I almost forgot

Here are pics from the botanical gardens in Sydney.

a bit more beach

I spent a mere two hours on the beach yesterday morning (it's finally sunny and warm here), and even with sunblock, I got sunburned. I had a nice chat with some of the surfers. Several were in their 50s.

We trekked into the wine country in the afternoon. Hunter Valley is Mom and Steve's favorite spot there. We had dinner at Scratchley's in Newcastle, which looks very like the Baltimore Harbor. The restaurant is right on the water, and you can watch the fishing boats heading out and coming in. I had the biggest prawns I have ever seen.

Thanksgiving dinner went off swimmingly. My contribution was rosemary-roasted sweet potatoes and apple crisp. I got a lot of questions about this tradition - "so this has something to do with the Mayflower and the Pilgrims and Indians and Plymouth Rock, right?" Turkey is not an overly popular food item here, so took awhile to find some, but Mom did manage to locate a turkey breast in a grocery store, so the day was saved. The 10-year-old son of one of Mom's friends was eyeing the turkey warily, and his mom encouraged him to try it (he'd never had turkey before), telling him it was very like chicken. He took a tentative bite, and his eyes popped open wide, and he said "this is way better than chicken!"

Some miscellaneous observations: peppers are called capsicum; McDonald's is referred to as Mackers, and you can get little packets of Vegemite, like you would get jelly; ta means thank you; they also say thanking you and good on you; white tea is tea with cream or milk; Aussies love their tea breaks, and they also love to put beet slices on their sandwiches, the way we put tomato slices on ours.

Vacations are always over too fast. We've got a quick stop at Bondi beach and the Royal Botanical Gardens, and then I'm off to the airport to go home. See you soon.

animal adventures

We went shopping today for Thanksgiving fixings and trimmings. I get a kick out of some of the things I see in the grocery stores here. Kraft Mac and Cheese that uses white cheddar cheese. Soft dogfood sold in wrappers that look like the Jimmy Dean sausage in the meat section. Vegemite (yuck!). There's a wonderful seafood selection, but then they have easy access, don't they?

Today's field trip was to Koala Park, which is an animal reserve just for Australian animals. They even let you pet some of them. Kangaroos, wallaroos (I'll let you know when I find out what the difference is), exotic-looking birds, koalas, of course, an odd-looking goose that has a beak that I swear is fluorescent green (and it doesn't quack or squawk - it burps, truly), emus, peacocks, dingos (red and white). The pics are of the koalas and kangas, since I was able to get up close to them. The food they give you to give to the kangas looks like honey nut Cheerios, and the kangas can get greedy for it.

Koala fur and kanga fur are incredibly soft. One of the tour guides said that several million koalas were killed for their fur before they were put on the protected species list. They may be cute, but they don't particularly care for people, unless said people happen to have food for them. They are very like pandas in their keep-to-themselves behavior.

The driving thing is very disconcerting here. It's a strange feeling to sit on the left side in front and not be driving and to see traffic coming in the other direction on the right. By the way, you're supposed to walk on the left side here too. Anyway, they also drive quite fast. Steve has a nifty device on his dashboard - it's a light, very like the oil light or engine light - that beeps when he goes over the speed limit. The turn signal bar is also on the right side of the steering wheel, and the wiper bar is on the left. There are also lots of roundabouts, and alarmingly narrow lanes, so you're driving very close to the people in the next lane. Driving on the F3 reminds me of driving through the mountains in Pennsylvania - the jagged rock walls and the trees that are somehow growing out of the top of them. Drunk driving is called drink driving here.

I'm off now to help Mom make pies for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. There will be about 15 here for dinner - only two of them are American - my mom and me. The rest are Aussie, but they love to be invited to a Thanksgiving feast. Who knows, it may catch on here. McDonald's and KFC and Burger King are here, after all.

yes, Virginia, Cate really is crazy

I can now say that I've climbed the bridge in Sydney Harbour. The question is, should that be advertised and brought up in polite conversation or kept to oneself and avoided altogether?

It's quite the set-up they've got for this bridge climbing thing. First, you watch a short video of the whole process. Then you go into a room, where you fill out a form and sign your life away, should anything happen. You also take a breathalizer test to make sure you're doing this with a clear head. You go into another room and put on a jumper suit thingy over your clothes. Anything you take with you on the climb must be supplied by the organization, and must be attached to you in some way, via velcro or elastic band. This includes hat, sunglasses, hankerchief, hair tie, raincoat, fleece coat, earphones, etc.

Our climb guide was Brett. He looks like Gary Oldman with red hair. He was friendly, funny, and flirty, and he must be in damn good shape because this climb is amazing exercise. He got us all fitted up with the climbing gear, which consists of a belt with hooks, and he showed us how to hook on and off the guide wire, and you get a little practice climb indoors. Then you traipse outside to the bottom of the bridge and start up. Along the way, there are rest stops, where Brett-who-looks-like-Gary-Oldman would pass along bits of bridge history and trivia and would point out landmarks.

It took eight or nine years to build this bridge. Only one person who fell off during construction actually survived (they didn't have the safety precautions in the 1930s that they have now). Vincent Kelly, I think his name was. An Irishman. When you fall from a height like that, the impact of hitting the water will kill you instantly, according to Brett-who-looks-like-Gary-Oldman. Mr. Kelly managed to think fast, and he realized that he had his wrench with him, so he threw it down just before he hit the water, and it broke the water tension. He was pulled from the water and taken to hospital, and he was unconscious for three days. The impact was still pretty severe - the soles of his shoes were stuck to his feet, and the top of his shoes were stuck to his thighs - all had to be surgically removed.

There are lots of ladders to climb, and it gets windier and colder the higher you go. At certain stopping points, Brett-who-looks-like-Gary-Oldman took pictures of everyone (you can't bring your own camera). It takes about an hour and a half to get to the top middle of the bridge.

Climbs are scheduled 24/7, rain or shine, all seasons, the exception is thunder/lightening storms. The most popular are dawn and dusk. The pics on the right are of the bridge from a distance, and me, Mom, and Steve at the top (with the Sydney Opera House in the background). Once you're back down on the ground, they give you a certificate, and one free picture that was taken while you're up there. You can buy others (clever people).

Mom and I had lunch at Moon Terrace in Chatswood after the climb. It's a Chinese restaurant on the top floor of an office building. Twelve stories up, I think. The owner is Steve Mah, whose family is somehow related to the Smiths that came over on the Mayflower, and the Smith that founded the Mormon Church. He's a pleasant man, and he knows Mom and Steve by sight, as they used to live in Chatswood while their house was being rebuilt, and Moon Terrace was a regular haunt for them. This is Chinese food served properly. You eat out of a little bowl rather than a huge plate. You put some rice in the bottom of your bowl and some of whatever else you've ordered on top. We were right next to a window, so we could watch the various rainstorms roll in and out over the city (yes, it's still raining).

Driving through the suburbs to Sydney, I noticed a lot of kids headed for school were in uniform. It looks like all schools here, public or private, require uniforms. There are quite a variety of styles, I imagine to differentiate the schools - everything from maroon sweaters and mauve skirts to green and white gingham, to lime green sweaters and dark green pants and green berets to dark blue pants and white shirts and straw hats. I wonder who designs them. Some of them look quite fashionable. Others are atrocious.

That's all for now. I have been advised by those who know to go soak in a bath for awhile, as I will definitely feel the effects of the bridge climb otherwise.

they call me the rainmaker

The sun was full up by six this morning. My bedroom overlooks a park, and my alarm clock this morning consisted of magpies and kookaburras. Kookaburras sound like hyenas or chimpanzees when they get excited. So much for pretty birdsong.

Mom insisted that it would be sweltering and dry here, and it was, up until the day I arrived. It hasn't stopped raining for two days.

I went trail riding with Steve today - a get-to-know-your-stepfather activity. He's worked at Pfizer for 22 years in all kinds of jobs. Now he does a lot of plant management, but he wants to get back into production management.

Funnily enough, I almost always end up trail riding in the rain, and today was no different, except it got adventurous. We were moseying along, and our trail leader suggested we pick up the pace. We agreed, and not two minutes into trotting, I feel the right stirrup strap give way, and overboard to the left I went, stirrup and strap coming with me.

But as they like to say here, "no worries." I was wearing a helmet, fortunately, so my only injury was a truly magnificent bruise on my left thigh. I did have to endure my horse's exasperated look, which seemed to say, "Now, what did you do that for?" Before I let myself think too much about it, I got up, brushed myself off, and got back on the horse again. I've heard that you're not a real rider until you've fallen from a horse at least seven times. This marks (pun intended) my third time. We resumed moseying, and got drenched.

What we call the countryside, the Australians call the bush. The ride out to the resort stables reminded me of Drogheda in The Thornbirds (that book was set in New Zealand, wasn't it?) Anyway, the trees are fascinating. The branches are very angled and edgy and twisted. Some tree bark is ultra smooth and looks like bleached bone. Other tree bark looks as though it has been mauled by a beast, with some of the bark hanging on by a thread. Still other tree trunks look like muscle. The bare trees are the most striking - the branches are held up as though beseeching the sky for water. Their version of a pine tree looks like a palm tree with a buzz cut.

We also visited The Entrance, a town whose claim to fame is being the pelican capital of the world (see requisite pelican photo to the right ). I got within about ten feet of them. Was it coincidence that I had watched Finding Nemo last night?

Trivia facts to impress your friends with at a cocktail party: the Aussie version of scones (pronounced "scons") is what we think of as biscuits; their version of biscuits is what we think of as cookies, excepting chocolate chip cookies, which are universally translated. Rather than after-dinner mints, you get after-dinner chocolate. Milk chocolate unfortunately. Chocolates are "chockkies," bologna is "Devon."

Stay tuned for tomorrow's episode: Sydney Harbour Bridge climb or Cate's Temporary Insanity.

there is nothing so beautiful as an empty beach...

...especially after 19 hours on planes.

I arrived without too many hitches. It was a bit bumpy from LA to Sydney, but I guess one should expect that when you're flying across the jet stream rather than with it. I was on a huge plane with two levels, but it was still cramped though. I watched Le Divorce (not a bad flick, though now I've got to go look up Saint Ursula). Amazingly, the airplane food was decent - dinner was rice pilaf with almonds, raisins, carrots, and broccoli and breakfast was grilled tomatoes, asparagus, spinach with applesauce and fruit cup (I don't trust meat or dairy in airplane food, so I always go temporarily vegan).

It took an hour to get through customs, and there were throngs of people. When I finally got outside, it was raining (I must have brought it with me from MD, for those of you who know my karma with traveling).

The rugby World Cup was just wrapping up in Sydney (Australia vs England). England won at the last minute, literally - the pilot was giving us hourly updates during the flight. It seems the whole country has gone into mourning and the nearest pub to drown sorrows.

The pics are from the windy, empty, and perfect Soldier's Beach, about a five-minute drive from Mom and Steve's house. It 's definitely a beach town. Some houses look kind of shack-like, while others look quite modern, and there are even a few Victorian ones. Almost all of the houses have the rippled Spanish-style tiles on the roof, the ones that are very thick to keep out the heat.

Dinner this evening was at Gennaro's, complete with opera-singing chef. The sign of the day was for a cafe next to Gennaro's - Coffee, Cakes, and Clairvoyants - the owner reads your tea leaves.

Tomorrow is a morning horseback ride through the park at Dooralong (I've noticed a lot of double o's in place names here). Driving on the M5 and the F3, I saw the Australian version of cherry blossom trees, but these are a bright lavender. Also, on the F3, the forest is just getting into the swing of recovery from severe fires that ran through about six years ago. I could see some still-scorched trees.

I thought a peek in a grocery store might be in order. I was surprised at the number of recognizable brands - Cracker Barrel (although you'll never see yellow cheddar cheese here, it's always white), Old El Paso, Kellogg's Corn Flakes. Other brands are recognizable in their packaging, but they have different names (Suave is Pears, Dannon is Danone).

The people are friendly. The Scottish neighbor next door seems to be Mom and Steve's unofficial security guard. There's also a woman down the street with way too many potted plants in her front yard, and she drives a hearse that she painted white.

More tomorrow.