The last few days in Oz

 April 14th to date (18th)

On arrival to Australia back in October last year I had Covid. The chances of getting it again on leaving Australia has to be almost zilch but here I am again with the strong possibility of catching that virus again. 

On our return from Adelaide my brother started feeling unwell, he took himself off to bed for the remainder of the day. Next day he tested positive and kept as far part from us as possible with us all living in the same house together. Anyway Sally insisted we all go out to the Rocks in Sydney and leave him on his own.

Now the Rocks is in the oldest part of Sydney. Its where the first convict settlers started up shops and built their houses. A market was on and we spent a good hour looking at all the goods on display. Nothing was bought apart from a mug for our daughter Christine. Many many years ago and before kids, she and Kev came out to Oz for an extended holiday. A set of mugs by Australian Safari had been purchased which she loved but one had consequently been dropped and smashed when back in the UK. To find one was sheer luck as the company making those mugs have now gone out of production, Anyway after a coffee we headed for the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera house. A cruise ship was in dominating the skyline. It was huge, must have had at least three or four thousand guests, no wonder the place was heaving!

 

This was just amazing to see. 

We had to laugh when a young Chinese girl actually crawled under the levitation man, got up, looked again and then shook her head wondering just how this was done, Both Ian and I had seen this before so knew exactly how the levitation worked. Even Sally was baffled until we gave away the secret.

Walking to the Opera house and the dogs were out. Now you may wonder what dogs were doing amongst the crowd, well it was all to do with bird control. In the past the Gulls had become a real menace and the only way of dealing with this was to use dogs to chase them off. It has worked a treat and I believe is being used in other popular areas now.

We had champagne.....it was a must on such a lovely day. Shame my brother Andy couldn't share this with us. 

Anyway so near to Circular Keys metro that we decided to hop on and head back to Central station where the train to Hornsby could be caught. Blast....that dash from only two platforms away on arrival at central was unsuccessful as the platform we should have got the train from was being worked on. We watched as the doors shut on the through train just as we had alighted from the escalator. The next train wasn't for another 15 minutes and would be the slow train. It stopped at every station and took over an hour to get to Hornsby.

Andy stayed in his room that night, Sally was slightly concerned that her throat was sore, we kept fingers crossed she too wasn't coming down with it.

Next day Andy felt better but Sally had succumbed. Oh dear would it be our turn next/ A bit worrying as we are so close to leaving for Singapore. 

That day we did nothing other than go shopping for the evening's dinner and watch TV

April 17th

Sally was quite poorly, had a very bad headache and sore throat She too tested positive. We decided to leave her alone in the house and go to Manly for a walk to Shelly Beach. The day was warm again, shorts could still be worn although in the evening the temperatures dropped to a chilly 12 degrees. 

A lookout was a short drive away, a great viewing platform to see the skyline of Sydney.

It was on driving back an echidna was seen.

On our return Sally was up, said she felt much better and joined us in the evening for Pizza. You may wonder why she wasn't isolating away from us but seeing as we have all been together for weeks now, what was the point! If we are going to get it then there is nothing we can do about it. Anyway so far neither Ian nor myself feels unwell. Fingers crossed that the forth vaccination had before leaving the UK has given us good immunity. Sally and Andy have only had three vaccinations and that was over a year ago. I think they may take up the forth vaccination offer after the given time of recovering from Covid.

And wildlife