Tag Archives: Sydney

Is it fair playing the AFL Grand Final at the MCG every year?

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Last night’s tremendous heart stopping GWS Richmond game was Richmond’s fourth loss of the season and their fourth loss of four on the road.

This just a week after Bruce McAvaney’s suggestion that Richmond might be the greatest team of all time. Why that might be seen as overreach would be worthy of further comment except Bruce is somewhat prone to overreach as he sits at the microphone.

These were prompts for asking the question – Is it fair that the AFL Grand Final is played at the MCG every year?

The AFL Grand Final has been played at the MCG since the VFL became the AFL and the AFL recently locked in its continuance at the MCG for a further 30 plus years recently. I found that decision surprising for a national competition particularly where there seems empirical support for Home Ground advantage playing an important part in the result.

We talk endlessly about the benefit of home ground advantage Continue reading →

Sydney by Ferry

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The Harbour is what makes Sydney, as everyone knows, and so what better way to get around it than by ferry?

We’d taken the ferry to Balmain on our first day in Sydney and so as the clouds cleared on our second morning, we grabbed our Opal Cards and set off. This time rather than getting in the ferry at Pyrmont Bay we decided to walk across the Pyrmont Bridge and walk around to Barangaroo.

Barangaroo is a new trendy mix of business and hospitality. Being a Saturday morning it was not particularly busy and so rather than stopping for a coffee, we decided to hop on a ferry and head to Circular Quay. I thought we’d have an early lunch at Cafe Sydney, but it was closed and with the weather still a bit dodgy we decided to have a light lunch at one of the Harbourside restaurants. I was surprised how pleasant the meal was given these are so often straight tourist traps! We were able to sit and watch the people and ferries go by as well as look across to a large passenger ship moored at the International terminal. Looking at the ship again reconfirmed why I remain not that keen on a cruise – all those people and nowhere to hide!!

As we sat the weather cleared and we decided we head into Watsons Bay, not for lunch as we had originally planned but for a glass of wine.  It’s about a half hour trip via Rose Bay. This ferry ride gave us a great chance to see the Harbour in all its glory.

Once at Watsons Bay, we headed for the Watsons Bay Boutique Hotel and it’s 800 seat bar and dining area, known as the Beach Club. How can anything that seats 800 be boutique? Continue reading →

Sydney – The Naval Museum and Balmain

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We travelled to Sydney with our daughter who had a convention to attend. Her conference was at the New Exhibition Centre in Darling Harbour giving us an excuse to stay somewhere we’d not been before.

We chose to stay in an Airbnb apartment in Pyrmont. Very convenient to our daughter’s convention and opening new places for us to discover and visit.

With our daughter off at the convention, our first stop was breakfast at the Social Brew Cafe. It was busy. I can only imagine that it would be frantic on a Saturday or Sunday. The coffee was great and the eggs excellent. It provided a good base to start our day. Continue reading →