Leona, Barbara and I headed to the Rocks Museum as we’d missed it the day before when we went out on the ferry to visit Watson’s Bay. We stopped to have lunch at the Museum of Contemporary Art but the line was very long so we left, did the museum and came back later for a lovely lunch of Reuben sandwich and fries with a great harbor view, .
The Museum is in one of the old buildings from the settlements here in the 1840s. It basically was a harbor slum and later they cleaned it out when the Bubonic plague hit in the early 1900s from all the rats coming off the ships. There were artifacts on display showing pieces of Wedgewood and Willowware china. There was a series of short films showing movies from the 1930s as the Harbor Bridge was being constructed. It was called the Iron Lung because it gave so many Depression era workers jobs to keep their families from starving.
They showed pictures of the Cadigal aboriginal tribe who were living here when the first European settlers arrived. Very briefly they got along but soon fences were put up and they were pretty nearly wiped out by smallpox or escaped out of the area. It was reported that “no civilization was living here.” They pretty much discounted these people all over Australia until the 1990s when they began to claim some rights and land.
We headed back on the 555 bus to Paddy’s Market - like a Chinese market where I found the Australian lanyard to hold water bottles I’d been looking for, bought a pony tail hairpiece like Marilyn had gotten the day before and headed back to the hotel nearby to rest up for the basketball game that night.
Barbara talked to Bob and Mary who were going across the street to the Sydney Kings vs. Melbourne United basketball game at the Qantas Area. So we got tickets for $55 each and went. Barbara is a huge UCONN men’s and women’s team fan as well as other pro teams. I thought it would be fun so I went along. We saw some other team before playing a game but not many people were there watching. Two young teenage boys sat next to Barbara and they discussed more about the team. At one point during the game, on the big TV screens hanging from the center, they scan the audience and put up some pictures. They had a drum picture and audience members would pretend they were playing the drums. These guys got picked up and there was Barbara for a few seconds up on the big TV screen! They also had a kissing monitor and if your picture showed up there, you had to kiss your partner.
The teams (Kings) colors are purple and gold (like Gail’s Vikings!) and Barb had wanted to get a t-shirt but we didn’t find any. Mary and Bob got hot dogs for dinner and said they were pretty gross! The game was very exciting, with the Kings being ahead through the whole 4 quarters until the last 10 minutes. At 1/2 time they were 10 points ahead. Then at the end the Melbourne United pulled ahead and ended up winning by two points!! A nail-biter!
The 1/2 time show was some new local singers in a tight flowered outfit with about 10 black-clothed men and women dancers doing cartwheels, dancing all around her. They also had the lion mascot at one point shooting what I guess were t-shirts out of a pretty powerful gun out into the audience. Cheerleaders were doing cheer and acrobatics across the arena at various breaks. Very good game and fun stuff to watch! I thoroughly enjoyed it!
Because of some noisy construction in our hotel, we had received a card for a complimentary drink. So we sat in the bar with Bob and Mary with our VB (Victoria Bitters) beer chatting about kids! Their daughter had gone to St. Mary’s at Notre Dame in South Bend, IN. I think she now lives in Florida. Bob and Mary are from Cleveland area. She worked for Cleveland Clinic in the financial department
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