post-holiday

It was great escaping for a week. The first 3 days was spent catching up with Adrene, meeting Andrew and catching up with the Gohs. Wedding was great. Reflected them somewhat, though I was a bit surprised at the extravagance. But nonetheless, a privilege to be there.

Other than that, stayed in a nice hotel up the road from King's Cross (Sydney's red light disctrict). It was near enough to the city to walk. Walked through the botanical gardens, Opera house, the Rocks, Paddy's market, and along the Sydney Harbour bridge. Spent a day in Manly though it was a bit chilly so didn't spend a lot of time on the beach. Ended up doing a bit of an "urban bush walk" and "rock hopping". Fun all the same.

And of course food. Had nice Vietnamese, gelato and home cooking. The highlights were the Greek restaurant on Pitt St and the Czech place - Doma (or something like that). Food was authentic (I think) and great. Accompanied good alcohol - nice house wine in the Greek place, and a dark Czech lager in the Czech place.

But it was finally reading the intro in the guide book about Australia's history that shocked me somewhat. I had already known their attitude towards the aboriginal people, but having hard kinda made it hit home a bit more. It seems that only the the late 1970's (I think 1978) the Aboriginal people were recognised as citizens. Gosh! Considering they had been there for about 60,000 yeras already! Up till now, Australia has refused to apologise for the way their colonial ancestors have treated (or mis-treated rather) the Aborigines (no wonder a number of my non-white friends have felt an air of racism about the country) . In the last 20 years, there have been more efforts by some prominent people to make a move towards reconciliation. Lets hope they make progress in that.