Living in "The Toaster"

I just realized (ok, Phil came up with the suggestion this morning) that you haven't seen where we live down here yet. Yes, we live in what's fondly, or not so fondly referred to as "The Toaster". When this apartment complex was built, most people ( or Sidneysiders, as people who live in Sydney are called...I know, what?) were totally against the construction. They felt like it cut off the Opera House and the Botanical Gardens (directly behind the buildings) from the rest of Sydney. And yes, I can see why people would call it a kitchen appliance. It does sort of remind you of a toaster. Here it is...our apartment circled in red, and yes, we really do live next to the Opera House. Cool, isn't it?





On the ground floor of the apartment complex are a bunch of shops, little restaurants, and a couple of small outdoor cafes. Ask Phil how his $8.00 piece of chocolate cake was from one of those outdoor cafes the other night. No wonder they didn't put the price on the menu.

The next picture is looking out from our little balcony. We have a great view of the Harbour Bridge from home sweet home. We plan to watch the New Year's Eve fireworks from it come December. Check out the dark clouds...drought? yeah right. If you look to North Sydney, right under the bridge you can see Luna Park. It's an amusement park. This is where Phil asked for a hotdog when he was down here awhile ago for business and he was handed a hot pink, nee magenta colored hot dog.

Looking straight ahead off of our balcony you can see the Contemporary Art Museum (the yellowish-orangish building). Being the patrons of contemporary art that we are (yes the reclining nude statue from our living room is still put away) I don't envision too many trips there. To the right of the museum is the area known as "The Rocks". If you remember from an earlier post, this is the oldest part of Sydney. The little white house there in the front-right of the picture is Cadman's Cottage, the oldest resdence in Sydney. The overseas cruise terminal is right in front of The Rocks. A big Celebrity Cruise Ship just left a day or so ago and now a smaller boat came in this afternoon. You can also see the many ferry boats coming and going from the ferry terminal just to the left of the picture. It's like living on Staten Island! (If I mentioned my Upper Peninsula of Michigan heritage in an earlier post, I most certainly can't leave out my Staten Island heritage too.)

Finally, the last picture is downtown Sydney. The ferry, train, and bus terminals are all right there so we can pretty much get anywhere in Sydney from the apartment. The yellowish stone building with the clock on the front is the Customs House building. It was built in 1885 and is on the place where supposedly the Union flag was first flown in Australia in 1788. (Yes, the handy guide book once again.) See the green canopy at the bottom of the picture? An aborigine sits there every day playing his digideroo for all the tourists. (and the opportunity to get your picture taken with him. Did I mention that you could buy his cds for $10?) Tomorrow I'll post pictures of the inside of our apartment in all of it's glory.