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| Day 4: | Saturday, 7 September 2002 | ||
| New Thing: | - | ||
| Weather: | Sunny and clear, quite lovely really; mid 60s | ||
| Money Spent: | $12.00 AUS | $ 6.62 USD | |
| 10:13am | It's a Saturday, so no alarm (hurrah!). As such, we rose when we naturally did so... but it's a good thing. We formulated a plan of attack, to wit: today, wander around the suburbs a bit and see how folk live, for starters. Tomorrow, venture along the train and see where things take us. The sun was rather bright out, but the view wasn't too bad a'tall with all that sun. |
| 10:21am | After some initial thought, we figure Chatswood would make an excellent suburb to wander about. We know where it is, we (surprisingly enough) agree it's a charming little place, and we know how to get there. They also have plenty of shopping and meal opportunities that please Tubby. (And, it appeals to his cheapness, as we already have a train pass to that very location... but I'm not going to split feathers -- it's a trip that takes us away from the hotel for a bit.) |
| 10:57am |
We FINALLY got out of the hotel. We were set to leave a half hour ago, but then the boy apparently was distracted by a web page with that annoying Word HTML code in it, and he was annoyed enough to want to sit down and fix it. Right that moment. Silly person. |
| 11:02am | We arrive at Circular Quay, and board the train as always. |
| 11:06am | Now it gets interesting. Normally, we'd transfer at Wynyard to the North Sydney line (which is the yellow line). But it seems to be closed. The signs tell us to go to Central Sydney and hop a train there. Okay. |
| 11:24am | We're now wandering through the Sydney Central station. We arrived on Platform 19 from Wynyard. Platform 18 is the yellow line... we descent the stairs, and go up another flight. And discover that 18 and 19 are the same platform (one side is 18, the other 19). And yes, 18 is closed. The best part of this sign is, you need to use platforms 4 to 14. Well, isn't that a big spread? |
| 11:47am |
What hasn't yet quite taken off in the U.S. is using the mobile phones for sending messages. Here, it's quite the rage. |
| 11:55am | The train arrives, and we hop aboard. There was also a cute girl sitting across from us, but she seemed bored generally, and disinterested in any train-riding ducks in particular. The train departs the station at 11:57am, right on schedule. |
| 12:27pm | Sure, they have graffiti here, too... but it's so much more colorful. |
| 12:30pm | As I was trying to have a conversation about social unrest with the Bald One, it seems he wasn't listening -- instead distracted by something shiny. Again. |
| 12:34pm | Once again, instead of talking to people or interacting in the life experience, another youth lost in messaging on her phone. |
| 12:43pm | So much for Plan B. We can't get from Hornsby to Chatswood, except by bus. Yuck-o, the bus. We'll pass. |
| 12:47pm | Thus, I begin the wait for the train from Hornsby BACK to Sydney Central, which is where this all started at 11:57am. |
| 12:53pm | This waiting does give me the time to read billboard ads. They have white chocolate Kit Kat bars now? Neat! |
| 1:04pm | The train arrived, and we loaded up. I was actually a bit impressed that the train car we were in, between Hornsby and Sydney Central, had a water fountain for your use. |
| 1:34pm | We were now back at Sydney Central station (the train was an express, and didn't stop at all 12 or so stations along the way). We elected to get off and just walk, since the odds of the sidewalks being closed were pretty slim. In the process of leaving the station, we passed a Burger King that was anything but a Burger King... Jack? (Apparently, some in-country franchise dispute, so two competing chains both look like Burger King... funny.) |
| 1:49pm | Whilst walking along the street, we popped into Burger King and had a meal fit for royalty. Well... okay, not quite... |
| 2:17pm | I happened by a shop proclaiming itself the Australian Property & Management. Surely, if they are in the business of maintaining properties for lease and sale, they could at least keep the graffiti off their own premises. |
| 2:21pm | We happened across the University of Sydney. Clearly, we're not headed in the right direction for the hotel. |
| 2:25pm | In the course of heading back the way we came, we happened across Victoria Park, which had a darn nice duck pond in the middle of it all. |
| 2:32pm | If Fosters is really Australian for beer, why did it take us four days to see the first mention of that brew? Me thinks that whole Fosters beer campaign is limited to what they tell them blokes in America. |
| 2:35pm | If you're trying to get your pizza there in under 30 minutes, perhaps this Domino's franchise has the right idea. |
| 2:43pm | We sort out that we went in what the French would call, the wrong direction; we righted ourselves and eventually found Pitt Street again. |
| 3:08pm | After a brief stroll (well, 25 minutes, but brief relative to when dinosaurs went extinct, I guess), we were back at the hotel. |
| 3:09pm | Tubby plugs into the internet connection there, at a cost of $24.95 for the next 21 hours, though noon tomorrow ($13.76 US; a bargain, really). I suspect he'll expense that, which means I'm doomed to watching him pretend to do some work to validate the expense. But housekeeping left me another magazine to read, so all is not lost. |
| 7:56pm | Tubby submits his first expense report. To date, he's paid (or charged) a mere $76 in meals and services; of those, $7.25 (US) is out of pocket. (But then again, most are travel and covered meals... but he's on his own for the soda pop and Pringles chips, apparently.) |
| 7:57pm | Tubby thought he could figure a way to expense the remaining $7.25... but he was soon distracted by a blinking light outside the window. |
| 9:43pm | Now bored to tears, I'm going to bed. I can't stand another idle rambling of his Largeness. |