Here we go....Darling Harbour.
We love it down in Darling Harbour, we sometimes took a ferry or walked down George Street and through Chinatown.
Where the video is a bit wobbly, that's because I was filming a boat from a boat, and it was inevitable that at some point I was going to use this music.

http://www.holidaytruths.tv/media/2575/Darling_Harbour_Sydney/

Sanji x

Great stuff Shirley . Looks a fabulous place to wander along, soak up the atmosphere or sit and people watch . I can certainly see the appeal and could happily spend a few hours there.

More great music too .

Great stuff Sanji. Lynwestie, it's no good spending a few hours in Darling Harbour, we spent 4 days there and didn't see all there was to see. You can spend all day in the Maritime Museum, another day on the Naval Vessels and Lighthouse and 3 weeks in the restaurants around there. Luv it!

You never know Parky Sanji made it to Australia , maybe will could too one day.

Just so long as it doesnt take one of my sons breaking my heart like Sanji to get me there .

One think we like to do in that area is go down to the Fish Market - may sound a strange place to go but lots of food places down there and you can take your meal out onto the decking and eat and watch the world go by on the water, hopefully on a day when the pelicans are around.

We stayed in an apartment just up the road from the fish market. Definitely the best breakfast in town and the freshest fish around for any meals.

Just sorting out some photos tonight.
I had to smile to myself at seeing this signpost not far from Sydney Cricket Ground.
I go to the other side of the world and good old Donny is there too.


click on image to enlarge

New Year's Eve video.
I've struggled with editing the 'midnight' part of this video and I'm now fed up of messing about with it.
I was all over the place at midnight, there was just too much going off all around me to try and capture it all....You needed to be in a helicopter to get the full effects. lol
Oh well, you can't win em all when you only get one shot at it.

http://www.holidaytruths.tv/media/2702/New_Years_Eve.Sydney/

Sanji x
PS: I do like those big circular fireworks that seem to hang in the air longer and keep twinkling, oh and just how blinkin dark it was. !

Would just like to thank Sanji for all her hard work editing and uploading the video's

Many thanks

I second that glynis . I know Sanji put's a lot of time & effort in with her uploads and reports and even though Australia Isnt on my radar at the moment I always enjoy them .

Many thanks Shirley . Keep up the good work .

If anyone would like to see my photos and read what I thought about Australia and some other ramblings.

http://www.sanji-uk.co.uk

PS. and thanks for the thanks

A great read Sanji.

I had wondered how you enjoyed upper class after we had talked about it before you went.. Having done the journey in both economy and business I can say business is the only way to go if you are prepared to spend the money, but if you have to travel in economy I don't think Virgin compares well space or servicewise with some of the other major airlines. Though they are usually extremely good in Upperclass/Business, sorry about the food though.

I'll read your reports again sometime and give a bit more thought to some of your narrative but it's midnight here in Germany and we're driving to the UK tomorrow so I need to get to bed.

Thanks for sharing with us.

I loved reading your Australia pages shirley . Lots of really useful info in there for anyone planning a visit.

I know Sanji would really appreciate peoples comments of her hard work , Both good & bad in her "comments" section too . Really she doesnt mind constructive criticism either

@ Lyn
Thanks, it's been a real struggle constructing this website and what has taken me days, others would have done it in minutes, but it's kept me out of trouble and it was something that I wanted to do (all by myself) because I wanted somewhere to 'dump' my thoughts and because......well just because I wanted to see if I could.!

Just to clarify one small point and I will change it later, when I wrote that Virgin's electronic check-in went down, I meant the boarding check point .
Anyway, I think most of you have seen the videos from Australia, but I've put some of my photos on the site.

Sanji

I've just given myself a bit more time to read your reports Sanji, and am finding your view of the country and it's people really interesting though sometimes at odds with my experiences.

On the whole I found the Taxi drivers very friendly though I only took one taxi ride in Sydney and can't remember him being grumpy. The Taxi driver that took my friend and me from the airport to hotel in Adelaide gave us a running commentary on places of interest in the city. When we passed the Adelaide Oval he pointed out the statue of Sir Donald Bradman, I remarked that the Australian team could have used him (this was the week after Australia had lost the ashes in 2005) the week before and he took it all in good part as did a couple more of the drivers that we had during our 5 weeks touring the country.

I laughed at your experience with the cockroaches, we were staying in Brisbane and my travelling companion said she had seen a mouse run across the sitting room of our appartment, it turned out to be a huge roach, too big to squash and I had to get rid of it as she was totally freaking out. They breed them big down under don't they?

Your remarks about some of the Sydney suburbs rings true, we only see the lovely sides to Sydney when we see travel programs but some of the places are really scruffy and run down with the usual drunks and lowlifes prowling the streets.

I know you had looked forward to buying an Opal, I didn't remember them being so expensive, but must say that as I had visited a small mining town of Andanooka in South Australia where I bought a lovely pendant I had tried to keep away from shops, my friend did buy loads though. Of course the exchange rate must make a big difference, my first visit to Oz was almost 10years ago and the pound was stronger back then.

Anyhow, I'm trying not to hog the topic with my posts, I've enjoyed your reports and videos, I kept looking for your next posts back in January , thanks for keeping us all informed.

Hope everything is alright with your house now and that you are as back to normal as possible.

Judith

Hi Judith
Thanks for your comments, sorry for the delay in replying, I've been in Spain for the last two weeks.
Well, I have tried to be truthful and I've tried not to paint everyone with the same brush in Oz, and my opinion has been swayed by not only what I experienced, but also from reading items and the comments in the local papers.
Like every where else in the world, there is a big difference between what the government and the media spout, and how issues are affecting the 'ordinary' people, who feel strongly enough about things to put pen to paper (fingers on keyboards) to express an opinion based on reality.

As this is my first attempt at a website, I did keep away from certain issues which DID trouble me (the Aborigines), so I'd best leave that alone in here too.
Basically, I think I went to Oz wearing rose-tinted glasses and fairly ignorant on my part because prior to my son going there, Australia didn't interest me one iota.
Some Aussies like the Queen exactly where she is, on the other side of the world, and I came home liking some of the Aussies on the other side of the world, away from me too.

Sanji

Sanji

I think most of us regard Oz with rose coloured glasses, a place where the sun always shines and sun tanned healthy people prance happily around in the surf and who will welcome us Brits with open arms . The reality is somewhat different and like many places there are problems with health, crime and unemployment and that many Australians are seriously anti-British. When I'm travelling in a country where I speak the language I always buy a newspapers to get an insight in what is happening, Australia being no different and I learned a lot about the state of the country during my two visits, not enough time to really get to know the place but enough to get some sort of feeling.

As you say you haven't event touched on the subject of the Aboriginal people, a very sad period of Australian (and our) history which is still ongoing.

Having said the above I still regard Australia as a great place to visit, though New Zealand still remains my little piece of paradise, though not without it's problems.

Hope you enjoyed your Spanish holiday, you usually do? Congratulations on your WebSite I wouldn't know how to start making one.

Judith

I still regard Australia as a great place to visit,

What is it about Sydney that gets under your skin.?
I recently read an article about Sydney in the travel section of the Sunday Times, it was either last week or the week before, and the author was saying the same thing regarding Sydney getting under your skin.
He'd obviously been to Sydney before and rather than focussing on the city centre, the article was highlighting the delights of the places just outside the city like Bondi beach, Coogee, Manly, Bronte, Clovelly and Gordon's Bay, and after reading each section I was saying to myself, yep I've been there, yep I've been there and yep I stayed there.

Dave read the article and we both looked at each other and spontaneously said "I want to go back".
I don't know if we will go back, I'd like to think that maybe we will especially if the youngest lad gets transferred back, I been to other cities, but Sydney has left this yearning feeling that just doesn't seem to go away, and reading this article has stirred the desire to return.
I yearn to be back in Coogee and Darling Harbour"¦this sounds totally stupid I know, but having been to Sydney I can understand the emotions felt by millions of people when they see Sydney harbour bridge from the deck of a cruise ship as it comes into view.
In a way, I wish I'd never read the article because I just can't seem to get Sydney out of my mind, and I've just bought a 4 foot canvas picture of the bridge to hang on my newly decorated wall on the top of the stairs.

Gawd, this sounds so sad.

http://tinyurl.com/3oecqdn

Sanji

And I thought the Sydney Opera House was a hideous building until I saw it in the flesh. It really is beautiful piece of architecture.

luci