Wednesday February 3. Uber to Newark was quite straightforward, and we got to the terminal area early enough that we managed to catch an earlier (it was itself delayed by a few minutes.) While we couldn’t get seats in the E+ section, we each had a row of three seats, which isn’t bad, and this gave us over two hours at LAX. This, despite the rain and low ceiling at Newark. Flight UA839 was packed, and I couldn’t get much rest on the plane.
Friday February 5. Plane got to the gate at around 9 am, with e-passport and a straightforward customs process, we were out in about 10 minutes, which is highly unusual for SYD. Ruth and Stephen were waiting for us. After unloading our luggage at Jennings Street, we went back to SYD to pick up Ling who flew in from Brisbane. Lunch at Phoenix in Zetland was followed by grocery shopping at Eastgardens.
Anne and I both tried to get some sleep in, she with more success than I did – I took a walk to visit Father’s grave, a 2.5 mile or so walk.
Arrival Sydney after about a 7500-mile flight from LAX.
At father's grave.
Accommodation tonight. Jennings Street.
Saturday February 6. Tim and Whitney were getting in early this morning. They rented a place at Walsh Bay and asked us to stay with them. Since we needed to get the key from the custodian in the morning, Anne and I were dropped off in the area. We had coffee and cake in a neighborhood café, got the key, and wandered to the Opera House (a 20 or so minute walk) to get tickets for the afternoon’s concert. The Hong Kong to Sydney flight ended up being quite late, so the whole timing thing worked out to be quite tight. Things ended okay as we all made to Ruth’s place in time for a family dinner.
First of our four concerts in Sydney. Vladimir Ashkenazy conducting an all-Beethoven program of three of his symphonies.
Family dinner at Jennings Street.
View from balcony of apartment.
Accommodation: 211/21 Hickson Road. 6 nights.
Sunday February 7. Anne and I woke up early enough that we could have breakfast at PlayFair Café in the Rocks. A relatively short bus ride took us to Matraville at around 10:15 am, allowing us plenty of time for church. After church we walked across to the RSL Club with Stephen, Ruth, and another couple (the Cheungs) for a simple lunch. This couple used to work as medical professionals (doctor and nurse) and know many of the folks that Anne knows, and before we knew it we had been talking for over two hours.
The Cheungs moved to Sydney from Auckland a few years ago. Here we were having lunch at the RSL Club across the street from Praise Church.
Anne and I then went window shopping at Eastgardens, but found nothing we wanted to buy. By the time we got to Circular Quay, Tim and Whitney were there already. Many restaurants were fully booked, so we “settled” with the one at the Park Hyatt Hotel right on the harbor. We all picked the 4-course tasting menu, at $79 per person inexpensive as these things go.
Inside the Park Hyatt Hotel restaurant.
Menu for the evening. After we were done several of us regretted that we didn't go for the A$99 6-course meal.
Whitney constructed this composite of the dishes served at dinner.
One note about the Sydney transportation system – they have gone to the Opal system, which is very much like the Octopus system in Hong Kong. While it apparently still has clinks to work out, it is nonetheless rather easy to use. Interesting thing is our roundtrip bus ride on Sunday cost only $2.50. There is also $15 cap on the daily charge.
Chinese New Year is a big event in Australia. They have the 12 zodiac animals scattered all over town. Here are monkeys at the Opera House.
Rabbits at Customs House.
Monday February 8. Today is one day for visitations. The first visit was to Fairlea to look in on Mother. We then drove to Wendy and Wilson’s place to see how Wendy is doing after a rather complicated surgery. After lunch at Zetland’s East Phoenix, Anne and I took the ferry to Manly for a short walk.
Dinner was at Bentley’s, located at the Radisson Blu in CBD. We all decided to skip the tasting menu and go for the traditional entrée and/or main combination. This would be our New Year’s meal.
Dinner at Bentley's.
Tuesday February 9. After having toast, eggs, and bacon, Anne and I decided to head to town to try out the cuisine. The first place was Sedap (around the MLC area), a Malaysian restaurant, where we had Roti with curried chicken. This was followed by Mother Chu in Chinatown; there we had the famous Taiwan dish omelet with small oysters, which wasn’t very good. In celebration of Chinese New Year, the city placed the twelve animals of the Chinese Zodiac at various locations, and I took pictures of several (goat, cat, dog, and snake.) We then took the Ferry to Watson Bay where we had take-out fish and chips from Doyle’s. After a short walk in the Gap area, we took the ferry back.
Our first restaurant was Malaysian.
Even though this wasn't a very good dish, we still managed to eat most of the Oyster Omelet at Mother Chu's.
Doyle's Seafood is always dependable if standard. This is their Watson's Bay location.
Even though we have been to The Gap many times, I still find the view breathtaking.
Over the course of a couple of days, we went around town taking pictures of all the 12 zodiac animals. We cheated a bit as the guide book lists where they are.
We saw Pearl Fishers at the Opera House this evening, grabbing something quick to eat on the way over and on the way back.
Curtain call at the conclusion of Bizet's Pearl Fishers. This was a very different production from the one I saw many years ago. And the story was slightly different too.
View of Luna Park across the Harbor, on our walk back to Walsh Bay from The Opera House.
Anne took this photo of the Opera House.
Meanwhile, Tim underwent oral surgery to remove his last wisdom tooth. The recovery process would end up taking quite a while.
Wednesday February 10. Ruth came by around lunch time, and we drove to Chatswood Chase to have lunch at a Shanghai restaurant. Afterwards Anne and I went to have more food at Tim Ho Wan, a Michelin-hatted chain in Hong Kong, and we brought some takeout for Tim. The OCD in me made me went on a quest for the rest of the animals in the Zodiac. These were all concentrated in the Pitt Street Mall/Martin Place area. And success!
Anne and I then went off to hear the pre-concert talk. Tim and Whitney joined us for the second Beethoven concert conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy, featuring Symphony No. 4 and Piano Concerto No. 5, with Garrick Ohlsson as the soloist.
Second all-Beethoven concert with Ohlsson playing Piano Concerto No. 5
Thursday February 11. Ruth and Stephen brought over some takeout food. Anne and I then walked across the Harbor Bridge for the first time. We took the ferry back to Circular Quay from Milson’s Point.
We crossed the Harbor Bridge for the first time today. One view of the Opera House at mid-span.
Another view from mid-span.
In front of Luna Park.
View from the other side of the Harbor.
We don't understand contemporary art. It is a good thing afternoon tea at MCA (Museum of Contemporary Art) is traditional.
Waiting for the start of Luisa Miller.
Curtain call, Luisa Miller. The set of the opera is minimal.
Friday February 12. Tim’s face and neck were both swollen, so he decided to see Alfred (a dentist) to see if there was anything he could do to help. He drafted Ruth to drive him up to Alfred’s practice.
Before traveling to Sydney, Tim had booked a table at Sepia, by some accounts the top restaurant in Sydney, for a tasting menu lunch. As is the usual practice for this type of restaurants, the cost to skip is higher than the cost to go, so Anne, Whitney and I decided to go. We first stopped by the Friday local market – advertised heavily in the Rocks area – but there wasn’t much to look at, that gave us enough time to check out the new development Barangaroo before we got to Sepia. We had the choice with fewer courses, and we all enjoyed the experience. I was ready to relax my grading of restaurants and give it an A-. They didn’t charge for the one no-show, which is nice of them.
Outside Sepia Restaurant.
Composite of restaurants.
Composite of dishes for our tasting menu. These are made by Whitney.
It was past 3 pm when we got back. Tim, Ruth and Stephen were back in the apartment already. At about 5 pm we drove down to Matraville to have a brief chat with Rev. Lui about Praise Church. It was then dinner at East Phoenix. We decided to move back to Jennings Street as Anne will head back to NJ tomorrow.
Accommodation: Jennings Street. 2 nights.
Saturday February 13. Anne and I walked into town to have breakfast at Crayz Coffee. The ham and cheese omelet was served in a hot skillet, and was more like a frittata. In any case, we fully enjoyed it. We then took the bus to visit the cemetery again, before returning to Jennings Street for Anne to finish packing. After seeing her off on the SYD-SFO flight, I tried to catch Bus 400 to Eastgardens. That was a bad experience: people were bringing in large surf boards, suitcases, and had lots of problem finding space to stow in this regular coach. Ruth picked me up to meet up with Tim and Whitney at Walsh Bay.
Tim’s wound really swelled up, and he asked Alfred to come and take a look. Alfred punctured the wound to try to get it to drain; the end result, however, was only more pain. That didn’t stop us from trying to head out the The Eight for dinner, our first choice Four Seasons being all booked up. This was also a bad experience: we were late getting seated, the food was very slow, and worst of all, the service was surly. We finally complained to the manager (for the record, I didn’t initiate it,) and the waiter eventually apologized.
The poor service at The Eight ruined everyone's mood.
Sunday February 14. Tim and Whitney were heading back to Hong Kong on a 4 pm flight; I had a 1:25 pm flight to Brisbane, and we all got dropped off at around 12:30 pm. Tim’s practice is to check in early and stay at the airline lounge, my practice is to spend the least time in the airport. Usually, that works, except today Tim couldn’t eat much.
My roundtrip Tigerair tickets cost around US$100, so my expectations were minimal. I really can’t complain: I got a window seat for this short flight, there was room to stow my (small) carryon, the crew was courteous, and the plane got off and landed on time. So what if one has to pay $4 for a cup of coffee; you can bring one on board (well, may be coffee is not okay.)
Flying from Sydney to Brisbane on Tigerair.
Ling and Wally picked me up at the gate – in Australia everyone could inside a domestic terminal. Dinner was pork belly and shrimp prepared by Ling.
Accommodation: Ling and Wally’s apartment.
Monday February 15. I had a morning meeting with Richard Gibson of Brisbane School of Theology this morning, the major point of discussion being BST’s initiative in launching a center of excellence. Wally and Ling took me to a “yum cha” place for lunch, and I was reminded what polite service could be like. Since this is a work day for Wally, I was dropped off at the airport afterwards. Having 3 ½ hours on my hands, I started to read a former colleague’s book draft.
Getting in around 8 pm, I bought a Red Rooster meal to eat at Jennings. It was then packing for the return trip.
Accommodation: Jennings Street.
Tuesday February 16. This is about 2 hours into UA840 bound for Los Angeles, lunch service concluded a short while ago. The coach section is wide open, I have an entire row of 3 seats to myself. 12 hours later, I hadn’t got much sleep during the flight.
One could cobble together a decent meal at the Singapore Airlines lounge.
This sign above the urinal got a chuckle out of me. Does it mean the one on the right is okay?
I haven’t been at the LAX International Terminal for a while, and am quite impressed with how modern it looks. Even with a passport scanning system, one still has to go through an agent to clear immigration. In Australia everything was done electronically! The Tom Bradley Terminal is quite a distance from Terminal 7, where United is located; but it was a pleasant early morning walk. And I had time.
Arrival at LAX.
The long delay of the LAX-EWR flight meant I could spend time enjoying this.
Turns out I will have a lot of time. I just got notified that the flight I’m on will be delayed more than 3 hours due to a maintenance issue. What is even more frustrating is the plane got in the night before, and somehow they never got to it until now. I have always thought of airline people as “linear-thinking” types, this is yet another confirmation.
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