10) My first Australian birthday

Jonathan and Sian had arranged to take some leave during January. They were leaving Cowan to go camping with the girls a few days before my birthday so they very kindly took Jonny and I out for dinner the day before they left. They took us to a restaurant in a little village called Brooklyn on the mouth of the Hawkesbury River. We had visited Brooklyn when we were in Australia on holiday in 1998. Then it was a rather run down rough little fishing village that was reputed to have a drug problem. In the intervening five years Brooklyn had been “discovered” by people who wanted to live close to Sydney without having to pay Sydney property prices. Now Brooklyn was much smarter and more up market, with restaurants, some new houses, and very many attractive boats moored along the jetties. There are a number of oyster farms along the Hawkesbury and I suppose these also contributed to the upswing in the little town’s economy. In the restaurant we sat out on the terrace over looking the water and watched the fishing boats and pleasure craft sail past on the water below us. It was a lovely warm summer’s night, the food was good and we had a wonderful time. We sat talking until closing time and as the staff cleaned up around us Siân and I decided to go to the ladies before we left. While we were in the cloakroom all the lights went out and we found that we were locked in. I must say I got a bit of a fright, imagining that we would have to spend the night there. Of course Jonny and Jonathan were waiting for us in the foyer and when they saw the manager locking the outer doors of that section of the building they told him that we were still in there and so within a few moments he came back to let us out. We all had a good laugh over that and then we went for a stroll around Brooklyn to finish off a very pleasant evening.

On the evening of my birthday Dominic asked what I would like to do and I asked to go into Sydney for a drive. At that time Dominic was still not very certain of his way around Sydney and we got rather lost but we eventually found a car park in the city and walked along looking in the windows and enjoying the shops. We found our way to Circular Quay and to the Opera house. We had a meal at a restaurant in the shadow of the famous building, close to the Sydney harbour bridge, know here as ‘The Coat Hanger ‘. As we were right on the waters edge we could once again watch the boats. Here of course it was much busier than at Brooklyn, there were the large ferries that criss-cross the harbour all day long and late into the night. They carry people to and from work and together with the bridge and the harbour tunnel enable people to travel back and fro between the North Shore and the South Shore without having to drive right around the huge harbour. There were the Jet Cats, also ferries but smaller and faster and I assume more expensive for those who are in a hurry to get where they are going. There were harbour police patrolling in their boats, tugs, dredger craft, delivery boats and many many pleasure craft of all sorts and sizes. I don’t think I had ever seen Sydney at night until then, it is a very beautiful city even in the cold light of day but at night with the softer lighting and the more relaxed pace of all the passers-by it is truly enchanting. I think it is wonderful and any time spent there is a great treat for me. I don’t suppose I would like to have to live there or to have to go into the city every day but on the rare occasions that I do venture into the great metropolis I really do appreciate it.