Newcastle is starting to feel a bit more like home as each day passes, although we still find ourselves pining for this and that aspect of Taiwan. One thing we don't miss is the daily grind of work and work related commitments, which stymied our leisure creativity a lot, especially in the last few years when we could rarely manage the energy to do anything very exciting on the weekends. We'd looked forward to our first year of retirement and we couldn't envisage a dull moment in our intended sloth! As it happened, Covid restrictions and travel bans aided our planned "stay-at-home" mentality, yet, surprisingly to me as I'd always scoffed at those retirees who pined for a "holiday", we were starting to get little urges to get away from our seaside bliss for a spell.

Inspired to get away for a few days, we booked a flying visit to Uluru in late March. Just as we were patting ourselves on the back for managing such a feat at very short notice, the hotel informed us that they were very sorry but they'd overbooked and there were actually no rooms at the inn! Not to be put off we steadfastly booked alternative dates and flights only to be informed 24 hours later that again, indeed, these dates too were full. After a third effort at re-booking resulted in the same stalemate, I politely informed the travel company that we would like to cancel...thwarted but not entirely defeated, our eyes turned to "big brother" down the coast, Sydney.

With brand new toll roads and tunnels burrowing their way through the choked arteries of outer and inner city and making travel slick, quick and seamless we booked at the modern, hip (and expensive!) Ovolo Hotel at Woolloomooloo's Finger Wharf. A valet whisked the car away to a garage unknown, and we got our first taste of our abode for the next few days. The staff were young and energetic, oozing just the right amount of fawning attention but just dialling it back enough to stay ultra cool. Our room was 5 star and we'd opted for a King view room with added benefits such as breakfast and a free, daily replenished minibar! Notes of the building's origins were evident in the giant steel girders in the ceiling and the cavernous belly of the building housing the restaurant, games and lounge area and decadent open space of this shared apartment/hotel building in the centre of the city.

We proceeded to go full tourist dining by night and gawking at iconic sights by day. I had booked us in for our first night to the famous Taiwanese eatery Din Tai Fung. Anyone familiar with these pages will readily bring to mind our extravagant rants about the majesty of this dining gem and we've really missed it since we've left Tienmu. Not expecting too much from an Australianised version of same, we were deposited by Uber at World Square, eventually threaded our way through the labyrinthine corridors and floors to be greeted by much familiarity. Unfortunately, local ingredients and unpopularity of some of our favourites meant they had been modified or ditched by the Australian franchise. Our experience was bitter sweet: it was nearly what we remembered but didn't quite cut it. Close, but no cigar!

We also ate at Kingsley's on the wharf as we thought we should take advantage of the hotel being flanked by a succession of fancy restaurants: we just strolled through the building, exited onto the wharf, and there we were. Our other aim was to experience a steak resembling the benchmark steak by another Taipei favourite of ours, Ruth's Chris. So far in Newcastle, despite visiting renowned steak restaurants, nothing has measured up. This did (almost)! Exquisitely cooked thick cut fillet steak flanked by the very best chips I have ever eaten. We even matched the asparagus and hollandaise that we used to get. Verdict: a very close second.

On our third night we planned a special treat and booked at Bennelong, the iconic eatery at the Sydney Opera House. Again, dropped by Uber, we strolled through the back courtyard of the Opera House to our very late (for us) dinner appointment. The harbour was festooned with light, the bridge sparkled and the people at the Opera Bar hummed and laughed as we made our way into the complex. Our maître d' swooped on us in tailored suit and radiant smile and we immediately felt welcomed and relaxed. The restaurant was full as usual and the menus by executive chef Peter Gilmore of "Quay" fame did not disappoint. We had the most wondrous three course meal, delightfully perfect in every way. The confluence of different flavours, the unique selection of partnered foods and the impeccable service had to be experienced to be believed, and the sheer romance of dining in this architectural masterpiece made it a night to remember.

During the day we wandered through and around the different paths of the Botanic Gardens for many hours, tripped around the harbour foreshore from Woolloomooloo to the city and back many times. We sought shelter from a frowsy day in the serene concrete whiteness of the Museum of Contemporary Art, challenging our senses with some dazzling pieces, some puzzling ones, and some delightful examples of 50s and 60s indigenous art on bark, the "real stuff". We had a light lunch in the glass cube perched atop the museum and drank in the views of the Opera House and the harbour bridge as we lingered long over our sandwiches and pots of tea! On a brighter day following, we spent the day on the slow ferry to Manly, strolled the Corso then ferried back to enjoy the full delights of the harbour and dredging up childhood memories for both of us as the vintage ship wallowed and dipped in the meaty swells across the harbour entrance at Sydney Heads. We were misted in spray on the upper deck as yachts sliced by, rivercats purred and various famous landmarks came and went slowly as we chugged inexorably to our destinations both ways. We walked back again through the gardens for an early evening at the hotel before heading out again on one of our dining experiences. 

As soon as we got back, the WSL Newcastle Cup with its extended caravan and entourage descended on Merewether Beach straight opposite our apartment! Cass and I were dazzled by the galaxy of surfing stars on our daily walk and I gawked at the superstars down on the beach. The leadup days were as exciting as the competition days for a number of sessions of training and warming up by heaps of the leading men and women, but especially notable for two incidents. I spied French surfer Johanne Defay and just as we passed her photo (used to black out the view for the comp) I made a comment to her about the photo. This allowed the embarrassed Cassy to have a little flirtation with some French conversation, which both Johanne and her mum were delighted with. We subsequently posed for photos (taken by Mum) and wished Johanne "bon chance!" for her campaign. We've since become such groupies, that I'm now one of her "top fans" on Facebook!

The other special moment came when I was bodysurfing alone in the flags at Merewether in a dumping shore-break. I spotted a great surfer carving up a wave in the mid distance and was mesmerised by his skill. As he came closer, heading straight for me, I recognised the scything athlete as Brazillian superstar and current world champ, Italo Ferreira. He looked at me and asked permission to keep going, motioning a 360 with his hands. I nodded at him, he nodded back then launched off the lip, did a full air rotation and landed in the flats not 10 metres from me. The clubbies were going ballistic, the lifeguards were on the mic admonishing him and he said "Hey, sorry man!". I said, "Don't worry about them, just ignore them. Any time!" He threw me a shaka, grinned and paddled back out. I have to admit, I'm still "frothin'" now!

The subsequent contest was a feast of world class surfing and star spotting from our breakfast table! The park opposite was reserved for athlete parking, so from early morning till dusk we saw all our favourites arriving, meeting up, chatting, getting changed and eventually winner Italo leaving with the precious trophy. I scored bigtime with tickets from the ballot, so we went to many days of competition. Although I didn't get tickets to the final, I still saw it. I carted two milk crates over the road to the blackout fence, set them up and enjoyed the best view in the house!

We had an extra motivation for our quick getaway as wanted to squeeze it in before the WSL event and before a medical procedure I needed. I won't go into details, except for the fact that it seems to have been successful and now I'm just needing to be patient as the long, slow road to recovery rolls out into the future. So far, the start of this road sometimes feels like Cormac McCarthy's "The Road", often like George Miller's "Fury Road" and even occasionally like Dorothy's "Yellow Brick Road"....I'm pretty sure this depends on what drugs I'm taking at the time!

Books....so many. I'll catch up with some of them next time. Here's the link to the Sydney album. Oh, and I completed my birthday pushup challenge after another year of training!

 

The avalanche of wardrobe photos threatened to overwhelm me and any readers into a boring trance of white walls and glass doors in various stages of construction so I elected to post just the single shot, which sums up the appeal of the new additions. Dozens and dozens of tired old shoeboxes were broken down to an essential end piece with shoe details listed, to be placed behind the pair of shoes as a tiny piece of nostalgia. The shoes are encased in their new abode, all shiny, dry and warm and at their owners beck and call, being able to be plucked from their shelving at a moment's notice. The owner is happy!

We've been happy with the new additions, and still plan to embark on some further renovations but inertia has become our drug, and it's quite addictive! There's a great appeal in delaying decisions till tomorrow because we can, but we'll have to shake ourselves into action pretty soon. We've become exasperatedly "busy doing very little" and the old adage of "posting a letter" being seen as a day's work, not to be added to lest we become overworked and overtired, has become less of a joke and more of a reality!

We have luxuriated in that most decadent of pastimes, the long lunch on a weekday through the working week, a few times lately, however! Sister Sue's birthday gave us an excuse to visit the always wonderful Paymaster's Café on the harbour foreshore where we wined and dined ourselves into a pleasant state of satiation! Chris had a birthday as well, giving us further excuses for meals out and he requested Mexican as his preferred cuisine. After a little research we identified Antojito's as the hippest, coolest, top-rated new Mexican in town with the added bonus that it was just a hop, skip and jump away from their place. It turned out to be a great choice for food quality and freshness but maybe we were a bit ambitious in terms of hip and cool. It was crazily popular, full of young trendies so fresh and vibrant and lining up down the footpath to get in! The kitchen was a re-used cool room plonked in the middle of a concrete warehouse and the meals and drinks were ordered at a central serving hub then delivered to the table all packed up for takeaway! We were way overdressed as the décor was more distressed industrial than fine dining, all shabby chic, peeling paint on stained concrete and mis-matched Formica and Laminex: nevertheless we had a great time! 

Hamilton has been a destination a few times too, and Jen and Vince invited us to a lunch at the revamped hotel round the corner from their place, The Exchange. It was lovely that Ellen could join us before wandering back to the train station en-route back home to Sydney and work after we enjoyed lunch together. The veranda was a perfect venue on a sunny afternoon that broke through what had been days of intermittent cloud and rain. Vince's painting marathon had taken a few hits from the inclement weather! Just today, we met up again with Chris and Val at one of our favourite old haunts, The Northern Star Café. This place never disappoints and the go-to veal dishes of different types are consistently delicious and of a first class quality.

On a whim last week, we dropped in to Scratchley's for a lunch, and were lucky to get in for yet another seafood feast with the working harbour seemingly almost dining with us. The floor to ceiling windows were opened fully to the grunting tugs and sleek giant bulk carriers, who stealthily crept by our dining space, overshadowed us briefly, then headed up the harbour to have their own hungry bellies loaded with coal.

There's a theme developing here! Our final fine eating experience was last Saturday's "gourmet vegetarian hamper for two" which we ordered to accompany the incomparable and undiminished Midnight Oil, who presented the Makarrata Project. The Oils collaboration with First Nation's songwriters and performers highlights indigenous issues and struggles bringing them to the attention of a wider audience. Their own quality and extensive back catalogue of work illuminating these issues along with catchy and thoughtful contemporary works made for a truly memorable show. After so many years in the "Taipei wilderness" in terms of rock concerts of Australian bands, we despaired of seeing our aging favourites ever again: it was pretty emotional when they blasted onto the stage with the iconic "Read About It"! After catching the coach up to Hope Valley Estate, grazing on our hamper delights and drinking Hope Estate basalt shiraz, the Peter Pans of Aussie rock presented a magnificent and memorable show!

We're off to Sydney for four days next week after a thwarted attempt to book at Uluru, we're doing our daily walk in weather great and "squall", Mum's out of hospital tomorrow after a recent fall, and the Knights have played and won their first game of the season....what's not to like?!!

I'm reading the first of Benjamin Black's (John Banville of "Snow" fame's non-de-plume) "Quirke" novels: it's called "Christine Falls" and follows Quirke, who is a pathologist in London in the 1950s. Cass is reading the book I read before this current one, the quirky, different and compelling novel by Swedish author Hakan Nesser, called " The Secret Life of Mr. Roos". It's a classic!

Cass has gone "full Aussie" and is visiting Bunnings (with her Mum) to "get a few things". I never thought I'd see the day when she would voluntarily venture out specifically to the great monolith of all things hardware and handy: it should be me!

We've been certainly getting more settled here lately and have even dared to speak about the great Australian dream of upgrading the real estate. It usually takes one of two forms: to upgrade the abode by selling and buying a newer greater pile of bricks either close to home or elsewhere (somewhere more desirable, preferably) OR people enter the fraught, frightening world of home renovation!

The latter appeals to us after assessing the upsides and downsides of our current apartment, which of each there are many. Basically, we couldn't tear ourselves away from our view and position and it seems the possibility of finding something similar nearby that is even vaguely affordable is zero. So, we need to fix the downsides as best as we can. Our first step was to install new wardrobe fit outs and doors on two wardrobes and get a brand new one built. Cass has now got her dream shoe cupboard, and she's managed to just about fill it with 50 odd pairs of shoes and various other indispensable products....photos next time! 

I've also painted a few walls, some in preparation for the new wardrobes and another to mask and revamp a quite ugly mustard yellow "feature" wall from 20 years ago, when that colour must have been de riguer. We've bought a new fridge, a new hot water system, bedside tables and of course installed with great delight our "cubes" as side-tables and nests in our lounge and dining rooms. These gorgeous, solid wood, delightfully hand-crafted pieces are from Macro Maison in Taipei and we included them in our shipping. We've also ditched the two single beds in the back room in favour of a beautiful 2.5 seater tan leather lounge which transforms quite magically into a comfortable sofa bed with a single action!

We're committed to our apartment, so now we just have to begin the real work of finding someone to oversee the numerous tradesman who will need to be here at different times. We're conscious, too, of the possibility we won't be able to source the required tradesmen at the times we want, as they all seem to be incredibly busy: is everyone spending their overseas holiday savings on home renovations? Perhaps!

We haven't quite taken the leap required, although we do have a couple of names to start us out or refer us to others. We both have a fairly firm idea of what we want as well, and hope this will help things go a little more smoothly. Anyway, watch this space...

Our blissful, languid existence has been rolling along quite pleasantly for the last month (or is it six weeks since I last wrote a blog entry? ...quelle horreur...the days are bleeding into one another quite easily and quickly!) We do our daily walk most days, and average between 30 and 40 km of solid hiking/walking on varying gradients each week. Cass pumps her iron and tones her biceps and triceps often, and I keep to my routine of push-ups and pullups with a daily body surf. We feel that despite the "lazy" industry of our days we are physically stronger and fitter than we've been for decades, and of course our mental health has improved tenfold. We loved our careers, but we like being finished with them even more!

I'm all too aware of the fact that I used to scoff about retired people who seemed desperate to go on holidays. I used to think to myself, "Isn't your whole life a holiday?" Well, I need to eat a generous slice of humble pie! While not desperate to get away, a little change of scenery might be nice after 7 months camped in our apartment for the main, so we're investigating a few days away that we can motorbike to without too much effort. Should be fun!

We've both been reading a lot. I'll catch on Cassy's full quota next time, but I know she's currently reading Zadie Smith's "Grand Union" after completing "Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud and the Last Trial of Harper Lee" by Casey Cep. This is, of course, after reading all three books in Mantel's Wolf Hall trilogy consecutively: a feat for which she deserved some kind of literary endurance medal (Cromwell would have been proud)! I've read "Marlborough Man" by Alan Carter and "The Law of Innocence" by Michael Connelly recently while currently I'm ploughing through Trent Dalton's vaunted new tome "All Our Shimmering Skies". I have to admit I'm not feeling it half as much as his debut novel, "Boy Swallows Universe"...I'll persevere!