Poms to Oz: I Should Be So Lucky, Lucky, Lucky, Lucky!

Saturday 10th December 2016

Our target for the day was to see the fireworks at Darling Harbour at 9pm (a late night for us oldies). We hatched a plan to do some exploring of the parkland areas to the east of our accommodation. Then we would return to the apartment for tea and then go out into the city. That morning therefore involved walking around Moore Park and Centennial Park. However, adjacent to Moore Park is Sydney Cricket Ground, the Allianz Stadium and the Entertainment Quarter.

I checked the Cricket Ground website for tour info but found that the daily tour was at 10am and cost 30 dollars each. We had missed the time anyway. Off we toddled in the general direction.

As we walked past the Cricket Ground we saw that an event was taking place which turned out to be a membership recruitment day for the Sydney Rooster Rugby League Club. Security people on the gate told us that we couldn't join the event but told us that there were some free tours of the Cricket Ground in about 10 minutes and so they would let us pass.

This was amazing luck. I felt like singing Kylie's song, 'I Should be so Lucky'. Whilst we waited we gate crashed the rugby league event too and met the mascot....

The free tour of the Cricket Ground was to celebrate the 120th Anniversary of the Ladies Pavilion and the tour guide was dressed up in Edwardian costume and offered others the opportunity to dress up too.

Janice took the opportunity with both hands. She looks radiant. She is the current Grange Edwardian Festival champion after all!

We also had a tour of the museum and talked about the Bodyline Series in 1933 where England bowler Harold Larwood bowled at the bodies of the Aussie batsmen. It wasn't cricket!

We walked a bit further and saw the Allianz Stadium which is used by Sydney FC, Sydney Swans (Aussie Rules Football), Sydney Roosters (Rugby League) and the Waratahs (Rugby Union).

Another community event was taking place across the road to celebrate 150 years of Moore Park's creation. It was more of a family and kids event but I couldn't resist a photo with the Waratahs mascot..

There were various sports fields all round the area and as we walked away we found a large field where 3 cricket matches were in progress. They all looked to be a good standard of play.

We watched for a while and saw a couple of good boundaries before they had a break in play.

Next was the Entertainment Quarter which included the Fox TV studios. There was a Santaland and a general market. We had a coffee and walked into Centennial Park, which is very large and is mainly open grassy area, tropical trees and lakes. There was a Vernon Pavilion too named after Walter Vernon who was Chief Architect of New South Wales at the time it was built.

Back to the apartment for a Chinese chicken noodle meal (ingredients from a nearby Chinese supermarket).

In the evening we went to Darling Harbour and got a good position to watch the fireworks.

My darling in Darling Harbour.

The whole area was buzzing and thronging with people. The cafes and bars were really busy too. The fireworks were possibly the best I've seen other than the New Years Eve fireworks in London.