Tress came up to Canberra on Friday night.
On Saturday morning we drove up to Sydney. Tress treated me to a couple of nights at the wonderful Radisson Blue as a 50th special. It was lovely. The old sandstone building set in the heart of the sandstone precinct of Sydney, it was once home to Fairfax empire media and later, Bank of New South Wales, the forebears of the behemoth that is now the Westpac.
Located just off Pitt Street, it was within walking distance to a number of attractions. Southwards lies places like Darling Harbour and Chinatown, and the surrounding spots like Town Hall and the Queen Victoria Building. Walking north, one heads to the Circular Quay area and can within minutes, take in the spectacular views flanked by the Harbour Bridge on the one side and the Sydney Opera House on the other.
On Sunday we walked to the Town Hall area and on peeking inside the magnificent St Andrews Cathedral we realised Peter Jensen was preaching and it was smacked on 10.30am. So we went in and sat through the service. It was a special experience.
Then it was off to the Mamak restaurant on Goulbourn Street for a very good lunch of roti and satay, washed down with kopi tarik for Tress and teh halia for me. We had intended to have dinner there the night before but there was a queue snaking along so we ditched that and came back for lunch the next day. After lunch we walked to Darling Harbour, then up to the newly built Barangaroo Park and then underneath the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. Sydney has probably the unique offering of such spectacular views. Sadly I confided in Tress that the Sydney Harbour is something Melbourne cannot come close to matching.
We stopped by for a drink at a cafe just within a stone’s throw to the Opera House, and then walked to the Government House and Botanical Gardens before heading back to the Radisson. That night we worked out the day’s trek to be about 10.4kms and our limbs felt them.
After breakfast at a nearby cafe on Monday morning, we took another walk to the Quay area before returning to the Radisson to pack and head back to Canberra. On the way out of Sydney, we were stuck in a crawling Sydney traffic and I said to Tress that as we’ve always noted, Sydney is a magnificent city to visit but I’d be thinking extremely hard before I decide to live and work in this city. It is far too congested, the people looked and behaved so hurried it resembles more like an Asian city like Singapore, than a laid back Aussie city.
We stopped at Goulbourn for coffee and pastries and then arrived in Canberra early in the arvo. Later that evening, Kiddo, Mic, Tress LBJ and I did a barbie at Haig Park just across the apartment.
It had been a wonderful weekend.
This morning I received a “save the date” email from Stuart my ex boss, who will be celebrating his 50th later in the year. I hope his 50th celebration turns out to be just as fun and memorable as mine has been.
Ante 