We walked across the Sydney Harbour bridge on Monday evening. Actually, we hadn't planned on doing that, but I directed us to the wrong bus that let us off near the pedestrian access to the bridge. It had been a rainy, cloudy day, but the evening shaped up with clearing and a lovely sunset. After eating mediocre Italian food on the north shore, we took a ferry back into the city at twilight. The views were spectacular, and Tom practiced taking some night shots on his new camera. Incidentally, lots of you have asked us about posting pictures on this blog - the issue is, we don't have a way to download from our camera to the computers at the internet site easily. We could probably download photos to a CD, then have them give us access to the CD, but that gets to be a bit convoluted, so we'll post the photos when we get back. Sorry for our lack of digital expertise - I've lobbied to bring a laptop next time we travel. It would certainly give us more flexibility.

Tuesday we went to the Taronga Zoo!! I've been trying to get Tom to go for 3 years now, and he finally gave in. Taronga is situated on the north shore - across from Sydney's downtown, and as well as being a terrific zoo, is also a botanical garden with amazing views of Sydney's skyline. We had meant to take a ferry, which goes directly to the zoo, but a last minute strike by ferry workers meant that all the ferries were docked and not running, so we altered our plans and took the bus. Not bad, but it did add about an hour to the trip. After we'd spent 3 1/2 hours at the zoo, Tom even said - "It's a very nice zoo." Which, I think, is about the most enthusiasm I could expect from him. Luckily, the ferry workers had been ordered back to work while we were at the zoo, so we could take the ferry back to the city. It had rained in the morning, canceling our cycling, but the evening was so clear, sunny and nice ~ 75 degrees - that we decided to take a pre-sunset cycle through the park. We cycled until twilight, then home for takeaway pizza and vegging in front of the TV.

This morning, Wednesday, we woke up to rain (for the 4th day in a row!), so postponed our cycling until about noon. We used the time in the morning to do some grocery shopping. There is a shopping center about 15 minutes walk from our place, so very convenient. There was a cycling accident in the park today - I didn't see what happened, but a female cyclist had fallen, and was attended to by ambulance and police. She was sitting in the road for about 45 minutes (enough time to go around the park at least 4 times) but didn't seem to be badly injured at all. They bandaged up her elbow and put a patch on her knee and apparently someone took her home. It's good to know that the response is so quick if there is an accident, but it made me doubly careful to pay close attention. Today's ride was the longest yet - about 30 miles for me, 35 for Tom.

Knitting update - I'm on the 3rd color gradation for the shawl - about 14 inches now - remember, the weather has been marginal, thus more knitting time! The second project I brought was the small shawl from the Shadow Knitting book. It works out to be a better bus project, as it is slightly more portable, and doesn't require any counting or marking of the pattern. That one is moving along nicely, too - about 8 inches so far. No one has really commented on a knitting bus passenger, but I've gotten some curious looks from the students we see. There is only one yarn shop in Sydney proper, and it's not very large - I think the climate here is not conducive. There must be more shops in the suburbs, but I've not found them ---yet!