Freight

We took the bus into the city today. We don't really know a good place to park, and as Ella was at nursery, the bus was a more attractive option.

We got off just outside the Museum of Sydney. The museum is showing an exhibition called "Bridging Sydney", I have a leaflet about it that I picked up in the library, which has been blu-tacked to the wall at home for seven weeks. It seemed rude not to go in, it finishes next month.

The exhibition about the bridge was worth the $10 entrance fee alone, but there was plenty more you could fill a day with. The museum charts the settlement of the city since 1788. We are learning about Sydney bit by bit. It's really getting under our skin, we're growing to love it.

The history of the place is fascinating. As Yvonne remarked to me last week, "Most Aussies have no idea how hard the first few years were and how close we came to failure". I perched on a bench in the foyer, eavesdropping on a history lesson being delivered to a group of 11 year olds by a curator.

"You see, Sydney is really hilly, and it's built on sandstone", she began. "The topsoil is very thin. So when the British came and tried to plant crops to feed themselves, the heavy rains came along and washed the soil away, leaving nothing but sandstone behind. These British didn't once think to ask the aborigines, the indiginous people, what they could grow or what they could eat. Pretty soon they were starving to death, and when they sent The Sirius (a ship) to get food from South Africa, it was shipwrecked. How's that for history?".

Behind her was a model of the first ships to arrive in Sydney Cove in January 1788, along with a list of what was on board. The list included "puppies, shoe-leather, ladies underwear (800 pairs), oak trees, apple trees, glassware, bedlinen, bowls, pick-axes, bricks, shovels, two stallions and 88 sheep".

I thought about our airfreight and smiled. "A stapler, post-it notes, scissors, baby nail clippers, tape measure, handbags, shoes, moleskin jacket (1), tea towels (5), photocopies of recipes from Jamie Oliver's cookbook, a patchwork quilt, pillowcases, placemats, and a pack of cards depicting scenes of Kefalonia".

The settlement of a British colony here is much more of an achievement than you can imagine.