Sunshine at last !!

Have had a varied few days which has been fab but think my jetlag is catching up with me and am feeling pretty exhausted which is why I've come out of the sunshine to write this today!

Another friend from uni, Terri, came over on Monday for a short but sweet visit while she's visiting friends and family for a month, which was great as I had a playmate for in the daytime while Adey & Lara are at work. We pottered around the Botanical Gardens in the afternoon just chatting and eating ice-creams before meeting the guys for a drink when they finished work. The gardens are pretty spectacular and the bats are definitely a sight, if not a little smelly ;-)
It sounds odd to say but have kinda just gotten used to having the Opera House and Harbour Bridge as a backdrop whenever I'm down in Circular Quay! The best time was just before Terri arrived I sat with a sarnie in a park bit watching the Ashes on a big screen. Was great at the time as we were doing pretty well and was good to hear loads of cheering when we got someone out (don't ask me who it was - I'm a girl, remember??). Although the less said about the cricket now the better - everyone over here REALLY lays into the English team - even the sides on the sides of the buses say things like "Down with the Poms" - pretty harsh really.


So we just got take-out pizzas for tea and sat on the balcony eating and chatting with a few glasses of vino. Am starting to get a little worried about myself though as have been falling \asleep about 10pm every night after only a couple of glasses of wine which is very unlike me - the long nights and days spent at Goldbrick seem a distant past ;-)

Adey had Tuesday off work so we had a really nice day going to the Sydney Fish Market for lunch where we bought a seafood platter and sat out in the park. Luckily the sun finally put his hat on and we then packed up and drove over to Bondi Beach!! There wasn't a cloud in the sky and was just perfect lazing on the beach for a couple of hours. Was a bit of intrigue when a helicopter was hovering over the sea for about 10 minutes - was it a shark??? There was a shark attack over Perth way a few days ago where a kid had his leg bitten off so I was pretty nervous about getting in the sea!!






Not wanting to spend too long frying in the sun (I got pretty burnt walking around the day before - Rudolph springs to mind !) we headed back home to get showered and changed to meet up with Lara for cocktails at the top of the Shangri-La Hotel in the Blu Horizon bar which had some pretty awesome views over the city although not on the harbour side. Had an amazing cocktail with strawberries and lychees which went down VERY easily! After letting the coin decide the next stage for the evening we headed back up home for dinner in the local pub which was lush and we got some very good service (i.e. free nibbles as starters) as Adey & Lara know everyone there ! Back to theirs for some more booze and in my case falling asleep too early!





Next day Terri & I met the guys for lunch at Circular Quay. We got to go up to the top of the building where Lara works and see the views from there - amazing as you can see - the opera house and bridge directly below her every day! For those of you who know I'm not brilliant with heights I wasn't scared at all and got right up to the window!!! Big pat on the back to myself - am still psyching myself up for the bridge climb!! We then got a ferry to Darling Harbour where we then sauntered around for a bit, walking through the gardens, Chinatown and then heading back to the city to meet Adey and to say bye to Terri who was flying off to Adelaide. When I got back, Lara & I put up their Christmas decorations which was very exciting (although did get me a teensy bit homesick but managed to wash that away with a nice cold glass of wine!) with the Christmas CD on in the background and the doors and windows open as it was so hot (still very odd!)









As for today so far, I did the very traveller-style thing and went and had my hair highlighted at TONI&GUY !! Just didn't get the time before I left so got it done here and had my hair blow-dried by a very camp guy wearing shorts, cowboy boots and a scarf - brilliant guy (and did a fantastic job too!!) Had a (surprisingly common) chat with him about the weather and how all messed it up is at the moment. Down in Victoria there's bush fires one day and then snow the next. Here in Sydney it's 24 degrees one day then 35 the next and apparently they've just discovered an ice-cap off of New Zealand - very odd!

So all in all a pretty varied few days and off to meet an old friend from Cleeve School tonight which is going to be pretty surreal seeing as I haven't seen her in about 10 years!

Ciao for now