Pictures taken in Linda and Kevin's garden while I was writing my blog.

A sulphur-crested cockatoo watching me from a tree

                   One of the many types of Rosella eating bird seed

 Willow, one of Linda's cats. He runs away when he sees me.          He's a bit shy!

Day out to Sydney and Manly Beach

It's now Sunday the 21st August and I've finally found time to update my blog.
Last week Kevin took Violet and me to Sydney (Linda was at work).
We parked near Sydney Harbour Bridge and my first experience of seeing the bridge was as we walked under it!
It's so incredibly big. You cannot get a feeling of the size from pictures in books or television.
As I was taking pictures of the bridge I spotted parties of people walking up over the top of it! They were harnessed to the rail and slowly walked in single file right over to the other side! I was not in a hurry to join them on this venture! 

Sydney Harbour Bridge

 Brave souls walking over
the Sydney Harbour Bridge

Sydney Opera House

                                                      Stopping off for a coffee

Poster at the cafe congratulating CADEL EVANS for winning the tour de France. He was welcomed home at Melbourne Airport  a few days earlier. 

Next we drove on to Manly Beach renowned for it's surfing and holding of World Surfing championships. It so reminded me of Newquay. I just stood and gazed out to sea for ages and then had the crazy idea to take my shoes and socks off and paddle in the PACIFIC! Kevin took a few shots of me to prove how daft I am. It was quite a warm and sunny day at Manly but it's still winter here and is cold out of the sun. I went to the local souvenir shop and bought a 'Sloppy Joe' as they call them here. It's lovely warm tracky top with Manly across the front. Then we drove back to the Blue Mountains. We are going to visit Sydney again this week and stay over night so we can see and visit more sights. Linda is making up an itinary as I write this.There are so many things to see!

We drove home over the A.N.Z.A.C. (Australian and New Zealend Army Corps) Bridge. In memory of the soldiers that fell in the First World War.

Norman Lyndsay Gallery

Norman Lyndsay (1879-1969) was a famous Australian artist, sculptor, editorial cartoonist, scale modeler and boxer. He lived in Faulconbridge, a suburb of Sydney. The house has a large garden full of sculptures that he made out of concrete, his preferred medium. These are all of nude women and so were his paintings. This caused a stir in the 1940s and pictures and statues were burned. (See His story on Wikipedia)
He had a cottage for doing his engravings and another for his painting. He even had a bed in there for when he couldn't be bothered to go across to the house.

We paid a visit to the gallery and had tea and scones sitting in the sun! Yes we've had some sun.

Featherdale Wildlife Park

Thursday 11th August. 

After a couple of days of chilling and visiting we went off to spend the day at the Featherdale Wildlife Park near Sydney. I wanted to see lots of Australian animals and looked forward to photographing them.

                                                                      G'day possums!
    Actually I got this wrong. These are wombats. Saw a possum back at L & K's climbing on their verandah!

'Sulphur-crested Cockatoo. These are the noisy birds that wake us up in the mornings!

The weather was good and so all the animals and birds were out and about 'posing' for photographs. I'm sure they were posing as they sat still when people were clicking away!

Galah

 Alf Stuart off 'Home and Away' likes to call people a galah and that's what one looks like!

Two things I'd promised myself I would do while in Australia was to stroke a kangaroo and cuddle a koala.



Wallabies



Well I got to feed and stroke kangaroos and wallabies but I only got to stroke a koala. Aaah! We queued up to stroke this sleepy koala and have piccies taken. The keeper was on hand to keep an eye on things.

Linda and Kevin had packed up a picnic and so we sat at the picnic table (all posh with table cloth) and enjoyed our lunch surrounded by animals and birds.



 

Picnic time! Violet,Linda and Kevin

Picnic time! Kevin, Violet and me.



Lazing on a sunny afternoon.









'Visit to Katoomba'

8th August

Today we went on our first sightseeing trip. We drove further up into the Blue Mountains to Katoomba and went to see the 'Three Sisters' rock formation. I met a busking aborigine playing a didgeridoo! He said, 'Come here woman!' I said, 'Even my husband doesn't get to call me that!'

We walked across to the lookout called Echo Point and there in all their splendour were the 'Three Sisters'. Legend has it that the aborigine sisters were turned to stone by their father to keep them safe, intending to turn them back but he lost his magic stick! 

It was bitterly cold up there so as you can see from the pics we needed to be togged up. Violet borrowed a sheepskin coat!

We had lunch in the cafe and then took a ride in a cable car across the ravine to another lookout over to Mount Solitary across Jamison Valley. I even filmed through the glass floor! The colour of the Blue Mountains come from the haze given off by the eucalyptus trees which fill the valleys.



'Settling In'

6th and 7th August

We arrived at Linda and Kevin's home. We had a brew which was much better than the ones on the plane. We were now 9 hours ahead of British time but we still felt tired enough to go to bed. I didn't unpack, just climbed into bed and fell asleep as soon as my head touched the pillow!

Woke up to squawking and screeching. Instead of the sweet singing of blackbirds and chirping of sparrows it was lots of parrots. The native birds of these parts. The sulphur-crested cockatoo is the loudest. Who needs an alarm?

Saturday-It was a chilly morning so I wrapped up and went to sit on the veranda with my breakfast. It was warmer outside than in the house! The rest  joined me and we spent time catching up with news. I gave out pressies, a RHS calendar for Linda and Kevin and English soap for Lara, their daughter and a Blackburn Rovers gift for their son Ryan who is a BRFC supporter!

We had a quiet day because there was jet-lag to get over. I received a lovely e-card from Eliel as it was our Wedding Anniversary. I texted, emailed and skyped the family which felt good. I brought my net book with me and I'm so glad I did or else I wouldn't have been able to do this blog!

Sunday was slightly warmer. We got dressed up and went to church. I was dressed in summer clothes because I felt warm but the people were all togged up in jumpers, coats and scarves because it was a cold winter for them! It was 22o; more like our summer.

We went to L and K's church which is Presbyterian. We went to the informal Family Service and I enjoyed being part of it. Strange to hear someone preaching with an Australian accent.

We took Violet to visit her brother, who, believe it or  not lives just half an hour away but suffers from ill health and is not up to having Violet to stay.

Linda, Kevin and I went off to visit a small art gallery because it was pouring down by then. We found a coffee shop and I ordered a 'short black' thinking it would be a smaller 'long black' but it turned out to be an espresso! So I took it to the counter to ask for a 'long black instead'! I thought I would know what's what in an English speaking country!

The Next Leg to Melbourne

August 4th Part 2

So we arrived in Abu Dhabi. What a beautiful airport inside. We didn't have to pick up our suitcases as they were going straight through to Melbourne. After we had our boarding passes checked Violet and I went to Gate 36 as indicated on the electronic boards. We arrived and there was only us and one Aussie waiting so we walked round the elasticated barrier and went and sat down to wait for our flight. Eventually lots of people arrived and all sat down with us in the same area. Then a rather panicky security official waved his arms about and asked us to all go back through the barrier. Violet and I laughed as we had caused all these people to stray to the "wrong side"!
So we boarded the plane for the 13 hour flight to Melbourne. As we boarded there were clouds of steam everywhere! I'd not come across this before. Violet said it was to cleanse the air. Wow! it was like being in a sauna (how I do not like saunas)!
By British time it was early evening. We had our evening meal. Arabian meatballs and rice. Don't ask me what the meatballs were made of!!
Then they put the lights out and we had to close the blinds and we were encouraged to sleep and sleep we did! I don't know for how long but we missed our snacks and drinks through the night. When we woke I had a wash and brush up and felt ready for a new day which had started hours before as we were travelling east.
The trolleys arrived with the next meal. It was Navarin of Lamb but my body clock wasn't ready for that.
Soon we landed at Melbourne Airport. Next stop Sydney. Yes we had not arrived at our ultimate destination yet so there was baggage collecting, customs and security all over again. The last flight was only for an hour and as we went for our bags in Sydney airport there were our friends Linda and Kevin with lots of smiles and hugs for us!
See more tomorrow....