So ferry, across to Manly, cos this land's a place I love...

---

Yesterday I caught up with Rob, a Merlin ex-colleague, for a few afternoon beers in Paddington. Had a lovely time catching up on the gossip and was treated to fish and chips for lunch. Yes, yes - I know I'm vegetarian but there was nothing veggie on the menu and as it happens, I loved every bit of it.

My stomach disagreed. It wasn't so appreciative of my dinner choice, as expected. That said, I'm not deterred - I may well have fish again before my time is up in Sydney. Maybe I'm taking the small steps to not being veggie in the future! Unlikely, however there is a chance I might go pescatarian (no meat, but fish OK)...watch this space!

After my stomach returned to normal, about lunchtime, I headed over to Manly to go to the beach. Bondi was overcast so sunshine in Manly was very welcome! I took the ferry out of Circular Quay, which gives you out of this world views of the harbour bridge and opera house. If only I could be on this ferry at 23.59 new year's eve! About half an hour later, I'm in Manly, and remembering my surroundings from four years ago. I headed to the beach to meet Marie and her friend Anthea to find there was literally not an inch of beach space to be had. Everyone had the same idea today - and I can't blame them. It's beautiful down here - as it's on a peninsular, there is a small beach in the harbour itself and a huge main beach on the other side, free from incoming ferries. The parade of shops between the two is really quaint although a lot more commercial since the last time I was here. Still, it's beautiful and again, feel very lucky to be here.

I stopped on the beach for a couple of hours before heading back to Bondi, where I managed to catch up with Jesse and Heidi. We literally come and go at different times all the time, so we rarely see each other (hope that this makes me the perfect house guest, not interrupting their time together but at the same time hope they don't think I'm being rude by being out all the time!). Tomorrow Jesse's back at work and I've got plans in the evening, then it's New Year's Eve where I'll need to camp out all day for a place, then it's the Field Day festival all day on New Year's Day. So from now until 2nd January, when I'm due to move on, we'll barely set eyes on each other. Only fair that I head back so they realise I'm still alive at least!

---