Friday, February 22, 2013

Australia. February 6 – February 21, 2013.


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.

Double rainbow after a shower.

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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