Day 12 was a very exciting day indeed – we were about to attend our first surfing class ever! Part of the package that the good people of VisitNSW put together,it was a two hour long having-a-go session combined with rudimentary instructions – there is nothing better than learning by doing.

We were lead to the beach like baby ducks being led to water by our instructor – I think his name is Kai or something. We had to tote our own surfboards, and by golly, was it ever so heavy! On our way there, we actually got to see Bondi Rescue in action – just like its Baywatch! Extremely thrilling for me – well, it’s probably thrilling because I don’t think there was any actual casualty, a swimmer seemed to have ended up at the area reserved for surfers and even after numerous warnings by the lifeguard via their tannoy, she/he was still bobbing up and down on the same spot. So the lifeguard whipped off his top and dragged his surfboard into the seas and off he went! Cool!
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No pictures here, as my bag and my camera was safely tucked away in the locker back at the shop. I have really poor hand-eye coordination and balance, so no suprise there that I didn’t do well in surfing! Bacon, however, did very well, but he had done skiing and windsurfing before. Me, on the other hand, had never had the pleasure of trying to balance myself on a piece of plank. So there. Bleaugh. I did, however, by the end of the hour, manage to stand straight up, surfing the waves back to shore. This was after numerous attempts that ended up in swallowing gallons of saltwater, knocking into my own board, getting washed over by incoming waves…….BUT I SO LOVE IT! Well, I would though, as it IS water based. But I could have continued getting on the board, paddling, getting washed over and pushed underwater…again and again. Love it. Bacon did really well and manage to stand on his board more than a dozen time. It was definately a very rewarding form of excercise, and one that I would happily take up full time if it were possible.

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Obviously by the time we had finished in the water, we were all dead tired. I was so tempted not to go on with my plans for the afternoon, but with bacon’s insistent coaxing, I relented and we didn’t head straight home to bed. But first, food!! All that excercise require refuelling, and we headed towards Hurricane’s Grill. From their website: Specialising in premium quality Australian Beef Steaks, tasty Beef, Pork & Lamb Ribs and BBQ Chicken, Hurricane’s signature dishes are marinated in special basting sauces originating from South Africa. These special ingredients make our flavours unique, delicious and very different from other traditional steakhouses.

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The restaurant was not open for lunch, but I decided I had to have a full rack of ribs anyway, so it was a good thing the takeaway was open. Bacon was very reluctant (what do you mean takeaway ribs for lunch????) but I insisted. So we ended up with a full rack of succulent baby back ribs , chips, a coke and nowhere to eat…..we ended up eating in front of McDonalds where they had public benches up front.

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How yums is that?

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Bacon stuffing his face. He’s sat next to me as I’m typing this – and had just said, ‘That was really nice…’. Succulent pork that melts in your mouth tears apart oh so easily from the bone, and the sauce was to die for. Maybe we were just hungry, but it was REALLY good!

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Eating very delicious ribs by a very busy pathway in Bondi attracted attention of the four-legged kind. We found ourselves with quite a large following, but none as determined as this doggy. She sat next to us for a full 10 minutes whilst we chomped our way through the rack, not intruding, just sitting there, staring.

10 minutes later, her horrified owner turned up, adomonishing her whilst profusely apologising to us. Apparently they were on their way to get some sushi, but the doggy went off track, attracted by the yummy ribs. Her name was Laura (the dog, not the owner) and she is unfortunately stuck with a vegetarian owner!! So we started feeding Laura our bones, and to say she was chuffed is an understatement! I do miss having a dog, they make such good friends . I packed up whatever bones that remained when we finished and offered it up to Laura’s owner to bring home with her so she can have it for dinner. The dog, not the owner. Sigh. It must be so lovely to be able to stroll down to Bondi for lunch on a weekday with a dog.

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Of course after all that salt water that I’d swallowed, it was time for dessert! And when in Bondi, you must have a deepfried mars bar. Yes folks, this is what heart attacks are made out of. A compact deep fried package. OH YUMS. Creamy in the middle, crispy on the outside, sprinkled with icing sugar.

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WARNING: Do not eat every day

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Obviously after all this bingeing my morning surfing just completely went down the drain. It was time for more excercise (I know, AGAIN?) and this time it was the Bondi-Coogee walk, something that I missed out the last time. After all my research that I did for the Awesome NSW tour last year, I had to go on this walk. Instead of rewriting it, I am cutting and pasting (text) from my Awesome Tour Guide….and believe you me, it was an AWESOME WALK (if you know me in real, you would also know that I would rather swallow thorns than willingly go for a WALK)

Looking out on the beautiful horizons, go towards the right of the beach, which is the south end. Go past the Bondi Iceberg’s Club, the only winter swimming club in the world. Its open to public, so do go in to have a paddle (or have a drink – comparatively cheap drinks with unbeatable views!). The path then leads you up to Mackenzies Point showcasing beautiful scenes of North and South Bondi.

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(Edit: When I was there, they were repainting the Iceberg’s Club pool = closed. So check before you head out there if you have your heart set on swimming at the Icebergs)

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Next up is Tamarama, also known locally as Glamarama due to the presence of the beautiful people clique and those practising the lifestyle of the rich and the famous. There is a stretch of cafes (Edit: When I was there, no cafes existed. Nothing. Nada. I was extremely thirsty with nothing to drink. Grr) if you are inclined to stop and just gaze out at the surf or people watch. For two weeks each year in early November, the area from Bondi to Tamarama beaches is transformed into an outdoor sculpture gallery, courtesy of the Sculpture by the Sea exhibition . This is where many people end their walk.

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Breathtaking scenery makes the 2 hour hike sooooo worth .

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Going past Tamarama and just across a gentle rise is Bronte, a beautiful little picturesque beach, with a large grassy area immediately behind it on the promenade. It has a large surf, so if you’re planning on a dip in the seas, be sure to swim within the flags or in the ocean pool. The ocean pool is really cute, a cordorned off area of This beach is well patrolled, so you shouldn’t encounter any problems

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The Ocean Pool – cool huh?

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This might seem batty, but the Waverley Cemetery has got to be sitting on the most expensive piece of real estate in Sydney. This large cemetery (yes, it really IS a working cemetery!) is situated on dramatic coastline and has some amazing ocean views. Dominated largely by white marble headstones this graveyard is home to many famous Australians, such as Henry Lawson, Victor Trumper, Lawrence Hargrave, Henry Kendall and many more.

You can see the cemetery on the right of the picture…

Clovelly is next, and if you’re more inclined to a gentle paddle rather than magnificent surf, this is your place. Clovelly Beach is a nature reserve, but the true beauty is underwater – so pack your mask & snorkel. However, if you are more inclined to go deeper, wait till you get to Gordons Bay to get some SCUBA done. The dive is fairly shallow and you would probably get to 12 meters, making it a very convenient stop for the casually interested. And yes, the occasional shark is known to show up in Gordons Bay

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Clovelly was my favourite of them all. I actually bought my mask & snorkel with me, so was able to go for a swim in ocean. The visibility was quite low, but seriously, better than nothing right? Love it. Very nice. After all that walking it was extremely refreshing to have a paddle in the seas. I did not enjoy the next part of the walk, and would seriously consider catching a bus from Clovelly to Coogee if I were to ever do this again. There was nothing much to see as we walk around Gordon’s Bay, no shops, no beaches, no humans, no nothing.

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Gordons Bay also signifies the end of the walk, as across the next headland you’re in Coogee. Sheltered by the reefs of the fabulously named Wedding Cake Island, Coogee is a relatively safe beach for a paddle. Coogee is derived from the Aboriginal word koojah (stinking seaweed), a reference to the smelly decaying kelp that used to be left washed up on the beach. Coogee has some first-rate restaurants, shops, hotels and boutiques.

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PHEW. Definately the most excercise I got the whole week. I collapsed at Coogee on the beach, and just remained horizontal for about the next hour or so,

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Bacon, being bacon, took a walk around Coogee whilst I just remained horizontal. But bacon being bacon, he came back with tall tales of huge bars serving up the amber liquid…the perfect antidote and end to a whole day in the sun. So off we went….

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I can just imagine making this bar my local. Can you?

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Our schooners of Coopers’ pale.

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We took the bus back into town rather than bus-train. On our way home I got a text from Zona kindly offering us the ultimate aussie dinner. Yep, we ate Skippy the Kangaroo! After getting back to the hostel, we had a quick shower and by 8pm we were heading out of town again to Zona & Lee’s place for dinner. You can tell how tired I was – I did not take any pictures at all of dinner!! Lee cooked up some kangaroo sausages for starters (sooooo delish), which we paired with a variety of mustards and cheese. Yum. Main course was kangaroo steak, cooked pink , with a side of salad dressed in balsamic dressing. Ah. Love it. So delicious. Wished we could get fresh kangaroo meat in the UK, kangaroo is most definately an underrated meat. I am glad that the Australians take a more pragmatic view and kangaroo had started being widely eaten in Australia. According to Lee, the price for kangaroo had skyrocketed in the past few years due to a speedily growing market.

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Before heading towards their place, we tried stopping for a bottle of wine, or two. Hm. Found out the hard way that 7-11 does not stock alcohol. Neither does the Woolworth’s supermarket. And there are no bottle shops anywhere in the centre of Sydney. OMG. How embarrasing. So we actually arrived for dinner empty handed. However, it was a thursday, and the shops open late, so I offered to bring them out for dessert. And speaking of dessert; perhaps it was time for another shot of cacao…so we headed towards Max Brenner’s. Again. This time we headed towards the one at King’s Cross instead of Manly.

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churning chocolate

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This was our order. Can you spot what I had? Something looks very, very familiar…:) . Bacon and Lee both had the yummilicious mocha, whilst me & Zona had a mocha frappe – it was another gloriously warm night in Sydney.

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Zona ordered the warm chocolate souffle, which we shared. And it was amazing. As expected. I do love everything about Max Brenner, it is just so damned good. Everything is. I kept my little Chocolate Lick to myself and didn’t share…:).

Again, the end to another lovely day in Sydney. By this point I had started to fall in love with the city….and I hate it when I fall in love with cities. When I fall in love with cities I live my life being jealous and annoyed at my inability to BE there. Sigh. I love San Francisco and Hong Kong, because I was lucky enough to get to know both cities like a local would, especially San Francisco seeing that I was a temp resident. I could feel myself falling in love with Sydney the more time we spent there out of the confines of the tourist traps.

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Day 11 was supposed to be the day of our surfing class – unfortunately they could only fit us in for the 9am class, which meant that we would have had to wake up at 6.30am, get showered, get the train to Bondi Junction and the bus out again to Bondi. We managed to negotiate for a later class for Thursday, so it was another slow and relaxed day for us again.

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After some rejigging and replanning, we decided to make our way towards Manly – which, as you know, is one of my favourite place in Sydney. Its the whole ceremony of boarding a ferry, and whilst nearing Manly the fabulous view of the whole span of the beach. Sigh. I love ferries and I love beaches….what more can I ask for? We had not been to any beaches yet in Sydney during this trip, so I thought this would be a good day to head towards the beach. A round trip to Manly from Circular Quay is AU12, however with the AU48 weekly travel card, it’s all inclusive.

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As we were walking out of the ferry terminal, I spotted my most favourite ever, ever chocolate bar. It all started in 2005 when bacon was working in Manila….the ever-famous chocolate by the bald man, Max Brenner’s. It is THE home of everything chocolicious – and unlike Koko Black, I am actually in love with this shop. So even before we hit the beach, we HAD to stop. I convinced bacon that he had to have coffee .

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Bacon’s mocha. Oh My God. It was amazingly delicious. In their signature hug mug of course – it is designed in a way that when you hold it with both hands it warms you up. SIGH. Heavenly.

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I decided to go back to basics and get something decadent yet simple. My warm milk chocolate lick….topped with white chocolate chips. Comes with a ‘paddle’ to dip and lick the yummilicious chocolate off. Oh my. Delicious doesn’t even start to describe the sensation

Sigh. Treat over, we ventured out of the ferry terminal at last, to be greeted by light rain and dark grey skies. Not perfect weather for a day out at the beach most definately. Oh well, I guess it’s gotta rain at paradise sometime, right? Anyway, after being conditioned by the English weather for a good few years, a little bit of rain ain’t gonna stop me. Probably a good thing, by the time we got to the beach the rain had stopped. It was still dark in the skies, but at least it’s not raining.

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It was nice to be able to just lay back and relax on the beach. More like a beached whale than a beach babe, I love the sea irregardless, and love just being close to the sea. We milled about for a few hours, and decided to head back to the mainland after grabbing a quick lunch. Unfortunately our lunch was very unsatisfactory – bacon had blah and boring fish & chips whilst I had a quick and dirty korean fried noodle with teriyaki chicken….which was greasy, cold and downright disgusting. Not having a very good day, huh? Again, proof that it sometimes sucks even in paradise.

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It was amazingly gloomy and windy as you can see from our trip back on the ferry decks.

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Look at how grey the Opera House looks…

As we arrived at Circular Quay, my phone rang, and it was bacon’s ex colleague who was in Sydney for long working holiday. She raved about sceneries from across the Quay, so got us to hop on the ferry over to the other side, where Luna Park was. I guess you could get there by train, but seeing that we were at Circular Quay anyway and have free pass to get on the ferry, we just decided to hop on the ferry instead.

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Its fantastic to see views from the other side of the harbour. After all that raving about the scenery, bacon’s ex-colleague took us to a bar right smack in the middle of a row of shophouses far away from the shores with no views whatsoever – because she fancied having Fosters’ – not many places in Sydney sells Fosters as it is what the Australians palm off to the English. So yeah. We made it all the way across the harbour and no views. Nada. None. Excellent. We did spend a good few hours there, and we only got up and left because I wanted to go back for a quick shower as we have dinner plans.

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After a quick shower, Zona and Lee were there to pick us up again. This time around we were off to the famous Harry’s Cafe De Wheels – which I had touched on during my project for VisitNSW last summer. Located at Wooloomooloo’s Finger Wharf, it was slightly off centre – somewhere the locals hit rather than the tourists convene. There is a branch of Harry’s at Haymarket, but it’s really more for the tourists rather than where the locals convene.

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The thing with Harry is more about its environment rather than the food – even though the food was totally yummy. Located by a dark windy wharf, we sat by the pier and just chilled out munching on our food.

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The menu

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I got the Harry’s Tiger – which is chunky lean beef pie served with mushy peas, mash & gravy.

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Bacon got the Hotdog de Wheels – a continential Viennese smoked frankfurt served with mashie peas, mashed potato and chilli con carne with cheese sauce. Oh noms noms.

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Delicious OR WHAT?

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We chilled there for a few hours, with each of us occasionally getting up to get more grub from the cart, chatting away and just talking garbage and having a laugh or two. Sigh. It was one of the best night in the whole holiday, we were just so chilled out, sat by the wharf with the salty sea breeze blowing in our faces, getting up for random pies or hot dogs. After we were satisfied, we thought it would be a good idea to go off for a coffee session as well, and headed towards Cafe Hernandez near Kings Cross. Again, another hidden gem, Hernandez stocks the best coffee ever, thick, dark and aromatic. However, he did not have a loo, and suggested that Chris & bacon had to go off to the hedges for a wee. Heehee.

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Contacts:

Max Brenner’s (various locations in Sydney)

Harry’s Cafe de Wheels
Corner Cowper Wharf Roadway
& Brougham Road
Woolloomooloo, NSW 2011
Phone (02) 9357 3074

Cafe Hernandez
60 Kings Cross Road
Potts Point NSW 2011
tel : 02 9331 2343

We woke up in a leisurely manner on day 10 of our Great Australian adventure. We were not in a hurry today, and did not have any concrete plans set up. I purposesly designed our itinerary that way to enable us to get some rest days in between our busy adventuring, and after the day that we had exploring the Blue Mountains, I was ever so glad to have done that!

The last time we were in Sydney in 2006, having breakfast at the Fish Market was one of the highlights of my trip, being a lover of all things fishy. How odd, when I was a child my mom always ensured that there was seafood dish on the table come dinnertime, and it came to a point where I hated fish and most seafood. Moving away from home taught me a lesson in food appreciation, and ever since my stint in CA, my appreciation for fishes had increased tremendously. This is what happens when the only fish you could eat was in the shape of a finger…I did not know how to cook fish you see.

We walked the 20 minutes from Town Hall to Prymont, where the Fish Market is located. The last time we were there, we hopped on the monorail and light rail, but actually it’s not that far to walk, just past Darling harbour really. However, doing that on an empty stomach (not to mention caffine-less) is not a good idea, I was VERY hungry by the time we got there

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It was nice to see that nothings’ changed, all the stores are still there and so are the tourists.

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Including Bacon’s favourite fruit, yoghurt & muesli combo, washed down with freshly squeezed orange juice.

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Salmon sashimi. Nom nom…annoyingly enough, they tried charging me AU1.80 for a small dip pot of soy sauce – I can get a 250ml bottle of soy sauce for that price

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Bacon gorging out on seafood. We had the sashimi, lobster with chips, yoghurt & muesli, juice and 1 doz Sydney rock oysters

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The oysters are so fresh, the barnacles are still alive. OMG. Both refreshing and disgusting at the same time.

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Yummy lobster

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You’d think I was done, wouldn’t you? I thought I was. On the way out, we walked past Doyles’ branch at the Fish Market, and they did Abalone with spring onions! I HAD to try that….so we got a baby abalone and a deepfried soft shell crab. Bacon did not like the Abalone that much, but quite enjoyed the crispy soft shelled crab. For me, the abalone tasted like abalone – chewy.

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Stirfried abalone with spring onions.

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Tummies overflowing, we walked (rather, crawled) back towards Darling Harbour. Bacon had an ice cream (yeah, I know, how can he still eat after all that) and we just sat down for some people watching…it was what I call an English day, grey and slightly depressing, but it was still so warm and the cool breeze from the harbour just makes the whole experience of people watching by the harbour so pleasant.

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After bacon finish licking up his ice cream, we headed back towards Haymarket. I wanted to check out Market City as I’ve heard through the grapevine that there were some shops selling bento stuff there as well as a massive grocery store selling bento edibles. When we were there previously, I also remembered a Mambo outlet store; so the hunt began for all that I wanted to find.

Unfortunately all this visit left me with was a petulant pout. There were no shops selling bento making stuff – well, there IS (not bento shops, more like kitchen utensils shops) , but it is of the non-kawaii variety and their accessories are basic onigiri making molds, which I already own. Oh well. However, I did come across some fabulous M4S boxes which are all the rage in the bento making community. Anyway, I digress. The grocery store was very impressive, it sold a huge variety of foodstuff that would be like gold dust here in the UK. I stupidly thought that I was going to return, so did not buy anything.GAH. And the MAMBO outlet had shut down from when I was last here in 2006. Double Gah.

Seeing that it was already 3.30pm, we started out journey home towards Town Hall, which was really only a short 10 minute walk away. As we were stood in front of Market City trying to get our coordiantes correct, someone handed bacon a flyer for a buy one get one free bubble tea. Now, there is only one place in Leeds which I can get bubble tea from; however, bubble tea in Australia is nearly as common as coke….so it was so refreshing for me to just have a bubble tea whenever I want, much to Lee’s amusement (Lee is not a bubble tea fan). Bacon had never been a big fan of bubble tea either, but my enthusiasm rubbed off on him invariably. Heehee. So we jumped at the chance of a buy one get one free bubble tea!!! If you have no idea what am I talking about, bubble tea is basically normal milky iced tea (with a variety of flavours) with some tapioca balls at the bottom, symbolising the ‘bubble’ in the bubble tea.

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An all-asian queue..Until bacon joined the queue. He was very pleased as he’s the tallest person in the queue

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Look at the menu – chatime (translated into tea time) http://www.chatime.com.au/ is a massive bubble tea chain throughout China, Vietnam, Australia and even in LA. I picked a brown rice green tea bubble tea whilst bacon had the hazelnut

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Bacon smirking at his large order of bubble tea

It was decidedly gloomy in the skies by then, and we were both doozing off – so an afternoon nap was most definately in line – we’ve not had many afternoon naps during this trip, so one was sorely due that afternoon. We woke up around 5ish, and popped down to the bar adjacent to BASE Backpacker, the ScaryCanary. There was nothing scary about this place, other than the price of its drinks. Its scary cause it’s dirt cheap! Happy hour of 4pm-6pm means drinks are only a mere AU3.50 for a small glass of wine or a schooner. I had my favourite Semillion Chardonnay – during our stay here I must’ve had at least two glasses of Semillion daily. Was starting to think myself alcholic – this all started during my ‘throw an Aussie Styled event’ night where I kicked it off with winetasting – and fell in love with Brokenwood’s Semillion.

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The crisp limey flavour is refreshing and perfect for a hot summer’s day.

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We met up with Zona for dinner at Waqu http://waqu.com.au/home.html … a famed fusion Japanese degustation-menu only restaurant. Unfortunately Lee was unable to join us due to work constraints, but we were joined by his lovely friend Chris. Chris kindly played chauffer and picked us up from our hostel….again, this is not one of the restaurants that you would just stumble across as it’s out of Sydney, so getting a ride there was probably the best idea rather than blindly strolling around Crow’s Nest.

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I was going to take a picture of the menu, but the waiter kindly stopped me and offered for me to just take the menu with me. How very nice – other than the fact that left the menu behind and now have no idea what I ordered! ARGH! I am not doing justice to the menu by my inability to describe all the wonderful food that was served up to us and for that, I am very ashamed and annoyed. So please bear with me –

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Carpaccio of Wagyu beef

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Soba noodles with crabmeat

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Seafood in dashi stock

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The AMAZING lamb..

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Bacon ordered the Belly pork

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Zona got the seafood (sigh I hate it when I forget what I ate)

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Dessert of mochi with peanut brittle, vanilla pod creme jelly & red bean mousse .

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Contacts

Market City
9 Hay St
Haymarket NSW 2000, Australia
(02) 9288 8900

Waqu
308 Pacific Highway
Crows Nest NSW 2065, Australia
(02) 9906 7736

On our second full day in Sydney, we went off for a day trip to the Blue Mountains. You would have heard of the Blue Mountains and the three sisters if you’ve ever been to Sydney- it is one of the more popular day trips leaving from Sydney, the second is probably trips to the Hunter Valley for wine tasting, which we did not end up doing. What is the blue mountains you say? Wikipedia says this:

Consisting mainly of a sandstone plateau, the area is dissected by gorges up to 760 metres deep. The highest point of the range is 1,190 metres above sea level. A large part of the Blue Mountains is incorporated into the Greater Blue Mountains Area World Heritage Site, consisting of seven national park areas and a conservation reserve. The Blue Mountains area includes the local government areas of the City of Blue Mountains, the City of Hawkesbury, the City of Lithgow and Oberon.

Capische?

This was part of the package that was put together by the lovely people at VisitNSW. It was something that I was really looking forwards to, as the last time we were in Sydney I did not visit the Blue Mountains. So something new, which was really good. It costs about AU70 for a day; it seemed like ours were the cheapest in the market as other places were selling it for circa AU100.

The price might have somethind to do with the fact that the cost for the Scenic Railway and cable car was not inclusive – something that was a bone of contention with half the passengers there who did not expect to pay extra during their ‘tour’. Quite a few of the passangers chose not to fork out the extra AU28 for the Scenic World ‘attraction’; and spent their time waiting for the rest of us for nearly a whole hour.

Anyway, back to the tour. We were picked up from our hotel around 8am on Monday morn, and I must admit I was very, very hungry as we had not have breakfast before. On the itinerary it say that we were going to stop for tea and snacks, so I thought I was going to be fed naturally . It was another GLORIOUS day in Sydney – temperatures later that day willl rise up to 35 degrees in the city. There is glorious, and there is just plain too freaking hot…and today was one of the too-freaking-hot day. The coach was jam-packed by the time we got on (they do pickups all the way from Bondi as well) and we were stuck at the fold-down seats of what was the back of the van . It was boiling, although the little van/people carrier/bus thingy tried its best and the aircond was at full blast, although that was still not enough.

Our driver cum tour guide was very knowledgeable, having grown up around the greater Blue Mountains area and lived in Sydney all his life. Our first stop was a quick 5 min photostop at the Sydney Olympic Park, the main site of Sydney’s Olympic games in 2000. Unfortunately it was closed to visitors and traffic as AC/DC was playing that very night. However we managed to snap a quick picture of what was open to traffic….

The ANZ Stadium, part of the Olympic Park development

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Our second stop was by a river. Literally by a river. In the middle of nowhere. In our itinerary, it was stated that we would be served light refreshments. I was hoping for a spread of breakfast related stuff like danishes ect…what we got were juice poured from large industrial sized bottles, some trail mix and jumbo packed biscuit assortments. Ha. My own fault really, the last time I went for a day-tour in Melbourne, the guide brought us fresh coffee and pastries baked by his wife and fresh fruits. So I stuffed my face with raisins…the whole objective of that stop was not to show us anything at all, but rather, to get people to pay up. Which was really odd, you would think that you would get passangers to pay up when they board your bus, rather than make a special stop in the middle of nowhere. Seeing that mine was already paid for courtesy of VisitNSW, we just sat there stuffing our faces with trail mix for 30 mins. Very odd, and a waste of time in my opinion.

The rest of the day after that is abit of a blur, we stopped three or four times for a variety of views of the famed three sisters. The view is usually obstructed by the mist that apparently emates from the eucalyptus tree – however, it was such a glorious day that our tour guide declared we had the best view possible. And we did – I’ve seen numerous pictures of people visiting the Blue Mountains to be greeted by a virtually non-existant view of the famed Three Sisters. As you can see, we had marvellous views…

Bacon braving the ledge.

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We were told that there was a magnificient waterfall waiting for us at the end of the trail. I was expecting something that I could dip my toes in to cool down – and was sorely dissapointed when it was a waterfall far, far away and not of the magnitute that I was expecting! Still, a pretty sight

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Tourguide drama time – there’s a ledge that is invisible to everyone else and apparently he does this on e-v-e-r-y s-i-n-g-l-e trip to impress the punters i.e. tourists. Sigh. I feel like a tourist on a short leash – reminding me again why I don’t usually go on tours.

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Bacon chilling on the lovely bench when we stopped at the tiny village of Leura for lunch .
After lunch, we headed for the highlight of the day, the Scenic Railway Discovery centre. This brings us down to the valleys and deep in the rainforest that forms the base of the Blue Mountains. As mentioned earlier, there were some disgruntled customers that were annoyed that they have to fork out extra after paying AU70 for the trip. So the group was practically split up, with half the people on the tour choosing to stay on top, hanging about near the toilets. That’s right. The tour guide requested that those choosing not to pay the AU28 stay by the toilets whilst we have a wander about in the rainforest for about 40 minutes.

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We hopped on the Scenic Cableway to travel deep down to the rainforest, and it was absolutely breathtaking. If there was a moment where I went ‘wow’, it was on the Cableway. Ignore all the other walks that we’ve been doing throughout the day, this was most definately the best views. It wasn’t proper scary, but quite relaxing. It only took about 2 mins which is a shame, I would have loved to stay on much longer.

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Bacon struggling to snap a picture of my super sweaty face on the way down the cableway – he IS scared of heights, so I’m real proud that he came along for this!

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The railway from bottom-up

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Once we were down in the rainforest (which, to be honest, was not that enthralling for me as I did come from the land of Rainforests) our guide took us for a wander around the 2.8km walkway towards the Scenic Railway that will bring us up to the top again. The views were lovely, as expected, and it helped that being so deep in the jungle it was slighly cooler. Man, those people who chose to wait by the toilets were definately missing out big time. Halfway though the trek in the jungle I decided that I was really sick of the three sisters. Yes I was. We’ve spent all day just viewing the three sisters from different vantage points, it would have been lovely if there were something else – even the walk itself was more interesting than the variety of ways you can view the three sisters from.

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Bacon loves being deep inside the rainforest

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My favourite picture of the three sisters taken deep inside the valley. Nice.

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It is very nice, and we were very lucky that we were there on one of the best days in the year, blessed by the spotless skies and lovely sunshine.

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We reached the end of our trek at last, and hopped on the Scenic Railway. The part where you board the train in a sun-lounger position should give it away – thank god we were warned by Lee the night before that it was going to be an almost completely vertical ascent on a 90 degree rockface for the initial 2/3 of the ride and VERY SCARY. Not only were we vertically shooting up a rock surface, the surface of the rocks were so close in front of us that you could touch the surface if you just reached out from your vertical ascent seat. The Indiana Jones song also kinda gave it away in my opinion..heehee. Very exciting – even though I did close my eyes for nearly the whole ride. Obviously no pictures, I was more concerned at not losing a sandal!

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I would call this the vertical railway rather than the scenic railway – there was nothing scenic about the fact that it runs like a roller coaster with the obligatory stomach dips!

After all the thrills in the rainforest, our lovely guide took us kangaroo hunting. No, not literally, but he wanted to point out some wild kangaroos for us. Me & bacon were not that bothered, seeing that we saw loads of wild kangaroos during our last trip to Philip Island in Victoria. Poor guy drove round and round and could not find a roo to save his life. We spent more than 30 mins on the wild kangaroo chase to come back with nothing – shame, I’m sure we would have found a better use of time than driving around kangaroo hunting.

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Failing to spot a kangaroo, our tour guide then took us to what was purported to be an aboriginal carving of a kangaroo on a rock surface on the ground. The only problem with showing us that is that he do not actually believe it to be real, rather, he believe that someone must’ve carved this fairly recently. Ha. So another pointless side trip! SO TIRING.

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We ended the day by going on the River Ferry sailing from Homebush Bay to arrive in style under the Harbour Bridge and past the Opera House to disembark at Circular Quay. As we boarded the ferry, there were loads of oddly dressed passengers disembarking – of course, they were the AC/DC fans heading to the Olympic Park for the concert! The river ferry journey took about 30 mins, and it was so stuffy in the cabin that it felt like a sauna. It was much better once I stepped outside on the deck, but the sun was still shining down mercilessly on us, it felt that I’ve gone two shades darker in that 30 minutes.

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It was immensely tiring, but for some stupid reason we decided that we would reaccquaint ourselves with the city and take the 30 min walk towards our hotel instead of the 5 min.train ride. Sounded like a good idea at that time….yep, stupid. So off home we headed….and not really considering where would we go for dinner. After 5 minutes I was parched and super tired, needing to stop for a slurpee. But as bacon tend to do, we got disctracted by the amber liquid again. Actually, we got distracted by the steak.

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The Customs House bar at the heart of Sydney’s financial centre holds a steak promotion on Mondays & Tuesdays for their Black Angus sirloins, a bargin AU10 for a 250g prime piece of steak. We decided that we were going to go for the steak, and I got my favourite Bees Kneez whilst bacon got some sort of Cooper’s beer again. Ahh….yummmm.

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Done rare, just the way God intended cows to be eaten.

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I heart bees kneez.

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After dinner, we walked home slowly, better now that we had been fed and watered. I was ever so glad to have got home, even the harsh bright lights in our room fail to annoy me. We took a shower, and collapsed into bed, with a cold litre of diet coke by my side. It had been a very, very long day. Do I think a trip to the Blue Mountains is worth it? Probably, if you drive yourself there and take a few days to explore the lovely little towns. A day trip is good if you are a tourist-in-a-hurry, but definately not enjoyable if like me, you like to take your time to explore and really get to know the area well. All we seem to do is travel from one vantage point to another, ticking things off our itinerary, which included the stupid stop by a river in the middle of nowhere. It might be due to the sweltering weather, but I was so tired by our second ‘vantage point’. It would also be better if the prices would be all-inclusive, I understand why people wouldn’t want to fork out an extra AU28 for the rides, and if that is the highlight of the trip anyway, to NOT include it seemed slightly cheeky and it caused all that drama that kinda put a damper on the whole trip by the group waiting by the toilet. Saying all that, I would definately recommend a longer trip if you are visiting the Blue Mountains, I think there is so much more to be explored in the Blue Mountains that we had only scratched the surface with our whistlestop tour.

….its been so unbelievably busy the past few weeks – I am sorting out my AU posting in bulk (having MAJOR issues uploading pictures to flickr without doing it singly!!) , but thought this cross-posting from my other blog would explain why have I been so busy…

Plus the fact that I’m off to NYC this weekend of course..

Heehee

*crossposted from http://notabrownbag.wordpress.com

I’ve been slacking off the bento making front (edit: and most definately blogging front too!) , only producing super-quick bentos that consists of slopped together leftovers with some pieces of fruit. Work have been snowing me under mindlessly and I’ve been doing long hours = tiredness setting in = no brainpower left for creative endevours. However, last Friday I did it at last … I QUIT!!

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It was exhillirating to say it out loud. I’ve been plotting my departure since before Easter, and last Friday I did it at last. I rang my boss (she was working from home) to inform her that I was leaving, and she asked for something officially written. Fair enough. I had never written a resignation letter before, having always just sat down with my ex bosses and told them that I was leaving. So I initially wrote her an email, but it strike me that she would probably want something in a proper letter because *she is just like that*. So I started again, and googled for a resignation letter – seeing that the last one I wrote was in uni during Business Communications 110. Sigh. So yeah, there I go, ripping off a template from google and filling it in with all my details…including her full name and business address…everything. I sent it off as an attachment in an email, and then went to the washroom.

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When I came back less than 5 mins later, there was a missed call on my phone. It was my boss, telling me that my resignation letter was “not good enough”. Then I checked my email. It was my boss again, telling me that my letter was not good enough, and I need to specify exactly how many days holidays would they need to pay me. All within the time it took for me to walk to the washroom and back. Seriously…like say what?? I’ve quit, and a good use of my time would be to get me to REWRITE my resignation letter?? So I googled some more, and came up with a better ‘example’….which passed her quality test.

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I’ve been thinking about that whole incident all weekend, and really wished that I could’ve resigned in style – and what better way to resign that via a bento!!! I would have loved to resign with this bento – can you imagine the boss’ face if I present her with this bento during lunch? Heehee…Today’s bento contain some mock-risotto made from orzo that I copied from Sheri - utterly delicious! I substituted the veggie stock with chicken, and popped in some peas once it’s cooked. Yum yum. I’ve used my two sectioned bento box so I can microwave it separately from the other half.

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Mock mushroom orzo risotto with cut-out cheese letters (I used alphabet cutters for the words and cut out the smiley face features freehand using the toothpick method) , strawberries and tomatoes on a bed of mixed salad leaves – strawberries eaten with rocket leaves is so beautiful! Padded out with snap peas. And a smiley quitting giraffe too; hiding in the forest of the peas

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Oh, and I found out something amazing…if you freeze cheese cut outs before placing them on the bento, it is just so much easier to handle! Well, most people probably already know this..hehe.