|
 |
7th Nov 2005
A harbour tour ...
Monday, 7th November, 2005
We let the weekday melee of school and work exits (which takes place before 8 o’clock) clear this morning before venturing down to check out a cup of tea.
Crecy had been investigating some harbour tours for us on the net and we had a number of options; Dorothy was fussing around making tea and toast … tea in a teapot; warmed for a minute, boiled water onto the tea leaves and ‘drawn’ for 8 minutes. It was the best cup of tea we’d had for months!! The American tea, in spite of the selection of pekoes, Earls and Lady Greys, English breakfasts and Liptons etc simply doesn’t match up – probably the water … and also the milk ... and according to Dorthy, the fact that they don’t boil the water properly. She has had, oin occasiona cup of tea made with hot water out of the tap! Anyway this was a treat and I had several cups.
Jeremy had left early to drive out to somewhere in ‘the country’ for a business meeting … but then discovered that the meeting was in fact in the city at 8 o’clock so he was running badly late. Crecy had done the school run but was now on standby to pick up Jeremy and deliver him to the city. Apart from all that it was very relaxing.
After breakfast, Dorothy rummaged out a very old family scrapbook with newspaper cuttings, sketches and engravings dating from the mid 1700s; an incredible document archive, with some fascinating first hand reports of the Indian Mutiny and the Siege of Lucknow. Also she brought out her fathers game book .. her father being a great uncle of Anne’s who died quite early on in the 20th century. The game book was another fascinating document with reports of early shooting exploits at various familiar places and he invariably shot with his brother (Anne’s Grandfather).
Of particular interest were the entries relating to some driven grouse days at Ettridge!! Part of the Phones Estate. Some of the writing was slightly difficult to decode without concentrating and it was only when I recognised a photographic view looking up the Truim with Loch Ericht in the background that the whole thing began to fall into place … the main problem being that the ‘Ts’ in Ettridge hadn’t been crossed. Anyway it was an interesting insight and fascinating from the point of view that this is familiar ground, with current family connections – these Ettridge shoots took place in the early 1920s. I took a few notes for later scrutiny but didn’t have much time to study things too deeply.
Anne and Dorothy spent the rest of the morning discussing family and delving into the scrapbook. I hooked up to the net and sorted through the backlog of e-mails and web uploads.
Crecy dropped us down at Circular Quay in the shadow of the harbour bridge and we booked ourselves onto a Majestic Tour of the harbour which was leaving at 1pm.
Sadly the skies are grey and there’s a bit of a breeze blowing … not the Australia of the tourist brochures for sure … but equally we weren’t troubled by the heat!
Sydney is a beautiful city. Our introduction from the water showed just how leafy it really is, although there are two distinct developed districts, north and south of the bridge, the rest of the city comprises low houses interspersed with trees and much of the shoreline is state park … and so protected.
After the boat tour we walked around to the Opera House and got a light lunch sitting out on the wharf, before walking around this bizarre building … and also re-taking an old postcard shot from the Man o’ War Steps, squeezed in between the Opera House development and the Botanical Gardens. Its probably impossible to get to the exact camera location … at least without the aid of a ladder … but remarkably little has changed in the intervening hundred years.
We took a taxi back to Woolhara for another restorative cup of tea … but almost immediately we were off again along to Centennial Park to look at another postcard location. Another very early 20th Century card … taken on the central drive and after a slight false start, we found it! The road has shifted very slightly and the trees are probably not the same … but its very recognisable.
Our stay with Dorothy was drawing to a close and Grayem an old friend of the Drysdales was going to pick us up from Dorothy’s and look after us for the next couple of nights.
Grayem lives across in Randwick and we bade a fond farewell Dorothy and whizzed across the suburb to meet Grayem’s wife, Briony at Chez Forrest a three storey townhouse in a quiet part of the town.
A lovely dinner and some great Aussie wine and once we’d got our heads fully round the time changes involved, we phoned Julia in Barbados; Eleven o’clock at night on the 7th, translated into 8 o’clock on the 8th in Barbados.
|
Diary Photos |
My Home
