Christmas smelled of smoke

Today was a transition day whereby we checked out of the historic Lord Nelson and made our way to Katoomba and an Airbnb very kindly arranged by Susan and Steven. But before that we had a leisurely coffee just down Kent Street and for me a lovely toasted chicken and something focaccia sandwich. The conversation happened to land on Christmas toys back when we were kids. Mecanno was mentioned by Stephen. I said that I had also had a Mecanno set. I then described that during the troubles there was time when around Christmas that toy shops were targeted by incendiaries and that meant a lot of smoke damaged goods flooded the city and that Christmas Day had a pall of the bonfire about it. This intrigued Stephen, who in flash quipped in his Aussie drawl, “Instead of EBay you had Bomb-bay.” Brilliant. Youse can all have that one for free. It’s a cracker.

So we made our way Down the Great Western Highway up into the Blue Mountains. The rain made an appearance and low cloud hit as we were given a tour around the rich areas where houses where in excess of $1,500,00 Australian. Very swanky houses. We were brought to our next abode and settled in by Susan with accompanying provisions that were far too generous. Susan then took us around the tourist hub that is Katoomba - gateway to the Blue Mountains National Park. One innovation we were introduced to was the drive in Bottle Shop. A legacy of Covid that has persisted. Order online, drive up, pop the boot and head home again. Brilliant. We settled down for a while and caught up on laundry and then nipped into the local hotel where it was Parmigiano night. Lovely. Not much else to say except the new digs are great. We are very grateful to Susan and Steven for arranging all this.

One thing to note. I went for a wee walk and the bird life is quite remarkable and the accompanying sounds quite prominent. We also saw trees full of cockatoos on our way to dinner. Something startled them and the cacophony was quite impressive. If I get get a video with sound I will. We are off to see the sights around the Three Sisters tomorrow so there should be more to report then. Goodnight.