Once we arrived at the zoo we walked around for a while, focusing on looking at the flora and fauna that are native to Australia.  This of course included looking at the kangaroos, wallabies, and koala bears.  Although it was extremely interesting to see these creatures, the more dramatic part of the zoo was the fact that you take a gondola ride to the top, and gradually work your way through the zoo down the side of a hill.  The vertical nature of the zoo gives you the opportunity to see the Sydney harbor at many different angles and perspectives.  Plus, it was a good zoo – we’ll definitely have to bring J.R. there at some point.

After the zoo we met up with another client.  This client drove us approximately 30 minutes out into the suburbs of Sydney, to his home.  Just visiting a Sydney home was comforting, because you feel like the world just got a little smaller.  We sat in his kitchen, ate cake and drank coffee, and joked around with his wife while his children played in the next room.  It made me a little homesick, but it also made me feel like home wasn’t so far away.  Then he decided to show us suburban Sydney… and even parts of the ghetto.

Meat Raffle!

We started by getting some food at a local pub.  The place was very well put together, and I had a nice veal schnitzel dinner.  When we sat down at our table, a lady came walking around with a large tray of meat – steaks, pork chops, sausages, meatballs.  We asked our client what was going on, and he mentioned quite casually that it was a meat raffle.  Apparently the local children’s sports teams frequently raffle trays of donated meat in order to help fund their sports activities.  This then became the topic of conversation for the rest of the meal, and we had many laughs about the concept of a meat raffle.  Then, as we were finishing up one of the children and his father started walking around with another meat tray – Another meat raffle!  This time we couldn’t resist, so we bought three tickets, and got our picture taken with the meat.  About fifteen minutes later, they drew the winning number – 11.  My boss had 13.  My client had 12.  And sure enough, I had lucky number 11.  

Out of all of the people in the pub, I won a styrofoam tray full of meat.  Of course, this called for another photo op.  So, we walked out of the pub with our meat tray and headed back to deliver it to our client’s wife.  Boy was she “chuffed.”  (Australian word.  Is chuffed a good thing or a bad thing?  I’ll let you figure it out).

After winning the meat raffle, we got a tour of some of the other suburban highlights of Sydney, including Rooty Hill RSL.  Apparently, veterans have formed social clubs that have gradually grown into large establishments that feature slot machines.  In other words, veteran RSLs are the equivalent of stateside Indian Casinos.  There are a lot of differences, however.  The point of taking us to Rooty Hill though was to show us a part of the city that would never show up on a tour guide’s stop list.  In fact, if you tell most Sydney residents that someone took you to Rooty Hill, they’d reply by either laughing or by asking “who took you there, and why in the world would they take you to Rooty Hill?”

All in all, today was a lot of fun, and it was a great end to a great trip.

Sydney is an absolutely beautiful city that seems to have more to see around every corner.  I suggest making a trip down to Australia if you ever have the chance.  Make sure you do the bridge climb though.  It is a spectacular way to fully appreciate how amazing of a city this is.

Jim in Sydney