Daily Archives: March 26, 2023

Sydney Harbour & Mrs Macquarie’s Chair

  • Post author:
Read more about the article Sydney Harbour & Mrs Macquarie’s Chair

That morning, I had continued symptoms of a cold, so went down to breakfast wearing a mask as a precaution. Later, I contacted Neb, and suggested that it might be wise not to meet with his family after the Sydney Harbour Cruise, as previously arranged, as I didn't want to infect them. That turned out to be very prophetic! The next day, we started out with a bus tour to view Sydney Harbour. We stopped at a few places, but by that time I wasn't feeling up to visiting them. Sydney skyline, with cruise ship We went to Mrs. Macquarie's Chair... Mrs Elizabeth Macquarie was the wife of Major-General Lachlan Macquarie, Governor of New South Wales from 1810 to 1821. Folklore has it that she used to sit on the rock and watch for ships from Great Britain sailing into the harbour. She was known to visit the area and sit enjoying the panoramic views of the harbour. Mrs Macquarie's Chair is an exposed sandstone rock cut into the shape of a bench, on a peninsula in Sydney Harbour. It was hand carved by convicts in 1810, for Mrs. Macquarie, so she had a comfortable seat from which to view the harbour. This is the stone inscription commemorating the chair. Here's the actual chair: It doesn't look that comfortable, does it?

The Sydney Opera House

  • Post author:
Read more about the article The Sydney Opera House

We had already seen the Sydney Opera House from the outside, but now we were to enjoy a tour, and thus the inside, too. Not only is the outside of the Sydney Opera House impressive from the outside, it really wows on the inside, too: In the gallery below, click on an image to view it in a larger format. Extremely impressive performance spaces, and wonderfully imaginative architecture!

Sydney Harbour Cruise — No! Back to the Hotel!

  • Post author:
Read more about the article Sydney Harbour Cruise — No! Back to the Hotel!

The next thing on the agenda for the group was to go on a Sydney Harbour Cruise from Circular Quay. That would have been very pleasant. Unfortunately, I wasn't feeling at all well, so I decided to walk back to the hotel alone. It's an uphill walk, along Phillip St. (see the above image), and I nearly didn't make it. I had to sit on some stone steps, was helped up by a passer-by, struggled up the hill. I know that some people thought I'd been drinking, but it was just that I was feeling very weak. I finally managed to reach the hotel, sat down in the foyer, and I think I slept in a chair for a while. Then, I went up to my room, and fell down. Not due to dizziness, but to weakness. I could not get up. Fortunately, I had my mobile phone, and called the hotel desk, who sent up a couple of guys who helped me up and into the bed, where I fell asleep.

COVID and Hospital

  • Post author:
Read more about the article COVID and Hospital

I woke up, and must have been confused, because I saw the time was around 5 o'clock, and I thought it was morning. I thought that I had to pack to leave for New Zealand, so I did most of my packing, but then fell again, unable to get up. This time, I called Matt, our tour director, and he caused a couple of paramedics to come. They got me into a sitting position, and then took me down to an ambulance and whisked me off to a hospital. In the ambulance, outside the Emergency Department, they tested me for COVID, and it came back positive (as all of us had suspected). Then, they moved me into the Emergency Department, into an isolation room, where they tested me again (positive again), inserted a cannula into my left arm to receive liquids of various kinds, and they told me that they were administering an electrolyte solution. While I could conduct a conversation, I was clearly not fully aware. I was having more trouble than usual finding words. Later, my doctor verified that I was suffering from severe dehydration due to COVID. It turned out that it was not 5:00am in the morning of March 27, as I had thought, but 5:00pm in the evening of March 26. I didn't learn that until days later. In that isolation room, they administered a number of things, including an x-ray, and I'm pretty sure an ECG (the first of many!). Probably other things, but I don't remember the details. I spent the night in that ED isolation room.