And so, it begins.
Probably the holiday of a lifetime, certainly a holiday at short notice. Auntie Sharon is getting married to an Australian, and its happening really soon. So soon, we didn't even have time to decide where to stay after the first week of our holiday. But before I jump ahead, here we all are, sitting in the departure lounge at Heathrow. We've got the late flight, about 7pm if i remember correctly (and i probably don't).
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| Nanny, I'm at the Airport... |
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| Wow! a picture of mummy, there won't be many of those. | James, Happy as always (although at 2 years old he probably doesn't know we are about to go an airplane) |
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| Daddy, photo taken by Nicola (6) | Barney, he traveled with Nicola |
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| When you're two, everything is an adventure. Imagine the thrill of being taken to a place with enormous glass windows and the biggest planes you've ever seen standing in front of you. James doesn't need to imagine that any more. | Nicola makes a friend at the airport |
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| Sydney in the evening just before sunset, this was taken from a big tower, whose name i forget but you'll see it from the outside later. | Don't look down! - too late, this is typical sydney street in the 'CBD' during late afternoon, CBD = Central Business District = city centre = lots of traffic. How nice to know that cities all over the world have lots of traffic too. The snake leaving the building in the middle of the picture is a monorail train that travels on columns above the traffic. The train goes in circles, so perhaps that's why most people in the picture choose to travel by car instead. |
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| Nicola waiting for a ferry boat. The ferries in Sydney are a great way to get around the harbour area, and very cheap too. Mum and Dad rented a 'unit' (= flat) in a place called Mossman and the easiest, quickest and cheapest way for us to meet up with them was by taking a ferry. | The ferries are also a great place to get those touristy photos - nicola in front of the Sydney Harbour Bridge (as if you needed to be told!) |
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| A photo of the Opera House. I happen to like this photo... | ...And Nicola happens like being in lots of photos, so here she is again. |
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| This is probably a better photo of Nicola in front of the opera house, so I'll bore you some more by making you look at this one too. | You should be grateful though, there are another dozen photos of Nicola in front of the scenery of Sydney that I Didn't add to this page |
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| Like this one | And this one , but enough of that |
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| Well, erm, no, they didn't buy us a helicopter, but they did pay for Steve, Rhonda and Nicola to go for a flight over the city AND they looked after James (sorry James, you'll have to go another year) | I have to say this was well worth the ...??... well, nothing, that i paid for this. The pilot did comment that winter isn't the best time to fly over the city (Yes, this is the view in the middle of winter). |
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| One Opera House.... | One Bridge.... |
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| Both together... | ...Are you bored yet? Well pay attention now, this is the view out to sea, the entrance to the harbour is in the middle right of the picture between the two headlands, to the left on the coast near the headland is Manley Beach. I bet you're glad i told you that. |
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| Thought you might be getting withdrawal symptoms having not seen the Opera house in the last photo. Don't worry, you're almost though the worst of it. | Ahh, here we go, that Gold pointy thing, that was the tower thing i was telling you about earlier. I might remember its name later |
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| The flat (sorry, "unit") my parents rented had a bit of a view. From this side you can see the harbour entrance | OK, may be you can see it better now i zoomed in... |
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| I guess you could see something from here too, but I've forgotten what it was... still, better than another photo of the opera house. |
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| Its Wedding Day - no, Rhonda is already married, but this is a rare photo of her taken just before the wedding so I put it here anyway. | The Australian Mafia, Mr Big (now my Brother in Law, so don't mess with me or he'll mess with you) is on the Right. Thats Todd (Yes, my sister married an Australian called Todd, and if you really want stereotypes, he's even been known to surf and race in triathlons. Oh yes, he also says 'mate' too). In the middle is Dan, the best man and on the left is Scott, the other best man (Dan has come back to Britain for a while to work in Canterbury. Strange really, most people I know would rather go and work in Sydney. Now that Todd's in the Britain too, I guess that makes Scott the most intelligent?). |
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| A better view. | Jessica is Steph and Neil's daughter (more Aussie friends). |
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| Sharon, Nicola, James and Grandad Graham, walk along the dockside in front of the Opera house (see, you can relax now, the opera house is back) | The new face in this photo is Karen, Karen is a friend of the family (and only a month or two older than me) - her parents became friends with my parents when my parents were on a working holiday in Australia in 1975. Karen is a bridesmaid, and so was Nicola (but you probably guessed that) |
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| Hooray! |
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| For those of you that missed the wedding, shame on you! Not really, but you missed some great speeches. The things that stick in my mind were Graham (Dad) saying that he liked Todd from the moment he met him. He said "Todd was the first man sharon had brought home with less hair than I have". The other thing was Dan's pleasure in making a speech where he got to say 'Root' many times. In Oz, Root has another meaning... |
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| It was back to taking photographs of the opera house | At least Rhonda was in these ones too. |
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| Australia may seem at first to be a strange place ... | There you are, enjoying the pleasant views across the harbour |
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| when up pops a Giraffe? | and a zebra? |
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| But at Taronga Zoo, if Giraffes just aren't you're thing... | There are plenty of other animals to make friends with |
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| Of course, some animals should remain in their cages (look out, the Opera House is back!) | But after a busy day at the zoo what could be better than a cuddle with Mummy? |
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Hooray! That's the end of this page! On to: The trouble with Cairns, and the more than perfect solution |