Before getting back to writing about our experience in Australia (a narrative derailed, as everything has been, by the coronavirus pandemic), it seems appropriate to finish the story of our departure/escape from Oz in Lockdown:

Somehow, our scheduled flight turned out to be either the only or one of the few flights still going from Sydney to the US (in this case, San Francisco). Dumb luck. This meant that the flight was packed, as every American or other person whose flight had been cancelled had gotten on the flight. From a coronavirus point of view, it was probably the most dangerous part of our trip. If you have never done it, the trip is not merely endless, the timing is always surprising. We left at 1:00 PM on Tuesday and arrived in San Francisco at 8:00 AM on Tuesday, five hours before we left.

The Sydney Airport was predictably empty. The only part that was crowded was the line that lets tourist get a refund of the sales taxes they paid for things that they are bringing out of the country. (This is a real selling point, along with the weak Aussie dollar, if you are a tourist shopping in Sydney.) There is a special place in the airPort that you go to right after Duty Free (of course), where you present forms and show the items that you are removing. Since I spent entirely too much money on indigenous art and was due a refund of A$600, I was in the line with mostly Asian tourists with their watches and bags and opals and who knows what. It was actually fairly efficient, thanks to a phone app that you have to use before you even get in line.

Before leaving, we had tried to find disinfectant wipes, which were, naturally, all sold out. So Judie bought makeup removal wipes, with no disinfectant property. I went to the chemist (pharmacy) in Manly and was looking for the disinfectant version and the woman there told me to get eucalyptus oil and add it the the wipes we had and that would do the trick. So I spent A$24 on a tiny bottle of oil and we had great smelling disinfectant wipes for our trip (and we still have a lot of oil to figure out how to use).

The biggest surprise of the whole trip was that no one seemed to care about the virus at all. The only thing that happened was when we were checking in and the agent asked us if we had traveled to China/Italy/Iran/Probably Another Country in the past two weeks or had been on a cruise ship. We made it past that hurdle with ease. We had heard that we might get our temperatures taken at the US border, so we took Panadol, a fever suppressor, about an hour outside of San Francisco (the idea of one of our Uber drivers), just to avoid unpleasant questions and potential delays. I know that was probably cheating and arguably ethically wrong, but when we arrived in San Fran, other than the fact that customs was practically empty and we got through in minutes, it was like any other day. No questions. No temperature taking. No forms to fill out. Just nothing at all. It was not just weird. It was disquieting.

There is nothing about airplane travel that is worth writing about. As I wrote earlier, our original non-stop to Newark had been cancelled and we were forced to fly via Las Vegas (with at least five or six other folks on the Sydney flight). The flights and the airports got progressively more deserted as we went along. We were upgraded to first class seats in the USA, with those fancy seats that turn into beds on the Vegas to Newark leg. But we were too exhausted to enjoy the amenities of first class travel (which was too bad since we never get to do it), and we just put the seats down and slept for most of the trip.

Finally got to Newark and met Judie’s regular car service driver, Nancy, who had not had any business in days. We got home and James and Kayli immediately sprayed and wiped down our luggage and sent us upstairs to take showers immediately. It’s a strange new world…..

It had been over 28 hours door-to-door. Of course, although I had slept little and drink entirely too much free wine on the planes and in airport lounges, I didn’t sleep well and ended up getting up at 5:30 AM and then falling asleep in mid afternoon. In my experience, the worst jet lag is the jet lag flying from Australia to NYC. I’ll recover, but it will take a few days (and sleeping pills).

It’s our last full day. We’re packing and we have to do some serious cleaning of the apartment (although I warned the owner that it won’t be sanitized). Judie has gone into her office to drop some stuff off, have a conference call with Hong Kong and pick up anything she left there. Our flight to San Francisco tomorrow is definitely happening, so we will be back in America tomorrow (Tuesday) morning. The bad news is that our flight to Newark has been cancelled, which is kind of predictable. So we are scrambling around with United trying to change our booking. Once we get to California, we’ll get home one way or another, even if I have to rent car and drive! (I’m sure it won’t come to that.)

Meanwhile, hours after I posted my last note, the PM and the federal government finally realized that they had to do something. The States were all taking different actions and were way out ahead of Morrison, which was (or at least should have been) politically embarrassing. And having a scattershot approach makes no sense in dealing with a nationwide pandemic like this. (Someone might want to tip Donald off to this fact.) So a complete lockdown was announced to begin at noon on Monday (today). Pubs, gyms, casinos, nightclubs, theaters and entertainment venues of all kinds are closed indefinitely. Restaurants and cafes can stay open, but only for takeout and delivery. Schools are open for now. The Morrison government (and the press, which is shockingly, mostly controlled by Murdoch) is blaming young people for not taking their social distancing recommendations seriously and is hinting around that if you don’t like the lockdown, blame them. Ridiculous and more that bit Trumpian.

They probably should have done all this a week or more ago, although the outbreak is still relatively mild here, despite the government allowing a cruise ship to land at Circular Quay last week and disgorge thousands of passengers, who then dispersed throughout the country or flew back to somewhere else. Of course, a number of them tested positive, leading to a scandal. It actually smells like a payoff to someone.

This morning the government ramped up for a huge increase in online applications for unemployment benefits (which has some other, odd name here). Good idea, but some jerk hacked the government website where you sign up so that very few people could actually get through. It is hard to imagine why someone would do that. The government has extended the period to apply and will make applications retroactive. UPDATE: It turned out that there was no cyber attack. The PM’s buddy, who is the Minister in charge of this, just made it up when confronted over the collapse of the website due to lack of planning. He was forced to recant later in the day.

An indication of how this economic contagion spreads: David Lee’s old printing business is now his tenant and they are looking for a break on their rent from him. They told him that have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars of orders from tourist businesses (no foreigners allowed in the country for the foreseeable future) and even tens of thousands from a couple of gyms.

Manly Beach is pretty deserted. There aren’t even that many surfers. (And remember, they are people who get shots so that they continue to surf even when the e coli in the water has reached dangerous levels.) Judie reported that there were five or ten riders on her ferry this morning.

I will say that it all makes it a lot easier to go home. When everything was near-normal here and America was filled with huddled masses yearning to get out of their houses, it was possible to think that staying here was a decent option. But if we are going to be locked indoors for while either way, I ‘d much rather be in Montclair.

I’ll probably continue this blog for a little while when we return, since we will have to self-quarantine for 14 days and I never got around to telling the stories about this trip that I wanted to tell (or at least write down for my own enjoyment).

(Sunday lunchtime) We were walking down from out apartment Manly to run a few errands, when the Surf Life Savers came on the loud speakers to announce that Manly Beach was closing for public safety. Everyone was herded off the beach and guys on jet skis moved all the surfers in as well. I assume this all had something to do with the 500 person limit on public gatherings the government has imposed. But Shelly Beach is much smaller and remains open and the northern end of Manly Beach, which is always much less crowded, must be considered a separate beach, since it is also open. (As far as I can tell, the borderline is big drainage pipe that goes into the ocean and is hopefully just for stormwater.) This arbitrariness makes it all seems a bit nutty, but it is certainly a sign of the coming general lockdown. I wonder if we have missed the true reaction to the virus because we are living in Manly, with its surfer beach culture and huge cohort of young people. Most of our friends around Sydney have already started self-isolation.

After running our errands, Judie sat down at the outdoor tables of a sparsely populated local cafe for a light lunch and some white wine. It reminded us of the scene in “Casablanca” where Rick and Ilsa are sitting at an empty cafe in Paris, waiting for the Nazis to arrive and talking about taking the train to Marseilles. Do you all keep being reminded of apocalyptic songs and movies right now? Being in Australia, it is easy to think of “On the Beach”. Judie is humming “We’ll Meet Again”, from “Dr. Strangeglove”. I have the REM song “It’s the End of the World as We Know It” running in the background. Perhaps your songs are darker in America, where the bad times have already arrived? Here in Manly, the weather is beautiful, the beaches are lovely, people are still walking around, running errands and trying to live. But the storm clouds are on the horizon. Will the shut down come tomorrow or a week from tomorrow? You know that everything is about to change, perhaps permanently, but what do you do in the meantime?

(A few hours later) It is now clear that the Australian lockdown is imminent. As in the US, the Australian PM is blowhard nationalist buffoon who is unable to lead in this crisis, so the individual states are locking themselves down. It is a stupid way to react to a pandemic, but as Americans now know (unless they get all their information from Fox News), if the leader of your government is an incompetent narcissist, you just have to work around him. The NSW Premier announced today that all non-essential services will stop by Tuesday. Coincidentally, that is the day that we are leaving.

Here in the apartment in Manly. Two days to go until we leave for our return to America. We are not required to shelter in place and the weather is drop-dead gorgeous (probably not a perfect phrase at this point in time), so it it very tempting to be out and about (in a careful way). Walking around Manly and doing some souvenir shopping doesn’t seem dangerous. Restaurants have cut their capacities by 50% to provide social distancing. We stopped at a big pub for a beer over the weekend and, while we were there, the manager locked all of the entrances but one and began counting the number of people entering and leaving. (I’m not sure that this idea accomplished much, other than to give the pub an excuse to stay open if questioned.) It is very tempting to go to a family-run restaurant that is looking at almost-certain closure and potential ruin in a matter of days, rather than going out to a grocery store to buy food for our last two or three meals. But it seems like it might be reckless. There is an odd feeling of near-normality here and, knowing that we are facing fairly intense quarantine in our near future, it is very appealing to get out do things that seem safe.

On Friday, the temperature was in the mid-90s, and staying in our apartment without AC was not a realistic alternative. So we walked over to Shelly Beach, stopped along the way for fish and chips and a beer at The Bower, and frolicked in the ocean. There were a fair number of people in the water, but it seemed relatively safe from a virus point of view. And the people on the beach made an effort not sit too close to anyone. We brought the mask and snorkel from the apartment and paddled around the edge of the aquatic reserve. We saw a lot of little striped fish. There was also a big seal sunning itself on a rock. I’m planning at least on more beach outing before we leave. Here are some photos from that day.

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It turns out that at the exact same time, Bondi Beach, the famous beach in the Eastern suburbs, was completely packed with people seeking to cool off. It was so crowded that it caused a huge kerfuffle and the State closed Bondi Beach the next day for exceeding the limit of 500 people for an outdoor gathering. Manly Beach is quite long (as photos in prior blogs showed) and if you bothered to count the people on the entire beach over the weekend, I’m sure the 500 limit was exceeded, even though it wasn’t especially crowded. (That doesn’t even count the surfers, who are at the beach but not really on it. They show up, jump in the water, surf for hours and eventually get out and leave right away. On a nice day with good surf (like today), there are often well over 100 surfers in the waves.)

Australian Art: If you have been in our living room in Montclair, you will know that we love Australian Aboriginal/Indigenous Art. (The term indigenous seems to be gradually replacing aboriginal here.) So one of the things I wanted to do while I was here was buy a piece of art to expand our “collection”. I went around to a number of galleries specializing in such paintings, checking out the prices and the selection. We went to the Art Gallery of NSW to see their incredible collection. I discovered that you could find beautiful paintings for not too much money, especially since the Australian Dollar has sunk to a low agains the US$ that it has not seen for nearly 20 years. When you add the fact that you can get the sales tax refunded at the airport, the art is effectively half the price. A painting for A$1000 is the equivalent of US$500. It was too good a bargain to pass up and I bought a lot of art. I’d show you pictures but they are all wrapped up waiting to be brought home or, in the case of the bark painting and another work, have been shipped. Here are a few photos from the Museum to give you an idea.

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Stickers: On the subject of art, Hannah’s partner, Mike, designs and produces hand-sized stickers that he and his friends put on the back of signs and other public places. It’s a little like tagging, but they are easier to remove and are actually nice looking. He goes under the name Bone-Wurm and you can see his designs on Instagram. He and Hannah thought that it would be fun to have Mike’s stickers on a different continent, so they sent us some. It felt a little weird going out at night and putting his stickers on things, but what are a father and mother to do? See below.

Enough for now…

In writing this blog, I feel a bit like Samuel Pepys, jotting down observations about London society, all while the Plague tore through London or the Great Fire burned it down. Of course, the big difference is that there will be lots to read from this crazy period, unlike Pepys’ time, and I don’t have to write this in code.

Australia Closes its Borders and More Virus News: The government here has been a bit slow to react to the pandemic, although, in fairness, the virus has not quite yet begun its exponential march across the country. I think there is a real question whether closing the borders to non-Australians actually does any good (and it has wiped out the tourism industry). But the PM here is a sort of Trump-lite, so it probably figures that this is his first reaction. The Australian dollar is in free fall (good for us Americans here), probably due to worries that the government has not been aggressive enough to address the virus. The lockdown will come eventually, but the Aussie federal response has been to put it off as long as possible, which is probably bad policy. As in the US, the real leadership seems to be coming from the Premiers (Governors) of the various states. In the meantime, establishments with less than 100 people can stay open. In Manly, this means that most of the restaurants and pubs are open and surprisingly busy. I don’t know if this is because Manly has so many young people feeling invincible or because of it beach culture. I suspect that people realize that the end of the party is approaching and are getting in a few more rounds of beer or a nice night out before it all ends. Things are pretty deserted in the CBD and the Rocks. It is probably safer to go and eat there. We are supposed to visit our former nanny, Simone, and her kids for a barbecue tomorrow. I think we will probably go, but I’m guessing that our other social events in the next few days will be cancelled. We will probably end up sheltering in place in Manly for much of the rest of our time here.

Australian Wine: Since coming here, we have tried to drink only Australian wines, since the wine scene here is vibrant and most of the wines are not available in the US. Lots of Barossa Shiraz, Clare Valley Rieslings, Semillon-Sauvignon Blanc Blends, etc. A few observations: (1) We used to go to the Hunter Valley (about two hours north of Sydney) fairly often in the Amex Era. Unsurprisingly, it is much more commercial, with big, glitzy tasting rooms. (Our old favorite, Brokenwood, was gigantic and unrecognizable.) We hired a car with Kathy and Jim and took a tour that picked us up outside our apartment. Our guide took us to some good small wineries. Buena Vista, Tinkler and Scarborough, which I doubt you will ever seen in the US and Tulloch, which you might. (2) Hunter Valley Semillon is great, especially if it has some age on it. (There are good ones from other part of Oz too.) I don’t understand why it isn’t exported to the US more. (3) One of the big changes in the wine industry since the Amex Era is the proliferation of Italian and Spanish grape varietals that I don’t remember seeing back then. Sangiovese, Verdelho, Nebbiolo, etc. (4) Tasmania is now a major wine producer and probably the best place to grow Pinot Noir, since most of the rest of Oz is too hot. (5) A number of our favorite wines from the Amex Era have gone up in price to the point that they are now unaffordable. I suppose I could take this as a good reflection on my wine sense, but it has prevented some walks down oenological memory lanes, although we did spring for a Rockford Basket Press Shiraz when we went out to eat at the Lord Nelson. I could bore you (and ultimately myself) with stories of other bottles we have drunk (and we drank a bunch of good ones), but I won’t bother.

Skin Cancer and the Ozone Hole: I was taking the bus to Crow’s Nest last week and passed a huge skin cancer clinic. (See the photo below.) This reminded me of our experience during the Amex Era, when, as you may recall, there was great concern over a hole in the ozone over Australia. (The hole was technically over Antarctica, but there was huge spike in skin cancers here.) Everyone had white stuff on their noses and wore hats and slathered with sun screen. All kids at Alex’s Pre-School were required to wear hats with flaps off the back to cover the back of the neck. (Very cute.) They were popular with grown-ups too. Back around 1989, the world agreed on a treaty that banned CFCs and other things and the ozone problem has gradually gotten better. (It is actually an inspiration for what might be done to combat climate change.) Now you cannot find those hats with the flaps anywhere (Alex wants one) and few people have white stuff on their noses.

One More Ferry Story: When you take the ferry back late at night, flocks of sea gulls (or terns?) fly along next to the boat. It seems like they are drafting off the ferry and being carried along, but they don’t do it during the day. We talked to a member of the crew and she said that it happens every evening and her theory was that the ship stirred up the water in a way that made it easier to grab food out of the water. When the ferry slows down as we reach Manly, the flock disappears. I wonder if the same thing happens on the trip to Circular Quay. A video follows. (It may take a while to download.)

Getting Home: Though sheer dumb luck, we are on one of the few flights that has not been cancelled (United to San Francisco). Since no one is allowed to come into the country and Australians are discouraged from leaving, the only people flying out are people like us. I’m expecting it to be pretty strange, even if getting on the plane here is as easy as I hope it will be. It will be very odd entering a USA in lockdown and we’ll see how easy it will be to get from San Francisco to Newark. It will be nice to get home, when ever that happens.

I’ll be writing more. What else do I have to do, trapped here in our apartment?

It seems like it is coronavirus all the time lately and it is tempting to write about nothing else. But that is boring and it is not something I really want to write down so that I can remember it in the future in excruciating detail.

As I think I wrote earlier, we hardly ever stepped on a ferry during the Amex Era. It just wasn’t convenient and driving in Sydney was not as daunting and crowded then. It’s a bit surprising, in retrospect, since infant Alex would have loved taking the ferries and was a fan of “Ferry Boat Fred”, an Australian Broadcasting Company knockoff of “Thomas the Tank Engine”.

For the past five weeks or so, we have relied on the Manly Ferry to get to and from downtown Sydney and to otherwise get around. It’s a nine mile trip and takes about 30 minutes if you take the regular ferry, operated by the Transit Service, or 20 minutes if you take the privately-operated “Fast Ferry”. The Fast Ferry is about A$2.00 more per trip, at least during off-peak, when I usually ride. Both ferries take the Opal card, the Sydney equivalent of London’s Oyster card. You preload it at a station and then tap in and out when you take any form of transit and your fare is calculated and deducted. The Fast Ferry is a little smaller and a bit plusher and has a bar that serves bottled beer from 4-8 PM. Makes for an especially pleasant commute home from work. You can get a ferry within 15 minutes at most times during the day. After about 8:00 or 9:00 the Fast Ferry stops running and the regular ferry goes to an every 45 minute schedule. (If we just miss one of those late ferries, we often just take an Uber or a taxi home.) Lately the ferries are increasingly empty, as the tourists are gradually disappearing and more people are working from home.

I was a little concerned about all of this boat riding when we first got here, as I have a tendency toward sea sickness. As it turned out, the ride is pretty smooth within the harbor. However, when you go past the heads of the harbor, the opening to the open ocean that is said to be a mile and a half across (although it looks shorter to me), there is definite swell and the boat heaves about for a few minutes. This varies and it can been more extreme if there is storm at sea or something. The Fast Ferry is less affected since it is a catamaran and is going faster and just bashes through the waves more efficiently. Here are some photos of the heads from the ferry.

It is hard to adequately describe how spectacular Sydney’s harbor is and photos don’t really do it justice. It is surrounded by hills with either houses or parkland going down to the water. As you go from the heads towards the CBD and Circular Quay, the houses are replaced by larger buildings and, as you turn a corner, the Harbor Bridge and the Opera House suddenly come into view. The ferries turn left just before the Bridge to pull in the Circular Quay wharves and you cruise right past the Opera House. Some photos at the end of this blog post will give an idea of the ride.

Back in the Amex Era, the Harbor was more commercial, with big container ships and tankers going through to dock. In the interim, a deep-water port was built at Botany Bay (South of Sydney, where the First Fleet originally landed before deciding to move up to Sydney’s present location), so those big ships are no longer around. There are huge (and I mean huge) cruise lines that come to Sydney every day. You see them either at the terminal in Circular Quay or waiting in the Harbor to change places. There was different cruise ship docked every day we have been here. But that has all changed with the virus and they will be prohibited from landing soon and some are already barred. We’ve seen a few anchored in the Harbor, which must be frustrating if you are a passenger. (Although if you are a willing passenger on a cruise ship right now, you have too be nuts.) In addition to the cruise ships, the Harbor is filled with other ferries, party boats, sightseeing cruises, water taxis and lots of sailboats. At one point, part of the Harbor was shut down for a big yacht race, featuring these incredibly fast catamarans, which can reach 60 miles per hour and are the ones now used for the America’s Cup. We watched them practicing from the ferries and they literally scream along as they make this high-pitched noise when they rise up onto little hydrofoil things. They barely touch the water.

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Last time I wrote (a few days ago), things were fairly normal here. Not any more. Most sports have been cancelled or played before no spectators. (And it is inevitable that the Rugby League and Aussie Rules seasons will be completely suspended soon.) Cruise ships are banned. All gathering of over 500 are prohibited. One result is that things like the season of the Sydney Dance Company will have to be suspended or cancelled, an incredible blow to a not-for-profit arts organization. Our friend, Pam Bartlett, is on the Board and is despairing.

There really aren’t that may positive tests here yet, although there have been a few high profile ones. (And, unlike the US, there is plenty of testing at no cost.) I suppose it is a good idea to try to get out in front of the eventually epidemic and that it what is happening here. They are setting up special testing and triage places at the hospitals. Restaurants are still open, which allows us to continue to eat out with friends. Don’t know how long that will last.

I’ve been joking that we are returning to Montclair on March 24th if we can get out of Australia and/or get into the US. That is suddenly seeming less like a joke, with borders being closed and flights being cancelled. We aren’t quite sure what to do. At this point, I guess we have to just keep our plans as is and hope for the best. Of course, there are worse things that being forced to stay in Sydney for a bit longer. I am thankful that we weren’t trying to return from Europe this weekend.

The last four or five months have been pretty awful here. First, a drought with blisteringly hot temperatures. Then epic bushfires that destroyed huge pats of New South Wales and Victoria. This was immediately followed by a record rain event, which produced well over foot of rain in many places. A few towns got a year’s worth of rain in less than 48 hours. It put out the bushfires, but led to floods and power failures.

Australia was already looking at an economy damaged by all of this. The cost of picking up the pieces from the bushfires alone is more than the government can really afford. The last thing they needed was a pandemic. But they got it and it has wiped out their tourist industry, which I believe is the second biggest industry in Oz, particularly since so much of that tourism comes from China and elsewhere in Asia. A recession here seems inevitable.

Actually, the coronavirus has not been too bad here so far. There have been cases sprinkled around Sydney and elsewhere in the country, with the worst outbreak at an elder care center in Sydney’s norther suburbs. The government has been taking it all very seriously and, of course, they have the advantage of having universal health insurance. There is intense coverage of the virus on the TV News, but it is more news about what tis happening in Italy and Korea, etc. And, as I mentioned in my previous blog, there has been panic buying of toilet paper and hand sanitizer. (Toilet paper returned to the grocery store today. You could see people pausing as they walked by, thinking “I don’t really need this, but should I gat a package anyway?”)

But, in general, I don’t feel like the coronavirus has become a serious health concern here yet. Which doesn’t mean it won’t happen. David Lee’s daughter Georgianna, who is an emergency room doctor at the hospital near Manly, admitted their first coronavirus patient the other day. She was fully protected, met the patient outside and gowned her up to take her to her isolation room, which had special recycling air conditioning. As we’ve seen, this thing can spread exponentially. Things could change in a matter of days.

I’m certainly hoping it doesn’t. The Australians don’t need any more drama this year. And, of course, I am afraid that if there was an outbreak in Sydney, President Stupid might ban all flights from Australia. But, as much as I’ll be ready to come home, there are worse places to be trapped.

We have spent a fair amount of this trip eating at a variety of places, going to grocery stores and generally getting into the food scene. It is not surprising that the food scene has changed quite a bit in the last 30 years and it is fair to say that Sydney (and also Melbourne) consider themselves food destinations.

Back in our Amex Era (1989-1992), there were certainly a fair number of fine dining restaurants and the whole Modern Australian style of cooking was starting to take off. Tony Bilson, who recently died (link to his obituary here), was considered by many the father of that movement and we ate at his then-current restaurant, Fine Bouche, a number of times. I actually met Tony Bilson a few times because that restaurant was located right behind the office of my friend, Renos Ross, who was running wine business at that point. One particular memory is going over to Bilson’s restaurant one afternoon, where a distributor was pouring a range of champagnes, including some very pricy vintage ones. We also went to one of Bilson’s other famous restaurants, the Berowra Waters Inn, which he started with his partner Gay and which she ran after they separated. (More on that restaurant below.) Another memorable restaurant back in the day was Tetsuya’s, a sort of Japanese/French?modern Australian restaurant run by Tetsuya Wakuda, a great chef first hired by Tony Bilson as a sushi chef and dishwasher. It was pretty new then and off in untrendy Rozelle. Now he is incredibly famous and Tetsuya’s is a very expensive destination restaurant in the CBD, with offshoots in places like Singapore and Las Vegas. He is one of the most famous chefs in the world and it is cool that we ate his food way back when. All of this is not to say that there wasn’t a big dining scene and some fine restaurants in Sydney, during the Amex Era. It just pales in comparison to what it is like now.

Pub Food: Maybe it was because we were eating out with infant Alex or because we couldn’t afford to eat in those fancy places too often, but I recall us doing much of our eating out at pubs. That is certainly still a major part of the dining scene here. On this trip we have had some good pub fare: Lamb burgers at the Lord Nelson and a dinner at the Hero of Waterloo (our two favorite pubs in the Rocks, the oldest part of Sydney. We had our Valentine’s Day dinner at The Oaks, a famous pub in Neutral Bay, where everyone tries to sit outside in the courtyard under a big, old oak tree (we managed to snag a table). See the four of us with our friend, Di Collins, below:

Not surprisingly, pub food has evolved over thirty years. Back in the Amex Era, my recollection is that pub food was dominated by meat pies, burgers, fries, steaks and, my favorite, barbecued baby octopus. I’m sure that there was fish and chips (and lamb in the nicer ones) and probably some kind of curry and I’m doubtlessly missing some standard. Now things are a bit more upscale, at least in our limited experience. Meat pies are no long ubiquitous and the octopi have, unfortunately, disappeared completely (I wonder if they ate so many that they became endangered). Arancini seems to be a big appetizer (they call appetizers entrees here and entrees mains) along with salt and pepper squid or prawns and padron peppers. Pubs are more likely to have some type of asian dish, which probably reflects the increased number of asian immigrants living in the Sydney area. Grilled barramundi is everywhere. Lots of artisan pizzas, which don’t rely on tomato and cheese and, instead, might have feta and lamb or seafood or figs, etc. There is a possibility of getting kangaroo, which you rarely saw in the Amex Era. Most pubs still do not have waitress service. You go up to the bar or a counter and order your food and they bring it to your table.

Berowra Waters Inn: As I noted above, this restaurant was created back in the 1980s by Tony and Gay Bilson. Besides the fact that it was an incredible restaurant, what was and is most notable about it is that it can only be reached by boat (or seaplane if you are a really high-roller). You have to get to the Berowra Waters wharf (not the easiest thing to do as it is almost an hour north of downtown) and they send a little boat to pick you up.

In the Amex Era, we went there when Judie’s sister Robbie and her husband Bob were visiting. Gay Bilson was running it then and it was one of the more memorable meals of our lives. Robbie was so taken with the experience that she gave Kathy and Jim a gift of a meal there when they were visiting. We booked for Valentine’s Day dinner, but the day before we arrived in Sydney a massive storm knocked out their power and, being where they are, it was not fixed in time for us. Fortunately, we were able to re-book for a lunch the next week (when they had gotten generators in). We were actually wondering if the restaurant had survived Gay Bilson’s retirement, but I guess the name had so much good will that it was able to continue. Our friends told us that they had heard that the quality had slipped for a while, but there is now a new executive chef and it is highly rated again.

It took us around two hours to get there. Ferry, two trains and then an Uber driver who got lost when his GPS failed on the way down the gorge to the wharf. It was well worth it. There is a fixed menu and we ordered the suggested accompanying wines (and any extra that come up). Here is the menu, with the accompanying wines: (1) Oysters–one natural and one with a Tasmanian pepper sauce, (2) Raw kingfish with Nashi pears, pressed cucumber, coriander and lime (2019 Hughes & Hughes Reisling, TAS), (3) Crab and this thick miso custard and some crab broth–amazing (2017 Moon Marsanne, VIC), (4) Chicken & Mushrooms (2018 Coriole Sangiovese, McLaren Vale, SA), (5) Beef, Garlic and Leek (2016 Artwine Graciano, Clare Valley SA), (6) Blue Cheese with Honey & Quince Paste (Coates LBV Shiraz, McLaren Vale, SA) (7) Pumpkin & Mandarin–dessert (2017 Glenguin “The Sticky” Botrytis Semillon, Hunter Valley, NSW) (8) Tooheys Old, Barley & Caramel–another dessert (NV Pennyweight Fortified Muscat, VIC). We took an Uber all the way back to Manly and promptly took naps. Photos from the lunch follow:

Asian Foods: This probably the biggest change in Sydney, I think and, as I said above, it has to be a result of the huge influx of asian immigrants over the last 30 years. Sydney always had a big Chinatown and Sydney was the first place I had incredible Thai food, and, back then, every little town seemed to have a Cantonese takeaway, but the quality and sheer number of asian restaurants today is notable. The Thai food here is particularly amazing. I’ve eaten at three or four of them already and each has been very good and one, Long Chim, near Judie’s office, was spectacular. Some say that a Sydney has the best Thai food in the world outside of Thailand and it might be true. Early on in the trip we went to Chinatown on a Sunday morning to have Yum Cha with our friends Jill and Graham and their (adopted Korean) son Webster, who is Alex’s age. Yum Cha means “drink tea” in Cantonese and it refers to going out and eating dim sum and drinking tea. Great food in a huge noisy place, although I’ve had equally good dim sum around NY. Chinatown is still a big area near downtown Sydney, but I seem to remember it as more of a shambles, chaotic and busy and less buttoned up. Last weekend, we went with Di Collins to Cabramatta, a largely Vietnamese suburb about 45 minutes west of downtown. Tons of great, inexpensive restaurants and shops. Many languages spoke and only the young people seems to be speaking English. We walked around the main drag after lunch at a noodle place that specialized in crispy chicken and it was very lively and very Vietnamese. More the way I recall Chinatown, although I may have it confused with a different Chinatown from my past. Some photos follow.

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Grocery Stores and Home Cooking: I don’t know about you, but I really like going to grocery stores when I’m traveling. I’ve spent a lot of my life doing the grocery shopping for the family and I find it an interesting view of the society I’m visiting. The grocery stores here in Manly are on the smaller side and I suspect that I might find bigger US-scale stores if I shopped someplace only reachable by a car. Actually, the Manly stores were kind of a disappointing cross between London and US groceries. Mostly Australian fruit and veggies and nothing too exotic unless you go to someplace like Cabramatta or Chinatown. More lamb than you might see in a US store. Cordials, British candies, lots of Vegemite, Kangaroo skewers, frozen meat pies, Bundaberg soft drinks. We went there the other night and there had been a run on toilet paper and it was completely sold out. Three women at a store (in Melbourne, I think) were arrested a few days ago for getting into fist fight because one of them had completely filled her cart with the remaining toilet paper and refused to share! When Kathy and Jim were here, I went out and bought Balmain Bugs and marinated lamb for dinner. The bugs are really clawless crustaceans about the size of your hand that taste like lobster. They are not bugs and I’m pretty sure that they are not from Balmain. See below:

Other Restaurants: Manly has some nice restaurants, since it it a summer tourist spot. We particularly like Hugo’s (right by the ferry wharf with a great view), Pantry Manly (right on the beach), The Herring Restaurant (extremely good, but a bit of a long walk), Garfish, the Shelley Beach Boathouse and Manly Wine (the closest place to our apartment). All good, but I don’t want to bore you with reviews of restaurants you will never go to, unless it is a unique place, like Berowra Waters.

This post is entirely too long. And the photos are a pain to add on the laptop. Future posts will be shorter with less photos.