Tuesday 26^th February
Moved to new digs in the Elite just down the road and had a two-for-one lunch at the North Sydney Club. Great food and they allow temporary memberships.

In the afternoon took a trip into central Sydney via ferry and bus to the Asian restaurant area where we had totally vegetarian Thai food, like vegetarian abalone, vegetarian shrimp, vegetarian chicken etc. and it was all good.

Sydney has a Casino that gives out cards that give you $10 worth of gambling money and free coffees whenever you go. I won $35 and Carol won $10 which made the trip entirely worthwhile. As seniors they also gave us vouchers for the supper buffet for $5. We decided to do that the following evening.

After a short walk long the waterfront we picked up the ferry and headed back across the bay.

Wednesday 27^th February
The Orpheum is an Art Deco cinema in central Sydney that sports some interesting decorations

and which does this special movie showing (mostly for oldies) that starts with the following little ten minute extra.

We saw the Swedish movie “As It Is In Heaven” – highly recommended and got sandwiches (included in the movie ticket) for lunch.

In the afternoon we visited the QVB (Queen Victoria Building) which is a Victorian era shopping mall

with two very strange clocks plus Queen Victoria’s coronation getup and jewels.

Supper was at the Casino (free tickets) and was less than inspiring.

Thursday 28^th February
Feeding lorakeets on Ira and Anne’s front step

then another excellent twofer at the North Sydney Club. Afternoon in the library with Internet for the guys, ladies to the shops.

Friday 29^th February
Booked our big trip up North to Brisbane and Cairns, leaving on the 14^th March. Great lunch at Costi’s in a North Sydney food court – grilled swordfish, salad and chips for 9 bucks – beat that!

Took a stroll round Paddy’s market in downtown Sydney and bought a couple of things. Noodle supper in a (almost) totally Asian food-court and then off to see a Neil LaButte play in a small theatre. This Is How It Goes was very well performed and much enjoyed.

Saturday 1^st March
Breakfast up the road in downtown (?) Kirribilli, then four of us took a trip to The Gap which, to my surprise, is quite a ways away from Sydney. This is a rough map of the harbour and you can see that the harbour bridge (and the neighbouring opera house - on the promontory just above 'Sydney CBD' which is downunderspeak for Central Business District) are nowhere near the ocean.

We took a fast catamaran ferry to the closest terminal to the gap which clips along dodging between the myriads of sailboats in the bay.

The coastline is very rugged at the entrance as you can see.

Back to Sydney after a walk around the southerly head to the lighthouse in time to see the start of the Mardi Gras which is essentially a gay pride parade. Here’s a couple of pics – most didn’t come out (so to speak).

When the crowds got way too much, we went back to the Thai vegetarian restaurant for some more of that great fake abalone.

Bus and train back to Kirribilli. A weeks pass that gets you on all local ferry, train and bus is only $35 and Ira and Anne are ensuring we get our money’s worth.