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| Day 16: | Thursday, 19 September 2002 | ||
| New Thing: | Shopping is, sadly, getting closer to a mandatory event | ||
| Weather: | Clear and pleasant, low 60s | ||
| Money Spent: | $ 8.45 AUS | $ 4.66 USD | |
| 7:30am | 10-33, alarm sounding... oops, flashbacks to an old episode of Adam-12. But the alarm did sound. |
| 7:53am | Not to be burdened with lil' ol' me, I was left behind, again. This time, the excuse was that there was shopping to be done, and having to carry me would be too cumbersome. Whatever. |
| 8:01am | I just sat in the window sill, looking outside. Like one of those daft cats that tends to do the very same thing. |
| 9:18am | I wonder by the City ferries all have amber flashing lights on them. I wonder where I could look for an answer. |
| 9:21am | Decided I didn't care enough to make the effort to look into the matter of flashing ferry lights. |
| 11:57am | Housekeeping arrived, and I opted to scoot behind the drapes. She's late, too. |
| 12:09pm | I'm again alone with my thoughts, and a room full of junk-food. Big whoop. |
| 12:14pm | No longer in the sun beam, I opt to take a bit of a nap. Nothing else to do except watch a very banal variety of news programs on television (yawn). |
| 5:41pm | The boy arrives back in the room, and a bit earlier than expected, truth be told. We're going out, it seems. |
| 5:48pm | We gather up in the lobby with the two other Americans, and head out to dinner. Why do people always stare at us as we walk around? Like they've never seen a duck on holiday before. |
| 6:01pm | We're distracted by a shop along the way. There are shiny stones inside. Girl types and ducks (such as I) seem to be drawn toward shiny and/or precious metals, it seems. |
| 6:03pm | Imagine the look of "What the he...?!?" of the two other employees in the shop when I hopped onto the display case for a better look at things. |
| 6:09pm | Apparently, the shiny stones I was just looking at start out being mined from the likes of these bigger stones. |
| 6:47pm | We leave the store, and wander around George Street and down to Martin Place. Right where it crosses Pitt Street, they have a fountain. I normally enjoy splashing about in public fountains, particularly at night, but it was a bit too chilly for me this time. |
| 6:49pm | You'd think this was a court house, or town hall, or a library, right? Nope, it's a bank. |
| 7:13pm | We ended up at Doyle's at the far end of the Quay, along The Rocks. They let us in in spite of how shabbily the boy was dressed (the other two Americans were presentable, of course... Tubby likes to be an exception.) Even without a reservation, we were seated immediately, with a good view of the harbour and the Opera House. |
| 7:29pm | Our server, Gregory, brings us "a spot of water" and takes our drink orders. Two beers and a Coke (I enjoy the water, which is free). So far, so good... we thought. |
| 7:34pm | In reading the menus (which appeared to be a photocopy of one another, not overly stylish in presentation), we noted the "Minimum $15 food order per adult" requirement... and mused how they could enforce that shy of asking one or all of to leave. (Of course, it's only the Bald One that is an issue here, as you'd well expect.) |
| 7:36pm | We order. The other two Americans order seafood platters. Tubby orders a side of garlic bread, and a side of chips [french fries]. There's a pause which one can sense he's waiting for something further, but hears nothing else, as nothing else is ordered. Gregory asks if we'd like wine, and we answer no. Well, that pretty much struck us out. Here are three Americans with a duck, ordering beers and sodas in a wine and seafood place. And ordering only chips. |
| 7:47pm | The food arrives. The chap who brought it all out was very nice, far beyond Gregory. And that's a lot of chips! |
| 8:43pm | After an equally cool exchange and passing on the dessert menu, we exit and at least snap a few pictures of the views of North Sydney and the Opera House from the perspective of the restaurant. Nice view, poor service... even the view won't turn that into a winning combination. |
| 8:50pm | Outside of the Hyatt is a well-established tree, illuminated for decorative purposes. And I took note of the moon was peeking through the upper branches. |
| 9:05pm | It's important to know, at any given time, where you can find a McDonald's, apparently. |
| 9:06pm | I'm amused by two things in this photo. First, the lettering isn't set properly; the middle character seems higher than the other two along a horizontal axis. Second, I enjoyed how the mail boxes were labeled. |
| 9:21pm | We ended up back at the hotel, and retired for the evening. As such, I bid you good evening. |