Early morning

Good morning.

Not even 7am and I have already got some exercise in. I got up early as my stray cat Angie had her two black kittens playing in the yard. As I was wide awake I hitched a lift to work with my young man and walked home, about a mile. It was cool and pleasant. My view on the walk? Lots of sand, sagebrush and a few trees, mostly conifers. The surrounding hills have lost most of their snow and have turned green in the last two weeks.
I have some opinions on older movies today.

Sleepless in Seattle

One of my very favourite movies. Tom Hanks is a widower whose young son calls a talk show, Meg Ryan hears it, after a few false starts they get together. Yes, a chick flick again. Hanks and Ryan have chemistry, also seen in You've Got Mail, an email romance. It's awkward, almost adolescent chemistry that works. He lives on a houseboat in Seattle, that's interesting, the clothes and hairstyles of the period are embarrassing - I dressed like that, and the weather is not eternally sunny - that's realistic. Hanks and Ryan look like real people, not glam movie stars. Mrs Hanks plays his sister and Rosie O'Donnell is Ryan's friend and editor. That's relevant because they quote lines from ...

An Affair to Remember

An oldie but a goodie. Cary Grant meets Deborah Kerr on board ship. They have the most polite and chaste romance, fall madly in love, but both are engaged to other people. They arrange to meet at the viewing deck of the Empire State Building in six months to see if it will all work out, but she doesn't show. She does have a very good reason, he eventually finds her and it's all good. He is suave but vulnerable, she is sweet but strong and slightly ascerbic. It's a witty movie. They enunciate beautifully - "Winter must be cold for those with no warm memories". It only took about a week to cross the Atlantic back then, and she managed to wear at least five different coats during the crossing. Some nice clothes. Delightful. I caught BH (remember - Better Half) watching this one and he liked it.

Shrek Forever After

Animated, but I went because it was his turn to choose the movie. Actually, the Shrek movies are clever and well written, and funny. That's one thing I omitted to mention about Avatar - the actors managed to deliver their dialogue without humour or irony. What self-control! Back to Shrek - great characters, I love the Gingerbread Man, he's a feisty one, and I adore Antonio Banderas as the somewhat out-of-shape Puss in Boots. Fiona as Xena Warrior Princess was a winner, and that Rumplestiltskin guy was slappably (I wanted to slap him) annoying. It's a kind of Groundhog Day do-over, a "what might have been" story and I think that is enough Shreks - end on a high note.


It occurred to me that there will be no bad book reviews. If a book hasn't engaged me by the end of chapter two, I don't read any more of it. So today, a city review.

Sydney, Australia

Sydney is a great vacation city. It's gorgeous. Take a ride up the Sydney Tower on your first day to get your bearings and admire the spectacular harbour and surroundings. What a physically blessed place. While you are there, go on the virtual ride - holograms and great scenery. Sydney is fairly flat, so walking is no problem, unless it gets really hot - don't go there in the middle of summer. You can buy a ticket that will take you on buses, trains and ferries (not the monorail) - so worth it. When I went last, in 2009, that ticket was $17 a day, and each ferry ride was $5.50. We took at least 2 or 3 ferry rides each day, as well as the train, so we got our money's worth. Darling Harbour is nice, lots of different imaginative fountains, and ibises - big birds with scary looking curved beaks. The Maritime Museum is there, cool and mostly free, and the beautiful Chinese Garden. That has a small entry fee and is an oasis of calm and beauty in the middle of the city. We saw big colourful lizards, a man painstakingly trimming an ancient bonsai, giant koi, and a mother duck with 15 tiny ducklings, in the beautiful garden setting. A monorail runs around the Darling Harbour end of the city, an all-day ticket is a good investment.

A ferry ride will take you to Circular Quay. That's where it all happens. It's the central ferry terminal, and the Sydney Opera House is there. Lots of street entertainment, an art gallery, close to the historic Rocks district and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. You can walk over that - great views. Luna Park is on the other side, a kind of Coney Island (no, I've never been to Coney Island) old fashioned amusement park. Enter through the giant clown's mouth. Sydney has great shopping, the Queen Victoria building is elegant and has interesting clocks. Myers has a really good food court. In the middle of town is Hyde Park, a nice way to walk through town without being in traffic, and it is the site of the city's War Memorial.

Sydney's best thing? The ferries: they go to all sorts of great places, like Manly which has a harbour beach on one side and it's a short walk to the ocean beach on the other side. Or take a trip to Parramatta up the river, or Luna Park, or Darling Harbour, or the Zoo - it's a good place to see Australian animals, colourful parrots, tiny frogs and it has a cable car for aerial views. There are a lot of ferry destinations, I went on every ferry except the one to Tasmania. Sydney Harbour is stunning, and a ferry trip will cool you down on hot days. It's nice to be on the sparkling water, with the wind in your hair, looking into the back gardens of the wealthy.

The other cool thing about Sydney? Go out in the evening and look at the sky. You will think you are in Gotham City. Thousands of bats circling overhead. We saw them flying through spotlights projecting bat shadows on the clouds. Magic.

There is of course, a lot more to Sydney. I hope I have given you a taste of the delightful and easy vacation destination that I found it to be. Be warned - it gets hot and humid.


Back to real life in the desert for me now. Enjoy your day.