Small steps and large leaps

Ten years we've been married. Ten years have B's dirty white and orange Brooks sneakers been walking the streets of the world along with the brown Kathmandu backpack on my back. Ten years ago we had a joyous wedding ceremony and reception, then retreated to the sanctuary of this hotel.
Surely this is worthy of another celebration! A tenth anniversary return to Europe, another stay at this hotel, the Novotel Brighton Beach, in a room overlooking Botany Bay, the city and the airport.

Much has changed since this day ten years ago. No ceremony on Observatory Hill surrounded by friends and family, only the hurried cleaning of a house and completion of work projects. No stretched Rolls Royce limousine to drive us to the hotel, only a bus, then a train, then a packed bus again dropping us a few hundred metres away. And this time we have brought our almost-three-year-old son Alex with us.
The hotel too has changed. Gone the gelato shop at the bottom, the serene Balinese pool and waterfall, the waterslide and, sadly for us this time, the children's playground. Brighton Le Sands seems more rundown, fewer seafood restaurants. In the end it was a choice between a seafood platter at Petar's or one at the hotel restaurant to celebrate our anniversary. We chose the former and waited too long for the privilege of eating. Alex was half asleep by the time we walked the hundred metres back.

But there are still the magnificent views across Botany Bay, watching aircraft take off across the face of Sydney city or out over the water. What better way to put you into the mood to travel?
And so tomorrow we too step on an aircraft to begin our own voyage.

Photos

Comments

The little Jedi of Kinosaki Onsen

A long time ago in a land far, far away. That's what it felt like as we walked the streets of Kinosaki Onsen dressed in our yukatas, the clop-clop of wooden getas sounding in the air. In his robes Alex looked the spitting image of a young Jedi padawan, all that was missing was the lightsaber. Incidently, Padawan is a district of Kuching in Malaysia. The town was so far back in time that my 4G router couldn't get a signal, hence the lack of an update. Plus I was feeling a little under the weather. There can be few better places to rest than Kinosaki Onsen. We dragged our luggage on the Midosuji subway to Umeda, then barely caught the Ltd Exp Hamakaze in time. An older Japanese train it lacked a food service or vending machines, leading to big issues. Alex was hungry for breakfast. B and I had eaten slices of Kobe cheesecake for breakfast, but Alex didn't like it. As we raced past the huge Akashi bridge Alex was pleading for food and drink. The kind ...

The Carlingford Line

We close the year and the decade with a local adventure to mark the closure of a railway line. On the January 5, 2020, the Carlingford Line from Clyde will close to be partially replaced by the Parramatta Light Rail. This is Sydney's quietest line, a single track branch for most of its length from the industrial centre of Clyde to the northwestern suburb of Carlingford. According to Wikipedia, power supply and signalling issues mean that only a single four car train can utilise the line at a time. Newer Sydney trains run in fixed eight car configurations. This will be the first and last time I traverse the Carlingford Line in its current configuration. The weather of the day is certainly appropriate for an ending, the brown smoke haze lending an apocalyptic air to proceedings. I drive to Padstow and catch the T8 line to Central, followed by the T1 towards Parramatta and Penrith. The historic homes of the Inner West give way to industrial complexes, rail storage yards and t...

One night in Canberra

It's the April school holidays and we are too busy to have a break but need one because of that. And because it's the Easter weekend the options are limited, so we just drive down to Canberra for the night. No, this isn't our first trip for 2023. I wrote about Japan on another site . I refuse to wake up early so we depart after 8.30 AM. There is not much to say about the drive except that the clouds seem so low and Lake George is very full. We stop at a rest area and at the lookout up the hill to take it all in. Everyone is hungry so we first stop in Dickson and then can't think of anything to eat, so I drive us to Civic, where we can't decide and end up eating at the Singaporean Killiney Kopitiam branch. The Canberra Centre has nice shops. I dream of getting an iPad from the Apple Store, we buy a blanket and toothbrushes from Muji and wish that Lego wasn't so expensive. Nothing we can't get in Sydney, but then we rarely go out shopping in the city. It...

travelling allrite

Search This Blog