23rd March 2911 - Home & Away Film Crew

Today Don took me to Palm Beach where we watched the surfers for a while.

Surf was up and the riders were doing their stuff!

Some of the surf was quite rough.

The production crew of Home and Away get ready to start filming

while onlookers eagerly await their heroes of the show.

The camera crew are ready to shoot a scene from Home and Away.

Axle Whitehead, playing Liam Murphy waits for his appointment with

Esther Anderson who plays Senior Constable Charlie Buckton.

The camera are rolling and Axle and Esther are now Liam and Charlie for the cameras.

The camera crew filming a Home and Away segment.

Ready, Camera, Action!

Another shot of the actors.

After watching for an hour, we decided to go back to Pittwater RSL for lunch.

I am a member of the club and enjoy going there whenever I can.

16th March 2011 - Morning Tea with Kamahl

Today, Don took me to Kamahl's house where I met Australia's greatest ever singer! We stayed for a couple of hours, had tea together and chatted about a whole host of different things.

We looked around his garden (We both like gardening) and then, just as I was

leaving he gave me a copy of his latest CD for my mother (one of his fans)

and even signed it with a personal message for my mum.

9th March 2011 - Kirribilli Point & Harbour Foreshore

Today Don and I went to Milson Point by train and walked to Kirribilli Point

(under the Northern End of the Harbour Bridge).

We bought some fish and chips from Kirribilli and sat in the park with the view.

Kirribilli residents also shared the same view. these were the houses next to us.

We had a great view if the Harbour and the Opera House including all

manner of water craft that sailed past.

From the park we had an interesting perspective of the city...

And the Opera House.

We were fascinated by the colours on this bridge tower

and on the big nuts that hold the bridge girders to its foundations.

I certainly had not seen the bridge from this vantage point before.

Neither from this point of view.

The Ibises shared the park with us and hoped we might throw them a scrap or two.

As we walked back to the ferry terminal we noticed the Anzac bridge in

the distance and the Sydney Harbour Pilot boat moored across from us

bright red and yellow so as to be easily seen.

We decided to take one more shot of the Opera House whilst waiting for the ferry.

And another of the old Sydney wharves.

It was a leisurely day, sunny and relaxing. I was having more train and ferry rides

than I had ever had in all the rest of my life and I am finding it relaxing and fun.

2nd March 2011 - Parasailing at Warriewood

Today, Don took me to Warriewood to watch the paragliders doing their stuff.

The paraglider looked so surreal as he floated across the valley with the

mountains silhouetted in the background.

We watched him for about an hour as he circled around and around

before he finally landed on the headland.

We drove around to where he landed and took a closer look. By this stage he was

moving along the side of the headland catching the updrafts.

In fact the scene looked interesting because all we could see was the

sail, not the man.

We watched as he wheeled around and around, catching updrafts

The sail looked colourful and I noticed that it was actually build so that

air could fill it sort of like a balloon.

We watched until he landed. Had a talk with him for a while before we headed

off to the Pittwater RSL for a Roast Lamb lunch.

23rd February 2011 - Sydney Harbour, Queen Mary & Queen Elizabeth

Today I traveled with Don on the train from Gordon to Circular Quay.
In fact, this was my first trip on a train in many years.

We had to change trains at Wynyard and go downstairs to
another platform to travel to Circular Quay.

We caught the Manly Ferry and traveled to Manly. Sydney Harbour
sparkled even though the sky looked a little bit threatening,
with its gray clouds. Fortunately, it didn't rain though.

We were lucky this day to travel as both the Queen Elizabeth and the

Queen Mary ships were in Sydney Harbour at the same time.

As we pulled out of Circular Quay, we passed the Queen Elizabeth

docked at Circular Quay. She looked stunning against the background

of the City and the Harbour Bridge.

As we moved out into the harbour we passed the beautiful Sydney Harbour Bridge.

The Queen Mary had been docked in Garden Island and as wee headed towards Manly,

looking over to Garden Island we could make out the Queen Mary Funnel sticking

above the headland.

Moving forward we finally got to see this great ship in all it's glory.

As it was about to leave the harbour a tug was getting ready beside her.

Further along we passed Fort Denison

Looking back up the harbour we could see the splendor of the city and
the bridge behind us.

As we traveled up the harbour we noticed fishing vessels coming back

in from a nights fishing and yachts heading out for a sail.

When we arrived at Manly we took a walk to the beach on the ocean and relaxed,
sitting on the steps sharing the view with the seagulls.

We watched the surfers for a while and headed off to a pub to have a
beautiful counter lunch. After lunch we headed back to the wharf
to catch the ferry back to Sydney.

Unfortunately we had to wait as the Big ships were leaving the harbour.

Even the seagulls decided to wait with us.

She looked really imposing as she passed through the harbour...ferries

trailing behind order to stay back!

Finally we were able to get underway and could see the Queen Mary
making her way beyond Sydney Heads.

As we approached Sydney, it was a spectacular sight as the gray clouds
had been replaced by fluffy white ones.

As we passed the Opera House on our left and entered Circular Quay,
we noticed that another ship had already docked at the International
Passenger Terminal. It was the Alaskan ship Amazon.

The Opera House looked stunning as usual...built so long ago but never
looking old or out of date.

We traveled up the escalators, onto the platform and caught a train
back to Gordon.

All in all it was a most pleasant day with lots of great memories.
I know this is an activity I want to do often.

I enjoyed the ferry rides as much as the rest of the days activities.