Day 6, an end to a perfect day.

Cousin Andrew had contacted us that day and we'd arranged to have dinner at his place, so now we had a bit of time to kill and we had to do a bit of train shuffling. Here we wait at Parramatta station, it came to my attention that day that Olivia blended into the crowd better than I did, things have changed over the years.

Surprisingly I'm still looking fresh at Strathfield but the day has been a top adventure.

A church at Burwood, where I looked unsuccessfully for a watch battery.

Another train and we'd arrived at Andrew's place where much to our surprise he put on a real cordon bleu feed, I'd told Olivia that Andrew was a proper chef and he cooked pretty well but this was stunning.

Then the desert was even more stunning, everything was hand made including the ice-cream, Andrew doesn't work as a chef these days but I think he may do a bit of judging sometimes, based on this I believe it.

Here Andrew takes a photo of Olivia, it seems he even took the effort to clean his ear.

Here we all pose, pity my face doesn't match how I felt.

Olivia loved his bear.

Our day was long and the time came to return to Vineyard, this is a now pretty empty Strathfield station while we wait a few minutes for the train.

Day 6, by ferry to Parramatta.

More sightseeing as we took a ferry to Parramatta, quite appropriate that we should get the Marjorie Jackson named after the same who was known as the Lithgow Flash and even won two Olympic gold medals at running back in 1952, Grace and I even lived in the "Jackson Flats" housing commission units named after her for a time when we lived in Lithgow.

A ship at the Maritime museum opposite the Darling Harbour stop.

Going under the Gladesville bridge which still looks modern more than 50 years since it was built.

I noticed that plenty of these pylons were marked as unsafe, with those not marked nearly as bad, a big replacement job would be coming that'll be both expensive and irritating to ferry users.

The weir here marks the end of the trip at Parramatta.

I saw Terminator 2 at this picture theatre when it was released, it's now under repair and I had to hoist the camera up to get a view over the boards.

Nice church at Parramatta.

Queensland Arcade, that sign caught my eye, we weren't the only ones taking pictures either, but our cameras are sneaky little things.

Day 6, Manly to Circular Quay.

A nice bit of foreshore close to Manly jetty.

Passengers on the fast ferry appear to be sipping chardonnay and looking down on us on the normal ferry. It seems the hydrofoil must have been replaced.

The ICS Allegiance heads out of the heads on its way to Geelong. its home port is Nassau in the Bahamas but somehow I doubt if it's ever been there, mere punters like us would be hauled over the coals if we tried to register our cars conveniently in another state. The sailing boat must be practicing for the next Sydney-Hobart race which sadly can't be viewed in Australia these days due to it being on free TV and them not putting it on their HD channel, I'm afraid blurry SD doesn't cut it any more so my eyes can't be bothered enduring it.

The Narrabeen makes another trip, this time we were aboard the Freshwater.

30 years ago the Centrepoint tower was the highest thing on the Sydney skyline, still is by the look of it, not as much change as Dubai has had.

We pass by Fort Denison, Sydney's version of Alcatraz but it stopped having that purpose way earlier.

Olivia still smiling.

Seaweed grows at Circular Quay and shows how clean the water is now, 40 years ago nobody was brave enough to consider entering the water in any city but now things are vastly cleaner.

Day 6, Manly.

Manly and Olivia takes a photo of me showing off how neat my last haircut worked out. Unusually it seemed a pushbike rider here wears a helmet, I saw plenty of riders whizzing about the Corso and very few wore a helmet, it seems image and peer pressure is everything here.

A nice church, keen eyes may note the lighter coloured sky on the left due to the sun, something to think about with blue sky photos is the best blue is usually 90 degrees from the sun.

The shop name should verify where we were, I also noted there was an abundance of people walking their dogs, which I also couldn't help but think were only fashion accessories.

Some surfers braving the waves in bitterly cold weather, I think they'd be making sure their peers saw them doing it. They get waves here but the barrier reef curtails waves on most of the QLD coast, it also protects it from tsunamis but while a sniff of funding can be gained by instilling fear it's loathe to be admitted.

 The beach gets plenty of walking judging by the footprints, hopefully but unlikely without dogs in tow.

Looks cool from this angle,

and way different from this one.

Irksome to an old fella like me but it's fairly common for people to neglect maintenance.
This chain appears to have never felt the soothing feel of oil since it was fitted.

Nice sky compared to the grey we drove down under.

Day 6, Train and Ferry to Manly

This day will be the highlight of our trip, and we made a nice early start to it catching a train at Vineyard while it was still pre-dawn. The station is unmanned and only has a single track, the blue post gave us a chance to swipe our OPAL cards for the first time.

Central Station looked about the same as always but we only had to walk 9 metres to cross the platform to change trains.

Olivia's first view of the Sydney harbour goodies, from Circular Quay. The ferry in the background is the Narrabeen which we took to Manly.

Olivia on the ferry, I hadn't noticed the window reflections when I took the shot.

Olivia again with an iconic bridge in the background.

Rather a nice photo of Jimby so I'll shamelessly post it.

The mast from the first HMAS Sydney (not the one that sunk with all hands) at Bradleys Head, my original plan for the trip included a visit there but that was ruined when I discovered they charged like a wounded bull to access it now, it was free 20 years ago when I'd visited it.

Olivia with the heads in the background.

Day 5 to Vineyard.

After Lithgow we headed to Katoomba to check out the Three Sisters but things have changed a plenty since my last visit, you now have to pay but with the crowds that are there now spaces close enough are like hen's teeth, so I dropped Olivia off and drove around the block while letting her photograph away.

Some of the crowd.

Picking Olivia up again was even more difficult as stopping places for picking up are rare and Olivia doesn't understand yet that stopping at all in a no stopping zone almost results in a long jail term, we don't have a death penalty so that's about all they can do.

An odd one here but to add a Philippines touch we stopped at Rizal Park at Rooty Hill, Rizal was a hero of the Philippines who died in 1899 and every locality in the country has a Rizal Rd/St.

Olivia was glum because Jimby groaned about the smudge she had left on the camera lens after using it at the Three Sisters.

But then she cheered up when she found a lovely spinning bucket that seemingly had her name on it.

Then on to our quite excellent accommodation for the next three nights at Vineyard, we had about the middle one of the blue huts in the background, about all that was lacking was WiFi and Foxtel but the price was superb and it was very comfortable.

Day 5 Bathurst to Lithgow.

The start of the day put us in a good mood, we began to pack Daisy and this lovely pair of lasses asked if I had jumper leads, no said Jimby but I have one of those tiny new little battery packs that should get you started, however I did get a little paler when I saw it was a diesel but the little starter pack spun it into life, putting smiles on everybody.

The exhaust if puffing and happiness abounds.

 Olivia at the very bland front of The Hallows accommodation, which was an excellent place to stay.

Being so close to the Mount Panorama circuit we had to do a lap, albeit with a punitive speed limit.

Nearing the top at Yetholme, the highest part of our whole trip.

A detour to Portland cemetery to see the graves of our neighbours at one time when Grace and I lived in Lithgow, they were smokers who despite having emphysema had no desire to stop their drug addiction, I see their son has also died now but with Grace dead I have nobody to tell.

My old workmate Al with his wife Robyn, both looking well, Al had his birthday on Sunday and Robyn has hers on Thursday, Happy Birthday.

Another workmate Bronwyn who's looking really good still, it's been 20 years since I worked with her.

We had to buy a card so we could use public transport when we visited Sydney, what was most irksome was it took an absolute age of waiting to achieve that seemingly simple task, Olive loves a selfie and here she sits waiting for her number to be called.