Sea fog
Yesterday morning started off with some odd weather - we didn't see it initially, but there was a thick sea mist over the harbour, which affected the commuter ferries and was the first time this had been seen since 2003 apparently. The day started sunny for us but as Sue and I were heading off to play tennis at 9am, after having dropped the children at school, there was a wall of cloud drifting up from the sea. We ended up playing in the gloom for a while, together with a strong wind which didn't make it easy!

The rest of the day was spent with a bit of socialising - firstly going to meet Sue's aunt and husband for lunch at the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron in Kirribilli - very posh but with a lovely view over the harbour.

We then went with Rebecca to a Year 6 social with her school friends and parents at a Bowling Club near Manly where there was a pasta and pizza supper laid on. It was very loud but an enjoyable and interesting evening, especially hearing horror stories about the annual 'schoolies' week where final High School leavers descend on the Gold Coast for a drunken and destructive week of 'fun' (which sounds much like the Australian Ibiza)!

Weekend activities
This weekend started with a meal out on Friday night with Jane & Clive, while Laura and Rebecca 'babysat' their 8 year old daughter Emily in their house in Mosman (Caroline was out at a sleepover). Had a lovely meal in a local restaurant, with a visit to a 'bottle shop' on the way - most restaurants here are BYOs (Bring Your Own) due to the high licence fees, so you can at least pay a reasonable price for a bottle of wine and add a small corkage fee on top.

Saturday was spent ferrying the girls to and from various socials - Caroline and Rebecca had parties to attend and Laura met up with friends to go to the cinema. Sue and I managed to fit in a short visit to Manly Dam (with Rebecca) at lunchtime, as there was an open day going on, although it was a small affair at the edge of the reservoir - some good local bush walking here though, which we must try sometime. Our afternoon was spent leisurely in and by the pool, as it was hot and sunny, before the next round of taxiing began!

On Sunday, Sue and I went with Rebecca to Sydney on the ferry and had a wander around the Opera House area where the build up to the live final of Australian (pop) Idol was taking place. We found a vantage point to see the crowds start to arrive and take their place on the steps and it would have been a good place to watch the show (and fireworks) although didn't really want to wait for another 4 hours, plus our last ferry back was at 7pm. The girls ended up watching it on TV in the evening, which was just as well as the main final was actually held inside the Opera House!

The Opera House
Last night was a classical evening. Sue and I went to the Opera House for a performance of work by Rachmaninov, conducted by Vladamir Ashkenazy (who is quite famous apparently!). It was a varied performance, with choral works, a piano concerto (No. 1) and a symphony with soloists. The pianist (Alexey Yemtsov) was the highlight with an amazing performance without any music.

We were sitting right up near the back of the concert hall, taking the 'safe' option for seats that were available and must have been near to where we were sitting last time we were here - almost 13 years ago to the day. It was almost a full house but every seating area appears to have a good view, so we'll try another location next time to see what the other views are like!

Of course, the other highlight for an evening here is to have a drink beforehand, or in the interval, on the balcony overlooking the harbour, or to catch the ferry back after the performance. It was a warm evening and we sat on the back of the ferry watching the lit-up city recede into the distance. The bridge is starting to show signs of preparations for NYE, plus there was a stage going up on the forecourt of the Opera House for the final of 'Australian Idol' on Sunday night.

Another hot spell!
The last 2 days have been very warm - in the 30's - with today's temperature getting as high as 37c at lunchtime, although the sun hasn't been out for much of the day. It's a very dry heat so not as bad as it could be if the humidity was higher, although we need to use the downstairs rooms for sanctuary when we can - fortunately the office is quite cool during the day.

Today has been cloudy but also there is smoke drifting over Sydney from 2 large fires in the Blue Mountains which are not yet under control. We also had sirens and a smoky haze / smell this afternoon, so presumably there was a smaller fire nearer to us that is now hopefully extinguished. The fire risks are very high in this weather, especially when the winds are strong, but it must be terrible for the firefighters to be working in this heat as well!

Tomorrow should be cooler again...

Taronga Zoo

Sue and I went with Rebecca to Taronga Zoo today - Laura and Caroline decided to stay at home as they had been there before (even though it was 13 years ago!) and they also might have felt a bit 'old'.

The zoo has been going through a lot of refurbishment recently and there is still work going on for new sections to open in a year or so, as it tries to keep up with the times and compete against the aquarium and new wildlife centre at Darling Harbour, nearer to the city.

However, the zoo has a wonderful location overlooking the harbour and many tourists will catch the ferry across the harbour and then the cable car up the cliff into the zoo. We drove and found the main car park full so parked in a nearby residential street. Being a Sunday the zoo was busy but there's plenty of space to lose yourselves, although the main attractions were busy.

In recent weeks there have been stories in the news about 5 new Asian elephants that have been introduced to the new enclosures built for them and it was very impressive, but like all the large animals, it does seem unnatural for them to be cooped up, however large the enclosures can be. Most animals did appear to be in good condition and there was lots to see, with a highlight being the seals demonstration and, of course, the koalas!

Sue's birthday

It was Sue's birthday yesterday and we were lucky with the weather as it was sunny and hot, although a strong wind came up in the afternoon. Today it's changed to being very wet and probably the coldest day we've had since arriving.

Still, for Sue's day I took the girls off on the early run to school at 7.30 as Rebecca had band practice and then dropped Laura and Caroline off soon after 8.00. We then took off to play tennis for an hour at the local courts which were very quiet, despite the good weather (for the record, Sue won 9-7 on a tie-break!). Next it was off to Dee Why for lunch and a walk along the beach (where we could also see groups of school children in the distance, surfing and bodyboarding, which would have included Caroline, but we were far enough away to not embarrass her!).

Once the girls were back from school, Sue opened her presents and we then had a 'party tea' with cake and bubbly, followed by online chats with the UK and finished off the day by watching the latest episode of 'Tripping Over' - the drama set in Sydney and London, which we presume is also on (or has been on) in the UK as well.

Vertigo tour

Sue and I went to see U2 at the Telstra Stadium last night - this is the 2000 Olympic Stadium in the middle of the Olympic Park, about 10 miles inland from us. We left soon after the girls got back from school and caught a bus from the nearby shopping centre. There were dedicated buses just going to the concert and were running every 5 minutes or so, although we were the only ones of ours for much of the way.

We arrived at 5pm and joined the queue waiting for the gates to open as we had general tickets for the main arena. The weather was sunny but with a strong breeze, although as there had been thunder and heavy rain at lunchtime, we were lucky! We got into the stadium about an hour later, which was an impressive sight, with the central area below ground level and the huge stage at one end.

We found a spot about 100 metres back from the stage and waited for the show, although had to endure Kanye West first! U2 came on soon after 8.30, by which time it was dark, and they played until 11 with a fantastic show of all the (my) favourite songs* and a huge light wall behind them, plus they had a circular walkway coming into the audience which got them closer to us at times. The downside was that it was hard to see them 'in the flesh' much of the time but then that's what you get being in the pit! However, the atmosphere was great and the audience very good natured.

Once the show was over the stadium emptied reasonably quickly and then we were lucky to get a bus straight away to have a chance to sit down! We were back home by midnight and very impressed by the whole organisation of the public transport system, which was a great alternative to trying to drive and park there.

* set list for this show:
City of Blinding LIghts
Vertigo
Elevation
I Will Follow
New Year's Day
Beautiful Day
Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
Angel of Harlem
Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own
Love and Peace
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Bullet The Blue Sky
Miss Sarajevo
Pride in the Name of Love
Where The Streets Have No Name
One

Until the End of the World
Mysterious Ways
With or Without You

The Saints Are Coming
Party Girl
Kite

Sculpture by the Sea

Laura stayed at home to revise for a few exams coming up this week, so the rest of us headed for Bondi to walk around the Sculpture by the Sea event, which is now in its 10th year. This is a display of over 100 sculptures between Bondi and the next beach at Tamarama, with the artwork along the cliff paths, on the parkland at the headland between the beaches and also on Tamarama beach.

Traffic was heavy and parking took a while, but we eventually started at Tamarama beach and then walked towards Bondi. There was a wide variety of sculptures, most of which were interesting / impressive, although there were the usual oddities.

One of our favourites was the melting ice cream van, which had a cross lady (the artist?) hovering around all the time telling kids to get off it! There are some more photos here.

The cliff walk was lovely but very crowded and for much of it there was a slow crawl in single file both ways. We'll have to do this again sometime when it's less crowded as the path extends further down the coast to more beaches as well. By the time we reached Bondi the sun had gone in so after a quick look at the beach life (and a few shops) we headed back to the car and home again.

Don't feed the birds!
We recently hung a small bird feeder from the balcony to attract the Lorikeets as they are so pretty. The first few days there was no activity and then they started to arrive in twos, and then word must have spread as more arrived. At one point we had more than 10 lining up on the balcony waiting for a turn, or catching the food that fell.

However, the cockatoos then found out and started arriving to scare the lorikeets away. They also destroyed the feeder very quickly but at least they cleared up the mess as well. Even though the food has gone now we must be a 'known location' for feeding now and this morning we had lorikeets waiting patiently and chirping away politely.

We then had 10 or more cockatoos swooping over from the other side of the valley to come and sit on the balcony and on the roof above, waiting for some action. Although all the birds are very beautiful and amusing, we will probably stop the feeding for a while now, otherwise the house will start to look like a scene from 'The Birds'!

On a separate note, we managed to get a game of tennis in today after on/off showers all week. Looking forward to seeing the sun again soon!

Melbourne Cup
Everything stopped at 3pm today for the Melbourne Cup, the big horse race of the year which is held on the first Tuesday in November. It's the equivalent to the Grand National in terms of betting and sweepstakes - although this race is run on the flat. There were some 'names' from the UK sport involved (Frankie Dettori and Kieren Fallon) but the race was won by a Japanese rider on a Japanese horse for the first time, which must have put the Aussie noses out of joint!

The race reminded us of the first time we came to Australia as a family in November 1993 - our flight was diverted to Melbourne to pick up people returning from the race back to Sydney, which was the last thing we wanted at the time, after a long flight, but indicated at the time how big the race probably was here. It is also a 'bank holiday' in Victoria on the day of the race, but not in NSW so Sue missed the race live - having to do the school run - but saw it later on video!

Bonfire Night
But not in Australia!

The Ashes
After dropping the girls off at school this morning, we drove down to Cremorne to catch the ferry across to the city and walked the short distance to the Museum of Sydney which we had wanted to see and also to coincide our visit with The Ashes exhibition, which is on for a short time here.

As we were quite early the museum was still quiet so we headed straight for The Ashes and were among the first in. Going into the door the tiny urn was straight ahead in a large glass case and then the room stretched in 2 directions with displays and information about the history of the urn and the test matches between England and Australia, including items from W.G.Grace and Bradman, plus the current cut-glass trophy which the winners receive these days - very interesting, despite the slight Australian slant to the whole thing!

We then spent the rest of the morning looking around the rest of the museum, which is quite small but as there was a heavy downpour outside we were happy to stay! The museum is relatively new and built on the site of the first Governor's House and there were displays on the first settlers and the development of Sydney.

The rain started to ease, so we walked to The Rocks for some lunch and then sat watching the people for a while at Circular Quay before heading back across the harbour to collect the girls from school.

Tennis
We want to start playing more tennis here, so Sue and I had our first game today for an hour first thing, before it got too hot. We had driven around to a few tennis centres last Friday to have a look - 2 were quite small with not many facilities and 2 were much larger operations. Laura plays at one of these larger complexes, but we decided to try out one nearer to us - grandly named the Oxford Falls Tennis Academy!

The advantage of tennis centres here is that there is no annual membership to pay, so that although they are privately run, they are more like council courts and you can just phone up to book a court when you want. The Oxford Falls centre is about 10 minutes drive away and located in the bush with plenty of trees around and quite peaceful. There are 12 courts with all-weather surfaces covered by a thin layer of sand to help grip. Each court also has a small gazebo outside to put your stuff and rest in the shade when you need to!

The tennis centre has a number of social mornings and evenings, but we wanted to get a few practice games done first - and possibly a bit of coaching. It was hard starting off today but it got better as the hour wore on although there were still plenty of wayward strokes on both our parts. We were the only ones playing initially until 2 more courts were occupied, but we'll hopefully make this a regular session each week. The only downside was the flies...