Barmy Army!

Hello again! As I said before, highlights of my December are now on photobucket!

Back as a solo traveller in Sydney, I spent a bit of time relaxing before heading towards the last couple of tourist spots I wanted to visit. Getting the train across to Milson’s Point on a bright and sunny day, I took a few must-do-tourist photos from the North side of the bridge, before having to dive in the shade and invest in an ice cream to cool down.

Then, it was a slow walk back over the bridge – a much more relaxing affair than the last time I’d crossed it in pouring rain with Emily – before heading up the Harbour Bridge Museum. As well as giving a history lesson of the bridge and the local surrounds, and explaining how it was built, it also offered a unique view of the bridge and city via the rooftop viewing platform. To rivet the bridge, workers had to slide rods of steel into an oven at the end of the bridge, before putting them in a bucket to take up the bridge (still red hot!), which were then thrown to the riveters, wherever they needed them. This could be right in the middle of the bridge, where safety equipment wasn’t provided. Incredibly, only 16 people dies during the entire construction of the bridge, and only 2 of those were from falling off from a great height.

In fact, one such worker did fall from quite a height, and incredibly survived with nothing more than a cracked rib and a bit of bruising… Even more surprising when you consider he fell into the harbour below with enough force to split his boots and lift them up to be around his knees!

With the final Ashes test held in Sydney, Vodafone had gone all out to provide an area to watch it, and so Circular Quay had been partially transformed into a cricket fanzone – bars, seats, and a huge screen showing the test. I sat to watch the end of the afternoon session as we headed towards an unassailable lead over Australia. From the cheers amongst the crowd, there sadly weren’t many Aussies in the crowd, apparently they’re very much fair weather fans.

My final day in Sydney, I meandered towards the Art Gallery of NSW (New South Wales) to head down to the First Emperor exhibition – a story of a the First Emperor Qin of China. Qin took to power at just 13 years old, and when he came of age, began a determined campaign to unify the warring Chinese states. By the time he was 30, he had unified the country, and it is thought that it is from his name that we take the name of China. As a forward planner, he had begun to plan his burial from his teenage years, in a monument that would put the Egyptian rulers to shame.

Found by accident by fruit pickers, Qin’s burial ground is inside a huge (and still unexcavated) palace beneath a hill, while all around it are buried rows of terracotta soldiers, horses, and tools of war. Further digging has revealed terracotta entertainers, swans, and all manner of niceties to take to the afterlife. Incredibly, some empty pits would suggest that even in the 20 years of Qin’s planning, it was still unfinished at the time of his death. It is an unbelievable collection of workmanship being uncovered, and the Art Gallery of NSW has just a small collection showcasing the finds so far. It is expected that it will take decades to fully discover what is hidden just below the ground.

As I left Sydney by plane the next day, this seems as good a point as any to leave the story. It was with a certain shame that I left when I did, on the 5th day of the Ashes test. Organisers had decided that entry was free on day 5 in a desperate attempt to have anyone other than gloating Poms in the crowd.
And finally, I leave you with this clip of Central Coast Mariners goals against Adelaide United, just because it is my favourite game so far.