Top View

I took these photos last month from the Sydney Tower.

It was the first time for me to go there.

The view was awesome.

Can you see the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House in the background?

Here is a "closer" shot of the Harbour Bridge.

This one has the Anzac Bridge.

In the middle of this picture is the Queen Victoria Building.

And I took a shot of the Citigroup Centre, of course.

I tried to get Town Hall in this picture.

Here is a wider view.

And the panoramic view.

There is St. Mary's Cathedral.

 Check out Sydney from the top.

Yes, we do live in a beautiful city.

A Room with a View

This was the view from the window of the hotel room where my friends stayed.

The hotel offers a 270-degree views of the Sydney Harbour, Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House.

Angel Place

I finally discovered hangs along Angel Place.

Forgotten Songs is what the artwork of birdcages is called.

It commemorates the songs of fifty birds once heard in Central Sydney.

Vivid Sydney is Back

They say the traffic and transport at Sydney is terrible due to Vivid Sydney.  So for the meantime, we watch in the comforts of our home.

I still find it awesome.

Enjoy the show!

The Black Swan

The flower shop at the local mall has a new display window.  I thought it was very pretty.  

I like swans.  I think they are very beautiful creatures.

Little did I know I would have a chance to see one close up.

 

MacGyver and I met up with some friends yesterday.  After having dinner at the mall, we passed by the Bicentennial Park before heading to my friend's house.  My friend who lives near this park showed us the lagoon from which several birds can be spotted.

We chanced upon this black beauty.

It had flown in with some other birds but decided to land in the lagoon.  It was the first time I'd seen a swan fly.  I had almost forgotten that they do.  (My other friend reminded me of the Ugly Duckling.)  

We watched as the swan glided over the water gracefully.  

After a while, it moved to the far end of the lagoon and literally ran over the water and took off in flight.

We spent a long time watching the birds.  Apparently, there is a whole checklist of Birds of Sydney Olympic Park to be found.   

I'm thinking of getting a pair of binoculars.  I'd really love to see these birds close up.

Anyone care to join me?

The Last Leaf

I truly love the colours of the autumn leaves. I felt quite sad to see all those beautiful red and orange leaves fall on the ground. It didn't help that the last few days of autumn were dampened by the rain. It was bad enough that the leaves got detached from the branches. But all that rain meant more leaves would fall from the trees then all these fallen leaves would get wet and often end up pasted on the ground.

Back in the Philippines, yes, the leaves would fall, but there always seemed to be more than enough leaves to go around. The trees were almost always green. I cannot really recall seeing a tree lose all its leaves.

The closest thing to experiencing "fall" I can think of would be walking along narra tree lined sidewalk of Ayala Avenue. There would be times when the trees were filled with fragrant yellow flowers. Then soon after, these flowers would be scattered all about on the ground along with the leaves. If you happened to be walking along the street at that time, you could end up walking through a shower of leaves and flowers.

We also have a narra tree in the backyard at Cebu Avenue. I remember Father pointing out that particular tree beside the pelota courtwhen it had regained its foliage. I think he had taken a picture of the tree when the branches were kind of bare and was planning on taking another at that time when the leaves had returned. But somehow the tree never seemed to be stripped of ALL of its leaves.

GI has fond memories of narra trees as well. There were narra trees inside the campus of Don Bosco Makati before they were cut down to make way for the Savio Dome. There is often a hint of sadness when he mentions those trees even if their removal paved the way for a huge covered area within the school campus.

Enough of memory lane for the moment and back to the present... I left the house and headed for the city, I couldn't help but notice that so many of the trees along the way had shed all their leaves. The only consolation was that the knowledge that winter was but a season and soon it will be spring. New life would spring forth and the branches would once again be filled with leaves.

The truth is, when I saw these trees stripped of all their leaves, I couldn't help but feel that the insides of the trees were exposed. It made me think of the sacrament of confession. You know how at the confessional, you bare it all and your essence is brought out in the open. There is a mix of emotions which hinges on sadness and remorse. However after a good confession, there is joy and peace and hope. The YOU which had shed all your layers of sin and falsehood, will soon have a fresh start whereby a new YOU, a better YOU, a happier and more beautiful YOU can emerge; just like the winter trees that have only their branches to show today but as summer arrives these branches will surely be covered by so many new leaves you would hardly recognise the skeleton of a tree that it once was.

I do so look forward to spring.

First Day of the Rest of Your Life

We have often heard the saying that "Today is the First Day of the Rest of Your Life." Well, today, 03 October 2009, is the first day of the start of a new life for me and my family. We set foot in the Land Down Under today where we intend to spend the rest of our days.

We said our good-byes yesterday at Cebu Avenue early. MacGyver's mom and his sister came over to join Father and Mother as the send-off crew. We were still packing until the last minute and in spite all that to-ing and fro-ing, we still forgot some of our stuff.

We arrived at the airport after 4pm, well ahead of our required 5:30 pm check-in time. Our flight was due to leave at 8:30pm. Fortunately, the check-in counter was already open. Our luggage was within the required 20kg /person limit. They didn't count handbags and laptop cases as part of the weigh-in, so our hand carry bags were likewise within the prescribed limit. The lady said the hand carry limit was 9 kg, excluding handbags, contrary to what I had been told when I inquired over the phone. Had I known that earlier I would have not left some of my books and clothes at home. (Over the phone I was told that I had an allocation of 7kg for the handcarry which included my handbag. Heavy sigh!) We paid the travel tax which was not included in our e-Ticket. As migrating permanent residents, we were not subject to the P1620 tax, instead we paid the reduced rate of P200/pax. Departure tax is now P750/pax, multiplied by four, covered most of the pesos we had on hand.

Father had sent us off with some bottled water and snacks. At the initial hand carry check, we were not made to throw away our water. We just had to take off our shoes, jewelry, belts, etc. Since we'd arrived early and our flight was still much later, we took the time to grab a bite to eat and drink up our bottled water.

At about 6:30 pm, they had everybody near the departure lounge at the gate vacate the premises to go through another hand carry check. Again, the bags and the shoes went through the x-ray machine but this time, we were supposed to empty our pockets into a basket. Just my luck, I had a ton of coins in my pocket at the time. I should have stuffed those in my handbag before that second round of checking. It was kind of embarrassing to have to chase coins around.

Anyway, after getting through that final check, all we had to do was wait for our time to board then we'd be on our way. I took the time to send Father one last text message to say good-bye. He replied with this brief message which was filled with love and hope. He said, "Love you. Wake up to a new life." (I love that! Yes, it made me cry.)

They let us board at about 7:45pm. We had a whole center row to ourselves.

The flight was uneventful though a little rough due to the rains. Peping was due to hit the country as we were leaving. Fortunately our flight was not delayed nor canceled, and Peping spared the country from another beating. (People have not gotten over Ondoy yet and are quite allergic to rain.) MacGyver and I took the aisle seats while MyGirl and RD were between us. Throughout the flight, RD's nose was running sending him off to the lavatory to get tissue. He stood up to go at least 5 times so we have decided that next time, RD gets the aisle seat.

Australia is GMT+10 while Manila is GMT+8. We were scheduled to land at Melbourne after 6am local time so at 3am Manila time (5am as far as they were concerned), they turned the cabin lights on and served us orange juice and ensaymada. Needless to say, we hardly got to sleep in the plane because of that.

I thought we would just drop off the Melbourne-bound passengers allowing the Sydney-bound folk to stay in the plane but apparently it doesn't work that way. When we landed at Melbourne at 6:10 am, everybody had to get off the plane and those bound for Sydney had to get a TRANSIT PASS and board another plane at 8:00 am. No wonder our ETA was 9:30 am in Sydney.

Before we landed, I though I had lost our original boarding passes. I had never had to transfer flights before so as far as I was concerned, boarding passes were one-time slips of cardboard. I was so happy that St. Anthony heard my prayers and gently reminded me that I had placed the boarding passes in the laptop case I had been carrying when we first boarded the plane.

The transfer from one plane to another led to another round of screening. This one at the Melbourne airport required us to take out the laptops and other metal items from our hand carry bags. (Paranoid me put all my coins inside my bag this time.)

Aside from MyGirl dropping her Transit Pass by accident (and the missing boarding pass panic), the stopover at Melbourne was short and sweet. Once we boarded the plane bound for Sydney, we were on the final leg of our trip.

We landed at Sydney before 9:30am. From the plane, we went through immigrations then claimed our luggage then through customs. Based on my observation, if you tick YES on any of the items on top, this is something for the customs officer to check; if you tick YES on any of the items on the bottom, that is for the quarantine officer to check.

The last time we entered Australia, MacGyver refused to bring any food in, so we had nothing to declare. This time around, MyGirl wanted to save the ensaymada they served us on the plane, so I said, "No problem as long as we declare it." Thus we ticked YES on the food question. Apparently, even if you declare these food items, they will still get confiscated. (Yes, the Australians are very wary of contaminants to their flora and fauna. DECLARE OR BEWARE!) They let the rice crackers and the brownie through, but the dried fruits and the ensaymada (because it has cheese) ended up in the trash bin.

The quarantine check was our last stop before getting in. After that, it was down the ramp and onto the meeting place (McDonald's) where MacGyver's brother was supposed to meet us.

Our Philippine pre-paid cards roaming function didn't seem to work but thankfully at about 10:30am, we saw familiar faces coming to pick us up. With that, we felt that we had really arrived.



When I sent out an email announcing that we'd landed, a good friend of mine replied with a brief email which started with "Welcome home." That made me realize that today indeed is the dawn of a new day for us because we now have a new place to call home.