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October 13, 2013

October 2013

Happy Halloween everyone.

Saturday 26th October 2013

We decided to give Tiger airlines a go, back in May/July when they offered a $10 flight ticket, several months later we are here sitting in a plane waiting for take off. The departure was a tiny weenie late by 15 minutes pass the expected 10:35am arrival time, which left us with very little breathing space to get to Chefs Gallery on George Street, but we urged ourselves to briskly catch the train to Central, drop off our bags in a locker, hop on a bus and get off at town hall. We just made it, 12 noon. Whew! Talk about going on your own amazing race.

Chefs Gallery is a Chinese Yum Cha restaurant that does new spins and infusion dishes. Take for instance, prawn spring roll has cheese in it. Very creamy and tasty. Chive dumpling top was twisted into a shape of a rose. Wow. Daikon radish re-sculptured into blocks, fried crispy in breadcrumb, soya sauced, and stacked in the form of trio dice. Just delicious. Then the dessert rolled in. We had coconut marshmallow mini Totoros, black sesame devil piggies, pumpkin custard Jack O' Lantern. Oh, Ah, they were all so cute. My sister and I kept posing with them to no end and pissing off staff. Oh well. We like to play with our food. What can I say? Lunch was covered and it was very fulfilling.

We strolled over to Kinokuniya book shop, to browse for next year's calendar and overseas magazine. They had author book signing event and patrons dressed in Halloween costumes. We didn't take photographs of them because my nose was itchy and sneezy. However, the atmosphere was quite positive and fun. After much circling and reading, we decided to see if Ladurée had tasty macaron on hand, the flavours I grew to love was gone, Almond Marshmallow. I went with gingerbread instead. It was insipid. Not as good as gingerbread from Lindt.

We dropped off our goodies at HQ and off to catch bus 392 to Surry Hills but the bus broke down, just four blocks away, then 5 minutes later bus M50 arrived, thank god, and we just made to Red Lantern for dinner. The a la carter menu was bland Thai-Viet food but we were too full to eat from the tasting menu which costs $65 per person. So we let it slide. Upon exiting the restaurant and  bunch of guys wearing various tutu and fruit costumes came out of the pub at the corner, they giggled past us, yelling "NRL rules", while one guy wearing a banana oufit pranced into front of my sister and proclaiming he broke his leg using hand gestures. Not a minute long, his friend yelled out to him to cross the road and frenzie attack a silver 4WD in jest and not in serious way. They held up traffic. Lots of horn beeping and yelling happening all at once. I sneakily two a pic or two before walking off to the main road, Cleveland Street, to this interesting church called The Kirk and took pictures of its front of door and the miniature version of it.

Once we arrived back onto George Street, the sky was a warm dark yellow and mild blue, not quite late enough to go to bed, just about 8pm. So we decided to catch a ferry to Manly beach, I figured, I don't think I have taken my sister across and out of the harbour. Sure, going to the beach at night is not fun as day light, but to see the Sydney Opera house and the Harbour bridge at night, twinkling away, it is a skyline without price of a cruise. Priceless. Once we got to Manly Wharf, we didn't stray too far off, played around the small beach area, catch seagulls and shared a small orange blood orange sorbet at Gelatissimo.

The evening end with my sister experiencing wifi deprivation. She was unable to sleep because she could not access The Simpson tapped out game app on her iPod Touch. I told her she should have used the free wifi on the ferry. The hostel does not offer free wifi.


Sunday 27th October

The trail for the 27km walk crossed all 7 bridges: Anzac, Iron Cove, Gladesville, Fig Tree, Tarban Creek, Harbour, Pyrmont.

Pyrmont village was our first pit stop and there was where we handed our registration receipt. In return, the lady strapped an orange pass over our wrists. We had waffle for breakfast before heading over to Anzac bridge. The view of the Sydney harbour bridge was crispy and reflection in the water glistened with the morning sun shining down. There was swirling ramp that reached up to the Anzac bridge and as we walked, it swayed against the light wind and heavy traffic of human feet including bike riders without bells. The cables hanging off the pylon was a spectacular sight. Departing the Anzac bridge was easy enough.

To reach Rozelle Village all of us had to shuffle through residential streets and narrow footpaths. Along the way we came pass neighbourhood people would try and sell us cakes and drinks. So kind of them to do so. We passed through Callan Park and saw trees sprouting purple coloured flower, I have forgotten their actual name but, I think they are called Jacaranda mimosifolia, they flower around October. Once we hit Rozelle Village, my sister and I had our first taste of Liana and Raine home made gourmet popsicle. The first one was cumber apple mint flavour. It totally hit the spot. It was a very hot day and I was bloody thirsty. Moving on from Leichhardt.

The Iron Cove bridge had two sections one for vehicles and another for pedestrians. The one you see in photos is for vehicles only. How very deceiving of them. Ha ha. Also we were on the west side, so I cannot tell you if the view was spectacular or not. I started seeing people pushing prams on this walk trail. Oh how challenging and brave of them. Pushing forth and into Canada bay we go.

Gladesville bridge was narrow, so narrow there is hardly space for joggers and bike riders. My sister and I would yell out "left, left" and interchangeably yell "bike coming". It was hilarious because oddly enough, people listen to us and actually move to the left. Hee hee. The structure of the bridge from underneath shows the use of stone lattice network to stay upright and curve stone for shape. A short walk later we reached Tarban Creek bridge, here we saw a silhouette of the city skyline from a far, covered by hazy cloud and too bad I cannot zoom very well with my iPhone 4S.

We cannot seem to see a bus stop no. 6, so we decided to rest at Hunters Hill Village and eat lunch. I broke out in hives from eating the sausage bun. Oh well. Zig zag down and up hills, stairs and more stairs later we reached Fig Tree bridge, here we noticed a little sand island underneath the bridge. It was cute and resembled the bird from Snoopy cartoon series. We all took plenty of snap shots of it.

What lies ahead was totally unexpected. The mini bush walk to reach Burns bay was full of tree roots. The bay was beautiful, there was friendly concrete edges for you to sit down and dangle your feet. The steep hill that awaits you, really test your joints, especially my upper thighs, knees, and ankle. All of us ran out of breath by then. Thank god, a kind family sold fresh watermelon at the very top of the hill for 50 cents. Here we decided to skip the second bush walk and take the accessible route to Lane Cove Village. As a treat we ate Liana and Raine home made gourmet popsicle: lemonade watermelon flavour and pineapple mint flavour.

I shamefully admit it was a bad idea but we had to catch the clockwise bus from Lane Cove Village to Wollstonecraft Village as we were running out of time. My sister and I squished into the clockwise bus and at every turn my sister would have her feet stepped on by another person. Once we reached Wollstonecraft Village, we decided not to catch another clockwise-squish-sardine-can-bus again. Therefore we walked non-stop from here, since the bus was not very dependable. Our legs ache but we carried on, despite the streets slopped at 30 degrees angle. Boy, you better have good griping shoes. The highlight would be Lavender bay where you can see the back of Luna Park and Sydney Harbour bridge as the back drop. Very nice indeed.

We quickly went through Milsons Point, climbed up stairs to Sydney Harbour bridge, took photographs and I made a less than 60 seconds video of this section of the walk, quickly go down the stairs, dashed off to Barangaroo Village, and dodged tourists to reach Pyrmont Bridge stamping point. Phew. We finally made it. 4:25pm. Just. Just made it.

Overall it was a fun experience but not recommended to those who poor joints and rainy days.

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