Tuesday 5th March
Today was a pretty changeable day. A bit of rain, a bit of sun, but mostly rain. Terry went fishing at Duff Reserve, Point Piper, which has a great view out towards the city. The bridge only just escapes from view behind a bunch of trees on the north shore. He took the kids with him, while Karen and I went off in the combi for a bit of exploring. First we took a look at Shark Beach, which is near Neilson Park on the south headland. It was similar to Camp Cove - a small inland beach, but was spoiled by the shark net enclosure. I wasn't sure whether it was there to allay fears that there might be a shark attack, on account of the name, or whether sharks were predisposed to hang about this area, and therefore the net was there for good reason. Either way, we weren't about to find out - it was grey and gloomy, so we headed off again.
Shivering at The Gap
Next stop, The Gap. I'd been here before, and Karen had been near (at Watson's Bay), but she hadn't taken a look at the rocks below. So, we went and took a look. Then it started raining, so we came back down having spent less than 5 minutes there! The way I looked at it, we could walk in either direction along the cliff face for some distance either way, and essentially you're still looking out to the ocean, or back to the rocks below. No, it was raining. Must get cover ....
Our next glamorous location: K-Mart! Yep, that's right, the only shop that Rainman would buy his underpants from. The same shop that has just filed for bankruptcy in the states for its own protection. The shop is in Bondi Junction, one of the more built up areas of Sydney outside of the CBD, and you can pretty much guess what the place is like. Karen was looking for a cardigan, me - sweeties. Like I said, a very glamorous location.
Fishing at Duff Reserve, Point Piper
Afterwards, we went back to Terry and the kids in Pt Piper. Toby had been driving Terry nuts all afternoon with constant questions and energy levels in general! Today was a full-o-beans day for Toby. I had a go at fishing, not knowing how to cast, what bait to put on, when to reel in etc. However, once that was all explained/demonstrated, I managed to catch three fish, all of which went straight back in to the water. Most of the time, I just got caught up on the seaweed that was immediately in front of us.
Later we went to Hotel Bondi once again for a thing called Peanut Butter Jam. Andy hires out his banners to the promoter Rire (an Aussie model who, at 6 foot tall, almost makes Andy look small), and so we went to see them in situ. The evening is a mixture of live bands, all of them pretty darn good. Among the artists we saw were the Claude Hay Band, who did a mixture of acoustic and rocky numbers and The Beautiful Girls (who were all blokes, incidentally), who were promoting the launch of their CD that night. Whether I'll ever hear of these bands again is doubtful, but it was a great night's entertainment, all the same.