BOTANIC GARDENS

Our bad luck for the week continued on Wednesday. i have been looking for a pair of black and white trousers (I know but they are all the rage). Phil took me to Paddy's Market to look for some  and the plan was he would then drop me off at the Botanic Gardens.  He was to look for a parking space and I would phone him when I was finished and he would meet me on the corner. Paddy's Market is amazing there are hundreds of stalls. Think of Fuengirola market and triple it. I wandered round didn't find any trousers and went off to pick up Phil. Guess who had left her phone at home!  I looked all round the adjacent streets and couldn't find him, so stood on the corner for almost an hour thinking he is bound to realise something was wrong.   Eventually i decided that I couldn't just go off to the Gardens and I would have to go back and get my phone. Got a bus then a ferry and got in the door nearly three hours after I went into the market and there was Phil texting "I will have to move soon how much longer do you need?"  Patience of a saint or what. Anyway I got to the Gardens in the afternoon and thoroughly enjoyed walking through cooled down with the breeze from the Harbour.  I saw quite a few things I missed last time  so I was glad I managed to get there in the end.  Then I went off to get a ferry home but just missed it because I stopped to take a photo of an Aborigine dancing!!!!!!!

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OUT AND ABOUT

After the excitement of the weekend, we decided to take it easy on Monday. It was still the holiday weekend and we expected everywhere to be quite busy.  January seems to be one long holiday over here with the main school holidays and all the Pubic Holidays as well. Gil came over so I went shopping with Gil and Phil. What a nightmare - worse than any two women when it comes to buying anything. They were both looking for cooking pots and nothing was the right gauge, diameter, make ..... We eventually found something and made our way back to the car park where Phil had parked in a very tight spot. As he reversed out we heard a crunch - he had hit a pillar in his blind spot and crunched the back of the car!!   Well after he got over that, he decided to take Daisy for a swim so we picked up Neill and Oddie and headed for Clontarf beach. Doggy heaven!  Dogs are restricted on the beaches for obvious reasons but they are welcome down there. I won't say I was in heaven sat in the back of the car with two dogs clambering over me !! The beach was very busy and we had a job to park. Phil eventually squeezed into a No Stopping space but off the road. We had a great time swimming with the dogs and headed back to the car just in time to see a warden writing a ticket - $236!! Have a nice day Phil! Tuesday the traumas continued. We headed off to Nielsen Park which we had tried to visit on New Year's Day  ( too busy!!). We got parked and headed down to the beach only to see a notice banning dogs. Well back to the car after I walked down to at least have a look! We then headed off to Bondi where I had a swim in the surf. I use the term loosely because there were so many people and the waves were so strong that it was a case of just riding in with the wave - I am certainly not strong enough to swim against it. On Wednesday, we were invited to Peter McVean's house on the Pittwater.  Phil had a meeting so I walked the Harbour Bridge had a wander round the Rocks then took the Ferry over to Manly to meet Phil to go to Peter's.    It is a lovely drive up to the Pittwater along the Northern beaches. I can understand why Peter loves it although it is a long commute to work. It was very relaxing sitting on his deck watching the yachts racing below.  Getting fed up with all this blue sky, blue seas and sunshine .

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