Team Dahl gave me a Wacom Graphire Pen Input device for my birthday and xmas present this year. I only just plugged it in now and started playing with it. It’s pretty cool albeit a bit weird to get used to. Windows XP recognises it like a mouse and I tried touching up some photos in Photoshop with it – not very successful yet. All in good time.
A great device that will surely elevate my geek status.
Well, now it was Monday, Louisa and Steve had to shoot off to work and were well and truly out of the house before Michelle or I even woke up. Crazy Sydney people work way too many hours :)
Jazzy woke us up by bounding into our room and jumping on the bed. What an excellent way to start the day. Jazzy is so beautiful. I’m so going to get me a poodle just like her one day.
Well, Michelle and I had the whole day to fill and we thought what better way to fill the day then to head out to a huge shopping center and spend money.
Freshly showered and full of breakfast we got on a bus then a train and finally arrived at Bondi Junction Westfield Shopping Center. This isn’t like your Chermside or Indooroopilly Westfield shopping experiences, this Westfield had heaps, and heaps of funky stores. Michelle and I had a great time checking them all out. In the end, I bought some jeans, a shirt, a belt and a present for someone. Michelle bought some funky shoes and some very cool jeans. A very successful shopping experience.
The day passed quickly and it was time to head back to Glebe so we could pack and get ready to go back to Brisbane. We caught a cab out to the airport and after boarding the plane we got a surprise when we saw our good mate Stacey carrying some Krispy Kremes taking a seat a few rows down. She swapped with the guy sitting next to us and we heard about her weekend down in Sydney watching the Qld rock climbers team compete. How freaky?
Michelle and I had the best weekend. A big thank you goes out to our dear friends Louisa and Steve. You guys rock.
I’m heading back down to Sydney in December. This time I’ll be coming with two more great friends, Gerrod and Kristy.
Day 3 of our Sydney trip can be summarized with one word – Lazy.
We spent the better part of the morning sleeping in and then playing on the computers before we decided we should go get some fresh air and took a drive out to Watson’s Bay. We passed some truly magnificent houses and suburbs on the way and my love of Sydney grew stronger. Everywhere you look you can see the Harbour. At Watson’s bay we devoured some fish n’ chips and before long we were on our way back home again.
Louisa and Steve had some work to finish off, so Michelle and I read our books for a while and then prepared some taco’s for dinner. We ate our taco’s while we all watched Australian Idol.
I told you Day 3 was a lazy day.
After waking up from a glorious beer infused sleep I was ready attack my 2nd day in Sydney head on. I awoke to find the sky was wonderously clear and blue. Today was going to be awesome.
Our first port of call was a drive in the Integra out to Bondi and Coogee beach. In my 4 previous trips to Sydney I had never made it out to these beaches so I was pretty excited to see what all the fuss was about. It was worth it, these beaches are like bigger versions of the Sunshine Coasts, Noosa. Shops and accomodation evreywhere surrounding a small stretch of glorious beach. Words or pictures can’t do it justice. We secured an awesome car park at Coogee and had breakfast at Bahzooka’s – a cafe that overlooks Coogee beach. While we were dining, Adam and Fiona, from the first series of the block, arrived and ate there too. Our first celebrity siting.
After breakfast it was a quick trip back home, so we could get ready for the main event. Michelle had organized a Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb. How excited was I feeling at standing on top of the Harbour Bridge looking around Sydney? Pretty damn excited.
The bridge climb is quite an involved process. It takes over 3 hours. 1 hour of which is spent in training. Training involves – suiting up in special gear, practice climbs, learning how to use a radio, listening to your tour guides attempts at bad humour, etc.. But the training soon finished and we were off to conquor the bridge. It was a magnificent experience. I really can’t describe how wonderful it is. Truly beautiful. Next time you are in Sydney this is a must-do activity.
Our group in the bridge climb consisted of about 10 people, of which 3 were celebrating the birthdays. At the top of the bridge the group sang Happy Birthday to us. It was pretty embarrasing. The tour guide also takes photos while you are up the top and we bought a couple I’ll put them up in a photo album when I get back.
After the climb, one of the birthday boys, Mark (turned 40) from the UK was very interested in having a beer. So we headed to the Glenmore pub and downed a pint of Toohey’s old. While we were there, his family met up with him. They were amazing. A 40 year old UK couple with their 3 children. I was surprised at how friendly they were. I had a great conversation with them, but before long it was time to head back to Krispy Kreme. This time we made while they were open. Steve secured a box of 12 hand selected Krispy Kremes and we headed back home to tuck in. Oh man!! They were so nice. We practically inhaled our allotment of 3 donuts.
A quick afternoon nap and it was time to think about dinner. Our original plans were to head out to Kings Cross and have dinner at “Jimmy Licks” but we were all exhausted and decided to get some Thai takeout and have a night in. Steve and I headed out to Balmain on Darling St to a Thai restaurant called Tuk Tuk and picked up some awesome dishes and few bottles of wine and beer. I think my favourite dish was the Balmain Bugs curry. Scrumptious.
It wasn’t long before we were all hammered and ready for bed. Bring on Day 3.
After Thursday nights big family roast dinner, Michelle and I awoke from our slumber and made our way to Brisbane airport to start our weekend of fun down in Sydney.
We had booked cheap Qantas tickets earlier in the year and the time was upon us to come spend a glorious weekend down with our great friends, Team Dahl. Louisa was at the airport to greet us and take us back to Castle Dahl in Glebe. They live in a street full of terraces and theirs was quite extraordinary. Very different to anything you’ll see in Brisbane.
It was great to see Jazzy all excited to see us and even better when Team Dahl presented me with an ultra-cool birthday present. It’s a secret at the moment though, so you’ll have to wait and see what it is.
Before long, Lou was feeding us home made nachos (yumm!!) and then we were busing our way into the city. $1.60 for a fairly long journey. You’ve got to love Sydney’s public transport. Once in the city, we perused the QVB first. There are shops everywhere. So many funkey clothes and accesories shops. Now as the girls were looking at girlie things I got a bit bored and decided to take a photo of them shopping. Within seconds a shop attendant (read: cow) came out and told me I couldn’t take a photo of their store. What’s with that? No explanation or anything.
We breaked for lunch, then headed for the multi-story Myer building where I bought a new book. After that it was time to head back home for an afternoon Kindy Nap.
5:30pm rolls around. Lou, Michelle and I were all refreshed and then Steve arrived home. It’s time to start partying. We headed out to Darling Harbour, our first stop was the “Cargo Bar”. This funkey little pub/club is right on the harbour. So beautiful. The best bit about Sydney is that for a bottle of beer/stolli it is $9.
After the Cargo bar we headed over to “The Rocks” and made our way into the oldest pub in Sydney – The Fortune of War – or as we called it the “The Wheel of Fortune”. It was established back in 1829. Man, it was a complete dive. Needs a renovation.
After consuming much alcohol it was Steve’s great idea to walk 10 minutes to the local Krispy Kreme store. Michelle and I had never enjoyed a Krispy Kreme and we were hankering for one. Unfortunately the store closed 5 minutes before we arrived. D’oh.
Thoroughly dissapointed we caught a cab home and crashed straight to bed. Onto Day 2.