed in a taxi being driven by Stirling Moss. I tipped him grandly by filling my plastic carrier bag as we pulled into the departures section – well, if he hadn’t driven like a looney, I might have made it to the terminal.
The flight is longer coming back due to the route. Sydney airport was particularly busy and even the pilot commented that we were being taken on THE longest taxi route in Australia to get to the runway – it felt like he was driving to Perth! Then we had a head wind that added another half an hour onto our journey, so it was going to be five hours, 15 minutes….. and about 2½ hours into that, Sam threw up everywhere and spent most of the remainder of the flight in the toilet.
Oh well – at least we can say it was eventful! We are very glad to be back home though and Paul and I didn’t think much of Sydney. It’s amazing that after five months of life in Perth with no pollution, not a lot of traffic and less people, we both found Sydney smelly, polluted and lacking that ‘something’ that a big city has – maybe that’s Marks and Spencers? We were both slightly disappointed in it and would rate it well below London, New York or Rome. It’s got a few good tourist attractions, but it’s like the Monorail – once you’ve seen them, you’re left wanting more and it’s just not there. At least we have been and experienced Sydney for ourselves and certainly left our marks!!
Oh, and the Easter Bunny still managed to visit in the hotel room (before the illness – although I have never known there to be so much uneaten chocolate in our house!)
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