Betwixting The Ashes: Part Four “Life Goes On in 2026” and a mighty Bridge Bang & Wallop Sydney Style

Well it’s hardly ideal is it? In the grottiest trains on Earth arriving 6 hours late in Sydney when THAT FORTH TO COME NIGHT the 31st December I’m invited to an amazing par-Tay in North Sydney LITERALLY with the most perfect view for the two fireworks shows to mark 2026’s arrival and I haven’t slept for 60 hours have a hacking cough and Hello Vera covers my Eek!

Anyway I arrive at my grotty Barmy Army hotel and get into my grotty room for a much needed 180 minutes of shudd-eye b4 taking the Metro to the rather delightful area North of the Bridge with a station called Victoria Cross. She’d have been flaming Not Amused I’d say. But the hosts the guests the family and the astonishing location are a treat, especially as my dear pal Lucy is with me for NYE. Wondrous and it’ll take me months to sort out the best snaps…..

Getting back at 1am is predictably a nightmare with a zillion police and revellers all heading up to the station….I get home limp PRONOUNCED LIMP at 02.30 and conk out realising I’m also totally deaf in my right ear….turns out it’s not due to the deafening tediously endless Barmy Army fans adjacent at Melbourne but an ear infection diagnosed by the lovely Dr Ellie and sorted by party cohost Kate. Thanks to both. The antibiotics are kicking in!!!

So I went to my final (ever) Barmy Party and My Lord it seemed like Brexit Personified. At least Brett Lee, Cookie and Swann (cricketers, dear) were on stage bantering amusingly but the massed “song singing” was flipping horrible…..”we are mental and we are mad”….talk about both politically and harmonically incorrect….

Plus my old Sydney Gay Bar was that night kinda vile. QED IT’S Me. I knew it all along. Hang on, no it isn’t !

So I conclude that I probably need a quieter life. With new Hearing Aids. As I leave the bar with Young Hearts Run Free I realise that my tune is “Old Hearts, Have Had, A triple bypass)”.

Sydney is however truly fabulous warm bustling bars galore Asian Restaurants on every Chopstick and more Fried Everything than you can shake a Pom at.

So before doing more tourism wine tasting and three yes THREE sets of friends, it’s the small matter of the fifth and final Ashes Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Apart from the last day where we could sit anywhere it was more appalling sun burning 50+ lotions and potions everywhere, plus one day we all (80,000 of us) wore pink for the charity Glenn McGrath (former fab fast flinger for the convicts) set up in aid of his late wife. I bought another Barmy Polo top but in pink plus a McGrath charity pink bandana, that’s rather fetching….

Well, we lost again but only after hero Joe Root and new hero and cute 22 yr old Jacob Bethell both scored centuries!!!!!

After this it’s the 9th of January and a glorious sense of unease and nerves is palpably lifted for my final ever (probably) 11 days in Sydney and Australia. Movies to be seen plus sights to see friends to visit up the coast and then back in Sydney. Lovely people to meet (Hi new mate Tyler in the Irish Pub)!

I maintain that Australia has really got so much right, plus the weather which from Cairns and Brisbane down to Melbourne and here has been crazily variable for Summer but when hot it’s dangerously hot, well, the country seems to this tourist to be forward looking, beautiful, multi cultural, humorous and most importantly possesses a BLOODY BETTER CRICKET TEAM THAN US MITE!

Plus it’s a readjustment of my drinking and eating habits plus trying a couple of newer spots in the Oxford Street 🌈 village, such as the lovely The Riley and new favourite pub The Oxford Hotel!

New hotel new breakfast regime ish, but the coffee and juice are fresh and superb, best yet! Morning routine of morning coffee morning coughing morning pills and eye drops teeth brush (what’s left of ‘em) look at weather (today it’s 42 flipping degrees C at noon!) and fortunately there’s a film preview to catch at the not so local (the astonishing Hamnet since you ask), read emails (takes twice the time when there’s one from Drooo!), oooh shock, interest rate plummeting in UK, Storm Garotty or something playing havoc with airports, quick 2 or 3 number twos (am at that age, Muriel) then train times for tomorrow’s trip for an overnighter up the coast with dear buddies Geoff and Libby!

Oh it’s tough this travelling but time it right, take plenty of rests and also keep busy I say…I say a lot it seems. (“Yes you do”-Non existent Ed.).

Glorious Central Coast (90 mins north of Sydney) and Geoff and Libby as glorious a couple as you can get. So lucky to have stayed in touch with so many super people.

Beautiful beaches up there of course, lovely olde worlde quaint towns with ancient movie houses, and coffee shops galore.

NOT SO FUNNY EH? Correct but let’s use this bit as a guide to visiting Australia … personally I’d say, DO IT.

I might again. Never thought I’d say that.

Especially after realising there’s a PJ’s wondrous Irish bar in the heart of Sydders with my previously mentioned new fave Aussie pal and chat mate. Thanks Tyler. Huge hugs xxx

My Hotel’s breakfast (superb hotel for those wanting a recommendation) has well and truly tasted me out though with bakery options of gluten free texture free flavour free green white brown and lesser spotted breads, and milks of all kinds, hardly skimmed, soy, kangaroo, full fat koala and Chardonnay.

So it’s bye bye Song Hotel, I’ve adored you (other than rootin tootin high falootin made in Luton Gluten!).

Small Fiji stopover P.S. then it’s the end of this section folks. Heartbreaking news I know but I never tied a kangaroo down OK, Sport ???

JUST BEFORE MY PACIFIC RIM Send off, Sydney Airport first which has a bewildering number of drop off points: Domestic Terminal, International Terminal, Freight Terminal, Fraught Terminal, Fright Terminal 3 (Return of Freddy), and Depressed Almost Terminal….

Then a fabulous flight with Fiji Airlines my fave A350 formation (OOOH GET YOU!) and then 6 days in Fiji for family and glorious beauty reasons in the greatest resort on Earth with the loveliest people remembering Pa’s family Mum my cousins who went or who were all born there plus an essence of forget the world and relax also present in Moorea and Bora plus Bora which I was lucky to visit 9 years ago.

No more smug. No more Gawd how amazing is this and Bula Bula I’m well and truly VINAKA’d.

How crazy and witty CAN IT GET EH???

NEXT CHAPTER AND FINAL BIT OF THIS TRAWLING THROUGH YOUR PATIENCE:
The U S of A.

GAWD I’VE AGED.

4 months.

Love Christoph xx

January 2026, Shangri-La, Fiji.