Crocodile Dundee

We got in late last night, so I’m writing about yesterday’s adventures while sitting at the kitchen table eating a bowl of cereal, looking out at the amazing views from the Burns’ home.

Yesterday was a “lazy day” for Desi and I, in that we both needed to get some laundry done, so we dedicated the morning to that effort, knowing that we wouldn’t get home until later that evening, and we didn’t want to have clothes in the dryer when Mrs. Burns arrived back at the house. Around 11:30, we decided that the clothes dryer was taking too long, so we reverted to the Australian (and British!) alternative – the clothes line. We hung up our stuff, then grabbed a quick bite to eat at the house, and afterwards, we walked along the main street to the Collaroy bus stop. Only ten minutes after arriving, our bus pulled up and we hopped on, sat for about 40 minutes, then got off at Wynyard station. As soon as we got on steady ground, off we went to find a coffee shop. And of course, we were in luck – what’s more is that we found big coffee cups, something that is a sort of rarity here.

We walked down Erskine and along Sussex until we arrived at our destination – Sydney Aquarium. Desi and I spent over 3 hours roaming around the Aquarium – looking at sharks, turtles, platypuses, lizards, dugongs (true story), a crocodile and alligator lesson (sans the actual animals??), and just about every character from “Finding Nemo.” It was really a great aquarium, although I must admit, I haven’t been to that many. When we left the aquarium, it was beginning to sprinkle rain, so I pulled out my trusty $5 umbrella that I had bought the previous day, and it was all sorts of broken. Three of the legs had detached from the cloth, and one of the legs was completely snapped in half. Just what I needed. We made do with this makeshift umbrella, if you will, and walked swiftly towards John’s office at Chifley Tower. While waiting for John to finish work, Desi and I sipped on a glass of pinot noir at Bacco, a nice little Italian bar at the bottom of the building. Our bartender was Italian, and Desi learned the Italian word for “sunflower” – Girasole (like gee-rah-sole-lay). As soon as John arrived, we packed up, and headed out of the building to go and meet John’s group of friends for dinner. However, we heard the beckoning call of “BURNSY!” just as we were walking out of the tower and saw John’s friend Dave sitting at Café Chifley, having drinks with colleagues. We joined him for about thirty minutes, and Desi and I chatted to the friends, while I interjected intelligent financial comments such as “Mutual (pause) funds?” I was raking my brain for terminology from my intro class – yikes. After leaving Dave and his friends, we met up with Tom, and headed to Cargo Bar, stopping via Hotel Wynward for a bathroom stop. At Cargo Bar, we ordered food – I got a delicious goat cheese and pine nut salad – yum. While sitting and eating, Tim Page, Andrew (or Das), Gus, and Ed showed up, and we had some good banter, which sadly had to end around 10:15 because everyone needed to pack up and head home in order to be alert for work the next morning. We walked to the bus stop at Wynyard with Gus and Tom, then got on the 185 and headed back to Long Reef. We were all “knackered” when we got back to the house, but after 8 hours of sleep I feel nice and rested and ready for my second to last day in Sydney (ah!).

Amour d’Australie,

Ailee