		Meyricke Serjeantson

October 16
Sydney and The Blue Mountains

A beautifully sunny morning, slightly clouded by more bad financial news from overseas. I took the obligatory photos of my apartment and out of the windows. Unusually, there is an opening window but the safety stays left only a limited gap through which to insert the lens.

View from my window
	A kitchen to die for

	Looking down on George Street

Breakfast wasn’t bad. Coffee, a cheese and ham roll and an orange. A diet fit for a king. The apartment building is massive. I’m on the 29^th floor and it goes up to at least 50^th. As the ground floor is 10, however, this is slightly misleading.

A roof opposite offered an interesting array of boxes, tubes & other building services. I’m not sure what any of them were but it made an interesting photo.

There was a fascinating notice on several of the walls in the building, encouraging us to keep our doors & windows closed as it was the annual migration season of Bogong Moths. Not having any idea what they are, I don’t know if I saw one.

Unfortunately, the notice didn't reproduce very well but I did try.


Meriton Kent Terrace	George Street office blocks

I wandered down George St, a mixture of sleaze and posh offices, until I encountered a very rare animal, a specialist tobacconist. Over the road is Central Station, a magnificent old building with lots of brickwork and stone arches. I awaited the arrival of a tram, just to take a picture of it, and then found that ticket office.

For a 2 hour trip, the return fare of $15-20 seemed extremely reasonable. Whilst the station still has beautiful stained glass, a clock etc etc, the more modern and functional features are less aesthetically pleasing.

Sol Levy, Tobacconist


Central Station tram	Central Station

Central Station	Wonderful clock

Central Station ticket office	Tidy train on the outside

Tatty and vandalised on the inside	The train looked quite smart on the outside but was more than a bit tatty on the inside. It left on time, however, and sailed through the suburbs, both domestic and industrial until it reached the foothills of the Blue Mountains.

	Interesting reflections

	Blue Mountains in the distance


	Sandstone Cuttings - difficult to photograph

Pretty little stations - Warrimoo

and Hazelbrook

The flat plain gave way to steep sandstone gorges, very difficult to photograph from a moving train, and lots of trees, which gave the same problem as they rushed past.

After 2 hours, I reached Wentworth Falls, crossed the station footbridge and was instantly hailed by Malcolm & Maureen who swept me into a large 4WD and drove me to the local golf club, neither of them plays but they are social members, for lunch.


Wentworth Falls Station	Beautiful golf course
We sat on the balcony overlooking, the immaculately manicured fairways, and had our drinks, and then moved inside for food and more conversation. I remembered from my last visit here the wonderful flowers and they were just as impressive this time. Mainly rhododendrons at this time of the year.
	Rhododendrons

We drove the short distance to Sunset Point, which offered magnificent views over the bush. The rocks were heavily weathered, very similar to the ones on New Zealand’s Central Plateau.




	Sunset Point

The train ride home was smooth and on time. The hot sun blasting through the windows had a very soporific effect but I managed to stay awake most of the time.

Once back at the hotel, I spent an hour trying in vain to contact Cory. Eventually, Valerie, currently in Brisbane, was able to get a message to him. He rang me and we arranged to meet. The problem, it transpired, was that he had given both me and lots of other people the wrong phone number and had been doing this for several months.

I rushed down the road to Darling Harbour, about a 10 minute brisk walk. We met up and had several beers sitting outside a bar. It was warm and still, with the bars and restaurants doing a busy trade. As both Nick and Cory are in finance, we discussed recent events and agreed that the future didn’t look good.


Darling Harbour


Darling Harbour

When they left to go home, I lingered and took lots of photos, including one of a street performer, balanced on a bike, many feet up a pole. With luck, a few will be OK.

I then stopped at the pub opposite the hotel, had a very good steak, mash and salad for not very much, and went home to bed.

October 17

Meyricke Serjeantson

October 16 Sydney and The Blue Mountains

A beautifully sunny morning, slightly clouded by more bad financial news from overseas. I took the obligatory photos of my apartment and out of the windows. Unusually, there is an opening window but the safety stays left only a limited gap through which to insert the lens.

View from my window

A kitchen to die for

Looking down on George Street

Breakfast wasn’t bad. Coffee, a cheese and ham roll and an orange. A diet fit for a king. The apartment building is massive. I’m on the 29th floor and it goes up to at least 50th. As the ground floor is 10, however, this is slightly misleading.

A roof opposite offered an interesting array of boxes, tubes & other building services. I’m not sure what any of them were but it made an interesting photo.

There was a fascinating notice on several of the walls in the building, encouraging us to keep our doors & windows closed as it was the annual migration season of Bogong Moths. Not having any idea what they are, I don’t know if I saw one.

Unfortunately, the notice didn't reproduce very well but I did try.

Meriton Kent Terrace

George Street office blocks

For a 2 hour trip, the return fare of $15-20 seemed extremely reasonable. Whilst the station still has beautiful stained glass, a clock etc etc, the more modern and functional features are less aesthetically pleasing.

Sol Levy, Tobacconist

Central Station tram

Central Station

Central Station

Wonderful clock

Central Station ticket office

Tidy train on the outside

Tatty and vandalised on the inside

The train looked quite smart on the outside but was more than a bit tatty on the inside. It left on time, however, and sailed through the suburbs, both domestic and industrial until it reached the foothills of the Blue Mountains.

Interesting reflections

Blue Mountains in the distance

Sandstone Cuttings - difficult to photograph

Pretty little stations - Warrimoo

and Hazelbrook

The flat plain gave way to steep sandstone gorges, very difficult to photograph from a moving train, and lots of trees, which gave the same problem as they rushed past.

After 2 hours, I reached Wentworth Falls, crossed the station footbridge and was instantly hailed by Malcolm & Maureen who swept me into a large 4WD and drove me to the local golf club, neither of them plays but they are social members, for lunch.

Wentworth Falls Station

Beautiful golf course

We sat on the balcony overlooking, the immaculately manicured fairways, and had our drinks, and then moved inside for food and more conversation.

I remembered from my last visit here the wonderful flowers and they were just as impressive this time. Mainly rhododendrons at this time of the year.

Rhododendrons

We drove the short distance to Sunset Point, which offered magnificent views over the bush. The rocks were heavily weathered, very similar to the ones on New Zealand’s Central Plateau.

Sunset Point

The train ride home was smooth and on time. The hot sun blasting through the windows had a very soporific effect but I managed to stay awake most of the time.

Darling Harbour

Darling Harbour

When they left to go home, I lingered and took lots of photos, including one of a street performer, balanced on a bike, many feet up a pole. With luck, a few will be OK.

I then stopped at the pub opposite the hotel, had a very good steak, mash and salad for not very much, and went home to bed.

October 16
Sydney and The Blue Mountains

Breakfast wasn’t bad. Coffee, a cheese and ham roll and an orange. A diet fit for a king. The apartment building is massive. I’m on the 29^th floor and it goes up to at least 50^th. As the ground floor is 10, however, this is slightly misleading.