APPLE CHIP TIDBIT: I was never a math or science guy in school...

But "THE ROCKS" of Sydney tell a story that has more to do with vice then geology!

Dear Reader(Myself),
This past Thursday, I had the distinct pleasure of being able  to travel two hours south of Newcastle on the New South Wales "Country-Link" commuter rail service in order to visit the state capital(and one of the true gems of the Pacific Rim), Sydney. This is where the story of  modern Australia starts. As I may have mentioned in a previous post, Captain Arthur Phillip, who oversaw the first European(read: British) settlement of Australia, set up camp at Port Jackson(the formal name given to what most people call Sydney Harbor) in January of 1788, in the what is now known as the Circular Quay area of Sydney, in the shadow of where the Sydney harbor bridge crosses the water seperating the city center from suburban north Sydney. The very first neighborhood of what would become the city of Sydney was quickly erected and in  short  order would become a crime and disease ridden slum filled with brothels, taverns, boarding houses and trenchant poverty. It was the embodiment of  all of the social ills that manifested themselves in the British policy of "transportation" or simply the shipping  of criminals to serve their sentences far away from the motherland's shores(in the case of Australia, to what might as well have been the end of the earth) and out of sight and mind. The area's buildings were constructed largely with the use of local sandstone and the new locals started referring to the collection of sandstone structures as "the Rocks", and the name stuck. As I mentioned earlier, the natural sciences and math never were the subjects in school that truly animated me. However, the study of the human past does, and I found it to be rather neat to be amongst the sandstone rocks that would eventually spawn with it a major center of commerse and would thus establish  the  foundation of what would become the Commonwealth of Australia. You will have to forgive me as I poured an overflowing handful of chips into your hands. The chips that fell on the floor and that are still plenty good to eat will  boost your immunity to all sorts of illness. Sometimes, my pedantic ways gets the best of me. But  in the end, they are good for you!
Take Care!