Platypuses , platypi? Whatever!

Today in Manly we sat drinking coffee watching the surfers curl some waves

Then we hopped on a ferry to Taronga Zoo where I fell in love with the platypuses

They are delightful little buggers.......so much so that the Prof bought me a platypus all of my own

( btw did you know that baby platypuses are called puggles? 

How cool is that?

The Hunter Valley & Station Q

 

 Tonight we have moved over the bay to the resort of Manly. Our hotel is wonderfully quirky.....Station Q is the historic quarantine hospital of the city of Sydney and we are staying in a corrugated iron clad single room of one of the wards. It's quite delightful
I am need of the rest as the Prof and I have just spent an exhausting enjoyable day, wine tasting...down the scenic Hunter Valley with a group of Aussie housewives.......
Great...great fun..........but not quiet or for the faint of heart!

A Flying Baked Bean Tin

Our helicoptor was the size of a large baked bean can
Our pilot was a chiseled Aussie Hugh Jackman lookalike hunk called " Forrest"
(Tall,  all tan and white teeth...you get the gist)
He was, on reflection bigger than the aircraft
As it turned out Forrest was from Flint........and Flint is a scruffy little town 15 minutes away from Trelawnyd
It's a funny small world is it not....?
Anyhow flying around in a baked bean tin was great fun.....it was a lovely experience

Everything In Technicolour

London has pigeons. Trelawnyd has chickens and Sydney...well Sydney has rainbow lorikeets , the very serious and depressed looking Australian Ibis , and the chattering and spectacular noisy cockatoos.
Sitting in the Botanical Gardens today was a feast for the senses .
It's like home but every bird and plant seems to be in technicolour..and it's still only spring.
We've had a tour of the Opera House today and have booked a show and a concert there. It's a stunning building for sure. Tomorrow we do a helicopter ride over Sydney bay.......then down the Hunter Valley wine tasting with some dear old friends.
And....It's only day three

G'day Mate

Can You Guess Where We Are Today?

Another Clue

The Prof is liking Sydney

As you can tell both Roger Moore eyebrows are raised!

Sydney

25 hours later I'm in Sydney!

Well to be perfectly frank I am in bed with my husband with my first large gin and tonic

Hey ho.....around the globe....completely .......how fantastic

Singapore

My Chicken noodles was nice.............just got off a flight from hell.......baby next to me screamed solidly for a few hours and I'd just managed to zone out to " A Very Long Engagement" with Audrey Tautou when one of the stewards curled a finger at me and took me to business class for the rest of the flight
I could have kissed him......
Presently in Changi Airport waiting for my flight to Sydney...........
Hey ho

Post 2 Munich

I am waiting to get on the plane again...........we are in Munich
Managed to watch the awful SAN ANDREAS
Which drowned out the numerous babies in the main cabin......I sat next to the overly friendly and very camp Bertl who has just had a pneumatic week visiting his boyfriend in Manchester. His boyfriend is 24 and he is not a day younger than 50 ( though he insisted to me that he is just 40). Thank God he got off in Germany....I don't think I could have stomached the lurid details.
Apparently Bertl means Nobel in German......or so he told me.........
Hey ho
( btw ..and this is so true...I have just googled " old camp German" to find a suitable photo to illustrate  this post.....and all I came up with is an old picture of Auschwitz)