This trip is again my annual visit to Australia during
Chinese New Year. This time I am
traveling alone as Anne decided to stay in Boston to help look after my
granddaughter. Between that and two
weeks with her in-laws, the decision was quite easy to make. It’s a good thing we booked our tickets with
Mileage Plus awards, and thus there was no penalty when we canceled. I also changed my origination airport to
Boston, which took all of five minutes over the phone, also at no cost. These pleasant experiences with Premier
service vanished when I got on the Boston to Newark flight. More on that later.
February 6, Wednesday.
Woke up earlier than usual so I could help out with walking Ruby (the
dog) and clearing the 1 inch of snow on the ground. There was a bit of traffic when we left
Somerville at 8:30 am, so instead of 10 minutes it took about 20. My original flight was going to be at around
10:15 am, but I got a seat at the gate for the 9:25 am flight. The agent gave me a seat in the regular
economy area, when I tried to move to an empty row in the Economy Plus section,
the flight attendant wouldn’t let me, despite the word “Platinum” printed on my
boarding pass, claiming that shows the status at the time of purchase or
something like that. I managed to dig
out an expired Platinum card and got the seat, still a bit peeved. I don’t mind their making sure the rules are
followed, but do mind when their default view is the customer is trying to
cheat.
Anyway, the otherwise uneventful flight got me to Newark
early enough that I could catch the 11 am train, getting home at about
noon. I managed to get a few things done
before walking back to South Amboy station to catch the 3:30 pm train
back. UA1284 is quite empty, I had a row
to myself, but made the mistake of moving to the window seat, resulting in
another passenger sitting in the aisle seat.
I managed to select the photos for the blog entry from our June 2012
Paris and Switzerland trip.
Bought some See’s chocolate, had dinner at Fung Lam, and
then walked to the International Terminal, finding out to my surprise that it
wasn’t necessary to go through additional security. Waited in the lounge for about 30 minutes and
then boarded the flight. There is an
empty seat next to me, but I haven’t gotten much sleep yet so far (10 hours
into the 14-hour flight.)
February 8, Friday.
Plane arrived a few minutes late, I got to Passport Control at about
8:35 am. The lines were very long, and
it took almost 30 minutes before I got cleared from customs (latter took no
time) and met up with Ruth and Stephen.
After getting settled in Matraville, we went out to lunch at The Eight.
Woke up after 8 pm, after a two-hour nap. Got quite tired soon after the late dinner at
Jennings, and went to bed quite early.
I will be staying at Jennings Street while in the Sydney
area.
February 9, Saturday.
Lunch at Danny’s at La Perouse after visiting father’s grave. Newly completed roads to the peninsular make
things look quite different. Coffee at
East Gardens where Ruth did some last minute shopping for tomorrow’s Chinese
New Year dinner. Jogged for 2 miles, and
walked with Stephen for ¾ miles. Dinner
at Jennings.
February 10, Sunday.
Tim and Alyson arrived this morning.
While they caught up on their sleep, we went to Chinatown to pick up
some food, and then to the Fish Market to first have dim sum and then purchase
some sashimi salmon and oysters. Dinner
at Wilson’s house in Epping to celebrate the Chinese New Year – 15 people in all.
At Wilson's house.
February 11, Monday.
Went to Hurtsville’s Fairlea Nursing Home to visit mother; she is in
better shape compared to our last visit.
Lunch at Rockpool Bar and Grill was a bit disappointing, the beef we
ordered had a strong charcoal odor and was tougher than I expected. Walked to Le Perouse with Tim and Alyson,
stopping by father’s grave along the way.
Walked total 5 ½ miles and took an hour and forty-five minutes. Dinner at Jennings was take-out from
Domino’s.
Waiting for our food at Rockpool Bar and Grill.
February 12, Tuesday.
Left Matraville at around 11 am for the relatively short drive (under
two hours) to Mannering Park, where we rented a 4-bedroom house for 4
nights. Stopped at Wahroonga for lunch,
Alfred T came by to meet up with us.
Mannering Park is located by Lake Macquarie, our waterfront property
offers a view that reminds me of home.
Fished off the pier behind the house for a while, only Alyson managed to
catch a small whiting. Also used the
kayak for 20 or so minutes. Dinner was
lamb chops. Ruth would be cooking during
our trip.
House for four nights: 25 Kenilworth Street, Mannering
Park, NSW
February 13, Wednesday.
Hiked around the area. In the
afternoon went to the Delta Power Station since Susanna said they caught many
fish there. Other than the one Tim
caught that got away, we didn’t catch anything.
Someone else there caught a 3-lb bream, though. Dinner was curried chicken.
February 14, Thursday.
We drove back to Wahroonga so Alyson could get her teeth cleaned by
Alfred. The trip was quite short at less
than an hour. We stayed there for lunch
at The Butcher’s Block, a restaurant that opened last Monday (not sure if that
meant three or ten days ago.) The meals
were not that expensive (averaged about A$20 per person) and of reasonable
quality. Jogged for 4 miles in the
neighborhood while Tim and Alyson went on a 10-km walk. They caught many small fishes off the pier
afterwards. Dinner was roasted pork
loin.
February 15, Friday.
We went to the Coles Shopping Center to get groceries and to have lunch
at the Tavern next to it. The customers
at the Tavern were mostly the elderly thus quite harmless. Jogged for 4 miles again in the
afternoon. Having done most of my
exercise on an elliptical machine during the NJ winter, the up- and
down-terrain proved to be quite demanding.
My legs hurt for quite a while afterwards. Dinner was steak and lamb chops. After several meals of steak, we had to
conclude that it is not that good in Australia.
The Australian Pelican is a common sight in the Mannering Park backyard.
Spurred winged poover.
Cockatoos and some unknown black ducks.
The Heron.
Baiting the hook.
Caught one!
The house we stayed at.
Sunset.
February 16, Saturday.
Checked out of the house a around 10 am, and drove to Alfred and Naomi’s
house in Hornsby to take a look at the improvements they have made since they
moved there last year. Dim Sum at Taxim Chinese Restaurant afterwards before
Tim, Alyson, and I were dropped off at the Ottimo Italian Kitchen to meet up
with Tim’s classmate from medical school and his family. I had a salad with beef – and the beef was
quite good. We then visited his
townhouse with its great view of the Harbour Bridge. They just bought a new 38 foot sailboat, and
we went on it for a 2 hour ride, motoring most of the way. Afterwards we were dropped off at the Ferry
Terminal and took the ferry to Circular Quay, where we met up with Stephen and
Ruth at “The East” Restaurant for a quick dinner before going to see La Boheme
at 7:30 pm.
I will be staying at Jennings tonight and tomorrow night.
February 17, Sunday.
Did a 5-mile walk with Tim and Alyson, visiting Little Bay in the
process. The development used to be a
hospital compound, and Tim worked there as an intern some 30 years ago. Dropped Tim and Alyson off for their flight
back to Hong Kong. We went to dinner at
Shanghai Stories with Susanna and her family in Chatswood.
February 18, Monday.
Took Virgin Australia flight VA935 to Brisbane. Ruth rented a car and we drove to Middle Park
to visit Wally and Ling, who recently moved to this area so Wally could start a
teaching assignment. Dinner at Parkland
Restaurant in the Sunnybank suburb.
Staying at Ling’s and Wally’s place for the next two
nights: Dewsbury Street, Middle Park.
February 19, Tuesday.
Visited Crossway College, Mt. Coot-Tha lookout with a great view of
Brisbane. Lunch at Toowong Center. Dinner at Ling’s house.
The three siblings on Mt. Coot-Tha.
February 20, Wednesday.
Breakfast at the Nook Restaurant, Jindalee, things are expensive in
Australia. A full “English” breakfast
with coffee costs around $22. We got to
the airport at 11 am but couldn’t get on an earlier flight to SYD because of
the tickets we bought. I could never
understand this rule of the airlines since they end up flying empty seats on
their flights anyway. Jogged after we
got back to Jennings Street. Dinner at
Zilver in Chinatown.
February 21, Thursday.
Visited mother again in the morning, then went to Maroubra Golden
Unicorn Restaurant for Dim Sum. The
business class seat was okay but I didn’t get much sleep. The coach section was quite empty; many
people had entire rows to themselves. At
SFO security I decided not to go through the ProScan again. The gloves they used to do the pat down
tested positive for ETD, so I had to go through one that was more
thorough. It ended up being a long
process; but I had time. Flight 1480 SFO
to EWR is quite full and boarded early, so I had trouble finding cabin luggage
space. I do have an empty seat next to
me, though. The plane landed at around
9:35 pm, and I barely made the 10:04 pm train back to South Amboy. Got home at around 11 pm.
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