City slickers …

All things considered, it was a very enjoyable break away from home. We’re pretty much broke, but we did a bit of sleight of hand with the plastic in order to give Jack a break in the big city (which he loves). I love cities too, but they’re not Liz’s cup of tea. Indeed, she’d rather spend some time away in the mountains or the countryside or anywhere that there’s cute wildlife.

As I mentioned earlier, our digs were most excellent – roomy, very well apointed, amazing views, good hotel staff – a winner all round. If you’re ever in Sydney and are looking for somewhere central to stay, then try the Meriton Appartments in Pitt Street. You’re perfectly situated there for Darling Harbour to the west, Circular Quay to the north, Hyde Park to the east and World Square to the south. The monorail station is about 200m away, taxis roll past the front door day and night, you’ve got some of the best shopping in Sydney on your doorstep (David Jones about 500m down the road, the QVB 200m) and enough eateries to keep you busy for a year, let alone a weekend.

Great kitchen with microwave, fridge/freezer and dishwasher but also full laundry facilites.

So anyway, the digs were a hit. Our first port of call on the Thursday was the aquarium which, I am told by Liz who’s been three times now, was at its quietest. Now I realise that it’s a huge tourist attraction in one of the nicest parts of Australia’s largest city, but if *that* was quiet then shoot me before you take me there on a busy day. While the dugongs were the reason that Jack wanted to vist, I was far more interested in the sharks. Judging from the crowds, I wasn’t the only one to feel that way either. I mean, your dugong is basically an amiable sea cow and while it’s fairly exotic, it’s also marginally less interesting than watch Dawn French float around in a large fish tank.

A shark and, ermmm, some other large fish. And their brunch on the other side of the glass. Sushi anyone?

Nope, it’s the sharks that are the interesting inmates, no doubt about it. I mean, a shark could be in a really good mood and it would still look like it’d gnaw one of your extremities off *and* try to sell you a Cypriot timeshare apartment. I mean, they could be circling that tank without a care in the world, full of hippy thoughts about love and peace to all fishkind – and yet they’d still look like a cross between Voldemort, Rosie O’Donnel and a bulldog with a gob full of wasps.

Anyway – aquarium over, we walked back into the CBD for a spot of lunch, after which we headed back to the hotel for a bit. Liz took Jack down to the pool/spa and I sat on the balcony with a Gloria Jeans latte and a Sydney Morning Herald. Then, since it was such a nice evening, we decided to go for a walk.

We headed towards Hyde Park just in time to see the fruit bats doing a fly-by. It still looks mind-bendingly odd, seeing those big old bats flitting around in large numbers and if you’re anything like me, you find yourself reciting lines from the Dark Knight as they circle overhead. On one side of the park was a load of sideshows, beer tents, cafes and stage tents – part of the Sydney festival. We walked east out of the park, listened to a band playing a concert in the Barracks and then walked down to Martin Place just in time to watch a newsreader go through her paces at the Prime:7 studios.

The next day we decided to pay a visit to the Powerhouse museum which is Sydney’s equivalent of the Science Museum. We’d gone down to see the Star Wars exhibition which was in town. This wasn’t actually the first time I’d seen Luke’s hovercar, or  Darth Vader’s costume. About 15 years ago I went to San Francisco on a jolly paid for by Virgin Interactive to plug one of their games – a LucasArts title. We were taken out to the Skywalker ranch over the bridge and the highlight of the tour was when we were shown around the warehouse in which George Lucas stored all his old props. All the original scale models of the Star Wars spaceships were there just sitting on shelves, light-sabres, myriad R2D2s, the original oil-painted backdrops used to create places like the forest moon of Endor. It wasn’t just Star Wars stuff in there, there was also a load of Indiana Jones stuff including the Ark of the Covenant (it was empty) and a very nasty looking bullwhip.

I digress. The Star Wars exhibit is basically George Lucas’s prop warehouse tarted up a bit and fleshed out with some cool interactive displays. I can see how they’re trying to get kids into science by wrapping it up in Star Wars memoribilia, but the fact is that it seemed to me like the dads were getting far more out of the day than their kids. That said, Jack thoroughly enjoyed trying out the hovercar and controlling a pair of robotic legs.

The force is strong with him. It is strong in all his family.

Another day over, we bought some more booze and saw the day out on the balcony. On the last day we decided to take in the views of the harbout from the southern pylon. Now, the pylon costs $10, includes some cool displays and exhibits and the bridge climb costs $195. The top of the pylon is about 30m below the apex of the harbour bridge, which is to say that there isn’t a  lot in it.

$10 on the pylon versus $195 to walk up the bridge in a blue jumpsuit.

By now it was getting a bit chillier, so we decided to head back to the car and drive back to Broughton to pickup the dog from my parents. We got in the car and headed for home through the Sydney weekend traffic.