Raining in The Rocks

I don't know what we've been doing to the weather: New Zealand's worst summer for years; Sydney's hottest weekend since records began; and today a month of rain in a day. Weird. But we're quite enjoying a quieter time, and there is still lots of indoor stuff to do in Sydney.

The day started with a swim, as requested again by Jemima, and Kevin came along to see her progress: more unaided breathing plus a new "dolphin" move - a lot of fun. A bit of pottering in the room before lunch (it's great to be able to lounge in comfort); and then we were off to the Rocks Discovery Museum. 

"The Rocks" is the old area of Sydney our hotel is in, and this Museum showcased its history from the indigenous Aborigines (settlement evidenced from 15,000 BC), to the arrival of the First Fleet, and its development as an area of wharves and commerce ever since. It was small but perfectly formed, housed in an original building that started life as a shop, with a range of artefacts from across the centuries. Jemima liked the interactive games and the kids corner best, unsurprisingly, while I could have spent an hour reading through the year-by-year history scrolling screens (I got as far as 1806 before Jemima got really bored).

On our way out the nice lady at the door offered Jemima some ink stamps to play with; which led us to the idea of popping into the Museum of Contemporary Arts next door - they'd had some good kids play stuff on our last visit. Sadly that area was closed, but we still had a nice tea and cake while the rain poured down outside; and Kevin bought Jemima a stamp kit from the brilliant shop (art galleries so often have great shops). Then we returned home for her to try it out (we had bought paper as well, but we all ended up very inky - stamping hands is much more fun).

Off for an early dinner to a highly recommended Indian, but they were full (at 5.45! They eat early, Australians, like Americans). So we returned to the hotel restaurant, and had a very jolly dinner, with the added bonus of a huge blackboard wall and chalks available for Jemima to play with - it kept her busy for ages. And then back to the room for some TV before bed. The bad weather looks set to continue, so it sounds like tomorrow will hold more of the same, just a different indoor activity. But that sounds very nice to me.