flying foxes batman

Well this morning was the first morning in a week or so i haven’t felt a bit ill, so i took full advantage of it by going down to breakfast and getting a slap up meal of toast, bacon, sausage, hash browns, melon, hot water and apple juice.  mostly mixed together.

[you do find this level of detail interesting don’t you?]

anyway, i then got a boat from darling harbour round to circular quay which is very scenic but not very quick, and from there i got another (but much bigger) boat to manly beach. 

Manly felt a lot more commercial than Bondi, although still quite amazing.  There were some young life guard competitions going on down half of the beach and various stalls to do with keeping the sea safe (environmental type things).

it was very hot and once again i avoided coming in to any contact with sand.

after that i got the boat back to circular quay then i went for a wander round the Opera house which is rather fancy.  and a bit windy down the pokey end.  of the building.

the opera house is next to the botanical garden and being rather tired of the leg at this point i got one of those little kid train ride type things round the park with a commentary. 

there was an opportunity to get off half way which i did because the driver/commentator was british and her essex accent started to grate.  i used the half hour between trains to watch the flying foxes (giant bat things) flapping around. 

then the next train came, and it was also driven by a female girl from essex.  now, don’t get me wrong, i’ve got no problem with essex girls, but i like a bit of authentic aussie patter on my kid’s train rides, not “okey dokey” and “we’ll be on our way in just a mo” [rant over]

by the way, they are actually foxes rather than bats apparently.  if you click on some of the pictures you can see their fox like bodies.

imagine if all animals had wings.  cats would be a nightmare.  and cows would be an accident waiting to happen

then i got the underground train back to the hotel to skype jane, and cool off a bit before i head out to the Observatory to learn about the night sky in Sydney (which is a bit like the night sky in Auckland, only with better visibility of the Southern Cross as it’s a bit higher in the sky.

it’s the conference itself tomorrow which i’m actually looking forward to.  I’ve just noticed one of the speakers is an old sparing partner from the regulatory world in the UK, and i suspect will be quite tickled that i joined an incumbent even if it is on the other side of the planet.

right, off to the observatory i go …  see ya