Return to Melbourne

We had a 1 pm flight (yes, the time was influenced by the fare, which  was exceptional value – only a few dollars more than the Uber from the airport to home) so we had a few minutes to occupy having a final coffee at Coogee Pavilion enjoying the sunlit scene before getting Uber to the airport.   

Coogee Pavilion (at night!)

Once again, the airport was almost a pleasant place: no queues and plenty of seating space.    But the flight was full.    It’s all very well for the crew to mention in one of the announcements that “it’s nice to see a full plane!”, but it’s not so great for the passengers (well, for those of us who are looking for  “value” fares).

At Melbourne we were met by a barrage of checkers who wanted to see our Victorian entry permits.    The airline had reminded us in an email the day before departure that a permit was required, so we passed the test.    I was interested to notice  that in fact nearly all our fellow passengers were also properly documented.    Looks though we’ve become a very compliant nation?     But it still “grates” a little to have to have a permit to enter one’s home state – although I know of course that others have had a much tougher time getting home in past months.

For the first time, we caught an Uber at the airport. The ride-share lane is clearly marked, and the drivers are obviously waiting out at the “wait to pick up” car park, so there was a 4 minute wait for him to arrive.   We encountered some traffic congestion on the way home: there was some sort of police operation on Queens Road, and the local arrangements for school pick ups not far way from us were unfamiliar for our driver so we got stuck in the wrong lane for a couple of minutes.    I was glad that I didn’t have to watch a taxi meter ticking over while all this was occurring!

Scenes of emptiness in parts of the airport at Sydney.

To Manly for lunch

We headed over to Manly for lunch, at Hugos (and catching up again with M and G).   Hugos is in an iconic location, right on the ferry wharf (although there are a number of other restaurants at the wharf as well), and the food and service were great.   Prices to match, of course, but no real complaints.

Naturally we took the ferry over and back.    There weren’t a lot of people on the ferry.  I suppose the number of commuters is still down, with people working from home, and of course there are no international tourists and not so many local ones.

We also enjoyed a walk in the mild sunshine along the Corso to the ocean beach, and along the path to Fairy Bower.

We had Collaroy for both trips

Outlook from Hugos

All the food was nice – but especially the sorbet!

Surf beach at Manly

On the trains in Sydney

I headed out to Chatswood to have a look at the new Metro.   

At Chatswood, the connection from the “heavy” rail is a simple cross-platform transfer.    At first, I didn’t realise that the “fence” on the other side of the platform was in fact the barrier with opening doors!   The Metro is driverless and there was no sign of any staff at all – unlike the regular trains, which appear to have excessive staffing levels.   I took the Metro to Epping (underground all the way), where the Metro platform is deep below the heavy rail platforms.  There’s a long escalator connection to the main platform.

From Epping I caught the train via Strathfield back to the city.

View over the Harbour on the train to Chatswood

Interior of Metro train

At Epping

At Epping the heritage station building has been preserved (but is not in use), with a new structure beyond.

First Fleet monument

I headed down to Brighton Le Sands for a look around (the Sydney equivalent of Mordialloc?), and came across the First Fleet monument.    It dates from the Bicentennial celebrations.

Monument looks “out” over Botany Bay – with the sails in-bound, of course

The name of ach ship and every person in the First Fleet is recorded

Around Sydney (2)

We headed out to M and G’s for a great lunch and a catch-up.   For reasons that aren’t entirely clear to me, my Uber app wouldn’t function, so we went by taxi.   We had done the same trip, but in the other direction, last year, and there was definitely a difference in cost (in the vicinity of 20%).   Even allowing the taxi the benefit of some doubt given the time of day and the possibility of other “variables”, it confirms my perception (shared I think with most people) that Uber offer a better deal – so long as you can avoid “surge” pricing. Having said that, we were still happy to “round up” the taxi fare.   I respect both Uber and taxi drivers for the service they provide.

Part of the “deal” at our accommodation was that we had to change our room after two nights.   While we were quite content with the room for the first two nights, the room for our remaining stay (which wasn’t available at the time I booked) is at a higher level and has a slightly better layout.    Coogee Sands couldn’t have been more helpful: all we had to do was pack our bags and leave them in the room. When we returned after lunch, all our baggage had been transferred to the new room.  All we had to do was unpack.

View from higher floor

The east-west runway at the airport is obviously in use, with aircraft on their final approach coming in above Coogee

Around Sydney

Our first full day in Sydney was relatively quiet.   I explored a part of Sydney that I hadn’t been to before, then after a casual lunch at our accommodation we headed to Westfield Bondi Junction for a look around.    While there, I stumbled on Cooper Park – a short walk from the mall, but as a little bit of bushland in the midst of the highly urbanised Eastern Suburbs it could have been miles away,

We finished off the day with an up-market dinner at Marrah, the restaurant at the Coogee Bay hotel.    We were very happy with the food and service, although like a lot of places around Coogee, it wasn’t particularly quiet on a Saturday evening!

Bushland

Cooper Park

View from Westfield Bondi Junction, made better with a prosecco in hand!

Dinner at Coogee Bay Hotel

Off to Sydney

Uber to the airport then lots of staff being trained at checkin so we were directed to a real person to check-in our bags, with no queues at all.   There weren’t a lot of planes operating, but needless to say, the one we were on was full. On arrival in Sydney, a cab ride to Coogee and then a trip to the supermarket for provisions to set us up in our self-catering accommodation.

To Sydney

We’ve taken the plunge and are off to Sydney for a short trip.    We were there earlier this year and also last year.     I booked a couple of weeks ago, before I was fully confident that the trip could be made without undue restrictions.    In fact, things appear to have eased up even more than I dared hope, although we have yet to see.

One aspect is that, at the time I booked, there were some very good “deals” on airfares.    I know it’s not a good idea to check fares once you’ve made a booking, but in spite of this I was very interested to see that the flight we’d booked had gone up quite significantly in price.  There are still good deals to be had, but at slightly different and less convenient times. 

However, fares for the return trip haven’t changed much at all.   Perhaps this is because, by the time of our return, Rex will have re-commenced flights on this route.  

We’ve booked what we hope will be comfortable accommodation at Coogee.  We like the area, but haven’t stayed at our chosen accommodation previously.  The downside of Coogee is that we have to depend on the buses for local transport, but we’re familiar with them now so this is a manageable issue. 

Tram signage

I get a bit annoyed by signs that say something like “obey the sign below”.  Its tautological, isn’t it?

So I wonder about signs such as the one at left which have appeared at various tram intersections.    Do tram drivers really look at signs like this and think, “Am I heading in the right direction?”

 

New phone

As I’ve posted, I’ve recently bought a new phone.   

Shortly stated, it seems that you can pay almost as little or as much as you want to for a phone!   Inevitably, then, my decision was to some extent a “compromise”, but I did stay with the “Android” system.    However, I changed brands.  But it seems that there’s not a lot of choice about screen size.   I would have preferred something a little more compact, but seemingly “bigger is better” and the only “compact” phones are at the cheap and under-powered end of the range.

It took a few hours to get the new phone up and running.   I had to adjust the SIM down to “nano” size, which I was apprehensive about, but which turned out OK.    The change of brand meant different movements were required to do particular things (such as returning to the home screen), but these didn’t take long to learn.    It did take a while to work out how to transfer my “contacts” across, and for a while I was worried that this wouldn’t be possible.  However, all worked out satisfactorily in the end.

Deeper down, there were many similarities, but as is often the case in this technological world, you have to know what you want to do in order to seek out the means of doing it.  I couldn’t find “flight mode” for a while, but then discovered it’s called “airplane mode”.

I found I now have  to activate a particular setting before I can see the files on the phone in order to be able directly to download photos to the computer via the cable – something that I do all the time so it’s a bit annoying to have to active the setting each time

On balance?   Yes, the new phone is slightly faster, and has a better battery (partly due to the fact that the battery has better specs but also because the battery in the old phone was past its prime).    The camera is better, but frankly this isn’t a big issue for me, because I use a camera for any “serious” photography.    But functionally?  Just incremental improvements.   However, I suppose that’s the way of things when we buy replacement items.