Day 25 Time to go home ;-(

The last day and it was time for Hans to eat his first Vegemite on toast...

Two varieties, normal 'full strength' Vegemite and a new variety called "My First Vegemite" which is presumably designed for infants...maybe this was the place to start? I prepared two slices of toast with both kinds...

..the approach...

..the taste...

...and in Hans' opinion...OK!  And for those who know the story Hans said "Hermann is a wus!"

Hans checked his flight details and realised he was flying not at 10:00pm but at 3:00pm! The planned last dinner was off and it meant a quick trip to the city - via Dench Bakers to have a final coffee of course - to see the Australian art section of the National Gallery of Victoria (the Ian Potter Centre at Fed Square) then lunch with Gabby to say good bye...

A last embrace, then off to the airport...

Saying goodbye to Hans at the airport wasn't how I wanted it. We were running a late and I had to get back to the apartment to meet a building engineer at 1:30, I'd parked in a bus zone and the security staff were hassling me to move. I gave Hans a hug, told him that I loved him, wished him a safe trip and I had to drive off. Just like that. I saw him out the window as I drove away, struggling with his bags and giving me a wave at the same time. I felt so sad. A great four weeks needed a better goodbye than this. The moment wasn't worthy of our time together or worthy for Hans as a person. 

Hans is a special man and I hope that his time with us help him to realise that he is very special to a lot of people who care a lot for him. I trust it was a fabulous summer for all of us.  

:-)

Thanks for reading!

Day 24 MMOP and the last dinner

I introduced Hans to the Melbourne Museum of Printing which is the passion of Michael Isaacshen...a warehouse full of old letterpress machinery...truly amazing

Some bits of it are in working order but Michael is looking for a benefactor or a grant to restore it all to working order, create an exhibition around his gear and knowledge and pay the rent...

And that night was what we thought was 'the second last supper'...the last one was to be before Hans flew out the next day...so Jean came over again and we ate up on the roof patio again. I cooked another choice from the Jamie Oliver 20 Minute Meals iPhone app...however Gabby stole the show again with ice cream, strawberries and home made chocolate sauce!

Hans calls these clouds 'Simpons Clouds'... :-) If you look closely you could see the fruit bats flying maybe? They come out at this time of day.

Just a Rosé before you go...

Day 23 Bats, hardware and a movie

A few km away is a the Yarra Bend Park which apart from a boathouse and a golf course is home to 30,000 Grey Headed Fruit Bats. My pic here is pretty useless but of you click on the link you'll see a better pic. These bats fly over our place every night which Hans saw quite a few times when we had BBQs

And then we made the RIght Of Passage that every Aussie male must do and we paid a visit to Bunnings Warehouse. Quite an emotional time for Hans, I could tell. Plenty of examples of Aussie dads taking their sons on a hunting trip to find tap washers or a bathroom vanity unit or light globes or whatever...rumour has it that women find it just at compelling but I think that is an urban legend...

Afterwards, another movie, Sherlock Holmes which was high amusing...also loved the choc tops!

And soon it would be time for another Right Of Passage....the Eating of the Vegemite! Vegemite is a yeast extract loathed by anyone not bearing an Australian passport but loved by the rest of us....and ultimately owned by cigarette company Phillip Morris via their company Kraft Foods...ironic that a cigarette company could be responsible for something so wonderful...

Day 22 Cricket

Amazing cloud formation in the afternoon...

Gabby's son, James, and I convinced Hans to come to a cricket match with us. This wasn't the 5 day version (a cricket 'Test Match' as we call it) but a Twenty-20 limited over match that would be over in 3 hours...not too long if it all became too much for our overseas visitor! If you look in the background you can see a couple of kids with KFC buckets on their heads...apparently there is a competition where you can win prizes if you get chosen by the TV cameras...damn, if only we'd known!

Not a bad crowd, 40,000 people in a stadium, the Melbourne Cricket Ground or the MCG or The 'G, that holds 100,000. Both teams (the Renegades and the Stars) were local Melbourne teams so the crowd was equally enthusiastic for both except one had a living legend of cricket, Shane Warne out of retirement so that was an added attraction. You may know Shane as Mr Hurley.

Hans, my brother John, my mate Ian (Scotty) and James....the cards had a '6' and a '4' on each side....you wave them around when the batsmen hit either score which also was the signal for them to let off fireworks and play loud music. Actually they played music after every ball which was very American. Test cricket is a lot more genteel and sedate. T20 is all about show and razzmatazz to draw in a new audience...well it drew in a visitor from the Netherlands so it must be working!!

The game got washed out so the Stars won using the DUCKWORTH LEWIS Method

And then came the fireworks...

And outside was the new statue to Warnie....legend

Day 21 Sydney day 3 and home

Last day in Sydney...we hired a car and drove around. First stop was Deus Ex Machina...custom motor bikes, bicycles, surfing, clothing. Kind of hard to explain what it is all about but there is a spirit here that is very persuasive and very desirable...we just want one! Hans said if he lived in Australia he would've bought one of the custom made motor bikes. Hopefully we can upload some of his photos here... :-)

Then we had lunch with Ginza at Kawa in Surry Hills and he came along for the ride as our guide.

One of the most famous beaches in the world - Bondi Beach

Hans thought he saw an interesting insect in the sand...

Nice reflections :-)

Looking across the Heads from The Gap towards Manly.

Ginza pretending Hans is Uncle Martin from My Favourite Martian

Down to Watson's Bay for some fish and chips ...

..not in the restaurant but the view and produce is just as good!

After this we drove back though Rose Bay, Double Bay, Elizabeth Bay, some of the most expensive real estate in the country...then flew home

Day 20 Sydney Day 2

The view at breakfast...frankly I was much more comfortable being where I was near the door than where Hans was. He cheekily threw his leg over the side of the balcony which absolutely chilled me to the bone! I'm no good with heights...

We finally made it to Circular Quay which is the place for The Sydney Opera House, the Harbour Bridge, The Rocks and the ship that was to take us on a lunch cruise on the harbour

The Overseas Passenger Terminal is also at Circular Quay and a quite attractive ship happened to be in port. A fabulous place to dock with The Bride on one side and the Opera House the other.

This was our  Sydney Tall Ships lunch cruise boat. It was built around 1940 in Finland

A couple of happy campers!

We motored out to Rose bay...

A Sydney Ferry and the Prime Minister's Sydney residence at Kirribili House both in the background

Hans seemingly completely oblivious to the gravity drying antics of the two gals behind him...

Of course the crew encouraged 'audience participation'...

...and Gabby and Hans managed to set the sails so we could glide back to port under wind power

The Skipper. Actually the crew were excellent, good natured and nothing was too much trouble

"As the Manly Ferry cuts it's way to Circular Quay"..search for the song "Reckless" by the Aussie 80's band Australian Crawl...actually here is the video clip: Reckless

BBQ lunch...not bad!

Fort Denison or Pinchgut Island...one of the places you would've seen fireworks fired from on New Year's Eve...

Turning around under The Bridge with the The Rocks and the city in the background.

After the cruise we went to the Museum of Contemporary Art at the Rocks. There was an excellent interactive exhibition by the Mexican artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer

Now, that evening we went on a ghost tour through the Rocks which was great except my phone battery went flat and I have no photos but I took some with Gabby's phone. The Ghost Host was excellent and right on cue the thunder and lightning came to make it just a little bit creepier. Hans slipped on the wet footpath which was not good at all - luckily he fell on his bad wrist he broke in Italy!! 

Can you see any faces in these windows....? These were place where spirits had been seen in the past...

One of the places we visited was the Sydney Observatory where one of our fellow tourists swears she heard a gurgling sound which could've been the creating of a murdered young sailor who met his end at that same spot in the 19th century. In the end it was a great night and finished up at a pub with Arthur who worked for Google. We had an interesting chat to him and then we walked home...a big day!