January 31st

---

Sydney, Australia - January 31st - 9:16pm
Well today was a crazy but excellent day. I got up bright and early (6:30am) to get showered and dolled up. I had packed last night before I went to bed so I just had to get ready. I headed out of the house and to the train station. I caught the 7:22am train into the city. I had a few chapters of my book left so I finished that up and next thing I knew I was at Town Hall to transfer to my other train. Lee said that he’d be ready at about 9am so I got there just before. I saw Luc and Jeff which was nice to see them again. I said my hellos and thanked Jeff, as he is looking after one night in the hotel for us, the joys of being a tour operator. It was tough to see them again as it reminded me of the good times I had on the ship.

It didn’t take long for Lee to show up and it was a shocking reunion. I was a little upset, as seeing him for the first time was difficult. I know it’s just a short visit and it hurts to know that, but you take what you can get. Jeff said that the hotel wasn’t going to ready for a couple hours so we decided to go and do some sightseeing instead.

We headed over to Starbucks to grab a coffee as we were both a little slow moving since we both had early mornings. We caught up on the last few days and Lee mentioned he wanted to go to Mrs. Macquaries Chair. So we headed out to the Botanical Gardens. We ran into the wishing tree so I made another wish with Lee. We realized that I had done the first wish incorrectly so I had to redo it! Haha Leave it to me to screw things up. We looked a little funny but it’s all in good fun.

We finally made our way to the chair / site and had some great views. There were a few tour buses that were there as well so it was a little hectic to get pictures, but we did manage. (Lee has the camera on the ship, so I’ll add pictures tomorrow). It was a little bit of a walk and a hot day so we relaxed for a bit and enjoyed the views. Sightseeing is always a million times better when you get to share the views with someone. It just looks different when you’re with someone.

We weren’t really hungry yet so we continued our walk. We weren’t far from the mall and I told Lee there were some cheapish TV series. So we took a walk down there as we had plans to go to RockBurger for lunch. We walked around the nice air conditioned mall for a bit but there weren’t really any TV series that caught Lee’s eye so we headed out. I still have a few series that he can look at, just not sure if he’s going to enjoy them, TOUGH LUCK! Haha
I couldn’t hold out anymore and I was out of book so I went to Dymocks and got my books. I should have paid about 140 bucks for the books but I robbed them by only paying 70 for New Best Sellers. Pam..I got Stephenie Meyer’s new books, can’t put it down already! Haha
We went to a few stores to see if we could find a solution for Lee’s PS3 as it’s broken. We got an idea to check a trading magazine to see if there is anyone that can repair it. Fingers crossed for him.

We then headed down to Rock Burgers for an excellent burger. I didn’t think I would be able to finish the burger as they were large and I wasn’t feeling too hungry, but I inhaled it. I guess I was a little more hungry than I thought. Luc was nice enough to give Lee the night off since I was in town so we didn’t have to worry about time, which was extremely nice. It was 1pm and Jeff said the hotel should be ready by then, and it was. So we took a cab to the hotel as we were a little jelly legged from all the walking. We got checked in and had no problems. We both were tired and stinky so we freshened up and had nice long showers. Nothing is better than a nice cold shower on a hot day.

Lee had a chance to look through the trading magazine and found a shop that would take a look at his PS3, so we walked back to the ship to get his PS3 to take a cab to the shop. We had a little trouble finding the shop. Lee and I knew what block it was in but missed the sign. We eventually found it and it turned out to be the one building that I had looked at initially and said “That looks a little sketchy.” As it was a stairway inbetween shops. It’s always funny how those things turn out. He isn’t sure if he can fix it but we have our fingers crossed that it’ll be back in Lee’s hands for Monday before he sails.

I gave the lovely suggestion to grab a cold drink, we went across the street to a smoothie café and ordered drinks. After we ordered Lee was looking at the map and realized we were in Chinatown, which explains the funky drinks. They had topics like grape jelly drops and other weird concoctions. Lee usually gets the good tasting drinks but not down unda. He ordered a Strawberry Milk Shake which ended up tasting like garbage. It wasn’t thick, it was like water and awful tasting, needless to say it didn’t last too long before we found a garbage can to dispose of it in. We took a walk down to Paddy’s Market, which is a cool market where you can get everything and anything in the world. That’s NOT true as we looked for a fan for Lee while he’s at the desk and that never happened. Poor Lee’s being looking for a fan for so long, between the size that he wants and the heat we’ve been having down here, there are no fans to be found in any stores.

It was getting close to 5pm and everything was closing so we walked around a bit and found a travel agent that was open. We went inside and got some really cool brochures on the Great Barrier Reef. Backpackers can get some sweet deals on things. So I’ll have some light reading to do tonight and see what I want to do. Since everything was closing we decided to head back to the hotel. By the time we got back it was close to 6pm and we were getting a little hungry. Tony Roma’s restaurant is just outside of the hotel with great ribs so that is were we stopped. Obviously I had to test the ribs out and they were great.
Dinner was lovely, but the drinks were ¾ the price of our entrees. I had a long Island Iced Tea (which wasn’t as good as Casey’s, mom) and it was a whopping 17.50. I realize it’s Australian dollars but honestly. Of course I realized this after we ordered but oh well, you got learn sometime.

We ended up going back the hotel and relaxing. We had a great conversation and tried to figure a few things out. Lee had opened my eyes and brightened my day like he always does. He made me realize the good things and the positive side of things. I just kept asking him why and how and he then explained that he didn’t have the answers to these questions and that ‘There is no Why’. I soon realized that there is no need to be negative and upset. We’ll be together soon and everything will work out. We have a point A (which is today) and a point B (which is in 3 years), we don’t know how we’re going to get there but we both know that we will get there. It’s funny how one person can change your whole world around and make you look at life completely different. I try to think that way but when you think negative all your life it’s hard to change and look at the positive side of things. Lee is helping me do that. I’ll get there one day.

But for now it’s movie time, Italian Job is on TV.

Good night everyone and I’ll be ok. Things are looking up! Thank-you for all the positive energy and support everyone, it’s really helped and I really needed it. Love you all, miss you lots and see you soon!

---