Feb 2, 2018, Sydney, cloudy and raining
From Jan 9th to today, we have lived in the South Hemisphere for 23 days. Literally, we live underneath the Southern Cross nearly one month.
It is interesting that both the flag of Australia and New Zealand have the Southern Cross. You can see that the southern Cross is a very important symbol in the South Hemisphere countries. We were lucky to see the Southern Cross constellation in an evening in a camp at New Zealand. It was very bright and obvious. The four stars looks exactly like the religious cross. I think the bottom star is pointing to the south.
It is very easy to mix up these two flags. They both have the blue background and the Union Jack on the left corner, and the Southern Cross on the right. The difference are:
1. number of stars – The Australia one has 2 more stars, one is the Commonwealth star under the Union Jack, another is a small five pointed star near the Southern Cross; the New Zealand flag only has 4 stars, which is the southern cross.
2. color of stars – The stars in the NewZealand flag is 4 red stars with white edges; the stars color in the Australian flag are white.
3. shape of stars – In the Australia flag, there are all seven pointed stars except one five pointed stars near the Southern Cross; the stars in the New Zealand flag are all five pointed.
Yesterday, we went to the Opera House and watched The Merry Widow. It was very happy experience. I consider this is the gift from David for our 4th anniversary. In California, I guess it was January 31. There are few things I love about this show.
1, They arranged 2 breaks, each one is 20 minutes, which I really like( see our pictures taken during breaks).
2, Also, I love the subtitle on the top of the stage. I am always confused by the lyrics when I was watching shows in the US, because there are no subtitles. I really appreciated the beautiful lyrics. I think this is one of the beauty of Opera. For example, “ there are no single way to please women as they are all different”…
3, the air conditioning was not too cold and women with dresses are happy. Another contrast to the US opera house and theaters.
Another positive thing I had was I got a haircut in Sydney. The stylist was Japanese. He speaks with a very low voice and explained his design patiently. This is actually my first time cut my hair by a Japanese. I am pretty happy about it. They gave me 10$ coupon for a 65$ hair wash, massage, and stylish. No worry about tipping too:) I actually found nearly every women I saw on the street of Sydney has a decent hair style. I guess many Japanese stylists here. Compared to emigrate to the US, Australia has better social well-fair and less jet lag, for many Asian immigrants…
We also had a great dinner. We went to a Malaysian restaurant for Laksa. It is noodle soup actually. I had veggie one. They put lemon, mint and raw onions there. I was worried about the shrimp paste, but I am fine. From this, I think the food quality is good there. David had chicken one, it is their specialty. Very tasty soup, with coconut water, the chicken was fresh and tasty. We will definitely go back if we stay Sydney longer. I expect we can try more tasty food in Malaysia later on the trip.
During the 23 days of underneath of the Southern cross, I had a lot positive experience. I love the food in New Zealand, venison, salmon, and lamb especially. I love the gorgeous trails at Mountain Maunganui. I fell in love of RV life style too. I enjoyed the ferry trip at Brisbane and the lovely loft apartment we lived. I love my new hair style designed by a Japanese stylist. We are heading to Melbourne direction today, do not know what will happen…
Yanmei