Sydney 2014 day 5

  

The day was still cloudy, but I think its just going to be one of those humid day that you will sweat, but wont get very sunburnt at all. It should be pretty good to wander around under the cloud cover and not direct sunlight.

I started by taking a walk with Dawn and Lucy as I wanted to find Margaret Olley’s old house in Paddington. We found the house alright, but if you never googled the address or knew what you were looking at then you would have walked right on by without even knowing who had lived there. It just looks like being an overgrown property that is unless we have gone to the wrong location. Still I did the usual photo op with the house and wandered around  realising and remarking that the back streets of Paddington are like a rabbit warren as you could become lost amongst the streets. I did leave Dawn to walking her dog as I wanted to have a look at the area where the Sydney cricket grounds were or what is known as the SCG.

  I took the path that went between the reservoir  and the fire station as I had taken that very path last time I was heading that was last time I was in Sydney except this time there was no storm with a downpour. Once down at the stadium area I wanted to see what I could find though I thought it would be best walking through the car park. I wasn’t very interested in Centennial Park, which was across the road, but I could see it.  I didn’t know what I was expecting to see, but there was the start of the football grounds as I was able to see a van that was for the Sydney Roosters and then the Waratahs. I was surprised that there were three people playing footy well just passing their ball, but in front of a building with plenty of glass. Some oldish lady did join in with them, but all I was thinking was that they were dim morons. I did look at some statues of footy players of the past, but I didn’t hover as I did feel I was on a time limit since I had a booking for the afternoon. The wandering showed me that the whole area was bigger than what I had thought it was as the next lot of buildings I came across was the cricket grounds and then the AFL grounds where I did see some player from the Sydney Swans.

Covering the entire block seemed to be something of a marathon in itself though I think I did find the Sydney agriculture grounds as it seems to be now part of where the Fox studios are now part of. I thought I could walk into the promotional end and I turned around when I realised I had entered the auditioning area not that I wanted to be on TV, but I doubt I would be able to wander. I jumped into the visitors area, well not jump but wandered to the next entrance over. That was interesting as I found it was a whole entertainment area, which included Hoyts and the film and TV school though it doesn’t interest me too much and time was starting to run out. The whole area is interesting and worth spending some time in even though some places you are not allowed as I had a big security guard watching me from a closed off area though I needed a pass and I never had any on me. Further down the road and I encountered the equestrian centre, but I had crossed over to the park side of the road to see what the memorial fountain thing was. I looked at the time and realised I should be on my way as it was becoming later than I thought.

I did become lost trying to find my way back to Paddington and Oxford street as I wasn’t exactly sure where I was going. I figured that if bus’ were working down the street, then I was on the correct track. I was actually surprised where I had appeared out of the correct street and I knew exactly where I was when I did enter the main road, though I was a short walk away as I was at the main entrance to Centennial Park. After a brief stop and to get my washing off the line before it began raining if I wasn’t back from the city before the end of the day and darkness fell. I did have to sort my bag out with water. Once we were both on the bus as I had booked a place for Susannah Place with Margie. There were some hair raising events, which took place on the way. A blonde lady in an Audi who had something to do with festivals Sydney 2014 cut off the bus in the city near Hyde Park and then there was the motorcyclist with a passenger who kept looking at her phone while the bike was moving. I did find that very surprising as I never seen anyone do that before on a motorbike.

 Once we had alighted next to the Sydney Museum, I started acting as a tour guide for Margie when we had seen the park behind the Paragin pub and then Macquarie park as they had something that would be of interest especially when there was some monuments regarding the first fleet. Before we arrived at The Rocks we did find the monument to The Tank Stream and then a beer with chips at The Fortunes of War. The people were very helpful and did their best to keep customers happy especially us two and we will forgive the fact they had no VB on tap. The next stop was the discovery centre with its possible oldest headstone in Australia. The museum did show how The Rocks location was formed and did recognise the Aboriginal tribes of the area. They did show evidence as well and the plan was to have a look if we had time when after Susannah Place. By that time we had to head into Susannah Place as we were running out of time.

I found Susannah Place to be interesting as it was one of those unique places that had been saved from demolition from the builders and it was very lucky as the houses shows examples of the different time periods from candle, gas lighting to electricity. They even have an air raid shelter as well during the war. I did buy a book about the families who lived in the area between 1844 and the mid 90s before people moved out and the museum had the row of houses. I think washing day on a Monday was a bit much especially when it was by pot and a big stick. Ladies in those days were tough. They did have plenty of examples not that I am going to write them down as it will kill my fingers to even try something like that and memory too. I would have to add that the tour guide was of great value and yeah you have to book or else you would miss out on having a tour. It goes from the afternoon though and not sure why they don’t use the morning as well.

Once the tour ended Margie and I headed towards the Australia Pub as we both were thirsty and peckish. We had a pizza and a Bavarian type beer that was brewed in Picton NSW. We had our rest and then headed towards The Big Dig area especially when it was part of the YHA building and showed Margie what I had found several days before as it showed the archaeological digs that had been done and what had been found especially what had been thrown down the wells. We did wander around the area a bit more and found parts that I had not found including the area of the first execution. Another spot was in George street as they were doing a deep dig before there was a building to be constructed as the area was on the banks of the Tank Stream. There was a little bit of a display about what they were doing and then we were off as we were meeting Dawn for dinner at the COFA building. It wasn’t actually a very long wait for the bus either and we did end up in Paddington where we found several book stores that we wandered through. The day was at an end and it ended with some needed rain that had been hanging around for the last several days.