More About Life in Sydney

Bill & Katherine at the restaurant

Jim, Elaine and Bill at lunch

Yesterday, Friday the 5th, Katherine drove us downtown to meet Bill for lunch in the central part of Sydney. We met Bill, parked in his spot in the garage and walked down the hill to a bar/restaurant- Albert's Tavern at the Corner. We ate a tasty lunch. Bill had Bangers and Mash (sausage and mashed potatoes), Katherine had a very different smoked salmon salad and Jim and I had Fish and chips. We had fun and enjoyed watching the folks hurrying in from work to eat. The street corner bustled with much activity.

We returned home to find the yard guy trimming hedges and clipping bushes. Couldn't tell he made much difference. I think this guy comes about once a quarter. There is nothing to mow- just stuff to clip.

Ethan reading a great book

Ethan read to me this wonderful book Sir Charlie Stinky Socks and the Great Adventure. For a 5 year old he reads incredibly well and with great expression.

We had a delicious Indian dinner cooked by Bill and great conversation after dinner with Bill and Michael. Ethan was hit hard by a 24 hour throw-up bug and after cleaning up the mess the 6 of us ate. By the time we finished talking, it was bedtime and we were off to sleep.

Morning came and Katherine was feeling under the weather. So we decided to take it easy. Bill cooked pancakes for the rest of us. They were having a problem with the garbage pick-up. For this apparent laid back world there are lots of rules. The garbage has to be out by 6:00AM in covered garbage cans. Last week the garbage was not out at 6:00AM so they refused to pick it up. This week there was much garbage because of the week before.  One of their cans is not covered and some garbage bags were stacked beside the cans. So another week it was refused. Bill called The Rubbish Bloke and he came at about lunch time. So for $100 a private rubbish collector took it all away.

By lunch time both Katherine and Ethan were feeling much better and we had great fun having iChats with Kathryn and Christopher in Nashville and Bill and Lucy Kemp in Bradenton. Still amazed at this way to communicate.

Sydney Harbor from our bedroom

The view from our bedroom- actually the spot where Bill and Katherine normally sleep is just beautiful. If it weren't so hot it would be a great place to hang-out. Perhaps tomorrow- Sunday will be cooler and more inviting outside.