Sydney Vacation

Great Craig, I'm staying in Surry Hills, definitely look it up. About 9 hours till the shuttle pics me up for the airport. Now I'm all nerves tho all packed I feel a need to open up the bag and rearrange things. I plan to gain 15 pounds and try walking it off. I want to try everything.

Thanks all for your recommendations The Lonely Planet guide was such small print. I cut the binding so not bringing the whole book.

If you are staying in Surry Hills then visit Title Film and Music at I think 499 Crown Street. Great little music store with loads of interesting CD's.

I still think Longrain is worth a meal. Still one of my very favourite Sydney restaurants. Enjoy your trip.

WOW GUYS!!!@!!!!!
It's just been an incredible experience. John B took me around the Quay and park after I got in at 7AM and kept me going for the day, we happened by Spice I Am and got in and 15 minutes later there were no tables for lunch. I collapsed in a stupor that night and every night from exhaustion. Every day has been wonderful tho I wasn't in shape for walking I've certainly been pushing myself and can't seem to take enough pictures of the skyline and plants. Thankfully I now have a grasp of the basics and busses. 2 mornings right off I was in the fabulous botanic garden, mind boggling. Dodging rain squals and breezy ferry rides to manly and the zoo. Toured the opera house just 2 days ago. Mind boggling.

I'm up in Newcastle with Baz and Steve. Now I'm a believer in active SBLs and understand what you're all going on about. Tho I can't afford all that I will get home and sell my 82 and 2 hicaps and upgrade my P5. It was great to hear Baz' system cranked up, I can't do that in my apartment too often. But I've certainly had a good time asking him technical questions about the equipment and will make adjustments to what I have. Active systems sure do produce wonderful detail.

Want to thank everyone for their help and comments. It's just been a dream trip. I will be back tho need to get home to take care of my parents and bore my friends with all my tales.

Mon and Tues I'll be in the Blue Mtns and Thurs I'll be flying home. I'll be bringing a few CDS and vinyl back of local groups.

quote:

Originally posted by Lontano:
If you are staying in Surry Hills then visit Title Film and Music at I think 499 Crown Street. Great little music store with loads of interesting CD's.

I still think Longrain is worth a meal. Still one of my very favourite Sydney restaurants. Enjoy your trip.

Agree with both, Longrain during lunch time is not bad either.

The trip to Aussieland was great fun, learned a lot, saw great things, met nice people and wore myself out.

When I got home putting things away was slow and awful. I hate living out of a bag but worse is unpacking. Tho straight in the door I had to turn on the computer, the mac light was on but no BONG. I think it died from the rush of electrons thru the system, or it had abandonment issues. It was time, a G4 bought around 2002. Now I have to deal with a lot of lost info and files. One friend that's much more savy says he'll come over tomorrow and pull the old hardrive and see if he can get it to work and transfer everything. I hope so.

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Saw Lots of great stuff first the Botanic garden and an art show there. Then the Opera house tour. Saw many of the gymea Lillies with red spikes around the area. I was amazed at the Ficus trees. We have them in LA and never give them enough room which is why they're terrible street trees and the worst is that people are putting them in as hedges. The women at the Botanic Garden were shocked at this. Good Gardeners know not to do this.

Went to Manly beach and bus to the headlands. Now I got to see that your coastal brush was very similar to our local Chapparel, and so many plants I've planted and worked with in native habitat there. Also saw the zoo and walk around Mosman. I didn't get up the Paramatta River tho and didn't get to see much of the art museum as I was too worn out to stand there, gallery after gallery. Walking was a great pleasure and I could never take enough pictures of the city.

Birds aplenty, tho when I went south to Bandanoon in the mtns they were a bit shy. It became the running joke at the B&B as they would come when I was not there and be gone when I showed up. I'd most liked to have seen the Lyre bird, only heard them. But one little Rosella flew by my side of the car for 2 blocks when we were driving away saying goodbye.

The highlight of my trip tho was helping Neville at the B&B go to the dump with the Gum tree trash after their storm. Old gardeners love to get down and dirty.

2 weeks wasn't nearly enough and I'll be back for more some day.

Many thanks to JohnB, Baz and Steve for the great times and putting me up. The systems were great, wonderful music, good talks. Baz' active system with SBLs was amazing.

Now to pay off the plastic.... ugh! But good times with new music and try tweaking my system to see if I can get it to sound better. But the music is oh so good at home, my apartment, my stuff, my feet up.

oh great now I'm under another name, didn't notice that. I tried groupee and registering under another name it picked that one.

wolf2

Wolf,

Sounds like a great success. You could get a job with our tourist advertising agency. The big Figus are presumably Moreton Bay Figs; great climbing for kids.

David

Yeah, they are magnificent when they're in a park setting. Many different types but here in SoCal way to many of the small leaved types, Nitida and Benjamina which is used indoors too but they're awful outside. We also get less rain than Sydney and we're in a drought too. Tropical trees just need more rain.


I was just bowled over by the plant material there and next time I'll venture down to Canberra, Melbourne and Tasmania.

One night on TV an English guy started a series on gardens and started with Sydney and Melbourne looking at traditional english stuff imported then some of the native gardens that have been developed. At the end he was in Auckland NZ visiting a funny woman with their native plants. Wonderful stuff. I'd certainly like to see the rest of that series but we won't get it even on PBS, I'll have to check out BBC america.

Glad you enjoyed your visit Glenn, it was a pleasure to have you and Steve over and play some music.

Speaking of Ficus, there was a large one in my yard, planted by the previous owner, which apparently started life in a pot! It was taking over, a huge root system doing its best to wreck the joint. I had to employ a gang of blokes with chainsaws and a grinding machine to do battle with it. Beware the Ficus.

I had clients as a gardener and the ficus would take over, I'd prune them to let light in below and the sap would get on me and burn. The trees would kill anything under them taking all the water I told them the only way was to put plants in pots under them. One yard had benjamina and koi pond, it had those air roots hitting the ground then dipping over into the pond sucking the water out like straws. VERMINE
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But the great thing was to hear what a mini/Lavry was like and an active SBL system. Great stuff. Hang on to that Dylan album, give it time, he sure can do Texas swing with that band. tho the ballads do get dark.

Bazz,

I hope you ended up with plenty of firewood for your trouble.

I read that the sap of fig trees was good at killing warts. Might have been in that font of ancient wisdom 'The Modern Herbal'. I stuck it on the sole of my foot to treat some fungus I picked up from the local pool. It burnt so bad and without remission that I went to the doctor. It cured the fungus though.

David

Back east in the 60s we had Poison Ivy with pretty red 3 leaves in fall. Once you touched it you got welts, and there's a version of it here on the west coast. Problem is when the fall leaves burned, or like the local fires now, it gets taken in the air and you can get it in your lungs....

Santa Barbara had a terrible flood soon after I moved there in '88. The stream water had come down from the mountains with boulders crushing the stream side plants. It's called a debris flow here. The day after the low underpasses on coast highway were like a huge swimming pool with kids jumping in. The city and county had a major emergency at hospitals with people covered in these little infectious bubbles after that. Like the third plague, the one after locusts. Those people never did that again I bet.

Creepiest thing I saw there tho were those cute black bobbles in the trees. Fruit bats with 3' wing spans. And bad as seagulls when they took off, pooping everywhere..... That's strange and something I just realized, I didn't see seagulls on the coast. How wonderful, they're a plague here. But then they did fly in and save the Mormons a hundred years ago.

Kinda makes you wonder how seagulls would know of a plague of locusts a thousand miles inland and over a major mountain range like the Sierras.

Most heartening thing I saw was the botanic garden's 5 gallon Wollemi Pines for sale. How wonderful a new species is not only discovered but it's a tree they've been able to propagate. I thought the leaves were like a large tropical version of Sequoia. I'll read more about them now that I'm home.

Home oh so wonderful but its hot like summer today. My apartment looks like it was pillaged by marauders. The aftermath of trying to pack in a hurry, come home HAVE to buy a new computer, race off to check up on my parents. But I took my laundry and mom washed it ALL. Now at least I have clean stuff but a weeks worth of cleanup to do. EVERYTHING is out on floors, flat surfaces and propped up if it can stand. UGH!

Don't think of this as elder abuse, the washer is right in her condo hallway and I spent the day taking them around shopping and hair appmts then bank and dinner. My 87 YO mother has NEVER been so thrilled to see me walk in that door after 3 weeks away. Warms the cockles of my heart.

I'll tell you that was the best vacation I ever went on in my 55 years,

And yet here I sit recounting the marvels of a new land listening to my stereo system. Do you think I have to rearrange my priorities?

Just had a great thought I will take pics of it and post them but it's going to take me a few days.

First it's a beer and clean sheets on the bed.