Weekend away
Jul. 3rd, 2005 10:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skyringFriday involved a lunchtime Booking (fromerly GFKAM) at Woden in Guru Coffee, where we talked books, thumb-wrestled, bemoaned the sad state of voting for the 2006 Convention, drank coffee and had a good time. Unbalanced has reached the stage where he goes out buying books to give away and dumped a bagload onto the table.
DS has pretty much had it with his latest computer game and wanted to buy another. He poked around and got a discounted copy of HomeWorld 2 and was terribly keen to get home and play it.
Bad news! An error message says that his computer is too slow to play the game. In amongst a thousand other things, I found time to install my laptop in the computer room and hook it up to the big monitor, mouse, keyboard and power supply and he reckoned it was pretty good.
OK for him, but I guess this leaves my progress with Mediawiki on the laptop at a stand, at least until he gets sick of the game, which could be a while.
We'd originally intended to go up to Sydney on Friday night, but we'd have got there about ten, too late to do anything much other than spend time settling in and going to sleep. So we left at about six on Saturday after I got up about half three to sort out my queue of support issues and stuff. There's only a few of us on at the moment, so every little bit helps, and it's fun to do the odd bit of detective work.
Arrived about nine, and after we tried and failed to sweet talk the concierge into letting us in to park in one of the vacant spaces, we unloaded outside and I parked in Wilson's a couple of blocks away. BIL and SIL were in residence, so Kerri and I took the guest room and the kids were to sleep on the floor in the lounge, along with young cousin short enough to sleep on the couch. He's six years old and an absolute charmer. Full of energy and smiles.
First stop after a walk through Hyde Park via the Archibald Fountain was the art gallery. DS was dreadfully bored at the Archibald exhibition and I can't say I blame him that much, but he did rather put a dampener on the visit. I thought a lot of the art was big and pretentious, especially the winner. Some magnificent pictures, but I have to say that a great many of the self-portraits make you wonder about how the artist perceives his or herself. I also don't see the need for every painting to be two metres square, especially if you are a plump lady doing a nude self-portrait.
DS and I left early and had a drink in the cafe. A quick look around the rest of the gallery and I stress the word quick. I didn't have near enough time to look at the late 19th, early 20th Australian paintings I adore, and the giftshop, although having Moleskine notebooks, didn't have Levengers.
Next stop Darling Harbour and we wandered around a bit looking for YumCha before settling on Vietnamese, which was nice enough. SIL blanched when told that the house wine was Coolibah (cask stuff), and BIL sent back an oxidised Brown Brothers chenin blanc. Did I mention that they run their own vineyard on the North Coast? They aren't wine snobs, by any means, but they refuse to drink bad or common wine for enjoyment. Because they wouldn't have any. Lunch was fun, although I would have prefered Yum Cha.
Back to Darling Harbour for a walk around the Chinese Gardens. I love this place, and the $3 entry fee is great value. I'm constantly amazed at the thought that has gone into creating such a beautiful garden in the middle of a great city. The skyscrapers and the noises fade away and you are in a tranquil land, where everything is perfectly planned. The kids enjoyed looking at the schools of koi, and they spotted an eel well over a metre long, but me, I enjoyed the calm paths, the constant flow of water and the many pavilions.
Back to the flat after coffee and fudge. Got my head down for a bit - long day, waning cold and a headache - and then we played Harry Potter Uno, ate some marvellous pizza and worked our way through a bottle and a half of red. Young nephew wanted to gang up with me against the girls, and although I encouraged co-operation, I drew the line at actively breaking the rules, such as by exchanging cards.
Surprised the stretchers still worked after years stored under the house. But we got them up, installed the kids on them in their sleeping bags and had reasonably good nights. I had a bit of a reaction to the histamines in the red, and I felt I should be at a computer somewhere, but in the end I slept in until about eight.
Brekkie, and a train down to Circular Quay, short walk to The Rocks. They do a wonderful street market and we bought a few things and had a great time browsing. Tea in one of the converted old terrace houses in "Sergeant-Majors Row".
Clean up and pack up, retrieve the car, off to Picton for the Booking there, then home again, pausing in Queanbeyan to retrieve the dog a minute before closing time at the kennels.
Great weekend, and everyone's on holidays as of tomorrow.
Big disappointment in the failure of my journal to make it to the UnConvention in Birmingham. Great expense to get it there in time, but the recipient was sick and couldn't pick it up or arrange collection from her work. She'll take it around gatherings there, but it won't be quite the same.
And now, off to bed. It's been a busy couple of days and I'm exhausted!
DS has pretty much had it with his latest computer game and wanted to buy another. He poked around and got a discounted copy of HomeWorld 2 and was terribly keen to get home and play it.
Bad news! An error message says that his computer is too slow to play the game. In amongst a thousand other things, I found time to install my laptop in the computer room and hook it up to the big monitor, mouse, keyboard and power supply and he reckoned it was pretty good.
OK for him, but I guess this leaves my progress with Mediawiki on the laptop at a stand, at least until he gets sick of the game, which could be a while.
We'd originally intended to go up to Sydney on Friday night, but we'd have got there about ten, too late to do anything much other than spend time settling in and going to sleep. So we left at about six on Saturday after I got up about half three to sort out my queue of support issues and stuff. There's only a few of us on at the moment, so every little bit helps, and it's fun to do the odd bit of detective work.
Arrived about nine, and after we tried and failed to sweet talk the concierge into letting us in to park in one of the vacant spaces, we unloaded outside and I parked in Wilson's a couple of blocks away. BIL and SIL were in residence, so Kerri and I took the guest room and the kids were to sleep on the floor in the lounge, along with young cousin short enough to sleep on the couch. He's six years old and an absolute charmer. Full of energy and smiles.
First stop after a walk through Hyde Park via the Archibald Fountain was the art gallery. DS was dreadfully bored at the Archibald exhibition and I can't say I blame him that much, but he did rather put a dampener on the visit. I thought a lot of the art was big and pretentious, especially the winner. Some magnificent pictures, but I have to say that a great many of the self-portraits make you wonder about how the artist perceives his or herself. I also don't see the need for every painting to be two metres square, especially if you are a plump lady doing a nude self-portrait.
DS and I left early and had a drink in the cafe. A quick look around the rest of the gallery and I stress the word quick. I didn't have near enough time to look at the late 19th, early 20th Australian paintings I adore, and the giftshop, although having Moleskine notebooks, didn't have Levengers.
Next stop Darling Harbour and we wandered around a bit looking for YumCha before settling on Vietnamese, which was nice enough. SIL blanched when told that the house wine was Coolibah (cask stuff), and BIL sent back an oxidised Brown Brothers chenin blanc. Did I mention that they run their own vineyard on the North Coast? They aren't wine snobs, by any means, but they refuse to drink bad or common wine for enjoyment. Because they wouldn't have any. Lunch was fun, although I would have prefered Yum Cha.
Back to Darling Harbour for a walk around the Chinese Gardens. I love this place, and the $3 entry fee is great value. I'm constantly amazed at the thought that has gone into creating such a beautiful garden in the middle of a great city. The skyscrapers and the noises fade away and you are in a tranquil land, where everything is perfectly planned. The kids enjoyed looking at the schools of koi, and they spotted an eel well over a metre long, but me, I enjoyed the calm paths, the constant flow of water and the many pavilions.
Back to the flat after coffee and fudge. Got my head down for a bit - long day, waning cold and a headache - and then we played Harry Potter Uno, ate some marvellous pizza and worked our way through a bottle and a half of red. Young nephew wanted to gang up with me against the girls, and although I encouraged co-operation, I drew the line at actively breaking the rules, such as by exchanging cards.
Surprised the stretchers still worked after years stored under the house. But we got them up, installed the kids on them in their sleeping bags and had reasonably good nights. I had a bit of a reaction to the histamines in the red, and I felt I should be at a computer somewhere, but in the end I slept in until about eight.
Brekkie, and a train down to Circular Quay, short walk to The Rocks. They do a wonderful street market and we bought a few things and had a great time browsing. Tea in one of the converted old terrace houses in "Sergeant-Majors Row".
Clean up and pack up, retrieve the car, off to Picton for the Booking there, then home again, pausing in Queanbeyan to retrieve the dog a minute before closing time at the kennels.
Great weekend, and everyone's on holidays as of tomorrow.
Big disappointment in the failure of my journal to make it to the UnConvention in Birmingham. Great expense to get it there in time, but the recipient was sick and couldn't pick it up or arrange collection from her work. She'll take it around gatherings there, but it won't be quite the same.
And now, off to bed. It's been a busy couple of days and I'm exhausted!
