It's been a while since we've had a proper blog. It seems that not as many "blogworthy" observations come to mind these days. So, our apologies for our silence-- Rick's comment was that things don't seem so different anymore. We've been here long enough to take school uniforms for granted, to expect eggs and beetroot on our hamburgers (seriously!) and not find Erin's heavy Australian accent so unnerving! However, we do have some ideas percolating, so stay tuned....
As you may know, APEC has been meeting in Sydney for the past few days. This has caused quite a bit of mumbling and grumbling from some Sydneysiders, as heavy security cordoned off parts of the Central Business District for the past week. Ninety-two motorcades were scheduled to be crawling around the city on Thursday. This number did not include the fake motorcade that the satirical Australian TV show "The Chasers" managed to get through several layers of security- http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/09/06/1188783415499.html.
The New South Wales government had the foresight to declare a public holiday yesterday. There was even a campaign to encourage people to leave the Sydney area and explore other parts New South Wales on the 3-day weekend. We headed to Oceanworld Manly, an aquarium on the Sydney Harbour, but away from the Central Business District, and found it delightfully quiet- it seems that most people took the advice to stay out of Sydney to heart.
So, we offer a few photos from the day. Lachlan could not say the word "fish" enough, Erin and Claire were throughly engaged in the reptile show (mom avoided the python, but the kids thought it was fun to touch!), Anne enjoyed the shark tunnel, and Rick spent a good amount of time studying the displays of Australia's extraordinarily venomous snakes and spiders, so that he would know what to run from!
Anne
The day begins
"Feesh!"
See George Bush on the other side of the Harbour?
A gorgeous rainbow to end the day
