My feet are killing me

Creamed crocodile, penne pasta, or emu baguette, how does that sound?  Well, they are amongst the dishes you can enjoy at The Purple Goanna Cafe that I visited yesterday in Redfern.

I have decided to visit different places on foot, places that I don't know very well, and Redfern is one of them. The above photo is from the railway bridge. Redfern was named after William Redfern, a Canadian surgeon who came out to Australia. It is also home to a very mixed population and has previously had problems with drugs and crime and racial conflicts. Now it seems to have become  somewhat gentrified. I certainly felt completely safe walking around, but then it was broad daylight.

I certainly wouldn't mind one of these cute, old houses, with wrought iron fences.

There was this place, that I first passed once, but then on passing it a second time I just had to walk in and see what it was all about. It is a gift shop and a writer's studio for youngsters. They can get help to write their stories etc. In the gift shop they have all sorts of stuff "from Mars" and you can also get your Martian passport stamped!!!

As the title shows, it didn't do my possibly broken toe any good walking around all day, so today will be a quiet day at home. Stay tuned for more from our upcoming trip to Mudgee this weekend.

Weekend outing

Very often our outings are train related.  I guess you know who is responsible for that! Don't get me wrong though, I quite like it. The station buildings are often the oldest in the town. Even though the train line might have been discontinued it is still interesting to see how these little places were built up around the station and the one main street. So this weekend we went to Windsor in the foothills of the Blue Mountains and also to Mt Wilson, both very cute places.

Windsor was the third established settlement in Australia and got its name from Windsor, England, of course. I only have one photo from Windsor though because we got quite distracted by the fact that they have more hairdressers than pubs and forgot to take photos. We counted at least ten and in this building alone there were four. In fact I just Googled it and there are 19 in and around Windsor. Why? Who do they have to look so pretty for? What is this obsession with hair?

We asked our waiter where we were having lunch about it, but he didn't know why there were so many, although he looked like he had been asked this before.  Speaking of lunch, I had a lovely risotto. It was meant as a starter but was very filling, and hubby had lamb souvlaki. The place was called 22 and was a little bit away from the main street where it was quite busy.

I might only have one photo from Windsor, Australia, but many from Windsor, England where I went last year with my UK girlfriend and elder daughter just before returning to Australia. We had a great visit of the castle and the beautiful doll's house and then lunch in the former railway station (even though hubby was not with us). This is where the Queen's train used to arrive when she visited Windsor Castle.

Windsor Castle

    

Anyway, back to the present. After lunch we drove to Mt Wilson which has beautiful gardens. In our guidebook it said to come at all different times of the year, especially spring and autumn, to see the colours. Now it was wonderfully springlike with flowers everywhere.

There was also something called the Cathedral of Ferns which as the name indicates, has some beautiful ferns. I thought at first that these tall ferns were palm trees but no, they are ferns.

Oh, by the way, the reason I am wearing Crocs is that I have stubbed my toe and cannot get shoes on. Good excuse, huh, and so stylish!

Dogs

One day I was sitting on a bench on the promenade in Cronulla, watching all the youthful elderly, and the fit mothers with little kids, not yet in school, often still in prams, while the mothers are running. Then we have  the dog owners or maybe they were professional dog walkers, hurrying by.  I am saying professional,  because how can anyone have three or four dogs? Or maybe you can! People do have three or four kids after all, come to think of it.

I am not  in any way a fit mother of small children and certainly not a dog owner, I am not even a certified retiree....yet. However I have a certain unexpected experience with dogs, surprisingly enough. When I was a child it was common that you rang the doorbell of someone who had a dog and asked if you could take it out for walk. All my friends did, so I did too.

One day, never to be forgotten, I was allowed to take Charlie out. Charlie was a teenage dalmatian. He got himself freed from the leach almost immediately, looked at me triumphantly and then ran off. I spent hours looking for him, asking everyone I saw if they had seen a lost dalmatian, but to no avail. No one had seen him.

Finally I realized with a heavy heart, that I had to go to the owners and fess upp. I had lost their cherished baby. I was sick with fear and quite nautious when I reached the house.  That's when I saw him sitting outside the entrance of the building and I swear he was smiling. (This is not a photo of him but he looked very similar.)

He ran up to me and tried to ingratiate himself by licking my hand and jumping up trying to lick me in the face.

That was the last time I walked a dog, if you can even call it that.  Omg, can't believe I am actually telling a dog story!

Weekend fun and games

I am reading a book right now by an Australian writer. The title of the book is Indelible Ink, by Fiona McGregor, aptly called so since it is very much about tattooing. It is not only about that of course, but also about life in Sydney, or life in Sydney on the North Shore. That is where all the well to do live, with cleaning ladies and gardeners. They travel overseas, they go to the beauty parlours to do their hair and waxing and spray tanning and they gossip. They have affairs and  sometimes divorce, and generally do what people do do but with more money involved. We follow the main character Marie and her three adult children but also friends and tattoo artists and tattoo addicts. It is also a book about dying of cancer. It is not a fun book to read but it is fascinating, bordering on unputdownable.

In real life we have visitors right now from three different countries. Two colleagues of hubby from Spain and Japan are here, and then we have a young man from Meylan who is just here for a few days before going back to France. Yesterday we took them down to the South coast.

The spot where this photo was taken is where they do a lot of hang gliding and para gliding. We tried to talk our visitors into doing it, but no luck. Still, it is fun to watch.

We also went to a hindu temple in Helensburgh, which is supposed to be the biggest in the Southern Hemisphere. There was a special celebration going on so we felt a bit conspicious, but people didn't seem to mind us walking around, having a little look. You must leave your shoes outside and not take photos and if you eat anything it must be vegetarian! Very sensible rules I thought! I think I'll instigate them here too. I often feel I could be a fish eating vegetarian. Maybe there is a word for it.

Friday night we went to Darling Harbor for drinks and then dinner, quite a change from our little quiet life in Illawong.  This was a party boat that we saw, for example ,and it looked like it was hosting a private party. Apparently it quite common to do that, for corporate parties especially.

Have to be off now, to the Sydney Fishmarket and La Perouse with our visitors.

More about that another time. Hope you all have a great Sunday!

Spring festival

Yesterday was the Spring Festival in Cronulla and we took our Spanish visitor there for lunch and a walk around the place. It was crowded, but good fun.  I am avoiding putting a photo of him in case he objects to being on the internet, and I haven't had time to ask him yet. So it is just us again, dear friends!

Did you know that now you can eat French fries on a stick? This is how it looks.

So after a day having lunch outdoors, we came home to cook more food! I wanted to try the fish lasagna that my friend made when I visited them in Sweden. It is fresh lasagna with white sauce as usual and then you layer the fish and salmon and shrimps and leek, and in this case spinach.  I also put in some cheese between the layers. It is delicious!! You must try it! I got so carried away with serving it that I forgot to take photos even, but trust me, it is good!

If you do try it, leave a comment and let me know what you think!

Don't make eye contact!

Guess what? It is time for the aggressive plovers again.

First year here in Australia we were blissfully unaware of these aggressive birds. We were more concerned with shark attacks, deadly spiders, crocodiles, and venomous snakes and jellyfish, for example. Then one day hubby comes home looking to be in some pain and tells me he had been attacked by birds. He had torn his trousers and hurt his knee when forced involuntarily to throw himself on the ground and was generally shook up. The thing that was maybe a little embarrassing was that since it happened at work, walking back from the health and safety building, he had to make a safety report about it, since gravel had to be dug out of his knee and arm and Band Aids put on. He now figures in their safety-event register. I guess you have to make a name somehow!

I have read quite a few reports since about plovers attacking. They are protecting their nests and young ones.  Since many people cycle to work I have seen these special helmets they wear with spikes sticking up to scare off the birds. Yesterday hubby showed me a safety brochure that was sent out where you were told to wear a big hat and also above all, don't make eye contact! (As if you would.)  It also helps to have a taller friend walk with you. With the equally aggressive magpies you are recommended to look them in the eye.  You just cannot win!

It is the week-end again and we are having a friend from Spain arriving tomorrow staying with us. I wish I remembered the Spanish I learnt before going to visit youngest daughter in Chile but I don't.  I don't suppose I'll get many opportunities to speak with him anyway since he is here for work. We'll probably take him to Cronulla tomorrow though since it is the Spring Festival. They usually have lots of fun and games, and it is a good day out with food stalls with food from different countries.

Landlord's visit

This is the bummer about renting. You have to agree to have the agency and sometimes the landlord come for a yearly visit. So you run around cleaning and trying to do some damage control. But as a tenant it is also an opportunity to point out things that don't work, like, for example, how the downstairs toilet keeps running for ever after you flush it. Oh, this reminds me of a photo I wanted to show you.

I took this photo when driving back to Grenoble after having spent the week-end in Villard de Lans with friends. The place is called Pont en Royans and it is quite spectacular how the houses are perched right on the river. Also note the little brown contraption hanging under one of the houses - French plumbing at its finest!

While I am on the subject of toilets, I would also like to mention that if you ever drive through the Gorges de la Bourne, there is a very obvious lack of toilets, and even very few places to stop to take photographs. This photo I took from one of the few photo places where you can stop.

Some time before we went to Australia, I think it was in 2007, the Gorges de la Bourne were closed after the rock collapsed and a man and his son were trapped in their car and killed. I was thinking of that the whole time driving through, and I was very happy to get out at the end.

Time to go and deal with the agent. Wish me luck! I know "There is no such thing as luck" according to Star Wars, but still.

Welcome home

When you land with Qantas in Australia, the captain thanks you for flying with them and then he says something like ;"If you are visiting Australia we wish you a pleasant stay, and if you are an Australian returning ... welcome home!" I find it so endearing even though I fall between the cracks somewhat, not being a proper visitor nor a real Aussie. It also made me think of how hubby always used to refer to Australia as "back home" while living in Europe. I mean he had lived there longer than in Australia for goodness sake!

Anyway I arrived yesterday which was the first of September and therefore the first day of spring.

Up in Leura in the Blue Mountains where I spent the day it was lovely to see the flowering of the European trees and the daffodils.
The reason I was up there all by myself was because it was Father's Day here in Australia today. So hubby, father of three, decided to treat himself to an all day car race event. Only son was cajoled into going too and agreed reluctantly since it was after all Father's Day.

I think he actually enjoyed it too, even though he didn't admit it. I was fortunately excused and since the race track is on the same side of Sydney as the Blue Mountains I drove up there and had a great day.

People make little museums out of all sorts of different things. I went to the teapot museum in Leura (see above picture) and saw many, many teapots and tea cups, both real size and miniatures. What will they think of next? Snuff-box museum, toe-nail-clipper museum, the possibilities are endless. All you need is an empty room or a barn and you are ready to start up your museum! It reminded me of driving up to my nephew's wedding in the north of Sweden many years ago and spotting a hub-cap museum?!!?