View from the Opera House

Well, here I am in beautiful sunny Sydney. I'm sorry for such a long gap before my first real travel post, but the trip itself and the conference schedule have kept me pretty much fully occupied until now.

The trip was, as expected, very long indeed, but included the pleasures of spectacular Northern Lights over Anchorage Alaska and sushi for breakfast on Cathay Pacific airlines (interesting, but probably won't become a habit). I had only enough time in Hong Kong to walk from Arrivals to Departures, and fill up my water bottle, so can only say that Hong Kong is quite beautiful from the air, like a brush painting with its mountaintops peaking (ok, peeking) through the mists. Pictures to follow, once Frank arrives with the laptop so I can download my camera images. The air in Hong Kong (what little I could see and sniff as I stepped onto plane #2) was extremely heavy with smog? fog? humidity? however, and I was not too sorry to be leaving--or maybe that was just the side effect of 19 hours of flight experience to that point.


Customs in Sydney was a breeze, with the guard waving me past the baggage X-ray--I must have looked either honest or so bedraggled that he took pity on me. A very friendly cabbie whisked me to my new home away from home in the suburb of Burwood, about 12 k from Sydney central. Despite my late arrival (by now about 10:30 p.m. on Saturday night), my hostess Virginia greeted me warmly and tucked me into a spacious room for the night, where I fell into a dreamless sleep until 8 the next morning. My 'real' room was not available until then, when I moved into a small but clean bachelor apartment on the second floor of this private guest house. I have a kettle, toaster, fridge, and kitchen sink plus access to a full kitchen in the main lodge, a double bed, and a tiny but functional bathroom of my own. All a girl needs! Here's a picture of the front entrance of Boronia Lodge:




Sunday was spent orienting myself to the area and getting in groceries--and sleeping! The suburb of Burwood reminds me very much of where I stayed in San Francisco several years ago--in fact, Australia reminds me a lot of SF--same smells, plants, architecture.

Yesterday was day one of the conference on Researching Work and Learning, and I delivered my paper just before lunch to about 15 enthusiastic participants. We had a great discussion after my formal presentation, and I felt it had gone very well. I've attended many excellent sessions, and made a good number of contacts for further research both here in Aussie and in New Zealand. It's been quite worthwhile and interesting. Last night we had a beautiful cruise of Sydney Harbour--too bad I had forgotten, in my morning haste to catch the train into the city, to bring my camera! I will get back to the Harbour on Thursday, so pictures of the famous Opera House will grace this page in future, I promise. Tonight is a Chinese banquet--should be fun.

One more day of the conference, then a free day when I am hoping to walk the Botanical Gardens. Friday with the folks at the University of Western Sydney, and then off to Melbourne on Saturday in the rental car--hope I can remember to stay on the left!!

So, I am well and thriving, although missing you all like crazy. I keep showing people your pictures and enjoying their admiration of my beautiful family. Hope everyone is well at home and not too cold (should I mention that it is about 26 degrees and sunny where I am? sorry--)

Love to all--Ruth