Sydney (Australia)

Sunday 31 December

Pleased to report that I am definitely feeling better this morning and getting back to normal, hoorah! That’ll teach me to watch my step. We had an earlyish breakfast as we needed to get to the airport for our lunchtime flight. Said our goodbyes and gave a bottle of wine to Venise (our housekeeper) for all her help and headed out to Melbourne airport with our funky African driver, what a great guy he was!

Our plane was more or less on time departing around noon, and once again the England cricket team were on board, this time in Economy, bless them! They had a bit of a laugh with us all on board which was good to see after the gloom we had all felt after leaving Perth, team and supporters alike!

We arrived into Sydney and headed for our hotel. This was the first major disappointment of the trip as we entered a tiny, damp room with a minuscule bathroom and not much else. After strong objections, we managed to get it

changed at Reception but the second room was really no better, so we headed out (without unpacking) for some calming drinks at a local bar (Bar Luca, great find, we will be back!) then came back and talked to Reception yet again as the damp smell had hit us once more on entry to the room. They changed our room for the third time into a room which at least appears to be damp free and is slightly more modern. But still a tiny cell. The truth is that this a tired, dank, outdated hotel which appears to have had zero TLC forever and is frankly horrible. Five star? $400 a night? Not worth a tenth of it and more like a one star. Still we are here now and have to get on with it but very disappointed.

Advance warning - sorry to have to say that this part of the blog is not going to be the most interesting or exciting for you to read, but it’s all true unfortunately and this blog is all about telling it as it is!

Monday 01 January

We had a decent breakfast which is at least something for this horrible hotel. Chilled in our room today mostly, everywhere around closed for NYD so it will be a bar snack and a few beers in the bar downstairs today me thinks. Both quietly counting down to next Tuesday when we leave here and head to New Zealand, can’t wait already!! Such a shame as everything was so lovely up to this point.
We eventually went down to the bar which was quiet but enjoyed a few drinks and some bar snacks then came back up to the room to watch the cricket. Nothing much else to report, as I suspect will be the par for most days here before we leave. Just another day ticked off!

Tuesday 02 January

We headed off down to the circular quay after breakfast for a walk as the sun was threatening to make an appearance, a rarity at the moment I assure you! It was unsurprisingly mobbed with tourists so we walked around for a while, checked out the boat trips for another day then headed back up to Bar Luca for a restorative drink! We ended up spending the afternoon there and had some snacks before heading back to the hotel. Great fun with the team of staff there and lots going on, much of an improvement on the dire atmosphere of the Sofitel, ugh! Thank heavens for Bar Luca.

Wednesday 03 January

Today it is raining again, no change there then, been so wet in this part of the country. We headed out to Manly Island anyway on the fast ferry as planned, and walked around a little bit, not a massive amount to see (and certainly not in the rain) because apart from being quite a pretty place, it is just filled with cheap-ish shops, restaurants and bars. We are not at all sure therefore why everyone told us ‘you really must go to Manly’ but there you go. Maybe the rain and our general anti-Sydney attitude isn’t helping so apologies to all Manley mad fans reading this for us taking out our bad mood on it!

We did find a good bar at the Ivanhoe Hotel and had a couple of drinks there before getting the ferry back and heading into Bar Luca. You will see that BL has become the one positive light in the tale of our time in Sydney.

Thursday 04 January

The fifth test starts today at the SCG but guess what? You got it, it is raining, and quite heavily. The toss and play have been delayed at the SCG and we are not going over there today. So after breakfast we headed back to the room to read the papers and catch up on social media. Only five more sleep nights then we fly to Auckland, it can’t come soon enough for us. We went for a walk this afternoon when it finally stopped raining and found Ryans bar (open air) which was a nice spacious bar, watched a bit of cricket, then back to Bar Luca for a couple more drinks then back to the hotel bar to eat. Apologies again that this part of the travel blog is so mundane but what you read is what we got!

Friday 05 January

Today I woke up with a headache from all the lovely wine! Paracetamol in hand, we set off after breakfast to get the bus to the SCG which was dead easy with our preloaded Opal travel cards. It dropped us by the park in front of the SCG and we walked across into the ground. What a lovely setting. Our seats were low down near the pitch and in the direct sun so hot but ok, especially after all that rain! Hats and neck scarves and sunscreen were certainly the order of the day. We watched the live action until lunchtime when England were all out, then headed back to the bus stop and into town.

We went back to the hotel room to cool down in the AC and watch a bit more cricket on the tv then went over to Bar Luca for drinks and eats. We were back and chilling in the room by around 8pm watching the Big Bash, quite tired tonight after finally getting a day in the sun! As noted before it is amazing how quickly the weather can change in this part of the world, sometimes by as much as 15 degrees on a daily basis, and from cool rain to very warm sunshine!

Saturday 06 January

We decided to watch the morning session form the hotel today rather than trudge over to the SCG again. It really is difficult to motivate yourself to support all the games when we have already lost the series. So we are planning a mini bar crawl this afternoon around the CBD area in the sun, sounds good! Well we did head into the main area of Sydney centre this afternoon and just about everywhere was closed, amazing for a Saturday afternoon. We had a good walk, meandered round a few shops then headed back to the hotel area and had a drink in Kittyhawks, another nearby bar, before moving on to Bar Luca for drinks and eats. Back to the hotel for an earlyish night, it was a hot one again today!

Sunday 07 January

We watched the cricket at the hotel again in the morning after breakfast and read the papers. Then we got ourselves ready and went down to the Westin Hotel in St Martins Place to meet my friend Phillippa (from the UK, also on an extended holiday) for a few drinks in the bar there. Still very hot today, over 40c and measuring 50c at the SCG apparently! Great to catch up with Phillippa, she was looking as amazing as ever and having a great time over here. Went back to the hotel to eat as everywhere else was closed and had an amazing fresh tuna salad, healthy food at last! Quiet but enjoyable day.

Monday 08 January

It is our last day today in Sydney and last day of cricket in this Ashes series. Everyone is expecting England to be bowled out really quickly this morning so the Aussies will win this test by an innings plus, and the series by 4-0. So let’s see, hard to argue against it. Time to get packed up then and have our last drinks and eats over in Bar Luca, our Sydney lifeline! As correctly predicted England were bowled out pretty quickly not helped by Joe Root retiring hurt, sick with a stomach bug and reported to be ‘sleeping in the England dressing room’ whilst we formally lost the Ashes series. Such bad press, sack the PR team if that is the message we sent out. Being sick is one thing but advertising to the world that the captain has slept through our final demise is completely another. Went to Bar Luca, beer and

eats, and earlyish night for travel tomorrow. Goodbye Sydney, we are off!