I watched Break Morant last night. It was a good film, though I am told that the South African accents are not realistic. Morant, an Australian cattle breaker, was put through a hasty trial by the British military during the Boer War in South Africa. He is portrayed as a scapegoat to cover up some British blunders. I want to see if I can find some poems written by Morant because that is highlighted in the film. The British government just recently has decided to reinvestigate the case to see if they gave Morant a fair trial. The goal is to possibly exonerate him. The British typically did not treat the Australians or New Zealanders well in their history.
Today was a lovely day. I awoke early and cooked some bacon and eggs for the brethren. I do like cooking. It seems to be a part of my ministry of food. I’m half-Italian. It is in my blood. Then I met some friends in Sydney Harbor to spend a day visiting. These friends have a link to the town next to my boyhood town of Douglas, Massachusetts. I know this family rather well and I was able to meet Cathy, her husband, John, and their daughter, Caitlin. I would have included their pics, but I did not ask their permission to publish them online.
We walked along the harbor and saw the cruise ship, Queen Victoria. How stately. Poor John is recovering from a back and hip injury and we did a fair amount of walking. We went to the Rocks, which is an open air market. It is quite fun. We ate at an excellent Italian restaurant on the pedestrian mall.
Then we took a coffee tour of Sydney Harbour. The tour departed from Gate 6 and sailed for two hours. It was narrated by a very thorough cruise master. The harbor was very busy with a number of sailing competitions going on as it was a Saturday at the tail end of summer. The Australians really love their water. We traveled by many coves and beaches and many mansions. It was quite a scenic tour. Some of the homes cost in the millions. One house was in the market for 60 million, but many of them were below 30 million AUD. There’s lots of money in Sydney.
One of the coolest parts of the trip was encountering rough waters where the harbor met the ocean. You could just feel the difference in the waves. The harbor does have many sharks, but there has not been a serious attack in seven months. The man lost his arm and a leg. However, that does not impede swimming at all or sailing. There were many sailboats and windsurfers who tipped over and had to be in the water for a while as they wrestled with their vessels to get them aright. I can’t believe the number of boats and ships that line the harbor. A boat is an expensive piece of property and there are thousands of them just for pleasure vessels. We passed by three nude beaches and I did not take any photos of those areas. I do want to visit the zoo that is one the other side of the harbor.
The cruise served coffee and tea, but they had a lot of desserts as well. I don’t think I can remember the name of it, but they served a cake that was moist yellow cake inside dipped in chocolate and rolled in coconut. It was so moist and tasty that I had three. So much for fasting. I had a flat white as well.
Cathy, John, and Caitlin were great hosts. It is so neat to see that Cathy looks like her father and her siblings. It was easy to spot her at the Quay. I look forward to seeing them again.
When I came home we had breaded lamb chops and then we played bocce and Frisbee before watching Quantum of Solace. Oh, I saw the movie Kenny a few weeks ago. It was very funny. I also saw a film with a very young Sam Neill in it. I like his character in Jurassic Park better than the crazed, bohemian
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