Hitting the City on my 8th Birthday
29th February, Sydney CBD, Australia
Once again I find myself in Sydney to celebrate my birthday. The last time was on my 30th and this time it's another landmark - my 8th real birthday (or 32nd if you prefer). Yep, check the date and you'll understand what I'm talking about.
Our first stop was the Sunday market at The Rocks, a place where you can pick up all manner of really nice items for your home or gifts for loved ones. Our problem was the same as it is everywhere - we can't really carry this stuff around with us, no matter how good it is, so we just went round touching stuff, cooing occasionally and avoiding the overkeen stallholders' eyes as much as possible.
One place where I'll make an exception is the Mambo shop - any Mambo shop - and there is one in the Rocks, hurrah! Birthday present number one: a new Triple-One T-shirt with the phrase 'Laughter is the best medicine' adaped with an additional 'S' at the beginning, hence the dove of peace in the picture is being killed by a speech bubble that reads 'Ha!'. Maybe I should have just put a picture of it here ...
Up the AMP Tower
We spent the afternoon kicking around the CBD once again. We thought about going up the AMP Tower and then later going for a meal at the ANA Hotel which has great views over the harbour and the bridge. Calling in to the AMP Tower reception, Manda noticed that we could have a meal in the tower's revolving restaurant, so we booked up for 6:30pm - killing two birds with one stone, and all that.
While waiting for our meal, we stopped at a café where I had a hot chocolate that seemed to be telling me something: "No!"
No what? No drinking the hot choc? No going up the AMP Tower? Good job I'm not superstitious - I drank the hot chocolate, wiped my mouth and headed off for the evening meal.
The meal in the tower was very good - a buffet deal, all you can eat (and I managed a couple of platefuls of good food) - and the view was ever-changing, if not a little slowly! In between mouthfuls, we looked out over the rooftops trying to identify buildings and main roads from our limited knowledge of the city. Manda had a surprise for me - a Homer (Simpson) T-shirt that she'd snuck out for earlier in the day on the pretext of 'going to the toilet'. The sun set while we ate and the city became dark before our eyes, the neon lights across the CBD flickering into action.
Despite it being my birthday, we didn't have a late night for a couple of reasons. First, the distance to our campsite necessitated catching a bus before too late and secondly I had come down with serious sniffles and sneezes (hot day turned into cold evening and I hadn't brought a jacket/top, d'oh!). So, we made tracks but while we waited for the next bus we walked about in the now deserted Queen Victoria Building (undoubdtedly Sydney's most attractive place to shop).
Me, inside Queen Victoria Building, wearing my Pokeman badge for 8-year-olds!
Once back at the campsite in North Ryde, Manda revealed one more surprise - a packet of sparklers and a birthday cake (a muffin with one candle in!). Manda had intended to pull these out at the Opera House, but we never made it there on account of my turning into the snot monster from hell. So, I lit up the sparklers outside the van while Manda took pictures. 6 sparklers in and it occurred to me that perhaps we shouldn't be using them here, what with the dry weather, the surrounding trees and Australia's predeliction for forest fires - I certainly didn't want to be the cause of tomorrow's news bulletins!
