More quickies for the drron's.

[drron]

Monday's breakfast was not as good.Though not bad.
French toast for mrsdrron.
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And eggs Benedict for me.
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Neither as good as we have had elsewhere.

But that didn't stop us going back to the bar at night.Mrsdrron was drinking a pinot Grigio and I a Beaurepaires pinot noir - it didn't taste rubbery at all.
So we had the Salmon tataki and the Peking duck spring rolls.
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We also had waygu sliders which were very good.
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And we shared a smashed pavlova.
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Which meant I got to have 1 beautiful spoonful.

 

[drron]

So as usual Tuesday started with breakfast and this time I went with the omelette with bacon and avocado.Quite nice.
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We went for another walk around Double Bay and had a coffee at a place opposite Woolworths.I was unaware of the history of Double Bay in regards to tennis.The first Australian Open was played here as well as the tournament that became the Davis Cup in 1909 and 1919.They were played at the Double Bay ground which was where the Golden Sheaf hotel now stands.This from the hotel's website.
"Enter via our back entrance in Kiaora Lane and you will come across a wall of fame dedicated to the history of the Davis Cup in Double Bay.


What a lot of people don’t know is that where The Golden Sheaf currently stands, the Double Bay Grounds once stood, playing an important role in Australian tennis history.


The Double Bay Grounds hosted the Australasian Championships (now the Australian Open) in 1919, which saw Aussie tennis veteran Gerald Patterson win the finals, and the International Lawn Tennis Challenge (now the Davis Cup) in both 1909 and 1919.'

 

[drron]

That night it was dinner with the family at the Il Baretto restaurant which is part of the Paddo Inn.Was nice but jumping.No social distancing now.
My pappardelle with duck ragu.
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And I shared a carpaccio with mrsdrron.
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And a tagliatelle alla bolognese.
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Our youngest grandaughter had the meatballs.
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Our other granddaughter had the spaghetti carbonara.
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Whilst mrsdrron had the cozzes in bianco.
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Not a bad place if wanting reasonable Italian.

 

[drron]

Wednesday for breakfast I again had the smashed avocado toast.But a new chef had started on Monday so it was quite different with no Hollandaise and no smoked salmon.
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Mrsdrron had the blueberry pancakes.She lost an old filling eating the raspberry!
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Now we were meant to move to the Mantra at Sydney Airport but megalomaniac Mark had slammed the border shut on us Queenslanders so if we wanted to go to Perth we had to spend another 7 days in Sydney.Hotels were not easy to find and were expensive.We had planned a hotel for 3 nights then moving in with mrsdrron's sister.It would not have been ideal.Fortunately the best option was with Marriott.Only 2 hotels had rooms.The Pier One at $400+ or the Courtyard North Ryde at $150.A no brainer.So the Courtyard it was.Went and spent the day with mrsdrron's sister.She did our laundry and both of us did hedge trimming.

 

[drron]

So to the Courtyard.First the room.
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The views.
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But on a busy road though not as much traffic on the holidays.
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[drron]

After our WA saga it is about time i finished our Sydney stay.So back to the Courtyard.
It was back to a breakfast buffet where you served yourself.It was a reasonable buffet.
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You could get eggs fried,poached ,hard boiled or as an omelette as well.
There were quite a few coughatoos and as befits an AFFer itwas on a flightpath for SYD.
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And the first signs of autumn.
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[drron]

We discovered that staying at North Ryde was very convenient.The road outside leads to Mona Vale and the Northern beaches if you turn left and Sydney Olympic Park if you turn right.
Also a very short distance to access the M2 motorway so easy to go to the CBD,North,West or South.
So one day we drove to Palm beach.Mrsdrron grew up in Newport and I had an aunt and uncle who had a caravan at Palm Beach every summer and an aunt who would stay at Bilgola with a friend each January.Until I was a teenager I would stop with both of them every year.So to Palm Beach first then slowly down the coast.
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[drron]

We detoured via Bilgola.Where my aunt stayed was next to Winifred Atwell's house and i still remember her on the piano.When I stayed it wasn't all play.i paid for my stay with gardening.Sometimes I would be able to talk to Ms Atwell over the fence.
Bilgola is doesn't look much different today but much busier.
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Now although I have driven past the Baha'i temple many times in my life I have never stopped so this day we did.An amazing place.
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Back at North Ryde it is a commercial hub.A lot of medical/pharmaceutical companies.Just up the road.
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The centre of greater Sydney has certainly grown.
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We initially only booked 3 nights at the Courtyard and were then going to stay with mrsdrron's sister.It would have been squeezy.So after the first night we booked another 3 to take us up to the time to leave for WA.
I had a long talk to the GM who has had a hard time as it is a business hote and that market disappeared.however for Easter the occupancy was a little over 60% which was the highest for the last 12 months.
A lot were obviously families attending the Easter show.At least half of the cars in the car park had ACT plates.

 

[drron]

The Courtyard is also not far from the Macquarie centre with lots of eating choices.However parking over Easter was a nightmare so we ended up having 3 meals at The Ranch.Back in the Day it was known as El Rancho when I was a nipper.The meals were pretty good and value excellent.
Our first meal.Lobster was on special.
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Mrsdrron had the full lobster and I the half plus eye fillet.
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They came with a mountain of fries and a nice salad.
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The wine was very good value.Most in the $30 range.
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The second time mrsdrron had the salmon with a Japanese salad.She really enjoyed it so had it the next time as well.I went with the ribsReally good.
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On the last occasion I went with the barramundi and prawns special.
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[drron]

Back in the early 80's I was the President of the Maitland Show Society.It is in my blood so we had to go to the Easter Show.They were very fortunate to pull it off.They only got final approval to hold it the weekend before the show started.Our son has inherited the love of shows and the family are members of the RAS and spend 3 days at the show every year it is held.They stay just across the road at the Novotel.
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Although the crowds were limited it certainly didn't appear so in some spots.
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When I wasn't the President I was the recording Steward on the stud beef cattle section.My favourite part was the Junior cattle judging competition.Now I am known as a bit of a talker so I always added my comments on the judging and always got the real judges to comment on their decisions.I got noticed so also ended up the commentator on the Grand parade each year.now as we went past the cattle ring the junior judging was on.So I had to stop.
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Exciting isn't it!

 

[drron]

The first stop was the petting farm.The kids loved it.As it was just after opening the animals were hungry.
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[drron]

Then it was time for side show alley.We all went on the big wheel near the GWS stadium.
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The kids then conned me into a roller coaster ride.don't worry poppie if you sit on the inside it isn't scary.Then the car spins around and poppie is on the outside.But poppie wasn't scared.
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[drron]

Of course we had to go and view the families ribbons.This isn't all of them but every member of the family got at least 1 ribbon.
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[drron]

Then there is the variety of food options.We all had a corn cob and I had a pork Knuckle roll for lunch.
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Of course a show isn't a show until you have had a dagwood dog.
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[drron]

A rest in the Grandstands is a must for grandparents.
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[drron]

So that was our show day and we were exhausted.Straight to bed when we got back to the Courtyard.
The next day was a rest day that we spent with mrsdrron's sister.We went to an old favourite the Rhodes Phoenix restaurant for a yum cha lunch.it is a very large restaurant and it was packed.The food is reasonable and not expensive.A couple of our dishes.
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We ended up being happy with our stay at the Courtyard.Our go to hotel in Sydney will remain the IC Double Bay which is good on a Virtuoso rate.However if not available this would be amongst our choices due to price and convenience.

 

[drron]

So on the Wednesday before we flew to WA we checked out of the Courtyard to move to the Mantra at SYD.Basically so we didn't have to wake at sparrows to get to the airport on time and miss the drive in peak hours.We obviously had time to waste before checking in to the Mantra.So we headed to Centennial Park after dropping in to see the grandkids who were heading off to Palm Beach for the end of the school holidays.We went back to the Spruce Goose diner for a late morning tea.
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And the view.We each had a coffee and pastry.
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Lots of waterbirds.
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Some can even walk on water or maybe leaves.
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And lots of large fish.
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[drron]

We then drove around the park seeing lots of birds,
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and bats.
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And then stopped by a lake and I went for a walk amongst the birds.They weren't scared of me.
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This could have been an escaped pet.It flew down and perched above me saying hello.
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This fellow got rather annoyed that I was in his way.
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[drron]

The corellas were really feisty.Fights were common.
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[drron]

After that we went and filled our renyal at the BP station at SYD.This is pretty close to Shep's mound so I felt it was time to take a look.

Aviation enthusiasts

With three runways, more than 300,000 aircraft movements a year and a wide range of aircraft, Sydney Airport is a great location for plane spotting. Our proximity to the city means that photographers can capture great shots of aircraft with the city,

www.sydneyairport.com.au

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We then checked into the Mantra and I dropped the car back at Avis.Not bad plane spotting from there.
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