Sydney Stories - Week 67

Hello,

Next time the week starts with 2 days of holidays - BEWARE!! Fun we did have those 2 days, but the rest of the work week was crazy - to put it lightly. Monday happened to be this year's ANZAC day, however since Monday also happened to be the Monday following Easter we had to get Tuesday off as well. Monday we took the train to the city with a simple agenda to take the monorail around. Parramatta station is a good mix of the old and the new.

Got down at Wynyard station and headed straight to Westfield mall Sydney for lunch. We reached the city just in time after the ANZAC day parade. All current and ex-servicemen were retiring back in their badged uniforms to party.

It has been a while since I was amazed just to visit a shopping mall. The last time was probably back in 89 in Singapore. The best part of it was a modern food court. The ambiance was just too cool. Food from all over the world (read Asian, Italian, Mexican) were there. Of course our intent was not the food court so moved on. I might probably go there once again just for the food court.

After food we proceeded towards the monorail station. The weather was wet and gloomy - not very suited for sight seeing. I pitied those who would've spent hundreds of $s to spend a 5 day Easter vacation in the City of Sydney just to be rained out. Enjoyed the mix of old and new buildings at the city center. Saw some really old buildings - a pharmacy that was established in 1886. We went around the city for a few times on the monorail taking a day pass. It gave a good elevated view of the city. Especially on a rainy day it seemed the best way to look around.

The week sped in lightning speed with so much to catch up on. We were planning on rather quiet weekend after all the roaming around the previous weekend. Saturday night managed to watch  கோ (Ko) in a theatre. A brilliantly done movie. Except for the heroine's hard attempt to act (reminds me of Simran in Naerukku Naer) and a silly song during a tense moment everything else was almost flawless. The final punch with திருக்குறள் (Thirukural) was so apt to the ending. Enough of the movie. It also marked Nandhitha's first official sleepover at our friend's place. They offered to babysit Nandha as well, but we took a raincheck on that. 

Last Sunday we had a chance to pick apples at a PYO (Pick Your Own) orchard at a place called Bilpin about 1.5 hours drive from here. Got to know a few things about apples there.

 The most interesting fact was that the apples we get in the market are from last year's produce.

 All through the year different varieties of apples come into season. Probably explains why suddenly certain varieties get cheap at times. This time the season was for "Pink Lady" - a sweet and sour variety. The taste of fresh apples straight from the tree was truly something. The deal was we can pick and "taste" as many apples as we want, but not to waste anything. Anything we pick needs to go into a basket which will be weighed and we had to buy all that we picked. First thought it would be cheaper to pick our own apples. Apparently not, the farmers had marked up the price to make up for all the wastage that happens in the orchard.

That's all folks.

Have A Great Week