Galveston, oh, Galveston

The other morning I was suddenly transported to a memory of walking to middle school. It was one of our first mornings in our new apartment in Manly, I had just walked out the door and started to head for the ferry, when all my senses took me back to middle school. I think it was the warm sun, the humidity, the smell of the sea and the sound of palm fronds in the breeze – a typical Galveston day.

Manly is fairly quiet this time of year – lots of day trippers on the weekends, browsing the shops, restaurants and the beach, but otherwise, calm during the week. I think during the summer it transforms into a bustling little beach spot with the longer days and regular beach goers. The “Corso” (the main pedestrian through-way) that links the ferry to the beach is a funny mix of tacky trinket shops, name brand beach shops, fast-food eateries, grocery store, cafes, news agencies, banks, pubs, etc. – essentially there’s something for everyone. It’s tacky and semi-maintained in a typical low-key beach town type of way (i.e. like Galveston), but pleasant enough with trees and outdoor benches and picnic tables. It’s no Monterey and we like it like that – something for everyone and flip flops are okay. One also notices the mix of people – different ages, nationalities, locals, tourists, travelers – there have been a number of times I’ve overheard French being spoken which always makes me smile. I think that Manly has a fairly significant transient population – between the travelers who may be here a few months to a year and the foreign transplants (like us) – I think the locals maybe number two thirds the populations. The advantages are that there’s always something going on somewhere – and lots of opportunities to buy good housewares second hand – but it is funny mix of Australia and the rest of the world. I suppose that’s true for all of Sydney.

Finally got a fridge! Rentals here do not come with fridge – its BYOF only. Finally, we have dairy to die for – lots of yoghurt and ice cream! Although, as it turns out, fridge-free living is possible as long as you go to the grocery store daily and forgo ice cream and yogurt - eggs, butter and cheese are fine stored on the counter – and milk had lasted up to 3 days without spoilage (we didn’t test beyond that). And since we didn’t have ice cream, we substituted cookies (“biscuits” here) and have become connoisseurs as a result of sampling the very extensive selection – Tim Tams and Chocolate Deluxe scored very well.

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