Tuesday October 13 – Sydney
Wicked Good!
List of Australian beers I have drunk to date:
• Boag’s Tasmanian Draught
• Carlton Draught
• Pure Blonde
• Toohey’s New
• Victoria Bitter
• 2 others I can’t remember the name of ‘cause I’m obviously drinking too much beer.
Today’s round was played at Pennant Hills. Hills being the operative word. We schlepped our clubs on trolleys up and down small mountains like Sherpa’s on Everest. At registration in the clubhouse they handed out oxygen tanks along with the scorecards.
Each day there are two sessions (morning & afternoon) with shotgun starts. I had the morning after the night before session today, which meant up at 5am to get to the Central Terminal by 6am for the bus to get to the course by 7am in time for the 8am shotgun.
Which is actually a good point to discuss jet lag – or apparent lack thereof. The mornings started out early (3am) the day after arrival last Friday but have gradually moved to a pretty constant 6am (or so) which isn’t quite as late as I’d like to sleep but not so bad as to cause any problems and likely just as well as we get an early start to our days. Also, being tired by 10pm tends to limit the beer intake (but not by much).
We started today’s round on the hole farthest and uphill-est from the clubhouse. The two holes before that one were the 2nd & 3rd furthest and uphill-est. We had to walk them to get to our starting hole and then play the next 16 holes knowing that we got to walk them again to end the ascent.
 Pennant Hills - some of the hills |
 The target is the postage stamp surround... |
When we finished the round I planted one of the small Canada flags that I brought for the Opening Ceremonies into the green and claimed it for country & Queen. The greenskeeper was not impressed.
Another middle of the pack finish, with 92 chops at the little white ball. As you can see from the accompanying photos, however, the fairways were narrow canyons which required dead straight accuracy off the tee. This is not actually something that I am known for. That said, the forest was lovely today.
Another group of fun “locals” in my foursome today: Tony from Byron Bay (yes, Lizzy – that’s where Rachey lived); Danny from Newcastle (again, in the coal mining business); and Rick from a small city just slightly north of here called Grande Prairie, Alberta. We played Aussies vs. Canadians today.
Rick handed out little Grande Prairie Arctic Winter Games pins to everyone. That led to a 4-hour discussion of snow. Did you know that it has never, ever, not even once snowed in Sydney? Is that actually allowed?
Meantime, Debbie & Elaine took a tour of Sydney on the Sydney Explorer bus (get on; get off; walk around; take photos; repeat until you are too tired). They started off by walking onto the Harbour Bridge for some stunning views of the Opera House, Circular Quay, and downtown.
 Harbour Bridge Walk (not Climb) |
 The Chrysler Building |
 Circular Quay |
 Crossing the Harbour Bridge on the way b... |
Next stop was over to Mrs. Macquarie’s Point for a visit to her Chair (not quite up to date in its upholstery, apparently) and some stunning views… of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge. It has become quite apparent to me that there aren’t actually any non-stunning views of those 2 architectural wonders so I will give them alternate names in the photos from this point forward so you will think that there are in fact more than 2 photogenic sights here.
 Sailboats in Sydney Cove |
 UN Building & Brooklyn Bridge |
 Mrs. Macquaries (non-rocking) Chair |
 Chinese Gardens - Darling Harbour |
After my round, I had a swim in the rooftop pool, which has stunning views of…. HA! Fooled you – it’s Darling Harbour; not the Brooklyn Bridge and Metropolitan Opera House!
 Cruising in Darling Harbour |
 Chinese Garden from rooftop of Hotel |
Dinner at Macchiato’s Italian Ristorante on Liverpool Street was followed by a “Wicked!” good ending to the day. The spectacular musical began its run here last month and is playing to a full house nightly in the beautiful Capitol Theatre in Haymarket – about 3 blocks from our hotel. (I’m starting to get the idea that our hotel is VERY well located).
 Monorail rounds the corner of Tommorowla... |
 Wicked! Good at the Capitol Theatre |
Debbie wore her Ruby red slippers to the show. We are now humming and singing the music and I will likely do so ad nauseum for the next 3 months or until Debbie kills me; whichever comes first. That said, we both think it was fun to go to Oz in Oz. Even so, there’s snow place like home!
