75th Anniversary of the Harbour Bridge Opening

To celebrate 75 years of the Harbour Bridge, Sydney had another party! This time the bridge was closed to all traffic except foot traffic and trains. To ensure it all ran smoothly you booked your walk time and they estimated 250,000 people crossed the bridge that day. We invited mum and dad to walk with us and then we all went out for dinner afterwards.

It was great fun crossing the bridge, everyone got a free bright green hat to wear and there was lots of entertainment across the bridge, sound shows, music, funny planes flying towards us, lots of boats on the harbour and lots of people around.

We had dinner at the Oyster Bar (Joan will be familiar with this restaurant) this gave us a perfect view of the night time light show on the bridge. As we walked back to catch a train home we saw the night crossers coming off the bridge, now decked out in orange hats with little lights attached to the top of them - quite a sight and a great day!

2 Queens In Sydney

Tuesday 20th Feb the Queen Mary 2 and Queen Elizabeth 2 were both due to be in Sydney harbour together. Not ones to miss a party Chalky & I headed into the city to join in the festivities. The QM2 was too big to berth in Circular Quay so was docked in the Naval Base at Woolloomooloo the city was grid locked with traffic so we were happy to view the boat from a distance, meanwhile the QE2 was berthed in the Quay so we got a really good look at her from the Harbour Bridge and then down in the Quay.

Opera House & QM2 lit up in the background

We were in-situ in the middle of the Harbour Bridge when the fireworks started, there were loads of boats on the harbour and I don't know what Chalk was more fascinated with - the fireworks or all the boats dashing down the harbour after the fireworks - it really was quite pandemonic.

We met Mum, Dad, Trav & Dan near the Opera Bar, they had watched the fireworks from Mrs Macquaries Chair, after a quick drink we headed back across the Bridge to see QM2 leave our city at 11.30pm.

QE2 at Circular Quay

A great night out and an opportunity that doesn't come around very often.

Australia V England 2nd One Day Final @ SCG

Those of you who know us will know that we don't really watch our 2 countries competing against each other very well so when my brother offered us free tickets to the cricket one day final for the tri nations series when England were already one game up, I should have just said we were busy! Instead, we took the 3 tickets and in the next error of judgement I allowed the 3rd ticket to go to a Welshman - who was supporting England, so Gareth joined our party and in dubious looking weather we headed to the Sydney Cricket Ground.


Our seats were fantastic in the Bradman Stand, great view of the ground and undercover in case the weather turned (thanks Justin). England batted first and while their innings was affected by the rain they still got their 50 overs to bat, a shortened break then the Aussies went in...then it rained, England got a few quick wickets and due to the rain the Duckworth Lewis (a mathematical way to calculate the target score for the team batting second in a one day match interrupted by weather or other circumstance. It is generally accepted to be a fair and accurate method of setting a target score, but as it attempts to predict what would have happened had the game come to its natural conclusion, it generates some controversy.) calculation came into play and England were magnificently victorious! (unknown edit by Chalky!!)



The weather got more and more miserable but of course we couldn't leave early - in case there was the chance to cheer the English boys for their performance (they didn't get many cheers during the summer - remember The Ashes 5-0!) In the end the presentation was all done inside and we were quite wet, 2 out of 3 had enjoyed the day...