Doing a Baby David

We've done a "Baby David " today. If you never watched "The Royle Family", this means palming your child off all day and evening. My mother is always good for doing a baby David, but here in Sydney we have nursery and babysitters. We just pick her up in between, make dinner, bath her and put her safely to bed. She's none the wiser.

This afternoon we took the monorail from Darling Harbour to Chinatown, where we had lunch on Dixon Street. Chinatown in Sydney is nothing to write home about, so I won't, except to say that we once stayed in a hotel here and got stuck in a lift with thirteen chinese people when we should have been getting ready to see Swan Lake at the Opera House. It wasn't an experience I'd want to repeat.

After lunch we went down to see the QVB (Queen Victoria Building) and Strand Arcade, both of which have ornate tiled floors and iron balconry. There's a jeweller on the second floor of the Strand called Raphael. You'd never know he was there because most of the other jewellers are downstairs. Raphael made Darren's wedding ring. He has a lovely big shop/workshop with a clock on the mantlepiece and a canary in a cage.

Afterwards we headed back to Darling harbour for cocktails before collecting Ella from nursery. She made us sing Baa Baa blacksheep all the way home.

This evening we took a bus to Darlinghurst, where Oxford Street is lined with gay bars and peep shows. Had dinner in a tapas bar called Hernandez, nice food but we were sitting on the pavement and Darren had to kill four large cockroaches during the course of the meal. I spent most of the time with my feet resting on the table's pedestal, scanning the floor. When you kill one, it's mates turn up to eat it. They are foul, disgusting creatures.

I apologied to the waitress for having my feet on a chair while Darren went to the loo. "I know", she replied. "I wish there was something we could do about it. They're everywhere".