Skip to main content

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.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Down the Oito Line

Riding the length of the Oito Line from Itoigawa to Shinjuku (well, Matsumoto, really, but you might as well go the whole way) has long been a dream of mine. It suddenly gained urgency when I read that the last length of it between Itoigawa to Minami-Otari would be closed once the Hokuriku Shinkansen to Kanazawa and Toyama opens by next year. Now, as mentioned last time, B and Alex are among those that would much rather catch the very fast Shinkansen, but in the end she decided to follow me, despite the very early morning. We rode the Hokuetsu Express from Toyama to Itoigawa, completing a little more of that West Coast for me. Though the coastal stretch was short there were some nice views at times. I should like to see more of Itoigawa one day, explore its geology. But now we had to quickly cross over the platform bridge to catch our train to Minami-Otari. To my great delight it was a KiHa 120 railcar, my favourite. I felt a degree of sadness standing up at the front...

To Melbourne on the XPT sleeper

Excited by the prospect of reliving the experience of seeing my very first movie and hearing the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra perform it I bought tickets to The Empire Strikes Back in Concert in Melbourne back in February. Then I did nothing about actually getting there. Much as I love Melbourne, due to family commitments I didn't want to spend more than the Sunday away. Flights there and back made sense, but  my flight down to Melbourne in late October reiterated the fact that I usually don't enjoy descending into the city. And the concert was in December, a season of summer storms. I really didn't feel like driving the whole route alone and in a hurry, so that left one choice. The train. My very first trip up to Sydney from Melbourne was aboard the luxury Southern Aurora. Or it was supposed to be luxury. I wouldn't know because I spent the whole ride up very sick with the flu lying in the top bunk, unable to stay awake for my whole of night vigil. Now only...