Developers are destroying Nelson Bay (also: my trip to Sydney)

On my recent trip to NSW, I went to Nelson Bay to see my grandparents. Port Stephens has, of course, been a popular tourist destination for some time now. Shoal Bay in particular has had several high-rise holiday apartment blocks built. But only recently has it gotten out of hand in Nelson Bay itself that high-rise developments have appeared in the centre of town, destroying the look and feel of the area.

At least in Shoal Bay these type of developments make some sense, as Shoal Bay has a very nice beach. Nelson Bay does not have a very nice beach. It has a proper town centre, a marina and dolphin watch cruises, all of which are pleasant enough, but people staying in holiday apartments there will have to drive to Shoal Bay to get to a decent beach. Where’s the sense in that?

We went to Soldiers Point for lunch. Soldiers Point has no beach, no decent town centre and no particular attractions to speak of apart from boating and fishing. Such things are not normally enough to attract bloated tourist developments (or else Lake Macquarie would look like the Gold Coast by now) but they are apparently enough to attract several multi-storey apartment blocks to Soldiers Point. What gives?

Never fear; I have returned

Now that I’ve got that out of my system, I shall relate my trip to Sydney, and all the exciting things that happened.

I departed Sydney the morning after I arrived, to go to Nelson Bay area to visit the grandparents. At this time of year, everyone in Sydney decides to go north at the same time, a grand tradition that results in legendary traffic jams in country towns hundreds of kilometres away. People hire out holiday homes from Saturday to Saturday, with the result that all roads in and out of Sydney are completely clogged on Saturdays. Is this just a Sydney thing? I hadn’t heard of it earlier.

Anyway, after driving past a massive traffic jam at Hexham (fortunately on the other side of the road) we arrived in Nelson Bay, before heading to nearby Salamander Bay the next day to meet another grandparent. All very agreeable. That evening, on our way back, we got stuck in a 10km long traffic jam in the middle of nowhere on the Central Coast, 80km north of Sydney.

On Monday I visited Newtown. Newtown is very interesting. It has a great café scene, with the most well-renowned coffee in Sydney. It has at least one poetry busker, who will give you a photocopy of his poems for a donation. There is also a wide variety of music and book shops. Since my three favourite things are coffee, music and books I was quite happy.

In particular, I was most taken with the huge second hand bookshop. The first thing I noticed about this place was a large selection of second hand cassettes – yes, cassettes – on display along one wall. Then I turned around and saw a warehouse-sized floor of books, with an upstairs section along three walls. Not only are all the shelves packed full with books, there are large disorganized piles of them everywhere. Not to mention the extensive collection of vinyl LPs available.

I ended up buying a copy of Khrushchev’s memoirs, fond as I am of Soviet kitsch, of which the shop had rather a large amount.

I also saw the Sydney CBD, Cronulla and Bundeena during the trip.

While in Cronulla, I discovered the superb Grind café, which can hold its own with anywhere in Melbourne. When the owner of Grind found that I was from Melbourne, he recommended I try St. Ali’s in South Melbourne. That is the second time St. Ali’s has been recommended to me. I really shall have to check it out.

Will there be coffee reviews from my trip to Sydney? Oh yes, there will be coffee reviews.

Atheist biffo

In the comments to my recent post “The Atheist Delusion“, I have been having a slow-burning discussion on the topic with an atheist named Simen. If you have a point to add that I have missed, feel free to add it, and help me biff the atheists. Or maybe Simen has missed something, in which case you can help biff the Christians. Either way, there shall be biff.