Christmas shopping in Sydney
One of the great delights in life is the annual Christmas shop. Normally this demands a trip to Exeter but this year being in the Antipodes we have to make a special trip to the heart of Sydney.
The first two parts of the journey are marvellous, Zoe drops us into Manly right opposite the ferry terminal and then we catch the Manly ferry into Circular Quay. The ferry ride must be one of thebest journeys   in the world. The view of the bridge and the opera house as you turn around the head is without doubt worth the trip. I can't imagine what it must be like to use this very day to commute but I think like all commuter journeys it must become passé after a time.
We had decided to sit at the front of the ferry, but rather unsurprisingly so had almost every one else. Rosemarie moved at a sedate pace whilst I was barged out of the way by a couple who looked decidedly Korean. The man managed to get past me but I held my ground valiantly to fight the wife off. Rosemarie was blissfully unaware of all this but did manage to cut the chap up at the door to the outside and therefore he had to wait for her. I did mange to call out to her to save two seats and she duly obliged.
Sydney itself was rather busy, I had thought the Xmas spirit had really entered in Australian life, but once again I was just being naive. The shops and the streets were jam packed with the normal rush you would find in any English city on the 19th December. I have a philosophy which has stood me in good stead for the last twenty years at least and that is I do not go shopping for Christmas in the last week before Xmas. However, this too had to be put to one side as we had nothing for David and Zoe.
My general mood might have been slightly more amenable had we got any idea what we wanted to purchase. David and Zoe had very kindly told us where to go in Sydney and so like the good people we are we duly went there.
I have to say it was not necessarily one of the nicest or most pleasurable experiences of my life , as we trudged from shop to shop, but I was told in no uncertain terms that we couldn't return empty handed.
All I can say here is that in the end, we found something we could both agree on which seemed to match the bill. David and Zoe both read this blog, and therefore it would divulge gargantuan secrets if I was to say what we did purchase, and my life might not be worth living over the Christmas period.
We did have a lovely lunch of Falafel rolls in a food court which were very tasty and as a reward for being a good boy I was allowed both a beer on the quay before we left, dreadfully expensive, and a pint when we got back to Manly in my favourite micro brewery in all of Australia so far. The summer ale at the Four Pines is well worth trying.
The very lovely Zoe came and picked us up and asked me if we had been to the gardens, I replied we had seen no gardens, and the next question was "had we had a nice day?" The answer to which is "Well we shopped!!!"
Zoe cooked a crab for tea and had sought me prawns which was really nice of her so we had a beautiful meal and after the four bottles of wine the previous night only one. We were all a little tired and I was safely tucked up in bed by 10.30. Truly a day to remember.