Mick and Liesel's Antics

After our tacos, Brent dropped Liesel and me off near our b&b, thank you very much! It had been raining on and off most of the day, and we were delighted to see a rainbow at the end of the day.

I’m sure the apartments in that building, Casa Delmar, will be lovely: Alfresco living finds its ultimate expression as doors slide back to large outdoor terraces, extending your interior space and blurring the lines between inside and out. These are homes with a beautiful feel, designed for an expansive coastal Dee Why lifestyle. It sounds nearly as nice as NortNorthen. Expansive? I’m sure. Expensive too.

You know the song Come On, Eileen, by Dexys Midnight Runners? Well, for the last few days, I’ve been telling Liesel that when we turn the AC off in our room, it plays the first two notes of that song. To prove it, I found it on YouTube. And well, it doesn’t. But it certainly brings that song to mind every time.

We returned to Warringah Mall to do some shopping but Liesel took a detour into the eyelash tinting shop, so I had a coffee in the café opposite, The Best Chocolate Cake in the World. I didn’t have any chocolate cake, though.

It was great fun visiting all the department stores and clothes shops, no, honest, it really was. And every time we visit the ladies’ underwear department, I worry that I’m going to be stuck there for days, not finding my way out, like those priests in Father Ted.

Helen and Keiran joined us for lunch and a bit more shopping. A cuddly giraffe was irresistable, just a small cuddly for Keiran. I say small, but it must be nearly four feet tall. Did I feel daft carrying it through the Mall? Oh yeah.

At the time of writing, he hasn’t been given a name. 

Helen dropped us off at the bottom of the hill, so we could cool off in our room for a while, avoiding 31° outside.

We found our way back to Freshwater Brewery by bus and Shanks’s Pony. One thing I’ve noticed is that, because so many cars have tinted windows, it’s sometimes very hard to see whether the driver is waving us pedestrians across the road. So we hesitate and they’re probably thinking, get a move on, you absolute whatever…

It was trivia night, and we were joined by Brent, Jacqui, Nat, Jo, Mike and Nicky. Helen and Keiran stayed at home, it was much cooler there. And our team came third. hooray!

Our original plan was to revisit Narrabeen Lake but the impending rain changed our minds. Instead, Liesel and I visited the big city, Sydney. We caught the ferry from Manly.

The nets here are to keep the sharks out rather than keep people in. But, we heard, a couple of days ago, a pair of sharks managed to break in. There must have been some damage to the nets. So neither of us went in for a swim.

In Sydney, there was very light drizzle, as we walked to the Australian Museum.

Look at the glorious blue sky. Well, not today! And note the 56 external cables wrapped around the body of Sydney Tower to prevent swaying during high winds. Very hard to count from this distance.

The museum was very interesting. We walked a lot but, as usual, that slow sort of walking isn’t energetic enough for my pedometer to count all the steps. So while I probably walked about 40,000 ⃰  steps, it insisted I’d only taken about 3,000 steps.

⃰ slight exaggeration.

Lots of taxidermied animals including crocodiles and snakes. Don’t forget the plesiosaur. Or the creaky staircase that takes you up to the gallery.

And what’s that thing hanging from the ceiling?

Ireland, Middle Pleistocene to Early Holocene, 780,000-8000 years ago.

Standing about two metres tall, with antlers spanning more than three metres, the Irish Elk was one of the most impressive megafauna of the Pleistocene epoch. Unlike many other megafauna, it survived the Ice Age but became extinct, probably due to habitat loss, around 7700 years ago.

Despite its name, it’s neither an elk nor exclusively Irish – specimens have been found across Europe and in northern Asia and Africa. It is not closely related to any living species, but it is suspected that the animal was the foundation for the folkloric aurochs of German mythology. The bones of this specimen are dark, rather than the usual white, because they were preserved in the peaty bogs of Ireland.

Liesel suggested that its antlers have been put on backwards, but I’m not convinced. What do you think? Answers on a postcard…

The museum was also the venue for a fabulous collection of photographs, some of the best from Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year competition. Nature at its most raw wasn’t very nice to see, although you have to admire the skill of the photographer.

This emu was captured near Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. It made me want to return to that very special outback town. I was also inspired to start using my real camera again, after relying on my phone’s camera for many years.

The set of sea stacks pictured are a prominent feature of this local spot, sitting perfectly to frame the rising Milky Way arm. This piece was my (Kavan’s) second attempt at shooting here, armed with a few extra years’ worth of experience. I still love this spot, Otago, Aotearoa New Zealand.

I know we’re visitors, but sometimes, other visitors can be annoying. I waited a long, long time to get this picture of a pig. Because another couple spent a long, long time while he took a picture of her while she touched the hog’s nose.

When you rub my nose and make a wish, your donation supports research, education and development at Sydney Hospital. Australia’s first hospital. So says the plaque underneath.

We walked back down to Circular Quay where we enjoyed an Aboriginal gentleman playing his didgeridoo, accompanying the theme tune from the TV series Neighbours.

We walked around by the Opera Hose, admired the groups of people climbing up and over the Harbour Bridge and confirmed again that we don’t need to do that, thank you very much.

On the ferry back to Manly, we overtook the Concordia-class cruise ship Carnival Splendor. I don’t think I’ll ever not be impressed by the size of those things, and the amount of skill needed in their design and construction. I doubt many of the passengers noticed how choppy the water was in the harbour this afternoon. But we on the ferry enjoyed bouncing around a bit.

Meanwhile, 10,560 miles away, guess who deserves a pat on the back?

William earned the Chief Scout’s Bronze
Award, congratulations and well done!

Liesel and I picked up dinner from a Dodgy Indian and we Ubered back to Helen’s. Is that a verb? Yes, it is now. But, no, really, the place is called The Dodgy Indian, in Dee Why. Of course, there was too much food for one meal but Helen and Brent were happy to have seconds the following day. Very nice, though, very tasty.

On going down for breakfast in the morning, we were horrified to see an invasion in the kitchen. What I thought was one of those black bits off the end of a banana was actually a caterpillar. I relocated it to the garden, assuming it had hitched a ride indoors the previous day, on the laundry basket or something. The only other bug I ever saw in this b&b was a small mosquito which I managed to catch. Yes! And then when I opened my hand to inspect it, it flew away again. Oh well.

Helen drove us to Narrabeen for the hike postponed from yesterday. Before walking around the Lagoon, we had coffee and Helen fed Keiran.

Some of the well-made, flat path was familiar, we’d been here a couple of years ago, but I’d forgotten how close much of it was to the main road.

We weren’t alone, we passed by several dog-walkers, plenty of runners and a few other people walking. There were just a few birds in the water, including black swans. We saw one fish jump. But most noticeable on the way around the lagoon was realising that the vegetation was mostly green, with just the odd splash of colour, mainly small, almost alpine flowers.

The bridges were very well built, crossing all the creeks, Deep Creek, Middle Creek, South Creek and Jonathan Creek. I thought I was back in Manchester for a minute when I spotted a red, plastic object, likely a bread basket, in the water. What a shame. Even though it was cloudy and cool, quite a pleasant temperature really, I realised I was a bit sweaty by the time we sat down for lunch in the Tramshed Café.

As you can see, Keiran enjoyed the walk and was pleased to have a nap at the end.

Knowing that it was going to be another scorcher, I had an early breakfast before walking to Coles in Dee Why Grand. Liesel had sent a shopping list and I had a few bits of my own to get. I found everything I needed and was surprised at how heavy it was, altogether. I just hoped my plastic bag would take the strain for the walk back home.

It’s uphill going back and I was hot and sweaty. So I am eternally grateful to whoever discarded a shopping trolley on the pavement. I looked around surrepticiously, put my shopping in it and pushed it up the road. Let the trolley take the strain.

The trolley belongs to Woolworths and I hope it has since found its way back home. I only left it where I did because I had steps to walk up. And within 24 hours, someone else had indeed made use of it. The circle of life.

After lunch, I met up with Helen and we drove to Manly. We were meeting the other half of the family, Helen’s in-laws. Brent’s parents are Helen and Steve, known as Nana and Pa. His brother and sister-in-law are Liam and Megan. And Keiran’s cousins are Elliot and Ruby. And Ruby in particular was very taken with baby Keiran.

We met up at a bar called Felons, named after the American president and his coterie. I achieved a first today, not by intention. Twice I asked for half a pint of IPA, and twice I was given a full pint. I’ve not drunk two pints of beer in one go for a very long time, and not in the afternoon since about 1975. Still, it was nice to meet the wider family and to chat about Keiran, and maybe the odd other topic.

Brent arrived from working in Sydney, thus ending the first week in his exciting new job.

We’ve walked past the Ivanhoe Hotel in Manly many times over the years, but I think this was the first time I’ve been inside. The ten of us sat at a long table for dinner. I had my default, salad and chips, but even this I found to be too much, man. Very nice chips, it was a shame to leave them, but stomach said ‘no’.

We haven’t had an airport drama for a while. So here’s one. Liesel is joining me here in Aus for the last week of my trip. She flew from Anchorage to Portland, then to Honolulu. For some reason, she was in danger of missing her connecting flight from Honolulu to Sydney. The crew were aware and obviously did what they could to hold up the next flight. They did, and Liesel ran through Honolulu Airport, in the wake of two persons in wheelchairs heading for the same flight. Which was held for them. But we wonder whether it would have been held if the wheelchair users had not been first-class passengers?

Anyway, I monitored the flight as it set off, didn’t hear anything from Liesel so I was 99% sure she was on board.

Now that I could relax a bit, it was time to extract myself from the pit and get on with things.

First stop, breakfast, and I enjoyed the best fried egg roll I’ve had since the days of Unique in Chessington. Just what this relieved old body needed.

Then a return visit to the library for more writing. And other people were sitting at my table! What an outrage. It’s funny to see students studying with two or three screens in front of them. In the olden days, it would of course have been a pile of books with many bookmarks. But it was nice to see the art of hand-writing hasn’t totally been forgotten by the younger generation.

While writing, I realised that what this library needs is a char lady to come round with a tea trolley every so often. I just fancied a cup of tea and a biscuit.

I skimmed through the newspaper, Sydney Morning Herald and while a lot of it wasn’t good news, it was interesting to read about events and news other than Trump, Epstein, Mandelson, Starmer. And a really good, in-depth article about AI, far more detailed than anything I’ve seen in the UK.

And then I found the puzzle page. I was on form: I completed the cryptic crossword, the quick crossword and a sudoku. I left that page open for others to admire.

After what was by now a late lunch, I went for a wander around Stony Range Regional Botanic Garden, which is just over the road from where I’m staying, but with a busy 6, 7, 8 or 9-lane highway in between, it’s not easy to just nip over the road.

I saw butterflies, yes, plural, and heard the chirrups of many insects. I was expecting to see brush turkeys and/or their nests, but not on this ocacsion.

Having failed to get a decent picture of a butterfly, it just wouldn’t sit still, I sat down on one of the many benches, listening to the insects successfully drowning out the sounds of the traffic.

Then I felt something noshing on my laig. My ankles were being devoured by tiny ants, so that precipitated my hasty departure from the garden. Cue several days  of trying hard not to scratch my ankles.

Meanwhile, Helen, Brent and Keiran visited the family again in Bondi. After a fun visit, they set off for the airport to collect Liesel and her luggage. This was now a full car, and is the reason I didn’t also visit Bondi.

They brought Liesel straight back to our b&b where she had a shower straightaway and went straight to bed and straight to sleep.

And I think we both had a reasonably good night’s sleep, despite not having slept together for quite a while, and we’re not used to each other’s nocturnal noises nor habits.

We met Helen and family for breakfast back at SeaSprout, which also has very nice coffee.

Back at Helen’s, food was prepared for the afternoon’s barbecue. And of course it’s raining. All this way, and Liesel is greeted not with hot sunshine, but with rain.

Lindfield is a suburb on the Upper North Shore of Sydney and this is where Dan and Helen now live, more emigrés from Manly. It was about a half-hour drive, in the end.

Most of the afternoon was taken up watching the children’s antics. As well as Fern and Asher, we were joined by Nat and Rob and their two boys, Hamish and Seb. Fern was fully aware that ‘boys will be boys’ and mostly kept out of their way. As she said, they put the ‘boys’ into ‘boisterous’. Well, someone said it.

I think magnetic Minecraft blocks are meant for building, a real-life version of the much loved videogame, Minecraft. But these boys were a bit more destructive, magneticly sticking the small blocks together to make larger blocks, and then watching the construction explode as it hits the floor. The box in which these blocks are stored is labelled TNT.

I’m not saying Keiran was wide-eyed and legless, but he definitely wasn’t standing up 😉

Thanks very much to everyone for contributing some delicious food. Just a shame that the weather kept us inside.

After breakfast, Liesel and I walked over to Helen’s. I read some of my book while Helen and Keiran caught up on some sleep. We then drove to the Mall where Helen and Liesel were both surprised that I bought a sandwich from Subway. They both had something more exotic!

And then it was time to feed Keiran and of course, the best venue for this was the library.

At one point, Liesel and I had thought about going to the cinema but in the end, that idea evaporated like early morning dew. A short walk in the evening took us down the road to a nice little place for our dinner. Again, my meal was too big.

We rose slightly earlier the next day, we had places to be, things to do and people to see. After breakfast, we took our time crossing the busy intersection, the site of NSW’s 1000th set of traffic lights, and caught the 199 bus into Manly.

As we’d arrived quicker than expected for our massages, we had a coffee in the shop next door. While in there, Liesel spotted Helene, our masseuse, leaving the car park. Helene spotted Liesel too and said, “see you soon”. How great to be remembered and recognised after all this time. Helene’s probably seen hundreds of clients but Liesel’s seen a very few different massageurs.

Liesel was seen first, so I went to do my thing in Manly Library. It’s only a short distance down the road from the massage parlour, but of course, I walked round the long way (the wrong way?). Just to get some steps in.

My massage was wonderful, but boy, does she have strong thumbs and fingers. “When are you flying home?” she asked. “Sunday.” “Oh, plenty of time to recover, then.” I need time to recover? I fully expected to wake up covered in bruises the following day, but actually, I felt fine. I knew I’d been worked on, but in a good way.

While we were in Manly, Helen took Keiran for another Baby Sensory session. This week, they were celebrating Valentine’s Day.

Manly beach was more crowded than we’ve seen it so far, and plenty of people were in the water.

We walked along the very busy path to Shelly Beach, and between the dragons and the turkeys, it was almost a wildlife safari.

And because the modern fashion is for very teeny weeny bikini bottoms, I had to apologise to Liesel, because it’s very difficult not to look when walking along with some young girl’s arse is in your line of sight. ‘Must get some peaches on the way home.’

You know you’re in a civilised place when you don’t have to look too far for a water fountain. And we did need a lot of water today.

Yes, we saw other birds and other, smaller lizards on our wander, but the dragons and turkeys were by far the most interesting.

We joined the queue and enjoyed lunch at Norma’s Deli. It’s a popular venue, but I’m pretty sure we’ve managed to walk by it many times before, without entering its portal. And, for dessert, we visited the gelato place. And for dinner in the evening, it being Taco Tuesday, we returned to Freshie Mex for tacos. It was cool sitting outside and a friend of Helen’s, Kat, dropped by for a quick chat. It’s a small world, isn’t it! Except when you have to fly halfway round it…

Well obviously, I’m not used to the Sun rising as early as it does, here in NSW, but I was up with the lark, or the mynah, and went downstairs for breakfast. Brent very kindly drove to the airport to pick up my sister Pauline and I walked over to the apartment to visit them.

We ate lunch outside, in the shade of course. I think it’s fair to say that, on the whole, Keiran was the centre of attention.

For dinner, we went to Harbord Diggers. My veg burger and chips were great, but there was so much food, I coudn’t finish. I thought I was in America or something.

Six local soldiers (Diggers) returned from the poppy fields of France after World War I and later sat on Freshwater Beach where they discussed creating a place that they could remember their mates, join those who protected Australian shores and support each other and the community they lived in. This was the genesis of Harbord Diggers and these original Diggers are now honoured by the six poppies proudly on display in this memorial artwork by artist Jade Oakley.

Each poppy is balanced on a hidden hook, so that when the southerly blows in off the sea, the sculptures bob and dance like poppies in a field. The flickering light of the concealed flames within each poppy are a reminder of the eternal flame, and the poppies appear to ‘grow’ from the reflective pond.

The glowing perforated brass background represents the sea and the sand of Freshwater Beach.

Pauline and I arranged to meet the following morning after breakfast to go for a walk. She’s staying a bit further afield and walked to my b&b. She is having problems with her Google maps and lack of 4G so she approached my b&b from the ‘wrong’ direction, which was awkward as I’d set off to meet her.

For a brief moment, when I saw this item, and despite the sunshine, I thought I was back in Manchester.

I guess someone wanted to get rid of this old bike when they replaced it with one of those big, chunky electric ones. Of which, we’ve seen very many around here, being ridden on the pavements, at speed, by very young people in some cases. With bare feet.

But eventually, meet we did, and Pauline and I walked to a coffee shop (how did you guess?) called Barrel One Coffee Roasters. We stayed in the shade as much as possible, it was a very hot day, I saw it up to 34° but I saw 40° mentioned elsewhere. Nice coffee but I do feel bad for the folks working in a place like this on such a hot day.

As noon approached, we walked along the road to Bucketty’s Brewing Co. This was the venue for Family Bingo. We met Helen’s friends Helen and Dan, with their children Fern and Asher. Helen, Brent and Keiran arrived a few minutes later and we got the drinks in for out mammoth bingo session. The caller didn’t use any of the familiar terminology: clicketty click 66, two fat ducks 22 or any of those.

An hour of fun and I won nothing. Brent won a model aeroplane kit, as did Asher who couldn’t wait to get home before constructing his.

Pauline and I walked over to Warringah Mall for some shopping before catching the 193 back to Helen and Brent’s. This is the one that takes us round the corner and up the hill so we can walk down the steps. Who wants to walk up that hill on the hottest day ever?

On Australia Day, I walked to Dee Why Beach where I met Pauline at the Chill Bar for a coffee. A cold coffee. In fact, a very welcome coffee milkshake. The beach was very busy, it being a public holiday, but the sea was still a bit rough.

We thought about walking to Curl Curl Beach but my aching carcass very soon said ‘no’. A combination of an irritating cough, insufficient sleep and the ever present threat of shortness-of-breath, I suspect. So, feeling a bit manky, I thought it best to stay away from Keiran today.

Excitingly, we did spot a pair of kookaburras, or as they appear in my hastily taken photo, a pair of white blobs sitting on the fence.

I tested negative for Covid, RSV and two types of flu, which was a great relief. Cough sweets and cough syrup help momentarily, but what I really need is a scratchy toilet brush down the back of my throat. (I’d wash it first, don’t worry.) But the pharmacist was very helpful.

And the barista didn’t mind me at all, sitting at the back of the café, performing my rapid antigen tests.

As I walked to the pharmacy, I’d noticed some honking and tooting and beeping from the traffic, but I took no notice. I found out later that one of those toots was from Helen who was taking Keiran to his first Baby Sensory class.

Pauline and I met the family at Freshie Mex for tacos. I was satisfied with two, but Brent’s a growing lad, he consumed at least four.

Warriewood Wetlands is a bus ride away. I met Pauline there for a very pleasant wander through the woods and the wetlands. We think we followed most of the tracks within its 26 acres but it did feel strange as we exited a couple of times to find ourselves in a residential area.

The first point of interest was a noxious smell. I looked at my sister accusingly, but she denied all wrong-doing. Maybe it’s the stagnant water, we thought. But then Pauline looked up. Bats. Dozens, scores of fruit bats, or flying foxes, just hanging around up in the trees.

It’s a great place for wildlife, nothing too exotic though. We saw lizards and at least one very big butterfly. We heard more birds singing than we actually saw. Some dusky moorhens were teaching their chicks how to find food.

A sign warned us that this was a snake habitat, so I stomped along for a bit, until I forgot.

We didn’t expect to see ibises in one of the areas, but the biggest surprise was seeing a spoonbill. He was very shy and like a lot of bitds, he knew when someone was about to take his picture, and he flew off into the wild blue yonder.

There were also a couple of swamphens, although Pauline knows them as Pūkeko in New Zealand. 

There’s a small shopping centre here too, so we popped in for a coffee. Small? As Pauline said at the time, it was like the Tardis, so much bigger on the inside. So we had coffee and I visited KMart to buy some shirts. I don’t think I’ve bought myself shirts since 1992 or something, but a couple of my older ones have suddenly ‘shrunk in the wash’.

I really enjoyed my afternoon nap today and was hoping this cough would soon go away.