Sydney City

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I wasn’t going to write another blog in Australia and then I heard this conversation in a tapas bar in Sydney’s business district.

“What’s Jamon mate?”

“Don’t know mate, I think it might be pronounced Hamon, so it could be Spanish for ham.”

“What mate, Hamon, like ham on the bone?”

“That must be it, mate.”

“Sweet, we’ll have some of that then.”

We’re having a few days in the city to reacquaint ourselves with the hustle and bustle before returning to London. We started in Manly; we took the ferry across and stayed a couple of nights in a hotel on the ocean side. There was a minor problem when we showed up at the Novotel where we discovered that Mags had booked us into the Novotel in the city centre and not Manly. All I could think of is “At least it wasn’t me.” While Mags was wondering “How can I make this Gary’s fault?” Anyway, no problem. The wonderful woman on reception cancelled the other booking at no charge and gave us a room with a free upgrade. We walked along the beach and over the point at Queenscliff to Freshwater beach where we met Alan and Karen for a leisurely lunch at the Harbord Hotel.  Many beers, wines, and spirits later we had to cab it back to Manly. This was the weekend that just kept giving; next day, after a morning stroll, we lunched at a small Italian restaurant near the wharf. It looked unpromising to start with, just one table occupied during the busy Sunday lunch period. We just had a good feel about the place so wandered in. The old guy in the kitchen was from Sicily and, once he found out that we’d spent some time in his home town of Cefalu, couldn’t do enough for us. Despite having run out of most things last night, what he prepared for us was superb; Garlic prawns, snapper fish cakes, Sicilian pasta and spatchcock chicken. He topped up our wine glasses with vino on the casa and sent us off thoroughly replete and feeling warm and fuzzy. Later, we partied in the four pines brewery with some live music and stumbled into a small bar on the way back to the hotel and caught the end of a very fine set by a young guitarist.

We ferried across the harbor to circular quay and hung out in the city centre for a few nights, centering ourselves in Kings cross. / Potts Point. Lots of walking around the city including a trek to Woolamalloo, into the botanic gardens and across to the Opera House. Disappointed to discover that we couldn’t roam around the inside of the iconic Opera House without forking out 37$ for the guided tour, so went to Watson’s bay for lunch at Doyle’s instead.

I spent a morning at the maritime museum in Darling harbor while Mags was catching up on some sleep. Really great museum including in interesting exhibition of aboriginal art reinterpreting Cook’s landing and legacy; but the highlight was clambering around the replica of the Endeavor that is docked there.

In between, we had time for dinner with Fliss and Mon in Surrey Hills / Lebanon after their evening at the theatre. BYO and lots of falafel – What’s not to like?

We rounded things off with a martini in the very now Tank Stream bar and Spanish in Tapa Vino where, to our fellow diners’ disappointment, the ham didn’t come on the bone.

Off for a lie down before heading back to the Shire.