Darling Harbour and Newport

Got a chance to drive out to Darling Harbour yesterday, then on to Manly beach. Got to see the inside of a decommissioned British sub my dad’s cousin helped build. I got him to give me the tour, and he showed me things he did with the sub to get it converted over for use in Australia. Good to have a friend handy who knows more than the tour guide. I asked him if he had put any signature markings on the sub, such as a killroy or something behind a bulkhead, but no. He did, however, screw in the plaque with the sub’s name. Afterwards, we headed off to Manly to watch a lone surfer on the beach. He went “down under” a few times on some small waves, then came out. We ate some ice creams and checked out the tourist traps. I refrained from buying some “Koala Droppings”. I later refrained from buying a genuine kangaroo-scrotum purse.


Getting used to driving backwards, but still signaling lane changes with my windshield wipers.


Went to try on my suit at the Roger David at Westfield shopping centre, but it was in bad shape. Aside from being an ugly rental suit, with shoulderpads from the ’80s, it was (apparently) mis-labeled 44R. I’m actually on the light side of a 44 — more like a broad-shouldered 42. This jacket should have read something more like 48T, since it hung off me like a sack of potatoes. The pants fit, but they were awful, and the shirt was a crappy square-cut with a broken collar button. So I ditched the jacket and shirt, kept the pants and the tie (burgundy, eeech), and will have to pick up the rest of the suit in Brisbane, since I leave tomorrow morning.


Cutting it pretty close, if you ask me. Now I know why my brother wanted me in the store to get measured (I’ll point out, however, that Australian sizes aren’t any different than those in NA (confirmed by pulling another suit off the rack at the store). This was just a bad suit.


Today, we went out to Newport, and had lunch at a sea-side pub. The weather was cool and cloudy (15c), but not bad at all for “winter”. There were flyers scattered about for the “Snowfest”. I point this out because it’s being held next week, and there isn’t ever any snow around here. They plan on bringing in 30 tons of the stuff and scattering it around…


It’s a little after 5pm on Wednesday… going to fly up to Brisbane tomorrow, so I’ll have to find an internet cafe, if I want to get any pictures uploaded (been using Norman’s computer up until now, and Windows 98 isn’t very good for networking systems together).