TV show: Arrival in Sydney [April 06]
Posted by Juliet on May 6th, 2006Juliet Kinsman:
When I was told our second show would be filmed in Sydney, my heart sank. What travel writer could dare say that? Someone who isn’t a fan of the 21-hour flight there and who suffers jetlag like no one else… so I threw a bit of princess strop and insisted on business class. I have to confess, it made all the difference. Despite feeling worse for wear when I started the across-the-world trek. Having had my first flight cancelled from Heathrow, I got a cab straight to a pub to meet a pal to drown my sorrows. Fast forward 8 hours: mmmm, long haul with a hangover. But, as my friend Pete emailed me, “with a hangover surely all you want to do is lounge about, snooze when you want, watch movies and have someone at your beck and call to bring food and drinks at your command — in other words, ‘fly long haul’.” How right he is.
With a few days in Sydney before filming started, Andrew and I were lucky enough to be staying in Balmain. A morning jog along the water’s edge was the perfect way to shake off that jetlag. (Not helped that I was woken by builders next door to my aunt’s house where I was staying, who started their hammering and drilling at 7:01am. I’m not sure if it was the din they created with their tools that was most grating. Or their mindless chitchat: “Yeah mate, I’m not so good in bed,” revealed one, inspiring raucous guffawing. “Sleeping, I mean, mate,” he attempted to explain. “I really toss and turn. He then swore and turned up the radio. They then all sang along, in a ear-bleeding off-key style, to what was playing: Men at Work, Land Down Under. Of course.)
I was amazed to see that armies of those fresh-faced Sydneysiders are up and at ‘em early walking dogs and going for runs at 6am (if I went out at that hour on a Sunday back home in NW London, I’d probably see more people staggering along still up from the night before).
Still, what a delightful place Darling Street is to hangout at, so I was happy for the early start. Fab boutiques such as Juel for wonderful reasonably-proced jewellery and Alfie’s Little Brother Carter (www.alfies.com.au), where you can even pick up labels such as Duffer cheaper than they are back in Blighty. And lots of fab eateries to sample that world-famous cuisine: sushi, Thai, vegetarian – you’ll find it all.
By the way, here’s a tip for someone with some cash to spare: open a boutique hotel in this neck of the woods. You wouldn’t believe how thin on the ground Smith-style hotels are in Australia, and Balmain would be a wonderful neighbourhood to plonk one in. Anyway, I digress (although isn’t that the point of a Blog?)
But back to Smith business: the hotels we chose to ‘investigate’ for the show were: Design-conscious, contemporary Establishment in the financial district, buzzing beachside bolthole, Ravesi’s right on Bondai and antique-filled Tower Lodge in Hunter Valley. What did we make of them? You’ll have to watch the show, aired some time in October, to find out. And did we have some fun along the way? The morning on yacht in Sydney Harbour was OK, I guess. And I suppose having cocktails at De Nom upstairs at Ruby Rabbit was not a bad way to spend an evening, I suppose. Look, it’s a tough job, but somebody has to do it.
Andrew Grahame:
Sydney went very well although it was a lot harder than Cape Town due to less filming days, slower local team and a few unavoidable hiccups. So we got less footage, but the producers feels we have some great stuff. The real clincher was staying in Balmain – it’s probably one of the best places to live in Sydney. It’s hard to believe such a superb sunshine world city that has held the Olympic games can be so disappointing when it comes to boutique hotels. If I were to be really harsh, I’d say: Establishment hotel in the CBD was stylish but a bit corporate and bland, Ravesis’ on Bondai is in a great locatio as the whole area is no longer backpacker hell but a cool hang-out with great bars, but the hotel is borderline Smith.
Tower Lodge out in Hunter Valley is also in a great location huge rooms and very homely but looks like a correctional facility from the outside. Still, they’ve all got sufficient charms for us to recommend them on the website, if not bang on the Smith money.
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