SYDNEY AND THE GIRLS CAN’T WAIT FOR ANOTHER TOUR

We have arrived in Sydney, Australia in early May 1991 after just having left New Zealand. We are taking an extended break before touching down in Calgary and searching out a new job. “An extended break” you might ask, “isn’t your whole life like a big vacation?” The one downside of having a Blog is that you tend to focus on just the exciting experiences of working abroad. And you leave out the mundane, week to week drudgery of work. Most of the assignments we had been on, to this date. Were “fast-track”, “behind schedule”, “over budget” and any other negative tag that the companies I worked for could come up with. This, in order, to keep you motivated and constantly remind you that you were NOT having fun.

The companies I worked for, at this time, were experts at creating an atmosphere of “life and death”. Each time, specifically related to whatever Project you worked on, at that moment. As I got older and wiser, the less sympathy I was able to dredge up for these companies and their “crisis of the day”. Does the phrase “the boy who cried wolf fit”? “Perfectly” I cry out. Anyway our way of dealing with this constant grind, was that at the end of our assignments, we would take some time off before accepting another “nut crusher’. And this trip was one of those periods of “time out”.

So here we are in Australia, I wake up early, pumped to get a vacation going. Then, with all the enthusiasm I can muster, I ask “what shall we do today”? The girls shriek in unison “Dad can you please take us sightseeing all day long”? Well that’s settled so who am I to deny them another round of endless self guided tours, narrated by me. I pull out the trusty travel book and “bone up” on the sights of Sydney. Our first stop the Sydney Tower. At 309 meters in height, it is about midway between the Calgary Tower at 190 meters, and the CN tower in Toronto at 553 meters.

If you asked the girls “what did you see”? Their response would be “nothing”. What you did get was a stunning view of every part of Sydney and the surrounding area from the 360 degree observation deck. It is located pretty much in the centre of town and shows spectacular views of the city as well as the harbour and surrounding area. Two of us thought it was spectacular, another two were under impressed and made their feelings clearly known. I’ll let you guess who was who.

From there we had a vote on the next stop and I was so happy that the three girls chose a mall to go shopping in. The one they chose was Harbourside in Darling Harbour. This was a new, upscale, big mall full of entertainment and places to spend any leftover money that we may have. Sitting in this mall gave me time to reflect on how the girls felt about my endless day trips and self guided tours. After about one hour in here, following them from shop to shop and watching them squander their allowances, I felt like jumping in the Harbour and swimming for home.

Deysi was in her element, in fact all three were smiling from ear to ear. All I could do was “suck it up” and pretend I was having a blast. After, what seemed like 20 hours, they were finally broke and we had to go sit down in a restaurant to allow them to recover. The food choices in this mall were endless, however we had spotted Chinatown very close to the mall so decided to go there for lunch. This I might add, amid much gagging and protesting by Ron and her protege. If I remember correctly Deysi and I had seafood, noodles and veggies, and the girls went for “Chinese” hotdogs (same as good ol’ US hotdogs, but served in Chinatown).

After lunch we took a stroll thru Sydney’s Chinatown. It was the largest chinatown in the Southern Hemisphere at this time. Luckily they had all squandered their money in the mall, so their visits to the shops were short. This, my friends, is how we spent our first day in Sydney, Australia in early May, 1991. If that didn’t make you pumped for more I don’t know what the rest will do for you?