Mrs Butler and Anita (D23)

We got the 504 bus to Circular Quay. The roads are busy into town. The people of Sydney have rejected a congestion charge for similar reasons to us in Manchester. These include having an inadequate public transport system. Surprisingly they don't have an underground metro service, unlike most modern European cities. Anyway we got there and walked to the New South Wales art gallery. Here is an exhibition of Aboriginal art. The paintings are on tree bark and of animal spirits and strange shapes. I'm not allowed to take photos as the artists feel it would offend those spirits. Of course I comply.

We have lunch in the cafe overlooking Wooloomooloo. I've done a separate blog of Wooloomooloo. Over lunch Jocelyne reminds me that she came to live with us for a while in Beau Bassin. Her parents, Matant & Guidou and the family had moved to Mahebourg. She was at Queen Elizabeth College (for girls) in Beau Bassin. Although only about 20 miles away, commuting was out of the question. It took all day to travel so far in Mauritius. Mum taught at the college. On the way I and later my brother would be dropped off at the Kindergarten. This was run my a Mrs Butler. I'd forgotten her name, but I do remember her being a lovely lady who told us interesting stories and kept us amused until we were collected again.

So Jocelyne knows a little about our family from when I was about four or five years old. Interesting. Anita, my nanny and the household's Indian servant was ever present. She would speak creole and so my father would have to translate to my mother. One story Jocelyne reminded me of was when some of my older cousins played a practical joke on him. They hid my dad's car. It was an old Wolseley with flick up indicators. He was very proud of it. Remember he'd be about thirty at the time. Very funny I'm sure, only dad didn't quite see the funny side. Several stories emerged which we shall keep to ourselves. So excited was Jos about telling these tales that her coffee went flying into her lap. Oh dear.

When we'd finished we went on to the Botanic Gardens. There is an extraordinary variety of trees and shrubs here. It is also the home for 22,000 fruit bats which are destroying he precious plant life. The Aussie is much angst about what to do about them. They're so cute. I say cull them, the fruit bat that is.

One of the most rare trees in the garden is the Wollemi Pine. It was discovered only as recently as 1994, in a remote series of narrow, steep-sided sandstone gorges of the Wollemi National Park, 150 kilometres north-west of Sydney. It is the sole living species of the genus Wollemia. It is called the fossil tree since the only other relatives are fossils that date from approximately 2 million years ago.

So two contrasting examples. One species colonising, adapting, proliferating and destroying everything else. Another not adapting, pushed to remote areas and dying out.

Our return journey was on the Port Jackson ferry which connects Drummoyne to Circular Quay. There is a great view of the different suburbs from this aspect. Public transports not so bad in Sydney after all.