Sydney, Australia 2019 Day 13

With the heat wave temps increasing as we head into the weekend, we weighed our options, swimming at Coogee today or tomorrow when it will be hotter. We opted to hang around Kings Cross. We strolled down Macleay Street to see if we could buy Warren Fahey’s Book at the book store, The Good Old Bad Old Days. It is 357 pages long about Woolloomooloo, Potts Point, Kings Cross, Elizabeth Bay and Rushcutters Bay. Unfortunately, they were sold out. Along the way, I took pictures of Macleay Street, Fitzroy Gardens and the El Alamein Memorial Fountain.

I contacted Warren who was on a ship in the Tasman Sea. He asked me to contact Stewart, the caretaker of Manar, who ten years ago gave us a tour of where I once lived. He knew where Warren stored his books and said he would be able to get me a copy.

In the mean time, we needed a toilet. Kings Cross had just installed some of the most high-tech toilets we have ever seen. They are cleaned regularly with spray nozzles. They flush when you wash your hands. Everything is automated, including toilet paper dispensing. There is a 10 minute time limit, which you are told when you enter and lock the door, then the music starts. Not cheap but free. Totally impressed.

I called Stewart and he met us at the front gate with a copy of Warren’s book. He also gave us carte blanch to explore the building and its grounds. He let us into building No.3 where we lived on the top floor. Memories came flooding back as I traced the steps of my childhood. I took a ton of pictures. It was beyond words. 

After our tour of Manar we did some shopping, headed back and made a lunch of leftovers. We decided to explore a place I had never been to, Darling Point, which is east of Rushcutters Bay. It is a beautiful area, full of enormous trees and multi-million dollar houses and units. We lived so close by but never ventured there when we lived here. It was hot and the ups and downs challenged us physically but the payoff was what we saw, like the beautiful old and new houses and units, and a gorgeous Austin Martin parked on Darling Point Road. The cooling breeze by the water was a life saver.

We made our way back to Kings Cross and back to our place. Dinner tonight was breaded pork with broccolini, a green salad and a lemon, garlic, chicken stock, white wine, caper sauce. Yum. Complimented with a $8 bottle of Aussie Chardonnay. Brilliant.