AND THAT, MY FRIENDS, IS WHY I AM NEVER GETTING IN THE WATER

March 23 - As an explanatory note to the title of this blog, I just wanted to be clear about why I will never, and I mean never, go swimming in the ocean around Australia.

Enough said.

We are here in beautiful Sydney and ended up by happy happenstance out on Manley Beach this afternoon.  The first thing we saw were the warning flags and signs posted all over the beach about the shark sighting.  I do not think this is a rare occurrence, either - there were still plenty of people out there chumming up the waters for Jaws, so they must be used to it.  I stuck to wading - you almost never hear of fatal shark bites to the ankles.

Manley Beach itself is a very nice suburb of Sydney, and was much nicer than the average beach town.  However, the very best part of Manley Beach for us was the ferry ride to and from (no offence intended to any Manley Beach residents!)  The ferry goes from Circular Quay, past the Opera House and the Sydney Bridge, and does a quite stunning cruise around Sydney Harbour.  It was fabulous - and all for the price of a bus or train ride in the city.  You have to love it.

You might have noticed that I am skipping around with my topics today.  I blame the counter-clockwise rotation of the southern hemisphere - it's screwing with my zen.  You might also have noticed that I skipped blogging about yesterday's adventures entirely - basically because it was a travel day, and the entirety of the blog would have been - "Yeah!  We're here!"   I thought that my reading public (both of you) could do without that much literary build-up.

But back to today's events...We started off the day with a wonderful free walking tour of Sydney, which took about 3 hours.  I swear, if I haven't lost at least 5 pounds by the time I come home, it won't be from lack of trying.  Anyway, we learned a lot of interesting "insider" tidbits about Sydney's history, and a few things that I would much rather just forget.  For example, there is a bronze statute of a boar which has developed a shiny nose because so many people have rubbed it for luck.  Unfortunately, as you may be able to see from the photo, it is not just the nose that has been rubbed repeatedly. Yikes.

Pete and I were reminded strongly of Old Montreal as we walked around the Rocks, Sydney's original settlement. We heard about how the historical Rocks section of the city was almost demolished  - twice - to make way for a car park and high rises.    We also heard about St. Mary's Cathedral, which was started in 1821 and finished in 2000, making it one very delayed building project.  And Pete and I were strongly reminded of whatever department at the City of Edmonton is responsible for road maintenance.

We also had a quick tour through the Queen Victoria Building, a spectacular arcade-style shopping area with some very high-end stores, which Siobhan actually thinks we will be shopping at - I have yet to stop laughing about that.  I do need to go back to see one of its cultural wonders, however.  Apparently, they have a clock on the top floor which re-enacts the beheading of Charles I every hour, during which his head actually actually gets lopped right off.  Quite macabre, but I suspect I am going to laugh my arse off over that (which is probably why no one wants to go with me).  The building has a very imposing statute of Queen Victoria out front, which has only been there about 30 years as opposed to over 100 years for the building.  It seems that the statute used to stand in front of the Irish Parliament in Dublin, but for some strange, unknown reason, the Irish government decided to "gift" the statute to the people of Sydney. Bit of a puzzle, that.

Anyway, tomorrow's weather is not supposed to be as nice and we will probably stick to indoor activities.  More updates on the morrow - hopefully in order this time.