Sydney

  • January 12, 2019

I arrived in Sydney yesterday by train, and after checking in to an extraordinary hotel room wasted no time seeing the tourist sites.

I walked from Central to Darling Harbour to Circular Quay and back – some 30k steps – and by the time I crashed in my room after dark I was ruined ?

This morning I was up bright and early to pack, before heading to the Star Wars Identities exhibit at the Powerhouse Museum.

This is a remarkable exhibit of original props, costumes, models etc from the entire Star Wars saga (including Clone Wars). It is beautifully presented and it was magical to be so close to iconic items like the Millennium Falcon model actually used in Empire:

Or costumes worn by most of the major characters:

In addition, via interactive stations throughout the exhibit you create your very own Star Wars character!

I suppose the idea is to reproduce yourself in Star Wars firm, but I found myself compelled to spawn a uniquely original creation. Dear readers, I present my own Star Wars creation, Gab Frogger:

The name was my creation, and I’ll humbly suggest it’s much better than what others used (I saw an Ewok pilot named Brendan). Here’s Gab’s bio:

As with all Gungans, Gab is immediately endearing despite his dark side tendencies, and I’ve grown to love the froggy scamp already. I hope he turns up in Episode IX!

That’s Sydney Tower, which has stood since 1981 in the center of the city. I’ve been up several times but not in quite a few years and figured it was time once again.

Admission includes a surprisingly good (but short) 3D film which you watch before going up. I’m not quite sure why it even exists since it has almost nothing to do with the tower but I imagine the purpose was originally line-management which is redundant now since the tower doesn’t seem too popular.

But it was good! Today was sunny and clear and I could see forever. It wasn’t busy up top and I spent much longer than I’d expected up there. If you like observation towers, this is probably worth it at the slightly elevated price.

This will be my last post from Oz this trip, as early tomorrow I head to the airport for Tokyo where I’ll meet Bernard for the next 8 days! Stay tuned for our eastern adventures…

  • Posted in Australia
  • Robert

Newcastle 3

  • January 10, 2019

The lazy days in Newcastle continued, with my usual long walks including one along the beaches in light rain:

I visited old friends:

And their pets:

Or, in this case, a frog living in Sue’s pond:

I (over!) ate delicious food:

Caught up with the relatives:

And – the reason I’m here of course – had the usual fun with mum and dad:

Tomorrow I’m off to Sydney for a brief stay before Tokyo! I feel like the crazy part of this trip is just about to start 🙂

  • Posted in Australia
  • Robert

Newcastle 2

  • January 4, 2019

Went to the Newcastle fireworks with Sue and her family, but nature had other ideas and put on a spectacular show of her own:

It’s the only rain I’ve seen so far, and only lasted a couple of hours. I was home and slept through midnight as usual. Happy New Year!

I’ve been catching up with friends a lot: a swim in the ocean baths with K, lunch with M and a scenic drive with S:

And there’s been a bit of this:

And this:

And of course this:

Hrm… what am I painting with my Crayola watercolors?

Lazy days in Newcastle then, albeit with a lot of walking in hot, hot sun. I don’t want to push myself too hard with Tokyo on the horizon 🙂