A Melancholic Mereweather Meander

Awoke at 5am. With an oppressive sense of finality. In 12 hours from now I'd be arriving at an airport departure lounge with possibly the best year of my life all but over. This demanded that one final morning swim should be had. Location? Mereweather baths. Arrived just after sunrise but was not alone as a lone surfer surveyed the waves.



He finally gave in surveying , having decided that the sea was a bit too choppy. In contrast the baths were like a stagnant millpond....Correction! They were a stagnant millpond. Luckily I swam in the opposite corner from where all of this scum had gathered, although I still came out smelling as you'd expect me to smell.



The photo below involved a simple turn of 90 degrees yet creates a dramatically more positive image of what the Newcastle foreshore has to offer.



Did not feel quite ready to drive home as 6 hours of packing and cleaning awaited so detoured to three locations I'd somehow avoided all year. The obelisk is a hill top monument in memory of the first water treatment plant in Newcastle. Um? Not quite cleopatra's needle.....


but offered what I suppose constituted my last decent Australian view.


The cathedral is a major landmark of Newcastle with another hilltop perch.
Somehow we'd never got round to coming here either. Did not have time to climb the 220 steps (or whatever it is) to the top. It was locked anyway.


The chic cafes of Darby St tempted me in for a morning Cappucino. Despite the fact that I smelt of festering seaweed they still served me. Even so I drank swiftly whilst trying to find a newspaper story that was not about Shane Warne's 700 wickets.