Easter housekeeping

Poirot Egg says a belated Happy Easter. He has three eyes because when he solves a crime he turns to the perpetrator and says "trois yeux!!" ......twas you.....with French accent.......hm?....

Good Friday was spent trying to buy a bottle of wine, with no success. So we resorted to spending way too much on cocktails in Glebe before Raami's birthday party. Saturday was food shopping (the only opportunity to shop in the whole 4 days!) then watching Elegy at the cinema.
On Sunday, we took the train to Bondi and found an amazing fish and chip shop (Fishmongers) where we podged up, before walking around the cliff path to Tamarama and then Bronte beaches. I love Bronte. I think I could literally be happy forever if I could get a nice spacious apartment in Bronte, with Mark and a lovely puggy and I would walk along the sea and swim in the little open air pool and never leave ever. Unfortunately we are priced out of the area for the foreseeable, but who knows for the future...
We sat on the beach for a while then wandered back as it got dark. Walking back from Bronte to Bondi is how I imagine walking back from the French Riviera into Blackpool Pleasure Beach to be. Not that you could really walk from one to the other, and not that I have actually visited either, but UH Bondi is so tacky.

On Monday we took the train to the Blue Mountains, getting off at Katoomba to walk the Giant's Steps. The weather was rather different from last time we were there!



Echo Point, the viewing platform for the three sisters, where we ended our first mountains walk in February. Not much viewing to be done this time!



A bit like Narnia!



It did make for some quite dramatic views though.

After making our way to the bottom of Giant's Steps (believe me, it was HARD even going down, they are practically vertical!), we pootled along the path at the bottom, then back up Furber steps at the other end to the Scenic World centre. Unfortunately it started to pour with rain about half way up Furber steps, leaving us ABSOLUTELY soaked and having to navigate a path that had become more of a swamp. It was quite invigorating all the same, and fortunately we both had a spare dry t-shirt, but the train ride home was not what i would call comfortable!

It was then back to work for a short week. Last weekend, we took a trip to Parramatta so Mark could investigate the bike he is getting from Parramatta Bike Barn. Parramatta is actually ok. It is Sydney's biggest suburb with a big shopping and business centre in it, but it also has some nice old buildings and a pleasant square (which was hosting 'Parramatta Chess Festival', much to Mark's excitement!), setting it apart from most of the West which is just bland. It has a bit of history as a town in its own right, so it's worth passing through for an hour or so if you have an excuse to go there!

And now it's Monday again, *yawn*. I must away to bed. After discovering the shocking state of my fitness on our Mountains walk, I am on a new exercise regime and was dragged out in my jogging gear before the clock even hit 7am this morning. And it was raining so double sad face :( We're on again for tomorrow morning. I almost died going up a gentle slope so something must be done!

Also please spare a thought for a guy I know named James. He worked at HCF with me until a couple of weeks ago when he left to go travelling, and is a close friend of my friend Karl. He was involved in a serious accident on Fraser Island, Queensland on Saturday morning, reported in the Times here: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article6125177.ece. He is one of the two passengers who were airlifted to Brisbane and is currently in intensive care.

Blue and yellow purple hills

So it's all back to mundane normality this week after the fun of having Mark's parents visit us over the last couple of weeks.

What joy it was to have days off work and outings! These included Manly, the zoo, Darling Harbour, Glebe, Newtown, Leichardt, and so many other various locations, but one of the highlights was definitely our trip to the Blue Mountains last Thursday.

We caught the train to Katoomba, which took a couple of hours. Sydney's western suburbs are so depressing to travel through, although the train did sweep me through two of my most favouritely-named suburbs: "Doonside" and "Rooty Hill".
Katoomba is lovable. It's all a bit old style, with a plethora of little cafés and a tiny proper 1970s shopping arcade (think "Arndale") full of antiques-y shops along the main street. The street leads straight out into the bush if you follow it down, and everywhere is so quiet and spacious. It's obvious why the towns in this area are such popular weekend retreats for Sydneysiders who spend their weekdays stuck in offices and being jostled all over the street and stuck in traffic jams.

We did a walk from Katoomba to Echo Point, from where you can see the Three Sisters. It was a cloudy day, which was actually good, as the lack of direct superstrength australian sunlight made the temperature more bearable for walking.



There is a cable car that does the trip in a slightly more direct way. But we went for the long way round.



The 'Mountains' are more Hills, really. But still, we all like a good sandstone formation, don't we?





Mark looks like a little sprite perched upon this log.

I'm looking forward to going back in Autumn for another walk.

The weather has turned quite dramatically this week. Whilst last week was glorious sunshine and temperatures in the low 30s, I have now just had to turn the TV up to hear it over the heavy rain drumming away on the roof, and am wrapped in a scarf to keep warm. Hopefully this will reach as far as to provide a bit of respite for the poor people of Victoria who have all been so tragically burned away.

Life on Mars is about to start on the TV, and I need to put some new audio books on my iPod to help pass the time during a depressingly uneventful period at work this week. I shall be back soon with some sort of ** Cultural Review ** as there is so very much I could rave on about!