/Karen/

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Mini break

Friday, 23 July, 2010

People say that couples should take the time to go away together before the birth of their first child because it may be the last opportunity for them to do so for a while. I suppose if I had been thinking straight, I would have taken a holiday during my second trimester, which is a far more sensible time to go away. But I was caught up with work and couldn't think straight, and by the time I got around to organising something, the second trimester was over and my options were limited. I had wanted to go to the Blue Mountains to stay somewhere like Waratah Cottage (which came with Guan and M's recommendation), but the thought of potentially going into labour during a two- or even possibly three- (depending on traffic) hour car trip put me off. So the alternative was a Sydney staycation—not a bad thing with a city like ours. (And really, when you have issues walking, you want to go somewhere manageable.) After much agonising (more on my part than Ben's), we settled on a two-night stay at the Shangri-La hotel, near Circular Quay, and placed a booking through Wotif, which, along with mid-week dates, made things slightly cheaper.

Tuesday (20/07/10)

Anyway, Tuesday was a bit of a mad dash. I had an OBGYN appointment in the middle of the day (which was the first time I didn't have to wait for ages in the waiting room. It was also a pretty straightforward appointment. She just told me to monitor Peanut's movements and note whether or not Peanut moves every three hours). I had also asked Ben to drive me to the city (where we parked at the Queen Victoria Building) so I could go spend the Kinokuniya vouchers MM had so kindly given me as a farewell present. Timing was essential because Kinokuniya were having a 20 per cent off sale for cardholders, but only until the 21st July. So armed with a wishlist that I had checked against Kinokuniya's inventory earlier (to save time, you understand!), we went in and came out with the following (please avert your eyes if you are offended by [so-called] book “porn”):

I was particularly pleased with this haul because I have wanted Murakami's Underground for a very long time (and couldn't find it because Kinokuniya keep it in the Asian history section instead of with his other books); the additions to my David Mack collection basically complete the Kabuki series (so now I can start reading them proper, instead of starting from Issue #9 of The Alchemy, which was the first one I picked up—solely on the strength of the art); and also that Diana Wynne Jones book is her first stand-alone in a very long time, plus she may not have long to live. (You can browse Enchanted Glass online if you like.) Fairy Tale Knits by Alison Stewart-Guinee I first heard about on Whipup.net and instantly fell in love with. It teaches you how to make wonderful clothes for your children—things like fake chain mail, pirate shirts and muffs.

I was also pleased with the haul because it's rare that I get to spend a fat lot of money on books. Even though the answer to “What do you want for your birthday/Christmas?” is inevitably “Books!”, the size of my library tends to put people off as they never know what I have, what I don't have and, most importantly, what I want. (However, sometimes people buy me books based on what they think I would like, and sometimes they're right ...)

Anyway, following the Kinokuniya spending spree, we came home, had some lunch, packed and then caught the bus back into town in the late afternoon. We were sort of half-falling asleep. Fortunately our stop was quite close to the end. Then we hopped out and made the very slow trek up some very steep hills and staircases that were not kind to my PGP, but nevertheless, I managed—mostly because we were going slow and Ben was taking care of my luggage. (Luggage with wheels is seriously the best invention ever!)

We checked in and went up to our room. They upgraded us from a deluxe Darling Harbour view room to a deluxe Opera House city view room. Here are some snaps of the view: Circular Quay:

The Cahill Expressway:

The Museum of Contemporary Art:

The Sydney Opera House:

The city around us:

View of the street directly below:

And I included this one because it's the building in Mission: Impossible II:

Oh, here's the view at night:

Sorry for the blurriness of the image! My camera isn't the greatest.

The room was pretty cool. Here's the king-sized bed:

I meant to take a picture of the bathroom but didn't get around to it. It had a tub and a shower, and a vanity that went along practically half of one wall. It was easily three times the size of our bathroom at home, and it came complete with lots of thick, fluffy white towels—the kind that are perfect for winter. It also had the same hairdryer that I have.

The room itself had two little single couches and a coffee table, two bedside tables, a little desk area with free internet (and wi-fi), and a massive Samsung television that was easily twice the size of ours. It had all the standard channels plus Foxtel.

Ben wanted to have a rest, so he snoozed while I watched TV and knitted. At 7:30, I was hungry, so I woke him up and we walked down to Wagamama Bridge St for dinner as I knew I had enough points on my card to shout us two main meals. Here is the first of many let's-take-photos-of-Ben-in-whatever-eating-establishment-we-happen-to-be-in shots. (Needless to say, he got pretty sick of them!)

I got the barbecue pork ramen, which I enjoyed very much:

Ben got something that was like pad thai. We also got our standard favourite of sweet potato kusabi (here's a picture not from the night that I prepared earlier):

—and for dessert, we both independently decided on two scoops of ice cream: one coconut and one honey, ginger and macadamia nut.

(A note about the food pictures: A lot of people think I'm a foodie because I post a lot of pictures about food and tend to enjoy good food. But I am not really a foodie as such. I hate cooking, and my tastes are not as discerning as, say, Grab Your Fork. I take pictures of my food because I like the way it looks, or because I want to remember eating something yummy. Remember this when looking at all the following food photos.)

While we were at Wagamama, Ben got a call from the bank asking about a strange charge to our credit card by Fox PrePay. Neither of us had heard of it. It was a small amount, but according to the bank, it was like someone was testing the number to then make a larger charge. The upshot was that they cancelled the card outright—which, needless to say, was rather annoying since we were right in the middle of our holiday and it would have been much more convenient to pay for things with credit instead of carrying around so much cash. Ah well! Glad the bank was on top of it.

We were pretty tired, so walked back to the hotel. We went and talked to reception since they had taken our credit card details for the holding charge (or whatever it's called; a lot of hotels do it, and then refund the money when you leave or something like that ...) The girl on the desk said that she'd never had this issue before and promised to call the bank in the morning. Then we retired to our room to watch TV while I did all my pregnancy/labour exercises. The last thing we watched was Letterman before falling asleep.

Wednesday (21/07/10)

We slept in, but more because we didn't sleep well. There's something about the artificial air in hotels that doesn't agree with us: both Ben and I had temperature issues, and kept waking up in the middle of the night. I thought it might have something to do with the thermostat (which I couldn't work out in the dark and in my half-groggy state). I also thought perhaps I was overheating because I was using the excess pillows they had given us as substitute body pillows. Anyway, we both woke up not feeling very well-rested at all, which was a shame.

I had checked the weather before we left so I was prepared for rain. Sydney did not disappoint; it was dreary outside. We had brought some bananas from home to eat (because otherwise they would have just gone yucky and stunk up our apartment), so after we woke and had gotten ready, we had one each, then set out to find brunch.

Going out the front entrance led us to The Rocks. It was drizzling so we shared an umbrella, but then it got really heavy, so we took refuge under some umbrellas near a pub.

When the rainfall got lighter again, we ventured forth and wound up on Argyle St. We passed Saké, where I would like to eat one day (that's a Joyce recommendation) and then found ourselves at Playfair:

There, we found a little sidewalk café of the same name:

I got the Big Two:

and a hot chocolate:

Nearby, a rainbow lorikeet would land on chair, then fly away again, then venture back.

I soon found out his objective: sugar. When the table next to me was vacated, he and his companions swooped down on it and fell upon the sugar packets like junkies eager for their hit:

Notice the sugar packet being clutched by the one on the far left: he was quite adept at tearing off the top with his beak and then spilling the contents all over the table. He and his companions used their tongues to eat up all that sugar, and then moved onto the seat where the rest of it had spilled. True sugar junkies!

After brunch, we continued wandering around The Rocks. I don't think I've ever done it before, despite having lived in Sydney for 26 years.

Of course, having PGP meant that we couldn't walk too fast or too far. By the time we had passed under the Harbour Bridge, I really needed to sit down, but as it had been raining, most everywhere was wet. I made do with some damp sandstone, then we would continue on for a bit, and then I would try sitting down again somewhere else. We made it to the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) where I suggested we stop for a rest and a drink. So we sat outside for a while under one of their umbrellas and enjoyed hot chocolate (Ben) and green tea (me), and gradually the weather improved.

(I think the above is one of the Biennale sculptures.)

It's very humbling to be restricted like that. I realise now how much I enjoy walking, and how much I miss it now that my ability to do so is hampered somewhat. Ben looks on the bright side, however, and says that it's a good thing that I can still walk (more or less), even if it isn't very fast.

After a couple of hours, we left the MCA and continued around the foreshore. I had suggested to Ben that we have afternoon tea at the Guylian chocolate café, but it was too early and we weren't that hungry. So we walked slowly passed it, then found a nice seat that wasn't wet, and sat in the sun just down from the Opera House and across from the Harbour Bridge, and talked and watched the people go by.

It's funny that that walk would take a normal person half an hour to an hour to do (depending on how fast they were walking) but it had taken us most of the day.

After a while, I was feeling a bit more peckish, so we headed to the Guylian chocolate café and had afternoon tea.

Since the weather had improved markedly, we decided to sit outside. I had a Golden Treasure, which was described on the menu as being “Saffron honey mousse and ginseng bavarois with layers of crispy hazelnut crepe and olive oil sponge”. It looked like this:

and unfortunately it disappointed; I found it all right to eat but nothing special. Ben thought similarly of the tiramisu he ordered:

It's a pity, because other things I've had at Guylian have been far yummier—for example,

However, most people I know who love chocolate don't hold Guylian in very high esteem.

Following afternoon tea, we went next door to the Dendy to see Creation, a movie starring Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly about Charles Darwin writing On the Origin of the Species. I don't have time to write a proper review, but here are my thoughts on it:

The script is an adaptation of Randal Keynes's biography of Darwin called Annie's Box. So even though it purports to tell the story of Darwin writing On the Origin of the Species, it concentrates more on the man and his family (more specifically, his marriage to Emma) than on the book.
As a result, although there are some very cool sequences that raise Darwin's ideas (and his ideas in opposition to God, as represented by his wife and the local pastor), these remain mostly in the backdrop.
The acting is superb, with Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly both delivering stellar performances.
I loved the way Jon Amiel presented the narrative. The main thread was the “present”, where Darwin was struggling to write his book (and feeling a lot of guilt as he did so [though Ben reckons that that was probably more for dramatic impact and not a reflection of reality]), but there were a lot of excursions into the past and into other stories from Darwin's life.
The movie is a wonderful portrayal of marriage and what marriage is like when husband and wife disagree, and when husband and wife undergo trauma together (and what that does to a marriage). Regarding the latter, there were a few moments in the film that did make me cry, even though I recognised that I was being manipulated somewhat by the techniques of the silver screen and even though, in hindsight, I wasn't sure how integral to the film that whole thing was.

Anyway, Ben and I had an interesting conversation after it (after I recovered from my blubbering; I am such a sop! I also cried at the end of Toy Story 3 and Bridge to Terabithia ...). It was around 6:30 pm then, so we set off to find some dinner.

Ben suggested Cafe Sydney at the top of the Customs House Library, which is somewhere we've both wanted to go for a while—ever since the dinner my school friends and I had for my 30th birthday as we had ended up there for dessert afterwards. We were very fortunate: the place was quite packed, but as long as we would be out of there by 8:15, we could have a table outside overlooking the harbour. This was the view:

(Sorry it's so dark, but flash obviously doesn't work in that sort of setting.) Here is Ben with flash:

and Ben without:

He was sweltering a little because he was right under the gas burner. For me, temperature-wise, it was warm enough for me to remove my coat, but later I was thankful for the fleece blankets the restaurants had provided on the arms of our chairs as I used mine to keep my legs warm.

This should probably go down as one of the most expensive meals I've ever had. Nevertheless, despite my brother's low opinion of Cafe Sydney, I thoroughly enjoyed every part of it—from the vanilla and peach ice tea mocktail—

—to the twice cooked pork belly with caramelised pear, speck, pistachio and jus—

(Ben had prawns):

—to the hazelnut pudding with stuff I've forgotten:

(Ben had the chocolate pave):

SO YUMMY!

Anyway, we dutifully cleared out of there at 8:15 and made our slow way back the hotel for a bath, then some TV, then bed. We had intended to go up to the Blue Bar on the 36th floor, but then we couldn't be bothered, and anyway, now I see the dress code is “smart casual”, so perhaps they wouldn't have let us in. Another time then; I really wanted to go more for the view than the cocktails. (Also, you don't have to be staying at the hotel to visit the bar ...)

Thursday (22/07/10)

Once again, despite turning the thermostat right down, we both didn't sleep very well. I slept better than the night before but that wasn't saying much; I kept waking up with a dry mouth—as if I had dehydrated or something—and was glad I had placed the bottle of complimentary water on my bedside table.

I got up at 9 to shower and pack. Ben had more trouble getting up; he really did not sleep well, and a second night of temperature issues really knocked him around. Fortunately there wasn't much to pack since we had travelled so light. We both polished off the last of the bananas, then headed downstairs to check out.

If the credit card thing was a problem, the lady we saw at reception this time (different lady) didn't seem to think it was. I guess they have my contact details if they need to do anything. The annoying thing is that our old card has been removed from internet banking so we can't actually see those transactions on it and double check that we were not charged for things we shouldn't have been.

Anyway, we headed down to Circular Quay in search of brunch or some such thing. I suggested the café on the ground floor of the Customs House Library—Young Alfred. They were only doing lunch, which was fine.

We were both pretty out of it (me rambling about how there should be a Dorling Kindersley children's board book on technology with pictures and captions of iPads, iPods, motherboards and CPUs). I had the gnocchi with pesto (quite average) and the worst chai tea ever:

Ben had the trout with baby spinach and capers:

We had toyed with the thought of catching the ferry to Balmain and then getting the bus home from there, but we were both so tired, so we just caught the bus home. And that concluded the staycation.

Mind you, ending this way isn't a downer; it's nice to be home! Ben had a siesta in the afternoon, and woke up feeling much better. Fortunately he still has the rest of the week off work, so I will get to enjoy his company in leisure for a little while longer ...

/Karen/ had a thought at 1:16 AM | | EE comments (2)

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