Wednesday 13 May 2009

A cultural outing

The weekend before last we had a little jaunt to Sydney. Jack had tickets to the theatre and we thought we should go too because he can't quite see over the dashboard and reach the pedals too.
The tickets were for a play, Pigs, Bears and Billy Goats Gruff at the Opera House. Originally Jack and I were going with my brother Z, Lou and Scarlett. Then some things came up (Saturday sports for Lou and I think Mum was rearranging her sock drawer) and so S came along too.
We decided to take Jack on his first Ferry ride and made a beeline for Mosman Bay (look there's the wharf! Look there's some little runabouts! Look there's some very reasonable real estate!).
We ordered hot chocolates from the wharf cafe because we thought that being located where they were they would be super quick but I think they were part of the slow food movement (and not in a good way). Sipping our hot chocs (and Jack's babycino) we boarded the ferry and chose a safe little spot inside. Jack had lots of fun counting the boats and pointing at the water and got very excited about the bridge. He also told me that he didn't care for Blues Point Tower (he's so discerning). We got to the Quay and struggled with Jack and the ticket machine and strolled around by the water to the Opera house (I took note of the Guylian chocolate cafe on the way). We arrived at the theatre but were early,which is a truly rare situation for us to find ourselves in. So we walked through the Opera House and over into the Botanic Gardens. Jack did some exploring and after some very picturesque strolling we made our way back to the theatre, just in time to meet up with Scarlett and Z. We entered the theatre and took our seats (front row!) ready for the play.The Play was very good. A little bit odd (at first I was worried) but the actors were great and Jack and Scarlett seemed to enjoy it (so did S after his initial reluctance to go). The Wolf (from the 3 pigs) and the troll (from Billy Goats Gruff) were a bit scary though and Scarlett moved from a seat of her own holding my hand, to my lap, to Z's lap. Jack's favourite bit was not when the wolf fell down the chimney and his bottom got stuck in the pot, but when one of the actors did a huge fake sneeze.
We decided that we required refreshment so we all went to the Guylian cafe for wheatgrass juice with spirulina pikelets with goji berry jam. So delicious. And not a shell shaped chocolate in sight.Z and Scarlett headed off by car and we walked back to the ferry, stopping to get a balloon monkey. Jack was so excited to be going on the ferry again that he wanted to get on any ferry but we managed to stop him heading to Rose Bay, Manly and Parramatta. We caught the ferry back with a very drunk couple who were heading to a wedding. They seemed to be taking bets on how long the marriage would last. We were wondering how long they would last before passing out.
Jack and I sat outside and admired the view and the drunken conversation got too much for S and he joined us outside too. As we arrived at Mosman Bay the drunk woman handed her scrunched pantyhose to her companion who looked mightily confused. So were we. When did she take those off and more importantly, why would she be wearing them with open toed shoes?
We returned once more to the wilds of Mosman where Lou and I headed to the Mosman Markets and made a few purchases (I was doing it to boost the economy) and Jack and Scarlett got up to mischief together.

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