Hi Sanji...glad you are back, glad you had a great time with nathan..but so so gutted for you that your house was wrecked...
I look forward to reading your report when you feel up to doing it bird..I know you have more important things to sort.
will be in Sydney myself in Jan 2012...

I will also be in Sydney in Jan 2012 too. I hope your house manages to get sorted out, sorry to hear about the bad news

HI Sanji, Welcome home. It must have been an awful shock to you and your hubby to find your home in such a state. I can't imagine how you're coping with it all. I also heard on the grapevine that you haven't been very well. I'm sorry to hear that and hope you're feeling a bit better. I imagine you need to be fighting fit to deal with the aftermath of the floods.

On a more pleasant note, I'm looking forward to hearing all about your Australian escapades. I'm sure you had a lovely time with your son.
Speak soon xx

Hi Sanji
Only just seen your post.
So sorry to hear about your home - can't imagine what you are going through. Keep smiling.
So glad to hear you had a great time in Australia.

Hi Sanji, great to hear from you again, but so sorry for you about your house (had heard via BB and Val). Can't wait to hear about you trip when you are ready and able to write it.
Booked today to see my son and family in Melbourne at Christmas time - when the TA gave me the tickets, it seems real all of a sudden!
Anyway hope you and hubby are coping OK
Denny X

Hi folks
Thanks for the kind posts, I have looked in here most days when taking a quick break with a cuppa tea in my hand, but I haven't had the time to compose a post, we have been getting up at 7 am and falling into bed totally exhausted after midnight to try and get my house looking something like a home, and I was laid low with some flu like virus which made me drop over a stone in weight"¦.frankly, I wouldn't wish for this to happen to my worst enemy.!
Things are slowly "coming together now" and I can no longer stand in my dining room and see straight into my loft, all the ceilings are in and the plasterers have gone"¦.we've now got a brand new functioning kitchen and carpets down, and pieces of furniture being delivered, but it all wants decorating again in 6 months when the house has stopped "moving" and hopefully completely dried out.

Good enough to go back or make a home there or are you still a Yorkshire lass at heart

Always a Yorkshire lass at heart, but yes, I want to go back and if I was 40 years younger and could foresee what has happened to the UK, I'd be off like a shot, but reading the local papers, Australia has its own problems, it's not all honky dory.

Booked today to see my son and family in Melbourne at Christmas time - when the TA gave me the tickets, it seems real all of a sudden!

Denny, I'm so chuffed for you, I know the heartache you have had since your son and family went to Oz after my son had gone, it won't be long, it will fly.

At the week-end we managed to unpack the cases, there was no point in trying before because we had no where to put the clothes and there were boxes all over the place"¦.it was just a month since we got back from Oz and it seems like a lifetime away.
I want to go back and spend some time in Hong Kong if my son is still there, and then fly to Sydney and pick up a cruise ship.
I filmed the Rhapsody of the Seas leaving Sydney harbour bound for New Zealand "¦"¦more about that when I upload the video"¦.I have got the video footage on the computer and I'm slowly wading through it now we are beginning to get some spare time in the evenings, and I'll try and post a general synopsis based on my opinion of Oz.
Once again, thanks for your posts.

Sanji x

Hi Sanji

Glad to hear things are getting sorted with your home. It must be a relief to be back within your own four walls.
I was hoping you would like Australia, though to be honest I have yet to meet anyone that hasn't fallen in love with the country and it's people.
Looking foward to seeing your video and hearing all about your trip.

Judith

Here you go, I'll start with Taronga Zoo.
http://www.taronga.org.au/

I'll be honest and say that I'm not a great lover of zoos, I don't like to see animals up against iron bars rocking their heads from side to side because they are bored out of their skulls, but some zoos have a breeding programme to save animals that would otherwise become extinct, so, it's like being stuck between a rock and a hard place on this issue.
We were getting to the end of our time in Oz, so on the spur of the moment we made a rash decision to jump on the next ferry to Taronga zoo.

My hubby doesn't like snakes, so he wasn't going any where near the reptiles. LOL
It was a bit disappointing that most of the animals seemed to be asleep and out of view, the red panda was just curled up asleep amongst a load of foliage and without the zoom on the camcorder, you'd have never seen the red furry ball. The gorillas were not on show because one had given birth about 4 days earlier and they were keeping them away from the public until the mother bonded with the baby.

The hippopotamus was an ugly horrible smelly thing.!
I love big cats, especially tigers and snow leopards, so there's longer footage on the video of the magnificent tiger, but it was a case of find a clean spot on the glass where the kiddies hadn't left their dirty paw prints, and I had a group of "oriental" tourists following me around with those huge Cannon cameras around their necks, clicking with the flash on, at anything that moved.

The price was $49 each, which included the return ferry fare from Sydney, a ride in the cable car to the top/start of the zoo and entry into the zoo, plus $25 I spent on a snack/drink in a "rip off" food hall.

We got there around 12-30pm and caught the 4 pm ferry back to Sydney"¦it was quite tiring walking around and after a few hours we'd had enough.
I'm glad I went, I wouldn't go back, and I'm quite pleased with this video.

http://www.holidaytruths.tv/media/2470/Taronga_Zoo._Sydney/

Sanji

Hi Sanji,

Just watched the zoo video and tried to leave a comment but the page just froze when I pressed to add comment. I'm pasting it below instead-

Thanks for sharing that video. You've made an escellent job of getting close ups on film. I wouldn't like to get too close to that croc- menacing jaws.

Looking forward to watching the Sydney harbour bridge one when I get some time

Rhapsody of the Seas cruise ship.

I filmed the ship departing Sydney harbour at 5 pm on the dot, and it made the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, when the captain blows the ship's departing hooter.
I could have made this video in less than 2 minutes or just posted photos, but I'm trying to show the slow manoeuvres it takes reversing at snail speed out of the harbour, which at certain times resembles the M25 with traffic"¦.ferries arriving/departing, private boats, private cruise companies, jet boats, tug boats and water taxis etc.

It took around 45 minutes for the ship to reverse out of the harbour and passed the Opera House, and then turned around to face the way to the Tasman Sea.
Whilst the ship is turning around to face the right direction, the "traffic" stops and the ferries wait and "give way".
Finally, when she's safely on her way, the little white escort boat comes back.
A joy to see and a joy to video....loved it.!

http://www.holidaytruths.tv/media/2473/Rhapsody_of_the_Seas_Cruise_Ship/

Sanji x

Super Video Sanji, makes you really want to be there.

Fabulous & a great choice of music . It fitted together so well .

I need time to view this video properly so will look forward to seeing it after work this evening

You've certainly got the hang of putting a good film together. We've often watched the cruise ships at Circular Quay and it looks pretty tricky manoeuvring them in and out. I think the biggest ones go under the bridge ( not much clearance) and up towards Darling Harbour. We didn't get to Oz this winter and really missed it. Its a very hard act to follow!

rdv
Bless you, but I think it's more a case of good luck than judgement because I don't "do" techno and I'm as blind as a bat.....I get the "shakes" and my son says it's because I don't hold the camcorder correctly, and bring my elbow in nearer to my body to stabilise the camcorder better, but it's so dinky it would help if I could see the buttons.
Editing the video footage is now easy peasy, but finding the right music is a pain in the rear and can take longer than the actual editing.

I think the biggest ones go under the bridge ( not much clearance) and up towards Darling Harbour.

Yes they do.

We were on a ferry to Darling Harbour and by a stroke of luck we had to "give way" while the tugboat pulled around a cruise ship called the "Pacific Sun".
A bit shaky in places and my excuse is, that the ferry wouldn't keep still.

http://www.holidaytruths.tv/media/2479/Cruise_Ships_Sydney/

Sanji x

Off to Melbourne now"¦
There's no particular order for these videos, I'm dragging them off the memory cards/computer and what parts I fancy editing first.
Melbourne was a disaster, but that was only because of the weather and originally we were planning to go the week later, but the following week was the start of the Australian Open Tennis tournament, and most hotels were fully booked and expensive, so we booked to go the week before, from Tuesday to Saturday.

The first mistake I made was not realising that Melbourne has 2 airports, Melbourne International and Avalon Airport, which is about 55 kms away from the city, so we landed at the International Airport and departed from Avalon, but it was no problem and the 40 minute journey on the bus to Avalon turned out to be very informative via the Aussie bus driver.

I booked the flights (Jetstar) and then the hotel on a site called "wotif" in a deal where you're guaranteed the hotel will be a 5* in Melbourne, but they choose the hotel"¦..
Well, we hit the jackpot because we got allocated the Crown Metropol, which I believe has only been opened just over a year, situated on the Southbank and part of the Crown entertainment complex which has a cinema village, food hall, designer shops, pubs, restaurants and the biggest casino in the Southern hemisphere, it took us nearly 2 days to figure out how to get out of certain exits of the complex.

The hotel was fabulous with an indoor swimming pool, beauty/aromatherapy treatments and a gym fitted with the latest hi tech equipment on the 28th floor with fantastic panoramic views over the city, but like most 5* hotels it lacks any atmosphere and the staff on the reception appeared very austere, but actually, they were very helpful organising the return transfer to Avalon, and they seemed to relax a little when you broke through the "snobbery ice" portrayal.
http://www.crownmetropol.com.au/about

The weather was atrocious, it was raining when we landed and apart from the odd 20 mins here and there, it just kept coming down day and night like a monsoon until Friday afternoon, when at last we saw patches of blue sky and the sun making an appearance"¦.. typical that on Saturday morning when we left, the weather was clear blue skies and wall to wall sunshine.

We couldn't do anything that we had planned, all the things like going to the botanical gardens, the zoo, a river cruise or just a leisurely stroll in the evenings next to the river etc, all these things need decent weather, and after 3 days of monsoon rain and getting drenched, we lost any enthusiasm to go and visit anywhere.

We traipsed around the city and Melbourne has colonial buildings and buildings of different styles, like Gothic and modern/futuristic/glass all mixed together, and in places seems to be trapped in a 1960's time warp"¦.. they still have the type of trams that I rode on as a young girl in Blackpool in the 50's, and yet across the river over on the Southbank there are upmarket restaurants, the Eureka Tower skyscraper with the observation deck called SkyDeck, the entertainment complex and casino"¦.I could picture sitting next to the river on a barmy summer evening with an ice cream watching the boats.

On Friday morning we looked out of the hotel window, oh no it was raining and we both wondered just how much more rain can fall.? We decided to go out in it (what the hell we were passed caring now, and anyway our shoes were still wet and our "shower proof" macs which I'd packed in case we had a shower, they couldn't cope)
We walked over the river, through the city, passed Chinatown and up to the HUGE market inside the Queen Victoria building, and when we started walking back to the hotel during the afternoon, finally the clouds lifted and the sun broke through.

The Eureka Tower skyscraper situated on the Southbank is the tallest skyscraper in the Southern hemisphere"¦..I wanted to go up to the SkyDeck and video the city, but some days you couldn't see the tops of the surrounding skyscrapers because of the dark looming low cloud, and in fairness (before you pay) they do display a notice stating the conditions and visibility"¦..it was showing "visibility very poor", so I ended going up to the 28th floor of the hotel and filming through glass, which is not the ideal situation.

I wouldn't say the river Yarra was particularly clean, but that's understandable being the "end of the line" before it flows passed the docklands and into the sea, it gets all the rubbish from upstream, but whether it was because of the monsoon rain or the flooding in Victoria, it seemed to change from a dark inky blue to the colour of sand.

We were just unlucky with the weather and it was hopeless trying to video, I found myself videoing the same thing and it was so dark, even in the middle of the day.
On Saturday morning I quickly filmed the view from the hotel to show that Melbourne looked soooooooo much better bathed in sunshine.
Melbourne seems to care about the tourists, it has a "hop on/off" tourist bus and tram, which are both FREE, although we didn't use them as we prefer to walk around places "¦once you're wet, you're wet.!

http://www.holidaytruths.tv/media/2489/Melbourne/
Sanji x

What a shame about the weather, Melbourne looks like a nice place to wander round when it's sunny, though despite the grey skies you managed to get a taste of the place in your video.
The green and yellow trams do look as though they belong on the front at Blackpool.

What was the weather like in Sydney? You must have got a fair amount of sunshine in the weeks that you were there.

Its a bit late now but if you ever return a visit to the Old Melbourne Gaol will keep you out of the rain for a few hours, its well worth a visit. We also took a walk along the river up to the botanical gardens which are vast but only worthwhile if its sunny !
I think those trams are new, they look just like the ones in Adelaide.

What was the weather like in Sydney? You must have got a fair amount of sunshine in the weeks that you were there.

Hi Judith.
The weather for the first 3 weeks was very unpredictable and they (Aussies) were saying that it was the coolest start to their summer for X amount of years. You couldn't go out without being prepared for the sudden change that might occur during the day, ie: suncream, rain macs, lightweight cardy/jumper and some days the wind was quite cold, we had to buy 2 lightweight fleece jackets ( which we didn't need) because we were both feeling cold (due to the cool wind) one evening in Darling Harbour.
By the 2nd week in January the weather started to become a little bit more settled and we came home with a good tan, but still the weather was able to change sooooooo quickly and we took the rain macs with us 99% of the time( just in case).

EG: One morning we walked to Coogee beach, planning on spending the day on the beach, and the sun was fierce, but by early afternoon the clouds rolled in and for half an hour the heavens opened raining cats and dogs...I've never seen so many people exodus a beach so quickly, and when the deluge had stopped, the rest of the day stayed cloudy.
The best three days that stand out in my memory (having wall to wall sunshine and high temperatures) were Xmas day, 31st December and 26th January....probably because we were out every minute of the day in the sunshine and the warm evening.

Sanji x