New tickets in hand,
Lourens and I stepped outside and waited. I began to panic that
Kathy would not see me because there were thousands of people all around for
the festivities. I was having no luck contacting her on my phone by any of the
means available on these wonderful modern technological friends. While I was trying another option
I heard "Malikhaya!"
I whipped around and rushed in for a euphoric embrace. They'd found me! After never enough of a hug with Kathy, I embraced James too, and was then introduced to their travel
partner, Chris. Unfortunately, James and
Chris were off to meet other friends in Manly, but Kathy remained with us. Matt had been delayed crossing the congested harbour
because of the navy vessel and a million others, but he eventually also found
us, and we started towards the Botanic Gardens.
Once within the spectacular
oasis, we watched all manner of celebratory activity taking place on the water,
and a Qantas plane did a lazy fly-by overhead.
Mormon James popped by and enjoyed the picnic with us. At one point, Kathy was walking with her
umbrella and James with his, both to protect themselves from the sun. I said, "Oh,
look! We have a colonial British lady
and a Taiwanese lady!" James
quickly defended his masculinity, and I guffawed at his
reaction.
 |
| (more) |
Soon James took leave of us, heading to another appointment in his energetic quest to settle fast. After satiating
ourselves, we toddled through another part of the sprawling gardens, in the
direction of Circular Quay. Once there,
Matt spotted a temporary gin garden that sprouted from the outer wall of the
Contemporary Art Museum. We entered and
sipped on a couple of G&Ts. I hadn't realised how parched the heat and picnic had made me,
and the beverage was most welcome. All
too soon, Matt declared that it was time to go home, since he had to work on
the morrow. I was sad to be saying goodbye, but cheerful reunions must
necessarily have a shelf life. Splendidly,
good friendships do not.
Kathy, Lourens and I returned to Mandelbaum and then on to King Street, where we ate
once again at the Middle Eastern place. I repeated my order of lamb kebab. (This is something I
have never seen in Taiwan, and I'd forgotten how much I love it). Lourens joined me, while Kathy had
falafel. I popped into a bottle
shop to buy some beer. Inside was a customer who looked rather the worse for wear. I paid and exited and
then snapped a few pictures. As I closed my camera, said customer came out of the store and
started to scold me. Why had I put the shutter cap back on so quickly? Because I'd finished taking
pictures, of course. He continued his (fortunately) subdued tirade, so I returned into the store.
When I came out again, Lourens surmised that the man
might have thought I was taking pictures of
him,
mocking his state of inebriation.
Fortuitously, my aggressor was now way ahead of us, and we strolled
comfortably.
 |
| (more) |
We now looked for a bus
that would take us to Coogee, where we'd have to get on a different bus to
Malabar. Kathy asked the driver to let
us know when to get off and which bus to take.
He did just that, but we then discovered that the place he'd dropped us
was not good for connecting along our desired route. While we were trying to figure out what to do
next, a lady about 20 years our senior came over to offer assistance. I was once again amazed
at how friendly and open some Australians seemed to be. After talking for a bit about possible
solutions, she offered to drive us. We
were all stunned by the offer, but being untrusting South Africans, our
response was a unanimous no. The lady
continued to assist, offered again, then walked off. While the three of us continued ploughing
through the route map at the bus stop and Google Maps on our phones, a beat-up
station wagon came reversing towards the stop and screeched to a halt. "Last chance!" shouted our friendly
new acquaintance.
Well, we simultaneously
changed our minds and hopped in. Paula
she was named and 64 was her age. She
drove us through Coogee, Maroubra Beach and on to Malabar, but she stayed off
the more direct main road where there was nothing to see, and instead drove us
up and down the side streets, pointing out places of interest and regaling us
with historical and personal anecdotes. At
one point her car screeched at her. She
picked up a breathalyzer attached to her dashboard and blew hard into it.
She then explained that she'd been caught driving while over the limit
and this was part of her punishment - a full year of breathalyzer-enabled
driving! She was so casual and
unapologetic, that none of us was shocked or frightened for our safety. Finally after perhaps 40 minutes, she dropped
us right in front of the house that Kathy and James had rented on
AirB&B. It had been surreal!
Once there, we dropped our bags and crossed the road to a rock pool. We'd meant to be there for sunset,
accompanied by sundowners, but by now it was already dusk. That did not stop us from taking sundowners
with us. We walked about and then sat on
the rocks while we chatted. Later we
returned to the house. James and Chris arrived back from Manly around midnight, and Lourens and I took their Uber taxi back to Mandelbaum. Our James was sound asleep when we arrived.
