Travelling Post 18 - and into the New Year

And so on to New Years Eve. I was working all day until 6pm with Sam K at the cafe. The other 6 housemates had gone to Mrs Macquaries Point at 10am to get a good seat, with the plan being that Sam and I would join them after work. Sadly Mrs Macquaries point has a limited capacity of 25,000 and at around 5pm 10,000 stormed the joint meaning that we could not get in when we arrived at 8.30ish. After much pondering over what to do next we thought we would head over to the rocks. What would normally take about 15minutes to walk took over an hour as we pushed our way through people holding on for dear life and only stopping for breathers and to stare at the 9pm fireworks. When we finally arrived at the rocks, I queued up for beer and we sat down to wait for the fireworks.

The atmosphere was amazing and on the whole pretty friendly, I don't recall a time when I have been any where with so many people about. At midnight the fireworks went off, I tried to film them on my camera but realised I was missing out so put that down and just enjoyed the show. Easily the best fireworks display I have ever seen. T he view I had placed the Opera House in front of me, the Bridge to my right and the skyscrapers to my left. The fireworks were timed so well, so that when they stopped at the Opera House they started on top of the Skyscrapers or the Bridge. With a dozen or so other points where the fireworks were set off you can see they had some precision work going on there.

There was no 6am drinking for me, after the fireworks it was straight home to bed as I was shattered after a long day - it took 2 hours to get home anyway so it was not exactly an early night.

On New Years Day morning I rang the Mason's Arms and spoke to friends and family, in the afternoon I watched the Barmy Army get defeated by the Fanatics (Aussie Cricket Fans) in a life-imitating-art kinda 20/20 at the Coogee Oval, then watched a couple of DVDs in the evening. This was made all the better because I was supposed to be working that day but at 8.30am Sam came and woke me up (a habit that many people in the house seem to have) saying that Issac (our boss) had text saying he was not opening the Cafe today, not quite believing her I turned on my phone and received the same message, along with half a dozen text messages from Britain wishing me a Happy New Year. Quite Simply a great start to the year (if only the Barmy Army had won.)

After working the rest of the week, I spent a relaxing Monday off walking around the Chinese Gardens at Darling Harbour with Sam K and Stacey. For a very reasonable $9.50 we got entry into the gardens with tea and scones at the end. The Gardens had been built for the Bicentennial celebrations and designed by members of the Guangdong Government of China. This was one of the most relaxing days I had spent in Sydney and this is thanks to the highly deliberate nature in which the gardens had been designed. I suppose you could call the gardens picturesque, but not in an English countryside way, but in a very different manner. I went in expecting the extravagance and colour you see in Chinese buildings and dress, but their gardens are not like that all. They are simple, elegant and purposeful full of greens, browns, water and stone as opposed to reds, yellows and all the colours of flowers you might find in a British garden.

Above - various views of the Chinese Gardens.

Last Friday I visited the Powerhouse museum in Darling Harbour. The two exhibits that stuck out to me as being the best were Designtech and a display by Chinese-Australia artist Guan Wei. The work by Guan Wei was a Chinese interpretation of Australia, and was pretty magnificent, with large wall covering muriels and art that I could appreciate, there was also information on the Chinese Treasure Fleet of the early 1400s, explaining how Chinese explorers had landed on the Australian shore long before the Europeans but had abandoned it, and their abandonment of their exploration of the oceans in favour of following traditionalist ways. If they had not abandoned this exploration then the world could have looked very different. The second display that I found intriguing was Designtech, a celebration of the genius of New South Wales students in their ability to design objects from clothing, to furniture to a patent pending tracheotomy device. Never before had I seen a museum celebrate the youth of the area in which it is situated so well.

Anyway that is all for now, in my next chapter you can read all bout my exploits in the wine producing area of Hunter Valley.