Ice in Sydney

Sydney never really gets that cold.  Winter is annoying because it gets incredibly wet and can rain for days on end, but it never gets cold enough to snow or anything like that.  Even a frosty morning isn't something I've seen in my time in Sydney.  Living in Canberra during the winters was always tough, it would regularly go below zero, but there would never be any noticeable amount of snow.  At the very least, nowhere close to enough for there to be any fun winter sports.  One of the few pleasures on the icy cold mornings was when there was a hard frost that hard settled overnight.  Walking through grass on those mornings, you could hear and feel the crunch of the ice under your foot.  If you walked past any puddles, you would also be able to crack the layer of ice that had formed on top.

In this mild wintered city, it was a surprise to see an outdoor skating rink.  It had been set up outside of St Mary's cathedral as well, which provided an almost European backdrop to what had been put together.

With Gabby and Manon driving me to do more as always, we all paid for some skates and jumped on the ice.  I struggled along, having not ice skated for at least ten years, but still had a great time.  Manon unsurprisingly was flying around the rink.  She's a snow bunny from the Alps, so all winter sports are second nature to her.  Gabby was more tentative as she made her way around slowly before moving towards the edges.

After being circled and lapped several times by Manon, we finished up and moved towards one of the nearby cafes which had been set up.  Keeping with the theme, I ordered cups of hot cider and gluwine for all of us.

Cliffs of Coogee

It took me a long time to find the cliffs of Coogee.  Years in fact.  The cliffs are actually not on any walking track and it takes a bit of searching to realise that you need to jump some fences to get out to where they are.

Once you find them, you realise that they are one of the best places in all of Sydney.  They give a near uninterrupted view up and down the coastline of Sydney.  The rocks on the cliffs themselves are also beautiful, and some intrepid artists have managed to climb out and decorate some parts with some graffiti art (of varying degrees of quality).

Getting out to the cliffs is itself not that dangerous, but once you are standing on the edge it's easy to appreciate why the area is made more publicly known.  There are too many ways you could foresee someone slipping and falling.  Added to that is rocky outcrops beneath the cliffs.  If anyone were to fall in, it's not clear how anyone would be able to get to them to rescue them.

Still, it's lovely standing out there and looking out at the ocean.  When there's a nice breeze coming in you almost feel like you're completely alone in Sydney, standing on the very edge of Australia.

Birthday and cheese

For Gabby's birthday, she wanted cheese.  Lots and lots of cheese.  As a Frenchwoman this seemed fair.

We decided that we would get her some fondue as the best way of celebrating.  Times in Sydney are changing as there seem to be more and more casual French restaurants opening these days.  It's been amazing seeing the change in Sydney's dining habits over the last few years.  There's an increasing sophistication and willingness to explore which has really helped to increase the variety of offerings available.  Only a few years ago, the only French places that were really ever available would have been the traditional fine dining places.

I bought Gabby a birthday cake from Lorraine's in the Ivy complex.  It was a light and crumbly hazelnut and cream cake that matched the richness of the cheese we had just eaten.

As we left, it started to rain hard.  We started to run for the bus and Maylis decided it was now the perfect time to start singing "La Vie en Rose" at the top of her voice.  

The Microsoft XP desktop picture

Having lived now in Sydney for a few years, I felt I now knew quite a bit about the city and some of its less famous features.  The city is beautiful, but it has a lot more to offer than the superficial views of the harbour and its beaches.  I think it's quite sad that most people, including many Sydney locals, never seem to get past that part of Sydney.  For them, Sydney is nothing more than that initial layer.

They're missing out on a lot.  Sydney is actually a city that has a deep multicultural base with people from around the world.  You can get incredible foods and experiences originating from around the world if you only leave the city and drive a little bit further into the suburbs.

Beyond that there are also some incredible sights to be seen.  One of my favourites would have to be Sydney Park.  This is a huge area of park lands and manicured grass that sits to the south of the city.  Every time I've been to visit, it's been relatively empty.  The car park always has space and you can walk around the whole area without being disturbed.  It rises up onto a hill which also gives an incredible view of the Sydney skyline from the southern side.

One afternoon, I took Manon and Gabby out to visit.  We had been eating at the nearby Grounds of Alexandria, when I thought that it would be nice for us to walk around the park as well.  Both of them loved the place.  The enormous open space and the lawns give you a sense of freedom.  You want to run and jump when you are out there.

Gabby made Manon and I walk out a bit because she wanted a picture.  She decided that everything looked a bit too much like the Microsoft XP desktop picture. 

Emus and wombats

I don't do much when I visit my parents in Newcastle.  I never lived there so I don't really know anyone there.  Instead, I treat my visits as a time to relax and decompress.  Not too far from my parent's house is Blackbutt Nature Reserve.  It's a nice place for families to take the kids to see some native wildlife.  I didn't have anything to do so I thought I would go have a look.

The reserve is a huge area, but there is small part of the reserve which has been designed as a wildlife habitat.  It's in this part that you can see some native animals.  When I was there, the wombats were out and about, shuffling around and making their loud grunting noises.  I've never seen a wombat in the wild, only in sanctuaries and other locations like this.  It's hard not to like wombats.  They always look fat and they waddle when they walk at their own pace.  They are definitely one of the funnier animals in Australia and they never seem hurried or scared.

On the other side of the reserve were some enclosures for emus.  These animals look terrifying and enormous up close.  Some of them looked to be limping a little bit, so this reserve must also be a rehabilitation centre for them.

We kept walking around and eventually spotted some green and shiny.  When we got closer, we realised it was an emu egg.  I'm not sure whether it was abandoned, or if that's just where the emu decided it wanted to keep its egg.

The whole reserve is a nice place for a couple of hours.  Living in Australia, you don't often actually see the animals that are so famous to so many around the world.  It's nice to get close to them once in a while.

Round and round

Ferris wheels seem to be experiencing a renaissance around the world.  It seems like you can't really be a global city unless you have a ferris wheel in the CBD to show all the visitors how great you are.

Normally I walk past these things without a second glance.  Having Manon and Gabby with me meant that we were going to try more things.  They both wanted to go for a ride to see the city and I was more than willing to have a look.

The view wasn't that great.  It just isn't high up enough and the location of the ferris wheel in Darling Harbour means that it's a bit too far away from the rest of the city.  There are better places to go with better views of the city.  Still it was fun to go up, though I'm not sure it would have been had Manon and Gabby not been there screaming as we made the turns.