We love showing off our city

Our favourite English visitors were in town last week. They're favourite because they loved everything we showed them, did what they were told, and ate everything that was put in front of them.

We showed them The Opera House, with its Sydney Symphony Orchestra and its best view in Australia. We showed them the Westleigh mountain men's mountain bike circuit, and the Westleigh wildlife (cockatoos, lorikeets, and leeches by the dozen). Then we showed them Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park and its wildlife (several semi-wild kangaroos, and the odd crab in the mangroves).

We showed them the Parramatta rivercat and they showed themselves Bondi Beach, Watsons Bay, and the bus system. We scouted out the Spit to Manly walk, but rain drove us back to Balmoral Beach and its Boathouse restaurant. We explored North Head and the Quarantine Station, and we met up with our mutual schoolfriend from way back when, Collaroy John.

Then there was the day in the Blue Mountains. We showed them the Charles Darwin walk - a few years ago they'd shown us Darwin's grandfather's garden in Lichfield, England - and Wentworth Falls. On then to Katoomba and Echo Point, and then the once scary rides on the Scenic Railway and the glass-bottomed cable car (the glass is too scratched and opaque now to scare anyone).

One other cultural highlight was the Hornsby RSL. The reaction was priceless when we led them into the shiny pokie palace and its rather swish new tapas bar for rather fine dining. They had somehow assumed that RSL clubs were dingy sheds with broken glass all around.

We had a great time in fact. It's good to have an excuse like this to do a big hometown sightseeing stint now and again.

N