First hand experience was clearly going to be required to answer this question.
So this morning I bee-lined for the crumpets. I had gleaned enough from yesterday’s discussion to know you were supposed to toast both sides and cover the crumpet in honey (I refused to touch Vegemite ever again). The resulting product was quite good.
For all my American friends, here is my explanation. A crumpet is what would happen if an English muffin and a pancake got together and had an offspring. One side is smooth and flat (like a grilled pancake), but crispy, the other is full of holes and has the consistency of the spots in a pancake where the bubbles form when you cook it. I highly recommend crumpets if you can find authentic ones.
After that, we went down to the same wharf where we’d met Pamela to catch a ferry to her neighborhood. The water taxi service is incredibly reasonable. An adult one-way ferry ticket is only $5.60. The ferries run on a timetable, much like a train system (only not the Chicago train system, because it never runs on time).
The ferry that we took had an open deck on top. We sat up there on our ride to Breakfast Point. This morning had unfortunately dawned foggy and hazy, unlike the crystal clear weather of the past few days. But by the time we got on the ferry enough had burned off (and continued to burn off) that the sights were fairly unimpaired.
I had some fun shooting a little video on my iPhone of the trip up the river, which took less than an hour. We departed Circular Quay (pronounced ‘key’) at 9:40 and arrived at Cabarita by 10:20. The ride was very enjoyable and we saw many interesting buildings along the river, including a camp ground and one little section that looked like a house with a beach (more on that later). The only unforeseen consequence of our outdoor ride was that my hair ended up thoroughly tangled by the time we arrived, but I hoped Pamela’s family wouldn’t judge me too harshly.
Pamela met us at the dock. We folded ourselves into her little two-door BMW (which, I will point out as her children often do, is NOT and Australian car). She drove us back to her apartment, passing by her son Andrew’s on the way. He and his daughter Karina were on the balcony and we waved on our way past. The apartments are beautiful new buildings. Pamela’s had a two story garage underneath the building, with the storage lockers distributed throughout the garage rather than in one stuffy room, and an elevator up to the rest of the building.
The building had all the latest security, including electronic key fobs required to open any of the outside doors and which only allowed you to take the elevator to your own floor. Everything is brand new and all the lighting fixtures are on motion sensors, which I’m sure is very green.
Pamela’s apartment is just lovely! Everything is beautifully decorated. All the furniture is white and bright, which makes the apartment seem so light and airy, exactly how I imagined Pamela’s home would be. She has two bedrooms, a very practical kitchen, and a little study.
She also has art everywhere! And the coolest part is that more than half of it was done by her friends! Dad and I commented how much more talented her friends were than ours. Many of the pieces were by mountain artists, and all had a story to go with them. Three of my favorites were done by an artist who lives in Andrew’s building. They were three different paintings of flowers Pamela used to keep in her extensive garden in the Blue Mountains. They were gorgeous.
The most interesting however was an impressionist painting of children on a beach. Pamela pointed to the picture and told us, “This is a little bit of family history.” She gestured to the little girl playing in the sand and said, “This is my mother.” The house on the river with the beach we passed on the way in turned out to be where Pamela’s mother grew up! The painting was done by a friend of the family.
But it seemed to me the photos were what Pamela was most proud of. There was a lovely photo of her husband Tony that was taken in England. And there was a photo of all her grandchildren taken last year which she positively beamed over. But I was simply so touched that next to all those photos was a picture of me, her adopted granddaughter. I am so honored and humbled to have an adopted grandmother as amazing and kind as Pamela.
We chatted for a bit, admiring Pamela’s view (which unfortunately is becoming restricted by a new building going up in front of the river). I think all Pamela needs to do is get a step-stool out on her balcony and she’ll be able to see over the building just fine! One of the things Pamela told us she enjoyed most about the view was seeing the planes fly in and out of the airport at night from her bedroom window. I can see how that would just be lovely.
A call from Andrew’s prompted us to go over. He lives only one or two buildings away from Pamela and has a gorgeous view of Sydney in the distance. Dad and I were very lucky because today we got to meet all of Pamela’s family. Her two sons, Brett and Andrew. Brett’s wife is Sharon, and their children are Emma (the eldest grandchild) and Simon. Andrew’s wife is Wendy, and their daughter is Karina (the youngest).
What wonderful people! They welcomed us with absolutely open arms. Andrew and Wendy had pulled out all the stops for our lunch with them. They had set up an enormous table, beautifully set, with so many different delicious foods. Andrew barbecued delicious Wagyu sausages, eggs, and bacon. Wendy provided absolutely beautiful quiches. Dad was even brave enough to try some Promite on his croissant for dessert (I stuck to triple berry jam).
And the conversation was just wonderful. Dad and I felt just like part of the family. We both reflected how we felt like we already knew everyone because Pamela has told us so much about them over the years. We talked about the differences in food/politics/culture between the states and Australia, we talked about Disney and all the projects my Mom and Dad have worked on, and we talked about the differences in the university system.
Emma is in her last semester of university, studying teaching, and is about to take a well-earned break on a four month trip around the world. Simon just got back from his gap year between high school and university and is studying construction management. Karina is still in high school, so she has all this to look forward to.
What we decided was that in Australia you must have a much clearer idea of what you want to study in University before you start your first semester. In the states it is quite common to go through your first two years with no idea what you really want to major in. And, Dad and I think, it is actually possible to graduate from an American college and still have no idea what you want to do for a living. Australian universities seem to value practical learning much more, putting you to work in the actual industry you’re studying. I can certainly see pros and cons to both systems.
After a lovely lunch and conversation, Simon and his family had to leave so he could go work on a paper about green buildings (or something like that). Pamela suggested we take a walk over to the club house and Andrew and Karina joined us. Their club house would be the envy of any I’ve ever seen. And the view was definitely better!
We had some fun comparing Australian and American money. Conclusion: American money is boring as dirt. Karina wowed us by realizing that the little black lines on the corner of Australian five dollar bills are actually micro printed words. They say “Five Dollars” over and over again. Even I could only barely tell they were letters.
After that we strolled over to the ferry and caught the 4:15 towards Circular Quay. Some clouds had rolled in and it looked a little like rain, but it held off. Actually, the sun sunk below the cloud level and beautiful light rolled in, turning Sydney into a city of gold. We stood on the prow of the ferry on the way in, and the sights were even more beautiful than during the morning.
There were two delightful ladies standing next to us who chatted with me on our way into the harbour proper. They were very kind and moved over so that Dad and I could join them on the front of the boat and get the best possible view of the Harbour Bridge when we went underneath it. They pointed out the people climbing the bridge and they were so much smaller than I thought they’d be. The bridge must be at least twice as large as I thought it was...
The ladies were from Melbourne and were just in for a long weekend in Sydney. They shared a few of their stories about tramping (aka hiking) through the south island of New Zealand when they found out we were going there next week.
Circular Quay is so close to the hotel, it is simply fabulous. We had time to go back to the hotel and comb our rats-nest-hair before dinner at the Rockpool Bar and Grill.
It was a beautiful room, which I suspect may have been a bank in another life. There were so many wine glasses everywhere! They must have been mostly for decoration because they simply could never use that many glasses at one time. The bar had taken the racks of glasses above the bar to the nth degree. There had to be 12 rows of them all 5 or 6 glasses deep!
The menu was incredibly extensive and long and everything sounded wonderful. They seemed to be famous for their wood stove rotisserie, so I had rotisserie chicken and dad had rotisserie lamb shoulder. Both were excellent but the lamb was better (although I had pea puree under mine which was to die for). The side items stole the show however.
In my opinion, the two best sides were the melt-in-your-mouth brussels sprouts and the roasted parsnips. I don’t know why parsnips aren’t more popular in the US, they’re like sweet potatoes, only with better mouth feel. The other side was also delicious (Dad and I both agreed it would be the one Mom liked best if she were there) and it was a potato and cabbage gratin (don’t worry Mom, the cabbage wasn’t at all detectable).
The desserts were all quite expensive (all $20 or more) and I was pretty full anyway, but I saw they had some petit fours that were between $6 and $8. I decided to try the chocolate devils food cake cupcake and Dad had chocolate bark with sesame seeds and cashews. I’m not sure what made these things petit fours instead of dessert, because they were both very generous portions. Dad’s bark was very good (for lovers of salty chocolate) but my cupcake hit the spot. It was no-nonsense chocolate cake, super moist, and very tasty.
On our walk back we heard many people celebrating. Tonight the Australia rugby team is playing the New Zealand All Blacks. I don’t think they’ve actually won yet, because I keep hearing periodic cheers from outside out hotel room, but even though Brett didn’t think Australia had a chance, I’ll keep my fingers crossed for good news in the morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment