Day 309: Bondi to Bronte Walk — Lunch on Oxford Street — Last Night in Australia!
We got out the door by 9:00 to do a beautiful coastal walk from Bondi Beach to Bronte Beach.
We’ve had some hilarity with Uber btw here — the law says all kids under 7 have to have a carseat/booster, but the Ubers don’t offer that amenity like NY does. So if you don’t have your own booster, you’re outta luck. We’ve found some drivers will reject us on sight, and others don’t care. So we’ve gone through so many false starts on drivers. And maybe fibbed here and there about James’s age.
We finally got someone to take us to Bondi this morning after getting rejected by our first car.
There’s something called Sculptures by the Sea going on — the world’s largest outdoor public free sculpture exhibit. The long coastal walk between the two famous beaches is dotted with interesting sculptures installed on the boulders and cliffs.
Today was the last day so it was jam packed with locals and tourists alike.
We passed this Bondi sea pool. Guide Greg told us the other day that to become a member of this pool you have to swim in the pool every single Sunday for three straight years. You only get four Sundays off per year. And you have to do it even in winter when the pool fills with ice. Greg said if you’re a member of this pool you have a massive cred in Sydney.
Watch this video btw and see a dad holding a baby get pounded by a giant wave (they were fine). Lobsy was apoplectic. “I hope his wife didn’t see that!” Haha love the assumption that dads are clueless and moms know best. Not sure she’s met me yet.
We carried on for another hour along the coastline (along with about 500 of our new best friends, all of whom had the same brilliant idea to come out on this glorious spring morning and do this walk).
Finished up at Bronte, and caught the weekend scene there. Yet another “nippers” club (local lifeguard station on a beach that locals call theirs and which teaches kids surf/swim safety year-round from a young age). The local nippers club was selling tees and hot dogs to raise funds and we got the kids some long-sleeve gray shirts.
Fun to people-watch the hectic local family weekend scene.
At a nearby playground the grownups relaxed while the kids played. Lobsy was a bit anxious about some small humans teetering up high on the playground equipment with no grownup guardians in sight, but everyone survived.
Funny, as we sat there, we saw Willa and James walk over to the neighboring dog park and befriend an adult woman throwing sticks to her border collie. They stayed with her for 30 minutes and we could see them chatting and taking turns throwing the stick. I have no idea who that was or what they talked about. “To be a fly on the wall over there,” as Lobsy aptly put it from the bench.
We Ubered to lunch in Paddington at Four Six Eight Cafe. Kids shared avo toast, Lila had a teriyaki chicken wrap, I had pho and Teddy ate a fennel chicken salad. The kids also got a Coke for being so awesome on the long morning coastal walk. They were good because…they knew they could get a Coke. See how that works?
Paddington’s Oxford Street held some promising shops but eventually Lobsy and the kids taxi’d back to the apartment (had to taxi bc of course once again an Uber rejected James).
Teddy and I stayed back and ended up taking a very long walk to the Harbor and enjoyed a ferry ride to Rose Bay and a dozen oysters at a spot on the water called Empire Lounge.
While we sat there, a group of people gathered on the deck and watched a seaplane land. They were so excited and pointing and taking pictures, we thought maybe a celeb was coming (Nicole? Margot? Hugh??), but it turned out to be a birthday girl and her cute boyfriend/husband who’d arranged a big surprise party. As the couple walked up the dock all her friends were cheering and singing happy birthday while the birthday girl died of shock. It was really cute. Maybe a 40th?
Back at home Lobsy got showered up and hit Mass at the church next door while we cooked dinner and started the sad process of packing up.
How can we leave this city? We had the best, best, best time here. Covered a ton of ground, met awesome people, were properly dazzled by its beauty, got a real sense of the city, etc.
We were blown away. People who live here are really freaking lucky. Sigh. Bye Sydney, bye Australia.
MISC:
Big update is that we’ve made a call on January next steps. We’re going right back to New York to put the kids in school and start the search for an apartment and, ultimately, new career opps. If we hate it/can’t hack it by Feb 2021 — the month we have to re-enroll for the following school year — we’ll bail and head elsewhere. But for now we’re giving it a shot. We love our school, love our friends and love New York. Wish us luck.
