Singaara Sydney

It was a dream weekend. A family that took total care of me, thousands of miles away from home. The perfect platform to do what you felt like during those thirty odd hours. It was one of the best weekend trips I have ever had. Sometimes, these mini breaks refresh you more than one week of sitting on bench at work place :))



With Lakshman and Sudheer around, there was not a single dull moment during my stay in Sydney. The ferry ride from Circular Qway to Manly Beach, the long time no see David Dhawan movie, indoor cricket, Valiant attempt to get into the Club to get a sneak peep into the Ashes, the last minute escape from the Ticket Checkers at Sydney Central… it was one helluva weekend. Add to this my Kannada knowledge, amusing Lucky’s parents and his Paati, as well.

What’s more, the credit should come to me for setting the ball rolling on the topic of Lakshman’s marriage plans. With a total cautious approach from his mother, as she thought, that he was seriously heading somewhere, right under her nose, and the wonderful person that she is, she only requested for her to be kept informed about his plans. An indication that “Son.. We don’t think we can really fetch you a girl.. unless you take the initiative ;-)”

So here goes the detailed account……

I had booked the 8 o clock bus from the city to Sydney. It was just like getting into Rajahamsa on a Friday evening from Bangalore to Chennai. The only difference was that the bus started dot at 8 o clock.
The bus did stop at a few places, including Canberra before touching down the suburb of Liverpool at 7:15 in the morning. Lakshman, was there, waiting patiently, and we were in his house by the 15th minute.

A lively chat with Lucky’s father covering the political ideologies of various groups, life style in Australia,conversions, and mockery of Hinduism in movies was the ideal combo with the suda suda coffee.

A ‘light’ breakfast comprising Pongal(nothing else can compete with Pongal when it comes to Maargazhi maasam type mornings), Adai, sambhar, Chutney and Paayasam, ensure that we could get the day touring started without worrying about the tummies.

Lucky, Sudheer and I started on right earnest , and took a slow double decker train to the city. And there, we just missed the ferry service by 2 minutes, and that gave us the time to have a look around the Opera House, and a good look at the Sydney Bridge. It was surprising to note that one third of Australia’s economic transactions was happening in a couple of buildings located there, and these were not stock exchanges.


The ferry took us to a wharf pretty near the Manly Beach and we did have a good time taking a lazy walk across the beach. What really is admirable is the locals’ unending quest for fitness, and jogging seems to be the preferred mode of transport here.






Back from the beach, we walked quite a distance to Cargo Bar on the opposite side of the National Maritime Museum. There is no other way that we could have built our appetite after that breakfast.

We had gourmet pizzas there, and came back home. We went wound up the day with “Maine Pyaar kyoon Kiya” at Greater Union Multiplex. A nonstop nonsense, that kept us laughing for two and a half hours. Fortunately you expect nothing else from David Dhawan, and this was a real de-stresser kind of a movie. Did I miss out on the Paav Bhaji at “Thousand Spices”. Well, it was the best Pav bhaji I have had in the last couple of years.




Sunday was rather quiet with a slow 9 o clock start. Then, watched some competitive Indoor Cricket stuff, had brilliant bisi bele bath, and then also tried my hand at outdoor cricket, but there was just about half an hours time left.

The best was yet to come. Leaving from home as scheduled, at 7:15 to catch the 8 o clock bus, and reaching the complex at 7:45, one wouldn’t have expected any problems. But, we thought that going via the subway across the station, would save us some two minutes, and what’s more the entry was a through fare. But what we found to our dismay were, that all the exits were manned by Ticket checkers. We just had one ticket, and we moved from exit to exit, to check if we had any luck. What we have all heard is “If God closes one door, he would open nine other”. In this case, He was atleast kind enough to open one door, while closing nine.

We just managed to scrape through with the same ticket. And the return journey started again back on time. Just in case, you get an impression that this is the end of the story……………………………………….. yes.. you are right. Back on Monday morning for work. I am sure no one would like to read or even think about it!