Circular Quay, Opera House, Harbour Bridge and The Rocks

Yesterday, Kevin and I (Tam) took a train ride to Circular Quay (pronounced 'key') while Jay stayed home and rested. We ate fish and chips on the waterfront, walked all around the Opera House, checked out the Harbour Bridge and walked around some of the region called The Rocks.

The Opera House is truly amazing http://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/. Interestingly enough, the big 'sails' are made out of concrete. The Harbour Bridge is awesome in size and structure. The Rocks is the oldest part of Sydney and is known for it's night life entertainment http://www.therocks.com/. It was a beautiful day and we really enjoyed ourselves. See all the pics at the bottom of the page.

Hooters, Australia

We had to check out Hooters in Parramatta, NSW, http://www.hooters-oz.com/locations_01.html. Our adventure took us on a 2 hour train ride for over priced food and a crabby manager, but Kevin had no complaints. And we had fun with our mate Russ goofing around on the train. More pics below.

CityRail

For those that are curious about the train system in Sydney, it is called CityRail http://www.cityrail.info/. We've noticed that a lot of Australians complain about CityRail, but we think it's great. Here's some pics of what the trains look like. Look for more pics down below.

Rare Birds Up Yonder, Common Birds Down Under

Jay bought a bird feeder and the rainbow lorikeets discovered it today. They are quite noisy, but very beautiful. Look for more pictures at the bottom of the blog page.

Ingleburn Alive Festival, March 15, 2008

Today was Ingleburn Alive Festival in downtown Ingleburn, the town where we live. Basically, it was like a small state fair, with rides, performances and vendors lining Oxford Street, which was closed off to traffic. This is an annual event in Ingleburn and everyone seemed to be having fun.
http://www.campbelltown.nsw.gov.au/default.asp?iNavCatID=118&iSubCatID=1430

Kevin the Bushman

Kevin has discovered a very cool get-a-way on the Georges River, right down the street from our house. He took a bunch of pictures and a short video of his 'hut'. This area has a bunch of biking and hiking trails. This type of woods is known as the Bush by the Aussies.

Toni and Jay Goofing Around

Our friend Toni is in a band and he brought over his guitar. He and Jay were rockin' out.

Australia Day, January 26, 2008

We had never heard of Australia Day until we arrived in Sydney just a few weeks before. Many people, including many Aussie I have discovered, think Australia Day marks when Captain James Cook discovered Australia. But in fact, it marks the day when Captain Arthur Phillip discovered Sydney Harbor and anchored where Circular Quay (pronounced Key) now stand and started a city, on January 26, 1788.
How do I know this? I read it in a fabulous book by Bill Bryson, "In a Sunburned County", given to me by my friend Phil at Baker (THANKS PHIL!), which I highly recommend (http://www.randomhouse.com/features/billbryson/bb_title/display.pperl?isbn=9780767903868).

Anyway, we were able to experience this day at Darling Harbor with about 1.4 million other people (no kidding, that's a real statistic!) and I gotta tell you...it was the most spectacular display of fireworks and entertainment we have ever witnessed. The crowd sang the Aussie national anthem, "Advance Australia Fair", and it was soo cool. We made are way across the crowd, which was a huge endeavor, to a nightclub that overlooks the harbor called Cohibar (http://www.cohibar.com.au/index2.html). While staying at the Quest, Jay managed to make some friends at this establishment, including the head of security, James. So we were able to get in for free on Australia Day. We also met up with our friends Mark and Anna, whom we had met a few weeks earlier at the Cohibar.

We had a great time. The crowd was fun, everyone was in good spirits, as well as highly influence by the spirits, and it was quite memorable singing "Land Down Under" by Men at Work at the top of our lungs with about 300 Aussies. The song is practically the unofficial anthem over here, and it now has real meaning to us. What can I say...it was awesome.

Finding a Place to Call Home

Our first week and a half in Sydney, we lived in what was claimed to be a furnished apartment at the Quest on Dixon Darling Harbor (http://www.questondixon.com.au/). It was nice, but it was just a nice hotel room more than an apartment. The location was fabulous, right on Darling Harbor in the CBD of Sydney and within walking distance to PB. It was right next to the Chinese Gardens and at the north end of China Town. Since neither of us worked our first week, it was a great place to be. But after a week and a half of listening to Chinese drummers every night, eating $10/plate meals everyday, and spending $190/night, and all three of us in the same space, we were ready to move on.

We started looking for a rental house immediately, but the real estate business doesn't work the same in Australia as it does in the USA. It is literally a race to be the first person to view a place and make it to real estate office and fill out an application. Then, it can be a bidding war and the landlord can be as picky as he/she likes. Not to mention, almost every place we looked at was a dump and the landlords had no intention of fixing it up or even cleaning it up. Jay and I began to get concerned because we were in a race to find a place to bring our animals’ home. We had two weeks to find a place before they were sprung from quarantine.

In the mean time, we moved to the Travel Lodge (http://www.travelodge.com.au/locations/features.aspx?hid=703) in down town Sydney for 2 days before settling at the Spanish Inn in Homebush for another 2 weeks (http://www.spanishinn.com.au/contact.htm). The Spanish Inn is located not too far from the Olympic Stadium and was much more affordable.

We lucked out and found our house here in Ingleburn thanks to the lady, Jodi, who sold us our Mercedes. She just so happened to have a 4-bedroom house for rent and we didn't have to fight for it. WHEW. We still had to wait a week longer than we wanted too, having to board the animals for another week until the house was available. But at least we found a place with relatively modern conveniences and two bathrooms.

We have really good neighbors, Theo and Marg, their daughters, Lisa and Kylie, and Kylie's beau, Toni, and our buddy Russ that have all taken us under their wing. Theo helped get Kevin into St. Gregory's College because he is an "Old Boy" of the school. Without Theo's recommendation, Kevin's chances of being accepted were nil. We are happy here and will probably stay right here until we leave. Ingleburn is a lovely little community in Campbelltown Council (County) http://www.campbelltown.nsw.gov.au/. There's lots of things to do around here and Kevin LOVES it.

Relax. We'll be too High Up for Turbulance..Yeah Right!

Those were my now infamous words to Jay and Kevin before we left out of San Francisco. I mean, after all, I'd flown to England back and forth twice in my life and I don't remember the ride being anything but smooth sailing.

HA. Out of 17 hours, 9 of them were like being on a washboard road with huge dips, driving in an old beat up truck with the stiffest shocks one can own. It was without a doubt the worst flight for turbulence I have ever experienced. Not that the turbulence was extra bumpy, but the non-stop jerking around for hours at a time was quite irritating.

Poor Jay, who hates to fly anyway and was having a near heart attack about even the thought of flying, was in the 'crash, head down-'we're going to die' position for the first 3 hours, cursing and mocking me, 'we'll be too high for turbulence'...whingen and sooking, as the Aussies would say. Kevin was snoring next to me, in a position that I couldn't figure out how he could contort his body into, taking the flight in stride. After trying to console Jay with frequent pats to the leg, reassuring 'no, we're not going down, baby' comments that were obviously no help to him, I just closed my eyes and tried to sleep.

Finally, his terror having been morphed into irritation like the rest of us, Jay sat up, arms crossed the remainder of the flight. I give him great credit that he managed this whole ordeal without a single cigarette or drop of alcohol. One thing good came from the flight, Jay is no longer afraid to fly.

So, for those of you contemplating a trip over here, you have been warned that it maybe 'a death flight', as Jay has termed it.