Watching Kevin McCloud's Grand Tour is giving me itchy feet. I've been in one place so long, and Australia can feel so restricting. I want to see Greece, I want to see Sarajevo, I want to see Rome, I want to swim off Croatian beaches, I want to dance all night in Berlin clubs, I want to wander down side streets in St Germain eating crepes in Paris. Try to find somewhere interesting to go for 3 days or so that can be easily accessed from Sydney, and you basically come up with....Melbourne.
Now, Melbourne is a great place. I possibly had more fun there than I've ever had anywhere else in my life, in terms of marauding and gallivanting and generally drinking too much and going to bed at 6am. It's attractive, clean, easy to navigate, friendly, varied, cultural, affordable and generally an all round good, interesting place to pass some time. But, both of us having spent some time there, it's no longer perhaps the most exciting destination. It's essentially Sydney, with trams.
You can get onto a plane in Sydney, fly for over 5 hours, get off the plane, and still be in the same country. I'm yearning for some variety. The kind of variety you get in Europe in such abundance. I know there are some beautiful places relatively nearby, but most are inaccessible or at least difficult to come by by public transport (Hawkesbury River, Hunter Valley and the Snowy Mountains to name just a few I seem to be coming up against a google-brick-wall of useful transport options).
I find the programs shown on Aus TV, in particular ABC which buys a lot of BBC imports, somewhat odd sometimes. A lot of the shows are very Euro-centric, or even British-centric, and I wonder how this really goes down with the average aussie viewer. One night, I found myself watching an episode of a Bristish property show, 'Escape to the Country', which was extolling the virtues of the common dream of moving to Cornwall. I highly doubt there are large numbers of aussies desperately interested in the trials and tribulations of buying an overpriced pokey seventies' stone-clad cottage with a view of a dismal grey drizzly coastline. I do wonder though, if some Australians ever share this feeling of being stuck in a big expanse of the cultural same old.
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After a scorching hot day yesterday, we took a picnic down to Sydney Park and sat out on the hill until it got too dark to see. Last night was the warmest night for 13 years, with the temperature 'dropping' to an overnight low of 26 degrees. Today is all change, however, and there is a distinct wintery chill in the air, especially as it is now starting to get dark a little earlier. I have a stressful week this week, but I'm looking forward to a bit of relaxation at the weekend, perhaps a trip to the beach as there will not be many more opportunities now.
Last weekend we saw British Sea Power play at the Manning Bar and they were excellent. Afterwards we trundled to the townie (what is that pub's full name??) for gin and I met a man from Cheltenham who is seconding at the British High Commission in Canberra, which was interesting as I secretly would love to work for the British High Commission. I did also secretly want to work for the government but not if it means I have to get bitch-slapped by a raging Gordon Brown. *quiver*
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I was going to end this post by querying whether I should watch QI or go to bed but I appear to now be watching QI so there we go.
Tuesday 23 February 2010
Sunday 7 February 2010
Cultural Review - January 2010
Not so much a resolution, more of a notion, but in any case I decided that I needed to get out more.
January in Sydney signifies the annual rolling round of the Sydney Festival, an arts festival in a similar vein to the Edinburgh International Festival with elements of the more lowbrow 'fringe'. A perfect opportunity for some cultural pursuits!
But, before getting on to that, I must just say what brilliant fun I had at the cricket! We attended the first day of the second test between Australia and Pakistan at Sydney Cricket Ground on 3rd January. It was so exciting!! Unfortunately the weather was bad and the start of play was delayed until after lunch by rain (wow, just like in England), but they finished an hour later so we still got the best part of a full day.
The SCG is so big and shiny! I'd only been to Trent Bridge before, which is nice and pleasant in a way that you imagine an English cricket ground should be, but the SCG is just so different. And so huge. I'd only seen county cricket at Trent Bridge so the ground wasn't that full, but the SCG was heaving!
Pakistan bowled first and they managed to bowl out all the Australians! Which was crazy but also good because we got to see the whole team bat, although none of them for very long. Mark was excited to see Ricky Ponting bat but he ended up being out on the first ball! We bought tickets for the non-alcohol stand and there were quite a few Pakistan supporters sitting near by, so we got quite into Pakistan and did a lot of cheering!
After Australia all got out, we got to see Pakistan bat briefly, but only a couple of overs. I never realised cricket could be so exciting, and I can't wait to go again!
Sydney Festival
If you go down to Martin Place very early in the morning (like, 6am - the stall opens at 8 but you will need to get in the queue and some people camp overnight) on every day of the Festival, there are a few tickets available for every show that day for just $25. Mark decided to give this a go to see if we could get tickets for a new German production of Hamlet by Thomas Ostermeier of Schaubühne Berlin that was on at Sydney Theatre. He went to queue in Martin Place at 6.30am on a Monday morning, but this proved too late, although we did get one $25 ticket. Still, we really wanted to see it and there were a few full price tickets left for that night, so we got one of those.
And we were glad we did because it was great (there were subtitles on a screen at the top for anyone who's wondering if it's easy to understand Hamlet in German!). The pace was very fast and the whole thing was very in your face, with a set that came right out into the stalls. The guy who played Hamlet was really quite good at going mad, and his performance went from hilarious to shocking to repulsive and back again. And they had rain on stage and I'm always a fan of rain on stage.
Another play we wanted to see, and did manage to get $25 tickets for this time, was a new adaptation of Luigi Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author.
Six Characters is a metafictional play, concerning the arrival of the eponymous characters during the editing process of a documentary (in the original play it was during rehearsals for another play). They insist that they are characters looking for an author, and demand that one of the production staff step into this role. One of them eventually agrees, and they begin to play out the life stories of the characters, in the process posing many questions about the increasingly blurred boundaries between fiction and reality.
The idea is a pretty clever one and I would actually like to see the original play to see if it works better. The first half of this production was very good, but it seemed to lose its way slightly towards the end, becoming a little bit too clever and trying to incorporate various in-jokes which led to it seeming a little rambling. It was super-well acted though, particularly on the part of the Father (I didn't know the actor's name but his CV included a lot of big-name British tv drama work) and the Stepdaughter.
Last weekend, the Festival drew to a close with the Opera in the Domain. This year's offering was a production of Leonard Bernstein's Candide, which seems an odd choice for an opera, since it...well...isn't an opera. It's a musical. Still, I thought it was great and we had a fun time, although Mark was not convinced since he hates musicals (except Cabaret)!
So there we go, that's the more interesting features of January. We also had some days out at Manly and Balmoral, but other than that, just money-saving and trying to keep cool, really.
Now I shall go and spend the rest of my Sunday afternoon making scones I think.
January in Sydney signifies the annual rolling round of the Sydney Festival, an arts festival in a similar vein to the Edinburgh International Festival with elements of the more lowbrow 'fringe'. A perfect opportunity for some cultural pursuits!
But, before getting on to that, I must just say what brilliant fun I had at the cricket! We attended the first day of the second test between Australia and Pakistan at Sydney Cricket Ground on 3rd January. It was so exciting!! Unfortunately the weather was bad and the start of play was delayed until after lunch by rain (wow, just like in England), but they finished an hour later so we still got the best part of a full day.
The SCG is so big and shiny! I'd only been to Trent Bridge before, which is nice and pleasant in a way that you imagine an English cricket ground should be, but the SCG is just so different. And so huge. I'd only seen county cricket at Trent Bridge so the ground wasn't that full, but the SCG was heaving!
Pakistan bowled first and they managed to bowl out all the Australians! Which was crazy but also good because we got to see the whole team bat, although none of them for very long. Mark was excited to see Ricky Ponting bat but he ended up being out on the first ball! We bought tickets for the non-alcohol stand and there were quite a few Pakistan supporters sitting near by, so we got quite into Pakistan and did a lot of cheering!
After Australia all got out, we got to see Pakistan bat briefly, but only a couple of overs. I never realised cricket could be so exciting, and I can't wait to go again!
Sydney Festival
If you go down to Martin Place very early in the morning (like, 6am - the stall opens at 8 but you will need to get in the queue and some people camp overnight) on every day of the Festival, there are a few tickets available for every show that day for just $25. Mark decided to give this a go to see if we could get tickets for a new German production of Hamlet by Thomas Ostermeier of Schaubühne Berlin that was on at Sydney Theatre. He went to queue in Martin Place at 6.30am on a Monday morning, but this proved too late, although we did get one $25 ticket. Still, we really wanted to see it and there were a few full price tickets left for that night, so we got one of those.
And we were glad we did because it was great (there were subtitles on a screen at the top for anyone who's wondering if it's easy to understand Hamlet in German!). The pace was very fast and the whole thing was very in your face, with a set that came right out into the stalls. The guy who played Hamlet was really quite good at going mad, and his performance went from hilarious to shocking to repulsive and back again. And they had rain on stage and I'm always a fan of rain on stage.
Another play we wanted to see, and did manage to get $25 tickets for this time, was a new adaptation of Luigi Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author.
Six Characters is a metafictional play, concerning the arrival of the eponymous characters during the editing process of a documentary (in the original play it was during rehearsals for another play). They insist that they are characters looking for an author, and demand that one of the production staff step into this role. One of them eventually agrees, and they begin to play out the life stories of the characters, in the process posing many questions about the increasingly blurred boundaries between fiction and reality.
The idea is a pretty clever one and I would actually like to see the original play to see if it works better. The first half of this production was very good, but it seemed to lose its way slightly towards the end, becoming a little bit too clever and trying to incorporate various in-jokes which led to it seeming a little rambling. It was super-well acted though, particularly on the part of the Father (I didn't know the actor's name but his CV included a lot of big-name British tv drama work) and the Stepdaughter.
Last weekend, the Festival drew to a close with the Opera in the Domain. This year's offering was a production of Leonard Bernstein's Candide, which seems an odd choice for an opera, since it...well...isn't an opera. It's a musical. Still, I thought it was great and we had a fun time, although Mark was not convinced since he hates musicals (except Cabaret)!
So there we go, that's the more interesting features of January. We also had some days out at Manly and Balmoral, but other than that, just money-saving and trying to keep cool, really.
Now I shall go and spend the rest of my Sunday afternoon making scones I think.
Saturday 6 February 2010
Avalon - Palm Beach - Pittwater
February is off to a wet start. It's rained everyday in varying degrees, and this weekend has so far seen some serious torrential rain that shows no sign of letting up (it's so heavy and loud this afternoon I couldn't hear the sound on the film I was watching!).
Being confined to the house does make for a pleasant, relaxing break every now and again though, and gives me a chance to catch up on a few things. This afternoon I booked us vegan meals on our Japan flights and then embarked on several hours of note-taking from our Japan guidebooks. My goodness there are so many things I want to see and do! I've only covered the Northern Tokyo areas of Asakusa, Ueno and Yanaka so far and I already have about a month's worth of sightseeing opportunities!
January gave us some changeable weather, regular showers but enough sunny days to make up for it. One of the best days turned out to be the Australia Day public holiday, on Tuesday 26th, so Mark and I headed off for a day out up in the northernmost edge of Sydney.
Our final destination was Palm Beach, the furthest north of Sydney's Northern Beaches suburbs, just over 40km from the city. We made an early start, arriving at Wynyard in good time to board the 9.30am L90 bus. As the bus journey was a long one (over 90 minutes in total), we had decided to get day tickets so we could get on and off the bus to break the journey up a bit.
The L90 meanders up through most of the Northern Beaches and you get some good views of the coastline at Dee Why, Collaroy, Narrabeen and Newport. After a perusal of our guidebooks, we settled on stopping off at Avalon, which is actually the last suburb the bus goes through before Palm Beach itself. Whale Beach actually lies in between the two, but the bus doesn't visit it, sticking to the main road into Palm Beach.
Australia Day events in some areas led to the limited road infrastructure of the more northerly suburbs becoming rather busy, so we ended up being on the bus 90 minutes just to get to Avalon, when it should have been little more than an hour. But oh, it was worth it! We hopped off the bus when we saw a sign for the beach carpark and pootled across the wide uninspiring main road to find the view opening out in front of us into a glorious golden sandy beach bordered by rocky, bush-covered headland.
It had such a different feel to the built-up city beach suburbs. From the beach you can only see a handful of buildings, most of which are just the toilet block and changing rooms. That, coupled with the distinct lack of people when compared to the more central beaches gave it a very tucked away feel and made you feel so lucky to have discovered it.
We had planned to just stop off for 30 minutes or so but we ended up lying under the shade of the trees for over an hour and ate most of our picnic lunch. We then headed back for the next bus to take us the last 20 minutes or so journey into Palm Beach. Palm Beach is basically a slender peninsula, on the eastern side of which lies the ocean, and on the western side is Pittwater and the mouth of the Hawkesbury River. As the bus continued north, the land grew narrower until at some points you could almost see water on both sides.
We hopped off the bus just before it pulled onto the beach road and walked across the park onto the sand. Palm Beach is home to some of Australia's most affluent people and this is very clearly reflected in a lot of the real estate in the area. As we walked onto the beach, you could see why it attracts people. It is absolutely stunning. And huge. I didn't realise what a long beach it was, it goes on for miles!
I didn't end up taking many photos in the end, but you can see some posh houses up on the cliff there!
Palm Beach was a lot busier than Avalon, which makes sense. Palm Beach is quite a tourist attraction due to it doubling up as the fictional Summer Bay, setting of long running soap opera Home & Away. So whereas Avalon was populated mostly with local families, Palm Beach had a greater mix of younger people. I don't think I have ever watched Home & Away in my life, so I can't tell you much in relation to that, although there is apparently some bit of set you can see!
We swam in the sea for a good long while and it was entirely enjoyable. Then we packed up and used our bus passes to hop round to the western, Pittwater side of the peninsula. This side has the Palm Beach ferry wharf, from where you can get ferries to locations around Pittwater, as well as up to Wagstaff and Ettalong to the north of the area.
We decided to take a trip just across to the other side of the water to Great Mackarel Beach, and we had a little walk up and down the wharf side whilst waiting for the boat.
The ferry return trip at about $13 is worth it in itself, even if you don't get off the boat. The views from the boat are spectacular. As you leave Palm Beach's shores behind, you get some great views of Barrenjoey Head and the lighthouse, as well as a good view of the west side of Palm Beach itself.
Across Pittwater are the shores of Kuringai National Park. All the stops on this ferry trip are within the park.
The ferry makes a few stop-offs at some tiny wharves nestled in dense bushland, followed by Currawong Beach and, finally, Great Mackerel Beach, where we get off.
Great Mackerel Beach is a tiny beach on the shores of the National Park, accessible only by boat. It was glorious. Aside from a few rustic looking beachhouses there was nothing there and you just felt so far away from everything, bliss! Steep cliffs on each side were coated in thick, dark bush and the expanse of Pittwater stretched peacefully out in front of you.
There had obviously been a few people over there earlier in the day having Australia Day celebrations, but most people had packed up now so we had the beach practically to ourselves. The only downside was that we could only stay on the beach for an hour as the last ferry service of the day soon came by to collect us and we returned to the mainland.
The sun was going down by now and there were some amazing views in the fading light back across the water.
Unfortunately, we then had to get back on the L90 for an uninspiring and long journey back to the city in the dark. But it was a brilliant day out and I couldn't believe we'd not been up there before. I guess we just didn't really know what was there before I looked into it. Hope we can find time to go back before too long!
Being confined to the house does make for a pleasant, relaxing break every now and again though, and gives me a chance to catch up on a few things. This afternoon I booked us vegan meals on our Japan flights and then embarked on several hours of note-taking from our Japan guidebooks. My goodness there are so many things I want to see and do! I've only covered the Northern Tokyo areas of Asakusa, Ueno and Yanaka so far and I already have about a month's worth of sightseeing opportunities!
January gave us some changeable weather, regular showers but enough sunny days to make up for it. One of the best days turned out to be the Australia Day public holiday, on Tuesday 26th, so Mark and I headed off for a day out up in the northernmost edge of Sydney.
Our final destination was Palm Beach, the furthest north of Sydney's Northern Beaches suburbs, just over 40km from the city. We made an early start, arriving at Wynyard in good time to board the 9.30am L90 bus. As the bus journey was a long one (over 90 minutes in total), we had decided to get day tickets so we could get on and off the bus to break the journey up a bit.
The L90 meanders up through most of the Northern Beaches and you get some good views of the coastline at Dee Why, Collaroy, Narrabeen and Newport. After a perusal of our guidebooks, we settled on stopping off at Avalon, which is actually the last suburb the bus goes through before Palm Beach itself. Whale Beach actually lies in between the two, but the bus doesn't visit it, sticking to the main road into Palm Beach.
Australia Day events in some areas led to the limited road infrastructure of the more northerly suburbs becoming rather busy, so we ended up being on the bus 90 minutes just to get to Avalon, when it should have been little more than an hour. But oh, it was worth it! We hopped off the bus when we saw a sign for the beach carpark and pootled across the wide uninspiring main road to find the view opening out in front of us into a glorious golden sandy beach bordered by rocky, bush-covered headland.
It had such a different feel to the built-up city beach suburbs. From the beach you can only see a handful of buildings, most of which are just the toilet block and changing rooms. That, coupled with the distinct lack of people when compared to the more central beaches gave it a very tucked away feel and made you feel so lucky to have discovered it.
We had planned to just stop off for 30 minutes or so but we ended up lying under the shade of the trees for over an hour and ate most of our picnic lunch. We then headed back for the next bus to take us the last 20 minutes or so journey into Palm Beach. Palm Beach is basically a slender peninsula, on the eastern side of which lies the ocean, and on the western side is Pittwater and the mouth of the Hawkesbury River. As the bus continued north, the land grew narrower until at some points you could almost see water on both sides.
We hopped off the bus just before it pulled onto the beach road and walked across the park onto the sand. Palm Beach is home to some of Australia's most affluent people and this is very clearly reflected in a lot of the real estate in the area. As we walked onto the beach, you could see why it attracts people. It is absolutely stunning. And huge. I didn't realise what a long beach it was, it goes on for miles!
I didn't end up taking many photos in the end, but you can see some posh houses up on the cliff there!
Palm Beach was a lot busier than Avalon, which makes sense. Palm Beach is quite a tourist attraction due to it doubling up as the fictional Summer Bay, setting of long running soap opera Home & Away. So whereas Avalon was populated mostly with local families, Palm Beach had a greater mix of younger people. I don't think I have ever watched Home & Away in my life, so I can't tell you much in relation to that, although there is apparently some bit of set you can see!
We swam in the sea for a good long while and it was entirely enjoyable. Then we packed up and used our bus passes to hop round to the western, Pittwater side of the peninsula. This side has the Palm Beach ferry wharf, from where you can get ferries to locations around Pittwater, as well as up to Wagstaff and Ettalong to the north of the area.
We decided to take a trip just across to the other side of the water to Great Mackarel Beach, and we had a little walk up and down the wharf side whilst waiting for the boat.
The ferry return trip at about $13 is worth it in itself, even if you don't get off the boat. The views from the boat are spectacular. As you leave Palm Beach's shores behind, you get some great views of Barrenjoey Head and the lighthouse, as well as a good view of the west side of Palm Beach itself.
Across Pittwater are the shores of Kuringai National Park. All the stops on this ferry trip are within the park.
The ferry makes a few stop-offs at some tiny wharves nestled in dense bushland, followed by Currawong Beach and, finally, Great Mackerel Beach, where we get off.
Great Mackerel Beach is a tiny beach on the shores of the National Park, accessible only by boat. It was glorious. Aside from a few rustic looking beachhouses there was nothing there and you just felt so far away from everything, bliss! Steep cliffs on each side were coated in thick, dark bush and the expanse of Pittwater stretched peacefully out in front of you.
There had obviously been a few people over there earlier in the day having Australia Day celebrations, but most people had packed up now so we had the beach practically to ourselves. The only downside was that we could only stay on the beach for an hour as the last ferry service of the day soon came by to collect us and we returned to the mainland.
The sun was going down by now and there were some amazing views in the fading light back across the water.
Unfortunately, we then had to get back on the L90 for an uninspiring and long journey back to the city in the dark. But it was a brilliant day out and I couldn't believe we'd not been up there before. I guess we just didn't really know what was there before I looked into it. Hope we can find time to go back before too long!
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