THE RETURN OF AN ABSENT BLOGGER

 Hi everyone, hope you are all well

It has been a long time since my last post. After a long hibernation, I finally managed to shake off the winter slumber and decided to get back on the horse or in my situation, back to blogging.  I can't actually put my finger on why I completely withdrew from the blogger-sphere.  It just happened, one day I woke up and felt that I want nothing to do with it.  I tried to rationalise my feelings but it was nothing there to work on.  Let's just call it hibernation and move on 😄.  Surprisingly, seems like my mojo has come back thanks to return of spring and hopefully it will stay for a long time.

Speaking of spring, we are in the second month of it already but the weather is still like a yo-yo.  One day we are all heading to the beach and the next are shivering in our t-shirts and thongs as we Australians call flip-flops 😎.

My husband and I are not big beach lovers anyway, we both prefer the walks along the coast or cooler weather so we can go for long walks along the coast for a breath of fresh ocean air and be closer to nature or do something totally different and embark on one the of the urban walks discovering new neighborhoods and their surroundings.

Last Sunday we chose to have a city walk between Barangaroo and The Rocks.   Barangaroo is an area of Central Sydney within walking distance from CBD named in honour of an Aboriginal woman, the second wife of Bennelong, who was an interlocutor between the Aboriginal people and early British colonists.  Historically it was important land for Aboriginal People prior to colonial settlement.  With the arrival of Europeans, the indigenous people were driven off this land and what was once their hunting and fishing grounds, was redeveloped into multiple shipyards.  Over the years, as the ships became bigger, more capacity was required to accommodate them thus new bigger shipyards were require to accommodate them.

Thus this area has become abandoned and been hardly used until about twenty years as the State Government designated the site for redevelopment into parklands and also commercial space.  It took many years of planning and designing, not everything went according to plan and there are some bits and pieces needed to be finished but the whole development looks absolutely amazing.  

Today it is a thriving hub busy with all sorts of activities.  Its three high-rise towers are the home for myriads of offices, the residential apartments cost mega bucks, multiple dining venues offer food from all around the world.  There is a hotel with a casino on its premises and award winning restaurants such as 3-Michelin star Oncore by Claire Smyth where we went to celebrate my husband's seventieth birthday last year.  And right next to this bustling precinct there are beautifully landscape parklands and vast areas of public land for all of us to share and enjoy.

It is a short Metro ride for us to get there which is great because finding parking in this city has become an absolute nightmare.

We alighted at the station, and within minutes we were on a walking path that snakes gently following the shape of the shore and as we walked and watched the bustling ferries, private yachts  and tug boats darting up and down the bay with the neighbouring suburbs beckoning across the water the smoothing lapping of the water accompanied our stroll.

Once we left the parklands, we found ourselves directly under the Harbour Bridge in the historic neighbourhood  The Rocks.  You can read more about this fascinating part of Sydney in one of my previous posts here.

It was rather a long walk and we felt quite hungry.  The Rocks is full of places to eat, from fine dining to pub staples.  We settled for the latter.  I love pub food, the portions are big while the prices are not.  Besides, you get this lovely atmosphere where everyone feels like they belong, especially after a glass or two of wine 😊.

I had good time writing this post.  Hopefully, it will stay with me for a long time.  Can't wait to see what you my dear bloggers have been up too.

Catch up with you soon

Until then,

Anna

xoxoxo