Hi everyone.
As with my previous trip to Sydney I'll try and keep a journey log for your entertainment (and my records).
I'm currently in Sydney because my parents wanted to go to a timeshare at Port Macquarie and I didn't want to go with. No offense to anyone, but when you're 27, there are much more exciting things in Sydney on your own rather than spend a week with your parents in a place where there's nothing to do.
I'm staying with my cousins "out in the sticks" as they call it, in St Ives. It takes a while to get to the nearest station (Gordon Station - and yes, this is actually what it's called), they've kindly offered to lend me a car to get there. I've got a 7-day travel pass for buses, trains and ferries, as I'm not too keen on driving in Sydney traffic.
My cousins are Simon and Leora, who have 11-year old twins, Zach and Chloe. These guys are lovely, they've let me use the room downstairs to bed down in, and they've got a new heater that makes the cold room nice and cozy Oh yes, they have a crazy dog called Jackson. I think he's a border collie X kelpie, and is insanely energetic. I remember being here last time, about a week after he had arrived. I spent some of my time dropping a ball off the balcony. He would run down the stairs, grab it and bring it back. I was still going half an hour later!
So, now that I've done the introductions, let's get to today's journey.
As I was late to book the flight (2 weeks ago), I couldn't go on the same plane as my parents. For some reason, the only reasonably priced flight available was on a Qantas international jumbo. I was quite happy that I got a good seat over the wing, decent food, and a select-your own tv. The only downsides were that I had to be at the airport at 6:50am (1 hour before the flight), had to go through immigration and customs (express at least since I had a domestic ticket), and that I couldn't sleep on the flight thanks to the obligatory screaming baby, 2 rows behind.
As a quick aside, I was tested for explosives. It seems as though I'm generally the one who gets pulled out of line to do this (except when Justin is around - they do target him more than me). Luckily, I wasn't carrying explosives (I must remember to get some next time!).
The flight was good though and since I wasn't in a rush, I didn't mind being a bit late. Since I threw my back out about 3 days ago, a very nice person helped me grab my bags from the carousel.As I'm not staying close to the city (it takes about 15-20 minutes to get to Gordon Station by car, then another 40 or so to get into the city), I decided to take the airport train to Town Hall in order to visit Galaxy Books - the sci-fi fantasy hub of bookage in the city.
They were having a sale, and I picked up a hardcover Mercedes Lackey book ("Bedlam's Edge") for $3.50. Then I went and spent the rest of my $20 on a book of short stories called "Women Warriors", so I'm pretty pleased with my purchases. There don't seem to be many second-hand bookstores around here, but then again I haven't looked very closely. I think there's one on Pacific Highway.
I was getting pretty tired from lugging my baggage around, and decided to grab something to eat. Along George street there are several restaurants, and I ended up in one that had some very nice daily specials. One $10 spaghetti bolognaise later and I was fortified for the rest of my journey.
I arrived at Gordon Station, where Simon picked me up and we drove to his place. After dumping my stuff downstairs, I napped for 2 hours (wow!), then came upstairs for a snack and a chat. Then it was down to the video store (I drove, in the dark!) to try and find a compromise between "Hellboy" and "Bride Wars". I wanted to get Burn Notice but they didn't have. After a dinner of soup, I'm off to watch the result - "Blue Streak". There is a possiblity that I can hook up my iTouch to their Mac laptop that might feed into their DVD player and then into the TV. I'm doubtful.
I'm going to try and keep this up-to date, which is what I said last time but didn't quite achieve it.
More tomorrow
Amy
-- Half an hour later --
Now I remember why I hate Martin Lawrence. This movie is painful to watch.
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It always annoys me when people don't comment on my posts, so I thought I'd better check in. Hope you have some excitement tomorrow! (oh, and you probably know this by now, but that won't work - ipods bind to the laptop you first connect them to and won't work with anything else. You might be able to hook it directly to the TV, though).
ReplyDeleteThanks for that.
ReplyDeleteNo TV connection unfortunately, and for some bizarre reason VLC media player won't download.
I'm getting them to buy some DVDs so that I can perhaps get the Burn Notice that I downloaded into DVD format to play on their DVD player since they've only got CD-R at the moment.