Sydney

So I arrived in Australia on Wednesday 15th December, and left five weeks later, on Wednesday 19th January. Apart from a few days in Melbourne, I was in Sydney the whole time. So what did I find to do in a small and backward town so far from the UK...?!

Of course, Sydney isn't really small or backward. It is one of the world's great cities as I had discovered on previous trips there.

I had gone to Sydney primarily to visit Vanessa, but she was working for lots of the time, so I had to find my own things to do. I managed to do a bit of pottering around, wandering around Parramatta, going into the city, going on walks around the coastline, running around Parramatta Park, going to sporting events, meeting up with friends and watching terrible Australian TV (mainly US imports, but also a few old British programmes, hardly anything homemade).

Before going to Melbourne I had to do a bit of Christmas shopping - in the sunshine and warmth, which is very disconcerting. Where was the snow and ice? The only place I saw any was on the news, showing proper fair dinkum Aussies lying on the floor at Heathrow Airport as their flights were unable to take off. I did feel some sympathy for them as I sat watching these stories, sitting by the pool, sipping my pina colada. I found a few good shops for Christmas pressies, and yes, they were playing all the traditional Christmas songs - I Wish it Could Be Christmas Everyday, Merry Christmas Everyone etc. Just like being in a shopping centre back home. I took a bit of time too to wander through the Paddy's Markets. They were interesting, but I didn't find anything to buy there. That's fairly standard practice for me and markets.

When we came back from Melbourne, it was nearly Christmas. On Christmas Eve, I managed to get all my wrapping sorted out, then I went to the Christmas Eve Communion Service (Midnight Mass) at the local parish church in Parramatta. Christmas Day itself was fantastic - the sun came out especially! Vanessa and I went to the morning service at the same church, had a bit of time to open presents in the sunshine, then she had to go to work. I had been invited (or rather had hinted that I ought to be invited in order to gain myself an invitation) to a friend's (Naomi) house for Christmas Dinner. Surprisingly the trains run an almost normal service on Christmas Day around the Sydney suburbs, so I had no real problem in getting to hers. I arrived just after everyone had finished their starter, but they had saved me my portion - it was a seafood medley. So I did have some shrimps on Christmas Day - not barbequed though, but still almost Australian! The main course was a traditional British Christmas dinner - turkey and ham with all the trimmings. There was one major difference though - we sat outside to eat in the sunshine. I had to put on a baseball cap instead of the usual cracker hat! After that, there was some present opening, then some desserts. I had some of Naomi's homemade banoffee pie. Later on, we hit their swimming pool to cool down. It was great to finally have a warm and sunny Christmas Day after the disappointment of the hailstones four years ago in Melbourne.

After the lovely sunny Christmas Day, the weather changed over the next few days. I was forced (obviously completely against my will) by the heavy rain in Sydney to sit in front of the TV and watch the fourth test from the MCG (weird - nice weather in Melbourne?!). It's particularly enjoyable when England are on top as the commentary team in Australia are soooooo biased. It is great to hear them having to eat their words. I only briefly left the flat on the morning of the 27th, but that was enough time to see the local authority in Parramatta taking down the town's Christmas Tree. Whatever happened to the 12 days of Christmas? Clearly in Parramatta it is the 2 and a bit days.

The New Year's Eve Fireworks were amazing again. I had managed to see them four years ago - we watched from Kirribilli that time. This time Naomi had scouted out and reserved a fantastic spot on Cremorne Point, so still on the North shore, but a bit further out this time, to give a better overall view. Naomi and her family stayed for the 9 o'clock fireworks, for kids and oldies, and then they headed home. Only Vanessa and I remained (from our party) for the midnight fireworks. I got out my new iPod Nano (TM) which Vanessa had recently bought me for my birthday, tuned it to the local radio station, and we watched the fireworks to the accompaniment of the music the display was choreographed to. This added another layer of enjoyment to the display. It was a great evening, although the travelling back to Parramatta after the display was less enjoyable!

New Year's Day was spent in Manly, along with the rest of the population of New South Wales. A few days later, Vanessa and I went to Wollongong. We'd heard good things about it, but it was just a smaller city not far from Sydney. The weather was a bit miserable on that particular day, so a coastal city wasn't the best place to be. We also did the famous Bondi to Coogee coastal walk - very pleasant, not as hot as the last time I did it.

The day after the that was spent at the SCG, watching Cook and Bell batter the Australian bowling attack for most of the day. The weather was blazingly hot that day. After lunch, we had to leave our seats (Vanessa's very sage suggestion) and stand at the back of a covered stand. I think she slowly warmed to the idea of Test Cricket, although I still couldn't make her understand why Mitchell Johnson was getting so much stick from the English fans!

I went back there on my own two days later - as there was unlikely to be much play on the final day, the Australian authorities had said it would be free to enter. The ground was 2/3 full, all English fans of course. I saw the final three Australian wickets to fall, then was present for the presentation of the Ashes trophy to England! A great day! And it was only just lunchtime!

I went to the Olympic Park, site of the 2000 Olympics, on two occasions - to watch some State 20-20 cricket and the Sydney tennis tournament (a warm-up for the Australian Open). I did some more walks - Watson's Bay, the Spit to Manly, McMahon's Point to Milson's Point and the Great Staircase by the Three Sisters in the Blue Mountains, along the side of the valley to the Furber Steps and back up.

I should also talk about food - I did some traditional (i.e. touristy) things, although no barbeque as such, like having a pie from Harry's Cafe Du Wheels and Fish and Chips from Doyle's at Watson's Bay. I had the hottest curry in the world ever - a Thai jungle curry from a takeaway in Parramatta. But the most interesting place was Green Gourmet. Vanessa had been really excited to go there. It is a vegan oriental restaurant. It does a lot of traditional-style Chinese dishes, like claypots (basically a big meaty Chinese stew), but without meat. Some of the dishes had tofu and some had meat substitutes. All of the dishes were surprisingly delicious. We went three times during my stay, as it is a type of food which Vanessa was comfortable to eat. Our task now is to find a similar type of restaurant in the UK. I have heard there are some in the Harrow area, so we'll have to investigate those!

All in all it was a sensational trip. Vanessa and I got to spend lots of time together. The rest of the time I wandered around and can see why she's so happy living there. The worst part of the trip was saying goodbye to her after so long together, as I walked through to the airport security. We were both a bit emotional. I'll see her again in a few months, and I can't wait!

Melbourne

I have been somewhat harsh on Melbourne. I have spent the last four years convinced that Melbourne is a rubbish city just because it spoilt our Christmas BBQ with chilly, rainy and haily weather in the middle of its summer. Deep down I think I always knew that Melbourne is a great city. It just has terrible weather. Maybe that's only in mid- to late-December - I'll have to go one day at a different time to confirm.

Getting to Melbourne was an adventure in itself. Vanessa and I had booked on Tiger Airways, the least frilly of the no frills airlines which did the Sydney to Melbourne run. However, after we'd paid for all the hidden extras, like seats, it wasn't that cheap. To save some money, we only took one bag of hold luggage between us. This meant that I had to check in online, but Vanessa had to wait and check in in person, which meant that we couldn't sit together. Vanessa was jammed in next to a sizeable Indian couple, and I was across the aisle from her. We landed in the laughably named 'Terminal 4' at Melbourne Airport. The plane landed on the tarmac and the moveable stairs came over. We were in the back row on the plane so were the first out. We followed two men in orange tabards along a covered walkway into an aircraft hangar. The hold baggage was dumped on the floor in this hangar. We made our way out through a turnstile into the airport car park. We then had to walk to the proper terminals to catch a bus into town.

Despite the underdeveloped nature of its airport, the city was great. I found myself remembering all kinds of little things which I'd done the first time I was there, like the food court we often ate in, the animatronic Christmas story in the Casino, the Christmas window display in Myers, the bowling alley, the street of restaurants, the free city circle tram, Yum Cha in Chairman Mao's in Chinatown. Then there were the bigger things - Federation Square, the walk along the Yarra to the Botanic Gardens on one side, and to the MCG on the other side, the Southbank. I did find myself reminiscing a lot about the previous visit, like our BBQ across the Yarra from 'the G'.

We spent a lot of time wandering around the city, occasionally catching trams, popping into shops whenever it rained (quite often). As well as rainy, it was fairly cold. Vanessa didn't take her fleece off for five days. On the final full day we were there (as last time I'd been), the sun did come out and we went to St Kilda to see the beach there. I rather enjoyed the 'Solar System' model on the St Kilda foreshore too - I spotted Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars and Jupiter, but we didn't walk any further than that. Apparently Pluto was 5.9km from the sun. The day was, astonishingly, too hot for walking that far!

The other advantage of Melbourne is its proximity to some beautiful coastal areas. We weren't able to see the famous Great Ocean Road, but did make it down to Philip Island to see some wallabies, koalas and, most interestingly, thousands upon thousands of little Little Penguins as they ran from the sea to their burrows on land as the sun set. They were so cute! They were surprisingly quick too, as they zipped along. As the sun went down, the first intrepid penguins emerged from the sea, but were spooked by the noises of birds and humans so they rushed back into the sea. Eventually they plucked up courage to leave the safety of the sea and ran out onto the beach again. Looking around fearfully, they decided to run the gauntlet and zoom! they were off! A few minutes later, there were penguins everywhere, on the beach, in the bushes, under all the wooden walkways, in the car park, even in very rare cases in their burrows. The whole Penguin Parade was an amazing experience!

The time went so quickly and it was soon time to go back. On our way to the bus stop for the airport, we walked past a marketing event where some of the English and Aussie cricketers were signing autographs and playing cricket with the kids. We stopped for long enough to see Alistair Cook bowling a few of his trademark(!) right-(!) arm tweakers and Mitchell 'He bowls to the left, he bowls to the right' Johnson being hit out of the crowd by a ten-year old. We soon carried on to the bus stop at the Southern Cross station. So all that was left was to endure another Tiger Airways flight. I wasn't allowed to sit in the spare seat next to Vanessa as the plane had been 'carefully weighted'. So we were back in Sydney for Christmas and New Year.