Friends to visit - finally!

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Finally, after just over 2 years of being in Sydney, one of my friends took the plunge and came to visit me (I know Summer came over in Oct 2007, but 2.5 days really wasn't long enough!). Angela arrived on the Friday before Christmas, just as the weather was getting better.....although I was working until Christmas eve, she managed to entertain herself - shopping, sleeping, a bit of sightseeing and more shopping (NB: a bag worth 100 beers!!).

Saturday whilst she was still sleeping I nipped out and bought the Christmas alcohol. The day was quiet, and that night we were out til 2:30am at the Monkey in Balmain, for the Northstar Martial Arts Party - and what a night that was! Fortunately, I didn't suffer on the Sunday, but still skipped Stan's session and instead we got the ferry to Manly in the sun. The ferry from Circular Quay to Manly in my opinion is one of the great ferry rides in the world - you sail past the Harbour Bridge, Opera House, Kirribilli House, Fort Denison and through the Heads into Manly in a leisurly 30 minutes. Ok, so it can get a bit bumpy when rough, but that day was lovely. We wandered up the beach to Queenscliff and did a browse of the markets. After all that exertion, we found a spot in the shade at the Wharf Bar, a bowl of nachos and a bottle of white....such a hard life!

I was back in the office on Monday - although only temporarily, as it was the department christmas lunch, which basically involved lots of food, wine and silly kris kringle (or secret santa) presents. The present of the day was probably the pencil sharpener in the shape of a cat that miaowed when the pencil was stuck in its bum! More work followed and I finally finished up for Christmas mid-morning on christmas eve. All good. Christmas eve was kinda weird - festive, but not really Christmassy....the weather was a bit average, but not too bad, so we rented some movies and sat and vegged, drinking wine.

Christmas day was good fun - mind, I love christmas and thanks to everyone for presents. Lunch tho - we'd decided on a combination of typical roast and salad. We were joined by Daz for lunch and Jeff came back from rellies for a second (not to mention the 14 Peroni's and healthy dose of red wine!) Pig boy! The highlight was Daz's cheesecake....yum! Thanks Daz.

Boxing Day was a gorgeous day and was also the start of the annual Sydney to Hobart yacht race, this year with 100 entrants aiming to finish in 2.5 days.....not my idea of fun! But we watched the start from Balgowlah Heights (just outside of Manly) and once that was over, we hopped in the Jeff's car, together with his brother and his brother's girlfriend and headed north to Palm Beach - home of Summer Bay (Home & Away). Ok, so really we should have got there earlier as it was a little tricky to find a space, but we eventually found one and we hit the beach. Palmie has to be one of my favourite beaches.....it really is typical of Australia's beautiful coastline and should be a definite on any tourist trip.

After that, we hung around Sydney until New Year, including a bit of shopping (in the sales arg!), the Bondi to Coogee walk, lunch at Doyles at Watson's Bay (and the infamous Gap), the
Opera House tour, an afternoon/evening drinking at Hugos in Manly and then there was NYE. Now, I'm not a big fan - its a bit of an overrated party if you ask me, and there were half options for being on a boat but unfortunately none of those came off. Anyway, we picked up some chapagne, wine and nibbles and watched locally - lots cheaper and walkable home!

Saturday I was at the SCG for the first day of the last test between Australia and South Africa. In terms of a competition, its a dead rubber, but its still good fun to watch - taking bets on how long Haydon's innings would last for starters.

But, back to reality today and back to work.....more things planned for 2009.

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Photos

Jonah's
View from the patio at Jonah's, Whale Beach

The Gap
We survived...although it was a bit windy

Hugos
Jeff and I at Hugos in the sun

Palmie
my favourite Sydney beach