just another sunday

So this Sunday started pretty normally about noon, which is precisely when a Sunday is supposed to start. By 12:50 I'd tuckered myself out checking my email and Facebook and was about to crawl back under the nice warm covers when I happened upon the Rocks' Aroma Festival website which advertised, among other things, famous harbourside camel rides.

Now I had no idea there were famous harbourside camel rides, but seeing as the website told me they did, I was clearly just out of the loop. Tom Cruise was famous for years before I realized who he was, so really, anything is possible.

I'd been thinking halfheartedly of going to the Aroma Festival, but the half dozen closest friends I thought to call all had other plans, so, in the end, it was really the camel rides that tipped the balance over the edge. Then, one friend did show up, too, so it all worked out beautifully. Don't you just love happy endings? Well, hang on. It's not over yet. We haven't even got out of the house yet, actually.

The temperature having been slightly unpredictable but generally brisk, I opted for the boots. You may recall the boots -- the stunning wear-them-everywhere-but-OH!-no!-they-hurt! boots. Having bitten the bullet for the afternoon, though, the next problem was how to wear them. I had, you see, been planning a blog post in the recent trend of fashion statements about the absurdity of the style wherein all the women seem to be wearing their boots on the outsides of their jeans. I'm not sure whether this is a cause or effect with regard to skinny jeans, but seeing as I also am fundamentally opposed to them, I had no intention of hiding my slightly flared leg jeans away. Putting everything on and thinking through such important matters, though, I suddenly realized that everyone I could immediately recall wearing boots over their jeans was a rather fashionable sort of person and, suddenly, it hit me that in Sydney at the moment it is really much more stylish to over-boot instead of inner-boot. So with a bit of debate (pictured below) I eventually caved to fashion and decided I quite liked the effect. If the boots were going to hurt, we might as well show them off, hey?

The wardrobe thus decided, the boots and I set out to find our camel.

It turns out the Aroma Festival is actually quite large -- huge, I think we could even go so far as -- and the camels, believe it or not, are not the star attraction. Evidently coffee is.

I do not like coffee. Goodness knows I've tried (Much as I've also exerted considerable effort to acclimatize my taste buds to bananas. They never acquiesce, much less appreciate the efforts.), because I think it would really be terribly sophisticated of me to, but I've never been able to like coffee itself. The smell and the flavor, though (read: coffee flavored ice cream), I am all for, so felt sufficiently justified in traipsing along to an Aroma Festival. Besides, I do like tea (English Breakfast. Not much else.) and chocolate (Thankfully pretty much all varieties, except, of course, chocolate covered bananas. Milk chocolate is my favorite, though, if you were thinking of buying me a present.).

And so I found myself meandering around the many, many, many coffee and tea and chocolate and cupcake (I can do justice to a cupcake!) stalls spending most of my time taking pictures, because, after all, I do have a blog to think of. Besides, the Rocks is a ridiculously stunning piece of scenery and I just generally can't help myself. The blog's a great excuse, though.

While I pressing through the crowd listening to live music (brassy trumpets!) in the Latin Quarter I bumped into a former student, who seemed happy to see me, yet slightly suspicious that I was there on my own. It didn't really bother, me, though, as I'd just arranged to meet a friend at the Oasis.

It's always slightly risky to agree to meet someone in a place whose whereabouts you're unsure of, but I had a pretty good hunch it was straight ahead aways, seeing as it demonstrably wasn't where I currently was. I moseyed on through the crowd, which took considerable skill, seeing as it was such a sprawling crowd and I had to pass dozens of chocolate stalls and photogenic scenes on the way. I think I fell a bit shy of actually meeting the "see you in ten minutes" mark, but we did all manage to meet up in the end.

The Oasis, it turns out, was precisely where I thought it was, just at the base of the Bridge, which happened to be the Turkish center, complete with (magic?) carpets, dancing, music and, of course, Turkish tea. Altogether delightful.

We meandered around various tea and chocolate stalls (many of which were creatively named -- Your Nuts and Kick Ice Coffee spring to mind) until my friends needed to depart, which left me with a significant decision: did I throw in the towel and leave with them, or did I continue on my own, in pursuit of camel rides? I am pleased to announce that I decided to carry on.

First, though, I stopped back for a bit more trumpet music while I finished the latest Lord Peter Wimsey story I wanted to finish (turns out the doctor was poisoning his own wife out of sheer jealousy). Then I stopped by the Overseas Passengers Terminal to look down at the famous coffee cup mystery picture, which this year was Marilyn Monroe, representing a considerable step upward in beauty from last year's Mona Lisa.

Finally, though, I managed to trot back to the camels. Lord Peter and I spent another lovely forty-five minutes together waiting our turn to ride, and it was most definitely worth it. I got to ride Aloki, a female camel named after an Aboriginal term from South Australia, or so the man told me. I got the impression he was unsure of the meaning, but knew that anything Aboriginal should fly with the tourists. Worked for me. The other camels in our line-up were Ruby, Aussie and Israel, and I am convinced I got the best one.

We didn't go terribly far, but for $5, it was a pretty decent harbourside camel ride. It was over all too soon, and my greatest regret was that no one phoned me at such a time as I could answer with, "Sorry, could I call you back in couple minutes? I'm just on a harbourside camel ride at the moment. They're famous, you know."