Sunday in Sydney

On Saturday we went to Sydney to drop MLR off at Grandma and Grandpa’s – also known as G’ma and G’pa for a week as it is school holidays.

We had lunch at Bruno’s Truffles, a choclotier in Mawson, a suburb close by. We ran into someone I used to work in a library with, at Bruno's. Her children were with her in laws, there is a trend here. The food was delicious, however we prefer the Italian eatery next door. More about that some other time.

We hit the road and drove straight through to Sydney, getting to G’ma and G’pa’s in reasonable time. We had a lovely tea with honey bean beef and a spinach pie for the vegetarian.

On Sunday our family of four headed into the centre of Sydney – where World Youth Day/Week was already impacting on getting around. Traffic diversions and road closures made it more congested for some. We had no problems and easily parked in one of the multi storey car parks in Darling Harbour.

As we walked through to Darling Harbour we saw lots of pilgrims, some Nuns and other groups, some of them religious and some not.

More preparations for the expected influx

This is one of the statues at the entrance to the Chinese Gardens.

MLR in Darling Harbour, behind the fountain and with a snowman



Here is the Imax theatre with the black and yellow squares at Darling Harbour, I cannot work out what the other building in the foreground is? - I really like it because of the angles, however I could not find a name or company sign on the building.

We had lunch in Darling Harbour (this is an area of Sydney that has recently been rejuvenated and is now a great attraction for tourists and out of town people alike). The restaurant was called the Adria Ryebar and Grill, in Darling Harbour. It has a spectacular view over the harbour to a local hotel.

After lunch we caught the monorail to Paddy’s Market , which sells everything from clothes and toys to fruit and meat.

Here is the monorail approaching our stop. Across the streets of Sydney, suspended in the air.

Here is the monorail arriving at our station.
Once we had travelled across town on the monorail, we stomped towards Kinokuniya, a Japanese bookshop.



The store plan. Even though this store is only on one level, it is hard to work out where stuff is, and they have a surprising array of stuff that is not books or comics.

AJR loves this store because they have a lot of Manga and Anime – his favourite. This shop also stocks this sort of paperback cheaper than anything we can buy in Canberra. One of his all time favourite authors and film directors is Tim Burton who wrote the book that AJR is currently holding. AJR has been looking for this title for a long while.

After going to Kinokuniya, we walked on to the new Apple concept store – the first built in Australia.

The view from the road shows three levels of apple mania!! I was also pleased to see that the NAIDOC week flags were flying outside.

The latest iPhone was released last Friday and there is a lot of interest in everything Apple Mac. The first computer I used at work was an Apple, so I am a bit of a fan. The store in Sydney sells everything that Apple makes. Here are the kids testing out the Imac's.

Even though it was 4.45pm on a Sunday when we entered the store, there were serious crowds everywhere.

There were queues going out the front door, with people waiting to purchase or order iPhones. iPhones were released in Australia last Friday. People have been using iPhones in Australia for a while, but they were bought on the Internet and had to be hacked to work in Australia.

We started up the stairs to escape the crowds and find a little space – the stairs are glass and are a bit disconcerting.


AJR and MLR were able to find a table each and play Mac Games!!

MLR's Apple art

The store was well worth the visit, even though we did not buy anything there. As we left the Mac Store I became aware of the “Strand Arcade" and the “Centrepoint Tower”, which were across the road from the Mac Store and I could not resist these two pictures of the old and the new residing side by side.

Haigh's - now we do not need to go to either Adelaide (where Haigh's is based) or Melbourne to get my favourite chocolate.

After we finished in the City, we drove to a suburb near G'ma and G’pa, Sutherland and had Thai for tea. We arrived back at Heathcote at 8.30, where we watched Dr Who and chatted. It turned out that G’ma and G'pa had eaten in the Newtown branch of the same chain Thai restaurant for lunch.

On Monday we left MLR with her grandparents and set off home to Millie and work. I had Tuesday and Wednesday off and spent some quality time with AJR. We saw the animae movie of Batman together (except when I went to sleep) and we had a lovely Japanese lunch at Wagga mamma an Australian Japanese chain restaurant that we first ate at in London at Tower Bridge. Thursday I went to a one-day library conference and today I was back at work.

MLR comes home tomorrow with G’ma and G’pa and we are looking forward to a lovely tea. Sunday MLR has a birthday party to attend on the other side of town. I am off to Melbourne on Sunday evening for a few days of conferences, back on Wednesday evening for a work dinner to welcome the new board.

I really enjoyed my Sunday in Sydney.