SYD / MEL Hilton Getaway

[anat0l]

Seeing as I haven’t written a TR in such a long time, I thought I had better at least give this one a go. One thing with TRs is that they simply take ages to write. Whilst this isn’t a second-by-second recount, it’s a bit like writing email: read in seconds, written in hours. Anyway....so what’s the story here....basically had a lot to do in the last weeks or so, including a really critical proposal, so I think it was time to have another serious wind down, “away from it all”, so cost was not a big issue (although it felt a bit funny paying for the flights) and I decided one day in SYD and another in MEL, staying at Hilton on both days. Worked out OK, too, since that would give me 2 of the 4 stays I need for Hilton Racing, plus this time I booked PR40TP (Triple HHonors base points) through the Hilton website for both.

Note at time of finishing this TR: it did take ages to write (well, I spent a few hours over the course of a week doing it). Also, please note it’s an image filled TR. Additional and high quality images are available on request.

 

[anat0l]

Saturday 13 September 2008

Had hit the sack at around 12 midnight, then got up at 4am to finish packing, copy off movie files to my portable drives and generally clean up. So much for a good start to the wind-down weekend. A shower later and a check of all the essential items: camera with battery and memory? Check. eeePC? Check. Flight & hotel documentation? Check. iPod? Check. Just as I was about to go out, my parents awoke to see me off. I asked Mum for a ribbon from her sewing box to put on my checked luggage. Taxi arrived on time at 5.30am and I was on my way to BNE Domestic in a quick and orderly fashion. I managed to have a good chat with the taxi driver, especially at this time of the morning.

Arriving at the airport I went straight to the QP/J/OWR+ line to find only about three people lining up. I have been harbouring this bad habit for a while of doing OLCI but (deliberately, most of the time) not printing the BP. Then when I line up at the check-in and I say I’ve done OLCI but don’t have a BP, they’ll produce one of the classic cardboard BPs. Admittedly I like them better than the flimsy thermal coupons that come out of the QuickCheck machines.

Anyway, check-in was relatively quick. My fuzzy upgrade completed some days ago was real, so on went the magenta bag on my checked bag, and onto my first experience in the BNE J Lounge.

Security was a non-affair, except that I forgot about my pilfered metal fork from a LAN flight in June. I “always” keep a spare set of cutlery in my bag when I go to work, but I had completely spaced out that metal forks were verboten. So off it went into the proverbial black hole that is airline security.

shillard (FT) (I think it was him – could be someone else) alludes to “the joy of turning left” on an aircraft; in BNE Domestic it’s “the joy of turning right” to the J Lounge. Funny double affair, since you present your BP to the first entrance counter to verify you can turn right, then there is another counter after the frosted door in the J Lounge proper where you BP gets swiped.

OK, maybe not a great joy in turning right. Nothing really different about the J Lounge compared to the regular QP. J Lounge compared to QP? They had a better view (QP gets the carpark, J Lounge gets tarmac). They have pikelets with maple syrup (but apart from that, the same continental offering presented in exactly the same way. Don’t let the pikelets excite you.) The décor is slightly different. I think they used the same kind of design for all of the new J Lounges. Something of this wooden blind/blend panelling etc. or similar motif (at a loss for words on how to describe this). Having said that, I must have been asleep because I didn’t take any photos, but on the premise that the new J Lounge wasn’t overly that exciting I guess I wasn’t missing any happy snaps either. But I will say that at least the lounge was fairly empty at that time of the morning! (Yes, I’d be shocked beyond belief too if it were any worse than that.)

Took a plate of pikelets with the maple syrup and a glass of full cream milk. It surprises me quite a bit that there is no offering of soy milk in the J Lounge (let alone almost any QP I’ve been in). Perhaps I wasn’t looking hard enough or asking, but so there. I topped the pikelets with some berry mix; probably not the best idea – the berries were so sour. Later when I was going to board, I passed a woman who had some white dollops on top of her pikelets with syrup. At first I thought, “anat0l, you idiot, you could have had pikelets with cream”, but then I deduced that she must have thought the plain yoghurt was cream and had lashed it on.

So I was sitting at a terminal taking advantage of the free printing, when an announcement that QF507 had been cancelled due to “mechanical reasons”. The resolution was to coalesce QF507 with QF505, which delayed departure by about 20 minutes. So I thought I had time for a shower and fronted the JL desk for a towel and amenities. I notice that amenities (shampoo, conditioner, razor set, toothbrush) are available but you have to request them (in some of my previous experiences, they open up the towel package and slide these in for you without prompting). The man behind the desk advised that I would only have about 5 minutes to shower. Lucky for him I live and grow up in a city which prides itself on 5 minute showers (or less). The shower rooms themselves were nothing interesting compared to the QP’s, except they have the “overhead ceiling” type of shower that you see in the SYD T1 JL/FL (except the ceiling was not as high as the SYD T1 JL and not as graceful with the colours of the tiling as in the SYD T1 FL). But a quick blast of water and I was out to Gate 25 to board QF505.

For a flight that was delayed and being coalesced with another, there wasn’t much hubbub as I expected. The QF507 pax needed to get new BPs from the gate desk, but that was it. Or so I thought......

Flight: QF505 Brisbane (BNE D) – Sydney (SYD T3)
Depart: 0655 AEST Sched / 0722 AEST Actual
Aircraft: Boeing 767-300
Class: Business (U, from K)
Seat: 3A

For those of you expecting an LW-esque TR complete with plane regos, CSM/captain/FO/FAs names, I’m sorry to disappoint you but I’m not quite that vigilant or observant yet. Perhaps I need to train myself to get these details. Although I can recollect that two of the FAs on our flight that were at the gate doing BP scanning were both named Joanne. I think one of them had a name badge that said Jo, whilst the other was Joanne. But both of their security passes had Joanne on them. I jokingly pointed this out to them, but since the BP scan is a moving line affair, I didn’t have enough time to joke on how they distinguish between one another (J1 and J2?). One of the Joanne’s ended up being one of the J class FAs.

J was only about 40% full or so; 3B was free. Apart from the normal run-of-the-mill pax, seems the QF507 crew also were hopping on with us (but I believe all of them were travelling in WHY). There was also a female captain on her way to work sitting in 3E.

We were further delayed upon boarding the aircraft due to more paperwork (probably something to do with QF507), so altogether we were probably delayed at least 35 – 45 minutes. Pre-flight drinks were in order before pushback. I selected the apple and strawberry juice – a rather odd combination in my opinion but otherwise a nice blend albeit a bit sweet (note to health nuts: best to not drink this everyday). A nice sunny morning greeted us so pushback and takeoff were pretty much non-affairs.

Once airborne the hot towels were handed out, followed up by the usual choice of hot or continental breakfast. I picked out the hot breakfast of eggs, tomato, spinach and potatoes, coupled with passionfruit yoghurt and bakery items with jam and butter. From the bakery, I selected raisin toast and a croissant; it was a shame they didn’t have any walnut bread on offer. Thankfully, neither offering was rubbery - warm and soft. When the beverages were being requested, I noticed two small bottles of wine on the cart. I never knew they served alcohol in the morning, but a question soon allayed that doubt (followed by an equally absent-minded question of how much it cost). Feeling just a bit guilty I decided to chance on a champagne breakfast. So now I had four drinks sitting around me – orange juice, water, black tea and sparkling white wine.

Breakfast was consumed, although I have to admit the wine wasn’t the greatest drop I’ve imbibed. Then again, it might have been a combination of the early morning coupled with the altitude effect. The yoghurt also had an odd smell to it but tasted alright (and considering I’m still alive it must probably be some mental problem of my own). Fawlty Towers was being screened as the entertainment (after a short screening / advertisement for Australia), but I stayed abreast of the entertainment in favour of my iPod instead.

We landed in Sydney having made up a small amount of time, but just as sure we added all that time back due to our customary landing on the third runway, but an otherwise straightforward taxi to the gate 5.

Upon disembarking, I stopped off at the newsagents to buy some items to break some cash for bus fare. When I went down after that to the baggage reclaim, our bags hadn’t been put out yet. Thankfully when they were, priority tags did actually work this time.

 

[anat0l]

I proceeded out to the Sydney Buses stop and was surprised to find a 400 pull up in a matter of minutes. Unfortunately, it was the wrong 400 (there are two routes labelled 400 which go to different destinations), but luckily the other one to Bondi Junction pulled up soon after that. I was probably surprised that Sydney hasn’t devised a way that you could have a multi-leg journey and only purchase a ticket once – I was told that in order to travel on my two buses, I needed to buy a ticket on each bus. So a single to Mascot shops it was to get my connection to the city. A Japanese tourist lugged her heavy bag onto the bus and also needed to get into the city, so we went together to Mascot and ran for our connecting bus. I managed to escape buying a separate ticket by having her use her daily pass for my journey as well (the bus driver’s idea, not mine). A long-ish ride (splashed with my embarrassing attempts to speak in Japanese) later we got off at the corner of Elizabeth and Market Streets, found our bearings and directions, and then went our separate ways.

Hotel: Sydney Hilton
Room & Rate: Executive King Single – Triple Points Select
Room Level: 37

The Sydney Hilton is on George Street, which was luckily only a few blocks away and, unbeknownst to me at that time, directly opposite the large and obvious Queen Victoria Building. Upon entering the Hilton via the drive-up entrance, I almost slipped on the tiles at the concierge (probably due to the soles of my shoes getting rather worn). I went straight up to the HHonors check-in to find everything in order and my surname being correctly pronounced. Was quite surprised that the man helping me managed to do this until he mentioned that he was from the Philippines. I was checked in on the 37th floor – one above the Executive Lounge – and in quick order I was up in my room and heading downstairs for brunch before they closed morning meal service.

The Executive Lounge was not much bigger than the one at Hilton on the Park (Melbourne); perhaps 1.5 to 2 times as big (certainly not much more in sit-down-and-eat space). Breakfast was on offer for about another half hour, consisting of all the continental fare plus some hot food. The hot breakfast was simply scrambled eggs, bacon and mushrooms. I managed to procure a window setting just vacated by someone else. The cheerful and helpful lounge staff cleaned up the table before I sat down to admire the view and eat brunch. The view from the lounge is pretty good, although you can barely make out the harbour with some of the tall buildings blocking the view.

After finishing up in the lounge, I went out seeking a supermarket to get some drinking water (because it’s extremely slim chance I’ll be drinking water from the tap, and you can’t take bottles out of the Executive Lounge). Whilst a free 600mL of Mount Franklin had been provided in the room, naturally it’s not enough for the average person in a day.

 

[anat0l]

I like the room layout in that although it was designed as a single room it still felt like there was plenty of space available. The view from the window was also great. A lounge complemented the room on the side and mirrors abounded (one above the lounge and another on the wall behind the desk. One part of the wall behind the desk was a mirror; the other was a frosted glass that also was the wall for the shower. It wasn’t frosted to the degree that you could not make out the silhouette of activity in the shower, however. Also, whilst there was a full tub in the bathroom separate of the shower, there was no bath tablet provided. I assume this was so that the hotel could push the whole range of bath packages they have available (no prices were given in the compendium).

The mini bar was a new kind I haven’t seen before where everything has a spot in the fridge; remove it from its spot and supposedly that item was then automatically charged to your account. Which got kinda weird when the “free” space left was too small for a couple of items I wanted to slot in. Although extra fridges are available from reception, when I called there were none left. I was told to move some of the items around to make some space and I was assured that an audit would be performed to ensure that anything I didn’t take out of the mini bar would be credited back if necessary. Sort of begs the question as to whether the system is worth it. (I did take a box of Paton’s out of the mini bar as a peace offering to my folks.)

I surprised myself in that after finally settling things out (including OLCI for QF429 the next day and getting a front row seat in WHY on a 767-300)so I could wind down, it was at least 1.30pm. So time to finally relax in earnest. A long nap later it was close to 7.00pm or so, which meant the Executive Lounge stopped serving snacks in an hour. A quick shower and change ensued and I headed downstairs for a fill.

 

[anat0l]

On offer for evening meal were mini pizzas, cheese-filled kransky sausages, various sandwiches, bread sticks wrapped in prosciutto, tandoori chicken vol-e-vonts, various vegetable sticks and about four different kinds of cake, amongst the regular friends cheese, crackers and fruits. I filled up on the hot stuff with an accompanying Bailey’s on the rocks. The tandoori chicken vol-e-vonts were probably nothing to write home about, even with the yoghurt sauce. I passed up on all of the sweets and filled up on mini pizzas and kranskies instead. There was only some seating space near the corner where one of the televisions were, showing the game between the Raiders and Cronulla. Just before 8pm, fireworks were heard in the distance; when I looked out to the harbour I could see the display, and all of the windows on that side suddenly became a huddle point for almost everyone in the lounge.

With evening meal service over and the lounge closing shortly after that, I decided to head downstairs in search of the famous high wall of wine that is in the glass bar.

I looked at the by-the-glass menu to find the De Bortoli Noble One unfortunately only offered by bottle, so I settled with another Bortrytis Semillon instead (I forgot the name / estate, I don't think it was Bimbadgen Estate). I also ordered one of the salmon tapas, since I learnt well from previous that drinking on an empty stomach usually isn’t a great idea. Some soft bread with olive oil was also offered and all went down well. Although the bar itself didn’t look very busy, it was still a very noisy environment all around (granted though, glass restaurant was quite full – quite a few tables of many people).

Soon after that, it was time to get back to my room, do a bit of web surfing (and reading AFF / FT), clean up then hit the sack. I probably wasn’t counting on the blares of horns from the street below, but what can you do...........

 

[anat0l]

Sunday 14 September 2008

Woke in the morning to my annoying mobile alarm tone (which is what makes it so effective) to find the outside weather to be less than desirable; it wasn’t bucketing down, but a gloomy morning with wet all around. A shower and change later, it was downstairs to the Executive Lounge for the morning feed.

Well, same fare on offer for breakfast as yesterday. But the lounge was packed. (Think SYD T3 QP...well, sort of.) Luckily I had arrived with some limited seating left; admittedly, it was couch seating (not a sit-down table), but it had to do. Had I arrived any later, I would have suffered the inconvenience of being turned away because there was no space to sit down. It probably didn’t help that many of the people in the lounge were ‘singles’ (i.e. came as single persons rather than as groups), which of course makes things complicated when a table seats four people, but one person is sitting there. (Or should it not be that complicated?) A nearby patron of which I noted this fact added that it probably made for a good way to meet people. Indeed.

I managed to fill out my comment card over breakfast, where I heartily praised the staff. The staff were very friendly and helpful during this trip; much better than my stay at Hilton on the Park, and pretty much rivals the quality of my stay at Hilton Auckland. What I really like in hotel staff is a good welcoming attitude, as well as one of “we can do that – just leave it with us”. I packed up all my stuff, but it wasn’t until checkout that I realised that I had left the comment card in the room (possibly on top of the ironing table). Hopefully it was found and not discarded......

Taxiied my way to SYD T3, which is nicely $10+ cheaper than catching a taxi to BNE Dom when I’m at home (although SYD City -> SYD T3 is probably closer than BNE City -> BNE Dom). Had a good conversation with the cabbie, who was a Vietnamese gentleman. It’s always interesting to talk to people where English isn’t their first language, then pick up from the tone and expression of their voice aspects of their beliefs, cultures and the like. Anyway, I digress....

I fronted up to the J/QP/OWR+ counter to get my BP, when I was handed a BP for seat 4C. I then asked what aircraft was flying QF429 today, and was told a 737 (I worked out it was a 800 series, because the check-in officer couldn’t deduce what 73H meant besides just a 737 aircraft). So our 767 had been superseded with a 738. No big deal, especially since I got a front row Y seat (well, if a QFF PS was able to score a front row Y seat on a 738, you may like to think that is a big deal...)

Whilst waiting at gate 8, I struck up a conversation with a gentleman from PER who does client relations / sales for a wholesales spectacles company. We talked a lot about my line of work, travelling for work, a bit of mining and politics....all excellent small talk. QF427 was announced to be delayed due to mechanical (engineering) problems; seems like it was having some bumper effect on our flight as we did not board until about 11.30am. But once the announcement was made it was time to high-tail it for another short hop.

Flight: QF429 Sydney (SYD T3) – Melbourne-Tullamarine (MEL T1)
Depart: 1130 AEST Sched / 1147 AEST Actual
Aircraft: Boeing 737-800
Class: Economy
Seat: 4C

Plonked myself in 4C to find myself seated next to a mother and her three year old in 4AB. Oddly enough, I asked whether she was OK me sitting where I was. She was also oddly surprised by my question, but when I explained the QF/BA policy (or its related fiasco) about men sitting next to children, she seemed to come around. We managed to talk quite a bit throughout the flight.

Refreshment was two Byron Bay cookies – a triple chocolate fudge cookie and a spicy orange chewy cookie. Washed it down with a cup of black tea. I managed to peek at J to see what they were having: looked like some sort of BLT, sided with a fruit plate – a decent lunch in most people’s language (and very similar to the lunch I got when I flew LAN J on SYD-AKL). Noticed the FA serving J having a great time trying to remove the foil off the BLT plates whilst trying not to catch too much of the melted cheese with it.

There was some turbulence throughout the flight, but nothing too major, and it didn’t “rock the boat” too much. I also noticed in J (in fact, right in front of me) were Phil Gould and Matthew Johns.

On disembarking in MEL, I helped the mother and child collect their two carryon bags and off the plane, then it was off to baggage claim. Our belt was changed, so you would have seen a mass movement of people from one belt to the other. Always puts a spanner in the works for those of us that seemed to be privileged enough to get off the aircraft first. Luckily my bag seemed to come out not long after, even though I had no priority tagging at all. With bag in hand, it was up the stairs and across the bridge to the Melbourne Airport Hilton.

 

[anat0l]

Hotel: Melbourne Airport Hilton
Room & Rate: Double Double Hilton Deluxe – Triple Points Select
Room Level: 9

Not a single person at check-in when I arrived, which is probably just as well since there was only one person at reception handling everything. Check-in was efficient – it was noticed that I had a double-double room (that was the cheapest available when I booked online with PR40TP) and I was offered a single king room instead, but I thought I’d settle with the extra space and bed and be done with (although I did offer to switch if it were more convenient for the hotel, e.g. for loading purposes). Within a matter of minutes I was on the 9th (top) floor of the Hilton checking out my room.

It was a nice touch to have a coffee plunger in the room – at least I could have a decent cup of coffee. Unusually, the tray with the coffee cups etc. was stored in the clothes cupboard (along with the iron, iron board and safe).

The view from the top is spectacular – you basically get a full view of the front of T1 to T3, and a fairly good tarmac view of T2 and T1 (well, of course not a full tarmac view like in the terminal, but you can see all the planes etc.). You can see all the people, taxis and cars teeming in and out of the arrivals/departures areas outside the airport (somehow gives you that power rush like you’re on the top looking over an empire or something ). The study table was well positioned to take in this view.

 

[anat0l]

Anyway, I was famished, so I decided to get some room service, given there was no Executive Lounge at the Melbourne Airport Hilton. In no-nonsense fashion, a steak sandwich and a cheese platter were sent up. The steak sandwich wasn’t too bad – minimal on the grease and steak cooked just right. The cheese platter was also commendable – a nice selection of cheese and fruits. The currant crunch was also a nice touch, except it was a little bit greasy, and you could feel it clearly on your fingers as well as see it in some places (spots of white fat here and there). The fat was wiped off with a napkin before consumption.

A nap followed lunch; when I woke up it was a good deal darker outside. I OLCI’ed for my DJ flight the next day and got 11C – turns out 11 is the closest row to the front I could select. After reading some more AFF and FT, it was time to shower up and move down to Airo for dinner.

 

[anat0l]

The menu had obviously been designed with two big themes in mind: (a) keep it simple – after all, it is an airport hotel (c.f. a hotel situated in the city which attracts a usually larger and more diverse crowd), and (b) go for breadth, since you’ll need to “please” many kinds of people. Not a lot of it was international fare, as advertised on their Hilton website – most was fairly standard western fare. As a result, it was rather difficult to choose some nice dishes, but I settled on a couple of my favourites.

So entrée was salt and pepper squid with salsa, followed up with a main of lamb shank cooked two ways.

Basically the main was lamb shank meat on the bone, plus a potato mash mixed in with some lamb meat in it (so there’s the “two ways”), sided with broad beans and mushrooms; a palatable production.

The dessert to round it all off was a brulee set off with sour plums and the same crunch they served with the cheese platter earlier. (And like before, the crunch was wiped of any excess fat before consumption.)

Dinner was accompanied with a glass of white wine of the month (complements of one of the drink vouchers I had received at check-in); this was a Hazard Hill Semillon Sauvignon Blanc. I wanted to end the night with a glass of dessert wine, but unfortunately De Bortoli Noble One was only offered by the bottle, and they were out of the only dessert wine on offer by glass, Bimbadgen Estate Botrytis Semillon. So I went without a finisher.

Not a big deal. I was soon up in my room partially packing up and hitting the sack.

 

[anat0l]

Monday 15 September 2008

Faced with my flight departing at 9.00am, I woke up at 6.45am with a startling realisation that after showering and packing, there wouldn’t be much time to enjoy breakfast. So a quick shower and packing the rest of my amenities (and another paranoid probing-check of my room), I headed down to check out and have breakfast.

There is a central table which was adorned with hot pastry items. (The previous night it served as a stand for lots of wines.) All of the hot items were situated adjacent to the kitchen counter. It was a slightly impractical set up, as there was very little room to set one’s plate down so the covers on the hot items could be lifted whilst the other hand actually dished up the food. But I managed. Given the minimum check-in times, I had no time to investigate obtaining Benedict eggs, or a custom omellete for that matter. So scrambled eggs it was, coupled with sausages, mushrooms and a croissant. A couple of other pastries later and a soy latte I eyed my watch and knew that if I didn’t move now I may not make the bag drop time.

Turns out that on paper my judgement was correct, but when I arrived at T3 the bag drop line was long. Of course, the panic set in until the line moved fast enough so I could make it in time for bag drop. It wasn’t long after that they were inviting people to cut line to drop bags for the same flight.

Sandra helped me at the counter and I had tried to do the same “forgotten to print” deal as I did on QF, but I received a docket-style BP. So seems like next time I’ll be using the quick-check machine or printing my BP, since at least they look much better than the docket-style BP. I mentioned to Sandra that this was my first time on DJ, and she said, “It’s a lot of fun!” They have really good training, don’t they?

When I woke up I saw the day being slightly wet and rather gloomy. I also noticed trees swaying a noticeable amount. My fears had been confirmed: delays galore at MEL. DJ wasn’t immune to this either. Boarding for DJ315 was delayed because the servicing aircraft was late from SYD. Sometimes you really wish you could either drop your bag, head back to the hotel and enjoy breakfast then rush back for the real boarding call; or if they could just settle the delay earlier and push the closing time for bag drop back accordingly. Oh well, we know that won’t happen (hey, gotta feel for the workers on the ground too), but one could dream.

In any case, the aircraft arrived finally; high winds stopped double loading of the plane, so everyone had to board through the front aerobridge only. So they boarded people by row number; unlike QF, there was no specific instruction for DJ Silver and/or Gold members to board at leisure. (Obvious exception was those requiring assistance, who boarded first.)

Flight: DJ315 Melbourne-Tullamarine (MEL T3) – Brisbane (BNE D)
Depart: 0900 AEST Sched / 0921 AEST Actual
Aircraft: Boeing 737-800
Class: Economy
Seat: 11C

Note: I got the actual departure time from flightstats.com, but the time they’ve reported for the actual time of departure seems rather optimistic.
Our CSM (or DJ equivalent) was Brad with an optimistic outgoing attitude. Sat myself down in the blue leather seat that was at 11C. This flight was really going to be uneventful, as I had loaded up on breakfast so all I was going to do was sleep during this entire flight. I cleared this with my fellow pax in 11AB – they were cool with this.

QF speak: “Subtly, every aircraft is different. That’s why you need to watch this demonstration.”
DJ speak: “Even if you’ve been lucky enough to travel often with us, we’d still like you to give us a few minutes of your time to watch this demonstration.”

Pushback took a while after the aircraft door was closed, but in short order after that we were up, up and away.

The seatbelt sign didn’t turn off until some good deal of time after takeoff due to turbulence. Since I slept most of the flight, naturally I didn’t purchase anything onboard. Moreover, since the captain didn’t seem to give us a PA at all (not on the ground nor when the seatbelt sign was turned off), this meant less PA talk to bother with. I didn’t awaken until at least 35 minutes or so before touchdown, when the seatbelt sign came on again. I thought that was rather early to turn it on, but so there.

Back on the ground in BNE, I grabbed my bag off the carousel, which luckily didn’t take too long. Then it was into a taxi off to work….and hence finishes this trip. And this report.

Was my short getaway a success? Maybe. At least, I didn’t have an iota of work done over the weekend. But I also have 2 Hilton stays against my racing account. I’d say it was a success, but I’ll leave the judgement to you, the faithful reader of this verbose account.

Fin.

 

[Alanslegal]

Nice report mate.

You said there were images? But I didn't see any or maybe it never loaded, I'll try a refresh screen

 

[anat0l]

Nice report mate.

You said there were images? But I didn't see any or maybe it never loaded, I'll try a refresh screen

Fixed. I was hotlinking my photos out of my AFF gallery. I had to make the gallery public, not private.

 

[Febs]

The view from the lounge is pretty good, although you can barely make out the harbour with some of the tall buildings blocking the view.

Yeah, sorry about that
(My office features prominently in that photo ).

Did you check out Zeta Bar or Marble Bar? Both are part of/beneath the Hilton. Zeta is a very nice, relaxed bar (though they charge a cover charge on Saturdays now...), and Marble Bar is a Sydney institution (although, always with a fairly old crowd).

I recommend checking out The Ivy next time you're in Sydney too. Though if you're not into the nightlife scene, maybe check it out during the day. Some great restaurants there, and some of the most impressive bars I've seen anywhere in the world. Just a really, really cool place (with a beautiful crowd at night ). It's a few blocks along George St, heading towards Circular Quay.

Cheers,
- Febs.

 

[JohnK]

Very nice trip report.

Looking forward to a trip report from your upcoming mileage run....

 

[straitman]

anat0l,

Thanks for the great report. We look forward to many more.

 

[Coathanger]

Sounds like you had a brilliant weekend! Champagne breakfast in J is always a nice way to travel.

Thanks for the trip report