Prior to going we printed out three google earth maps ; one from Central to the Bourke Street Bakery, another from the bakery to The Chinese Friendship Gardens and the third from the latter to the Powerhouse Museum - to see the Beatles exhibition .
Step one, Erica dropped us off at the Strathfield Railway station, for a mere $9 we had return tickets for the two of us into the city and back. Once at Central we took the tunnel to the Elizabeth Street exit and from there walked up a slightly sloped street for 15 mins until we reached our destination . It was a very pleasant walk and I saw many interesting shops I would've liked to explore if time had permitted. One which I have jotted down for next time is A Cooks Kitchen which is opposite the bakery.
Now back to the bakery , the bakery was on the corner of Devonshire and a street whose name I can't recall. It had seating outside in the sun which after our brisk walk was not appealing . We spotted a vacant teeny table inside and after ordering a pie for Mali and a coffee and almond croissant for me we went to sit down . It was extremely awkward to sit down as I basically had to climb over and onto my seat . The two 'elite' men to our left frowned at us superciliously with their perfectly groomed brows .
How upsetting for them to have their chit chat disturbed by plebeians like us . Pleb that she is, Mali true to form drowned her pie in tomato sauce - a regular little Aussie she is! I tucked my croissant away to eat at the gardens and sipped my cappuccino enjoying the fine array of baked goods .
After a while we set forth for the Gardens stopping along the way to buy Mali, Bahn Mi to eat later .
We walked back to the station and took another tunnel which was marked The Powerhouse, so we thought we would go there first . On the way we had to walk past the Abc building , we decided to have a look inside as we saw that there was a Doctor Who display . Neither of us has ever watched it but Eric has so I thought 'why not take a few photos for him?' Mali kindly ( actually reluctantly) posed for me beside the telephone box and other props from the set . She also agreed to pose with her childhood favourite, Dorothy the Dinosaur - so nostalgic!
Anyway we were on a mission so we forged on to the Powerhouse . I was a bit worried that Rumali would be getting tired but after eating her Vietnamese roll she was ready for adventure . We cloaked our bags and were off to discover new innovations in design we snapped some shots of the buildings with vertical forests for Kane. I was particularly intrigued by the way they measure the stresses that vehicles make while they cross the Harbour Bridge. By using technology apparently similar to a mobile phone each vehicles stresses on the bridge are tracked. If a structural problem is detected a signal is sent to the maintenance team and it is repaired immediately.
There were so many displays that we ended up studying them for more than three hours . It was a shame I hadn't been able to take my class as there was a fantastic light exhibit. We passed through the Australian Fashion Design section and made our way to the reason why we had come in the first place ' The Beatles' display- although they came to Oz three years prior to my arrival. My childhood years had a background soundtrack of The Beatles, Simon & Garfunkle, The Holly's etc sung by Erica and Lineke.
Danny came and joined us and we had a trip down memory lane before he proclaimed he was about to collapse from hunger! On our way out we detoured through The Lace display which I thought would be decidedly dull . How wrong I was ! The lace was made from all types of mediums like metal, hair, string and paper. It ended up being Rumali's favourite display .
Poor Dan was looking more faint by the second so we went to a Chinese BBQ pork vendor and purchased a kilo of my childhood favourite to snack on whilst sitting on the steps at Darling Harbour - any ideas of going to the gardens had long been discarded . Rumali rejected the pork and unfortunately for her a seagull also desired her burger. I fumbled for my camera but unfortunately was too late !
After we were replenished we walked to Victorias Basement in the QVB to buy Erica a baking dish she was very impressed by our level of fitness - walking so briskly everywhere . Danny stopped to look at Red Eye Records while Mali went to Haigh's chocolatiers to buy me a surprise - yay!! I love surprises . A fast stroll led by Dan took us to the Pyrmont light rail that we needed to catch in order to pick up the van.
On our way to Erica's we stopped at Ablas, the woman bent over backwards to be friendly to Danny and our kilo tray looked a lot larger than the kilo tray Erica and I had bought previously . Erica had cooked a splendid Peking Chicken and after enjoying the lovely meal and Lebanese pastries we sat around chatting . We were once again completely exhausted when our heads finally touched our pillows .
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