Sydney - a gaytime and some lessons

I am just back from a conference of sorts in Sydney and thought I would just post a quick list of what I have learnt. Mostly I wanted to share this picture of a golden gaytime icecream at the Opera House with you. It is not fancy or healthy but it tastes so good. It was my favourite ice cream when I was little and I still love to have one every now and again. E loves them too - they are high on butterscotch ice cream and low on chocolate - just his sort of thing. Even Sylvia enjoyed a bite. It seems that the old advertisement was right - "it's so hard to have a gaytime on your own!"

So what did I learn in Sydney? Here is my list:

• Sylvia prefers bread, cheese and salad from a sandwich bar to a Hungry Jack's (aka Burger King in other countries) vegie burger. She is a great example to her parents, though she is partial to a few chippies.
• Whereas in Melbourne you can have a baby on your lap in a taxi, in Sydney a taxi driver can refuse to take you anywhere because by law a baby can only go in a taxi with a special baby seat. The same taxi driver can fail to check your baby's age and/or tell you that this law only applies to babies under 12 months old.
  
• Having a baby in tow makes it easier to be shameless about taking food from the downstairs buffet when overpriced room service food is rubbish.
• It is advisable to have some small tins of baked beans in suitcase for an even better alternative to room service.
• When feeding baked beans to baby in hotel room, even if dodgy highchair is brought to room, a towel on the ground underneath will be useful to deal with the mess of runaway beans. I wish I had been given this advice before dinner rather than after!
• Don't rely on the cafe at the Museum of Sydney for feeding a vegetarian baby.
  
• Glebe is only a short 10-15 minute walk from Central Station. I will post about the lovely cafe we visited there later and tell you a little more about Glebe Point Road.
  
• The Opera House has only one lift as an alternative to walking up all the stairs to gaze at the beautiful building up close. E did an excellent job of carrying the stroller up the steps when we found the lift was out of order.
• Crawling around the airport while your plane is delayed is a great way to get a baby to sleep on the plane.