After Mum's party the other weekend we headed into the city to see Vivid.
Except not quite.
A month or so ago David asked if we'd be interested on going on a harbour cruise on the night of Mum's party. At the time it sounded like a great idea so I said yes. For some reason I thought it was going to be on the Friday night, so was a little worried when I realised it would be the Saturday that we'd all be too tired to feel like going out afterwards, but he'd already asked Mum if she'd be interested in going out, and she was, so ok. Then Stu got sick. Then I got sick. But we still had weeks to go, we should be fine, right. Hint: we weren't. So neither of us really felt like a long day and night. But the other catch was, it was going to be a surprise for Mum and Kellie that we were going to take the cruise. They thought we'd just be going to see Vivid.
So early evening D/K/S took Stu with them by car into the city so they could check into their hotel. Mum and I took the train. The roads were epic chaos. The train was crowded and noisy. So that was fun for all involved. Took about the same amount of time to get to our meeting spot.
Then we wandered down to Darling Harbour. Through the crowds.
Had a very slow wander north.
The walk to King Street Wharf was agonisingly slow. Did I mention the crowds? They said to be at the wharf by 19:10. We made it by about 19:15. It was only at this point that Mum and Kellie realised what was up. Except we then had to stand there for like 25 minutes because they were running late.
They were meant to leave at 19:30 but it was more like 19:45. Any excuse for fifteen minutes less serving drinks I guess. Yeah it was "all you can drink" (to RSA). Except. They crammed the boat full of people, and while there were bars on every level, it was still like a fifteen minute wait to get drinks. I waited right at the beginning and luckily they gave me two because it would have been pretty annoying otherwise. Noone else bothered.
The sweetie wanted a seat. David wanted an outdoor spot. So we found an outdoor spot in the corner. I went and queued for my drinks. Stu tried to find somewhere to sit. He eventually found somewhere but he said it smelt of vomit. Hurrah. While I was queuing for drinks we departed, and they cranked the music. Luckily I carry around ear plugs with me whereever I go now (after the Dark Matter in the Pub debacle) so I survived. Sculled my two small wines and then set about taking photos (I did go back for another drink later, it was more like a ten minute wait, but they would only give me one that time).
So the view was great, but it really wasn't what any of us were expecting. I was expecting the boat to be more like what it was when it was a Captain Cook Cruises boat.. like this..
(John Wilson, shipspotting.com)
I thought we'd just get to sit around up top. Yeah nah.
We probably would have been better off just taking a regular ferry (like we did last time).
Still, after a couple of wines and using earplugs, I had a bit of fun.
So then headed for home, having not really seen much of Vivid itself. Oh well.
Comments