Doctor Visit

Day 16   Thursday, March 28, 2019    Sydney

What a nice view from the park a few feet away from our Airbnb. I took a short walk late in the day that Janet finally went to a doctor to deal with her asthma and coughing. She got great service for low prices to begin the healing. Besides this walk, I visited the Maritime Museum, but mostly we both took it easy today.

A lazy morning because Janet was still feeling lousy. We stayed in the room on our computers until 10:00, when we hunted down a doctor's office with advice from Vinh. It wasn't a long walk to get there. They gave Janet an 11:45 appt, and we returned to our room. We decided I would walk to the nearby Maritime Museum and Janet would go to her appt on her own.

I started by touring the submarine, HMAS Onslow, 1969 to 1999, 16 times around the world. I've toured a couple others, and I'm always intrigued by how they can cram so much in there, and how claustrophobic it is.

The diesel engines. I'd hate to have to walk through there when they're running.

Each compartment has this tiny hole to climb through if you want to walk the length of the sub.

What a maze of gauges and wiring and technical stuff.

I've actually seen much worse on boats, so the sub's bunks seemed okay.

There was guided tour of the Patrol Boat, HMAS Advance, 1968 to 1977. We had a small group of only four.

I also toured inside the museum, and I will include just a few photos. World's fastest boat at 317.6 mph. Let's go water-skiing!

This old travel poster was funny because they were giving away free land if you would just agree to go live in Tasmania. 30 acres per man, 20 acres for his wife ("if he has one"), and 10 acres per child.

Australian Kay Cottee sailed this 34-ft boat out of Sydney Harbor in 1987, hoping to be the first woman to circumnavigate the world alone, without stopping, without assistance, by way of both hemispheres and the five southernmost capes. After 189 days at sea, she returned victorious.

I had a bottle of this exact Pusser's Rum at home, so I was intrigued by the story, and how it got its name. Issuing a daily rum ration (a "tot") to Royal Navy sailors was done from 1687 to 1970, one of the longest seafaring traditions. The person who poured everyone's exact measured amount was called the purser, or pusser. Prior to this they gave beer, but it went sour, so then they gave brandy. But upon the conquest of Jamaica in 1687, they switched to rum. Two gills (half a pint) per man per day, although in 1740, to reduce drunkenness and accidents, they mixed a "grog" of one part rum and two parts water. Janet and I tried this rum, and it's really strong. Janet won't drink it. I add ice and let it melt first, so I guess I'm drinking grog.

I bought this rum because it's from British Virgin Islands, where we visited for a day in January on our cruise. Now that I'm home, I pulled out the bottle and there's more fun stories on the label. It's called Gunpowder Proof (109 proof ! Our usual rums are 80 proof) because the pusser needed to prove to the suspicious sailors that he was not watering down their precious tot. So, he would add a few grains of gunpowder to some rum to see if it would burn. If it ignited, it was "at proof." Pusser's Rum remained at "gunpowder strength" until 31 July 1970, known as Black Tot Day. Regular Pusser's is now 84 proof, but they also sell this Gunpowder Proof version. (The New Zealand Royal Navy continued its daily rum rations clear up until 1990.)

Just outside the museum is their Welcome Wall, to show their pride in their immigration nation. It states: "Australia is one of the most culturally diverse countries. Its people speak over 260 languages and identify with over 270 ancestries. The Australian National Maritime Museum's Welcome Wall is a tribute to all who have migrated to Australia."

 

It opened in Sept 2018, precisely at a time when our own president was condemning immigrants (unless they were from Norway). You can register to have your family names inscribed, and there already are over 30,000 names up there.

The final exhibit I visited was the James Craig, a restored 19th century 3-masted barque. (This photo was from the evening before when we passed by on our ferry.) Interestingly, it's the sister ship of The Star of India in San Diego Harbor, a ship I have seen many times but never toured.

There's its basic story. As soon as I stepped aboard, a volunteer woman pulled me aside, sat me down, and proceeded to tell me its story and all about her (the ship). She was recommissioned in 2001, and for a hefty fee, you can go out on day sailings every so often.

She rounded Cape Horn 23 times.

Janet and I communicated by text that she was done with her doctor visit, and was walking to the pharmacy not too far from where I was. We met there and then had a fast-food Thai lunch right next door. Turns out that Janet had two nebulizer treatments, the doc saw her three times, and it was only Aus $85 (about U.S. $60). She was SO glad that we had a day off and that she saw the doctor. The two prescriptions were Aus $37 (U.S. $26), so the grand total of all her medical care was only U.S. $86. There's amazing healthcare for low prices in countries other than our own.

We slowly walked on back to our room and rested there for the remainder of the afternoon.

 Eventually, I decided to take a little walk up to the park just a few steps away. It's called Pirrama Park, although what this picture shows is Pyrmont Point Park at the very tip of the peninsula. The views were incredible, especially from where I was on the cliff. 

 Facing more to the south toward the Tower Eye and the Darling Bay high rises we passed by the evening before on our ferry ride.

I walked down to the bay level and those were the cliffs at the end of the Pirrama Park.

 I strolled around to the west, at Jones Bay, and there's the Anzac Bridge we crossed the night before when our Uber drive got lost taking us home from Darling Harbour.

I continued around the peninsula and looking up, I could see where our Airbnb was. It's there somewhere in the center of the photo!

 I continued my loop around to Harris St, the main drag where our restaurants and the doctor's office were, and our Uber rides would pick up. That building to the left was the public restroom where we had gone while waiting for our hosts to arrive to let us in the Airbnb.

"Oh, the humanity", as Les Nessman might have said if he were a bicyclist.

For dinner we ate our leftovers in the fridge, and later we had a Happy Hour with Vinh and Stuart who loved Janet's Tennessee Honey. Vinh was active on the Pyrmont Community Council, and they had a Pyrmont Monopoly Game, which was a fundraiser. All the properties and Community Chest stuff related to Pyrmont.

Early to bed, because tomorrow was a long day to Canberra.