On the 21st March 2023, Susan and I set off on the first leg of our trip to Rachel and Mike’s wedding in Bowral, Australia.

Saturday, our last full day on holiday, started breezy and ended up wet. We chose the right direction for our walk to Bondi – with the wind. But we didn’t start from Maroubra. We bought coffees from the Grumpy Baker then drove to Coogee.

The wind and the waves were all wrong so there we very few surfers. There were some brave swimmers at Bronte Beach – in pink swimsuits and bathing hats.

I think I was the only one on Bondi Beach. It was quite a different story the following weekend.

We brunched at Brown Sugar then took an Uber back to Maroubra. A couple of hours later we were in another Uber, heading for a brewery crawl. Everywhere was packed, with people queueing at the doors. We visited 4 micro breweries and got into three. At the final brewery Susan and Mike challenged the winners on the pool table. The winners stayed on.

By the time we got back to Maroubra, we were too late for fish and chips, so had to make do with takeaway pizza, from Arthur’s Pizza.

I’ve never watched Home and Away but I’ve now been to where it’s filmed – Summer Bay; Palm Beach in real life. Rachel took us there for a walk up to the Barrenjoey Head lighthouse. A Frenchman suggested we take the shorter, steeper route up; the views were better. They were pretty good at the top too.

We lunched, pizza, at The Newport, overlooking the Bayview Dog Park, then drove back through Sydney as rush hour approached and went to the supermarket for a couple of basics. Some shelves were bare.

That evening we had a booking at Clovelly Bowling and Recreation Club for barefoot bowls. We arrived a little late but got in enough games to be able to determine the winners. Rachel and Mike won in the last game.

In the morning around elevenses we visited Mahon pool but didn’t swim because it was high tide and fairly rough. The waves were breaking into the pool. So we just picked up a couple of coffees from the Grumpy Baker.

At 12:30 we set off on the bus to Circular Quay, to visit the Botanical Gardens for a quick lunch, to wander round the Opera house and then to have some pre-dinner drinks at the Rocks before splitting up for dinner. Susan and Rachel were going for Susan’s Xmas treat and I was meeting my friends Katy Taylor and Bruce Baker.

Once again, our eyes turned skyward as we watched a topical message being written.

For our first pre-dinner drink we visited the rooftop bar at The Glenmore. Then it was a short walk to the Blu Bar on 36, in the Shangri-la Hotel. We had to wait a short while for a window seat, but it was well worth it for the views.

Then it was another short walk to the Fortune of War. By this time I needed some food, so was happy to receive Katy’s message that she and Bruce were already at Chat Thai. We had a great time catching up and just had enough time to snap a couple of new SB’s before meeting up with Susan and Rachel again on the bus back to Maroubra. They’d had a great time as well.

The first thing we had to do in Maroubra was to go to the beach and watch the surf. Since Rachel and Mike live on the sea front this wasn’t too hard. Next we had to find an ATM. We found one in Maroubra Seals Club.

We had a lazy morning at the flat. After lunch we set off in an Uber with Rachel to walk the Hermitage Foreshore Walk, from Hermit Bay to Watsons Bay, where we were meeting Mike for drinks and dinner. En route we took a few photos of the view.

That evening we wined and dined at the Watsons Bay Boutique Hotel. Starters were Squid Zucchini and Bruschetta Mozzarella.

While Mike and I drank Furphy’s, Susan and Rachel got stuck into Bertoulet Rose. Getting the remains of the second bottle home was a bit of challenge because the restaurant weren’t prepared to give us the screw top; Rachel’s water bottle came to the rescue.