Royal visit

My return to the UK is imminent and next month I will be arriving in England to pleasant spring weather (fingers crossed).

During my stay in Sydney I have been getting most of my grocery needs using online shopping and thus avoiding the problem of carrying heavy or bulky items. It has been a mixed experience. I mainly used Woolworth's but found that almost every delivery was late. Maybe that is less of a concern for me as I have plenty of free time and I was compensated for the inconvenience by having the delivery fee refunded.
However, eventually Woolworth's started to provide me with a credit instead of a refund and make excuses about their terms and conditions allowing late delivery.
Time for a change then. So I switched to Coles, and guess what, no more late deliveries. However, I often have a number of items that I had ordered, replaced with substituted alternatives or just plain missing. So I have to say neither company meet my needs and by returning to England I will not be having to concern my self with grocery deliveries.

I went for a walk in the Botanical Gardens recently and there was this bamboo tree.

Also a banana tree

I did see a Preying Mantis in some begonias but my camera would insist on focussing on a spiders web and not my intended subject so I did not get the picture.

A day or so later, I walked over the Harbour Bridge.

The Opera House was it's usual stunning self.

A sailing ship that they use for taking tourists around the harbour, although they only put up a scrap of sail which looks odd and unlike the sales brochure.

On my walk down Observatory Hill I saw this charming little residence, however I later learned that someone paid over a million dollars for it.

Flags in Darling Harbour, although the majority of the place is one ernomous demolition site. Even the monorail has gone.

Old and new, looking across to the increasingly horrific Barangaroo building site.

The royal visit to Sydney by William, Cate and new son George caused a buzz in Sydney. Cate (in yellow) was arriving next door at Admiralty House after a short boat trip from the Opera House.

The gates of Admiralty House.

I took a couple videos of the royals when they were in the vicinity and you can see them here.

Crossing the harbour after visiting the Opera House.

Motor cavalcade returning from a trip to the Blue Mountains.

I even got a wave from Prince William.

Being a royalist, I was happy to have them staying next door for a few days. However they never did come round to borrow a cup of sugar.

You can see their live view of Sydney Harbour here (or at least you can for the next few weeks before I take down the webcam)

Some of the police escort.

Early this morning, the sun was reflecting from this office block.

Well the royals have left Sydney now, and we have had a sunny Easter. I must make the most of my remaining time here.

Peewit

My darn Samsung camera back in for repair

Yep, my Samsung WB850F compact camera is back in for repair. This is the third time within the 12 months warranty. This time instead of just freezing when you switch the camera on, it refuses to focus with any kind of zoom setting. In fact as you press the shutter, an image on the screen goes out of focus and then it takes the photo. Handy eh!

So when a beautiful sunny morning appeared, I decided to take a trip to the Blue Mountains for the day. I went by ferry, and then train.
Before I left home there were these two aircraft buzzing around the harbour. I used my rather chunky DSLR camera to take the picture. I would be lugging this camera around with me on my trip to Katoomba and having fitted my 8mm lens there would be a lot of very wide angle photos apart from the odd one or two that I took with my phone. The wide angle lens allows me to take panoramic photos such as this one.

 

The lookout at Echo Point

 

Another lookout this time I was the only person on it. The cliff-top track was rather muddy as a result of recent heavy rain.

 

Some of the effects of heavy rainfall.

 

Looking through the gum trees.

 

Katoomba Falls

 

I do not fancy taking this trip as I am scared of heights.

 

Taken with my phone.

 

The cable car at Scenic World. I had to do a bit of road walking to get here as they were doing some construction work involving a helicopter and had closed the cliff-track.

 

Rather than walk along the road and then the flooded track to get back, I took the local bus to town. I recall having a great meal many years ago at this Art Deco restaurant in Katoomba.

 

The train ride back to Sydney was made more entertaining as I was chatting to a Buddhist monk and hearing about some of the interesting things that he had done.

At Circular Quay, the Queen Mary 2 is moored up at the OPT.

 

I just took a walk into Mosman and happened to choose a time around 3pm to do it. I was amazed by the literally hundreds of huge and expensive 4x4's out on the school run. I saw some awful driving and parking. I felt scared even on the pavement. Crossing the road involved waiting for a car to let me across (there were no gaps in the traffic) and then hope that I did not get run over. I made it home safe but am double checking my hospital insurance cover. You even have to pay for an ambulance to scoop you off the road here.

Peewit