Sydney

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Tuesday 6th March:

Joy of joys, this is the third day in a row of sunshine. And great timing too as we met

up with Julie, one of my sister's friends who lives near Sydney, and went for a

wonderful walk through the botanical gardens with at least one objective being its

well-known cafe for a brew and a hard munch through some Anzac biscuits with their

wonderful syrup and oats flavour. There's been so much rain here this summer that the

gardens are stunning - everything is lush and gorgeous. And with apologies for bringing

the subject up yet again, we found fruit bats. Hundreds of them hanging from trees

throughout the gardens. They really are very cute when you can see their furry little

faces and you can see clearly why they are also called flying foxes. But they do a lot

of damage to the trees so apparently the authorities are going to be using sonic means

to try and move them out of the gardens later this year. Sounds like a good job we came

when we did.

And Julie was not the only person we met today. We went over to Darling Harbour to the

bank's HQ in Australia. Managed to meet up with 2 out of 3 ex-colleagues: Nicola

and Christine. Lots of people were sitting near reception having some

very serious-looking business meetings but I'm afraid we were guilty of some very noisy

squealing as it was hugs all round!

Tonight we are going out for dinner just along the quayside here to the Opera Bar and

then we're going to the Opera House to see, not a high-brow opera, but the Ukulele

Orchestra of Great Britain who are here for one night only. We booked from the UK and

managed to get ourselves seats in the front row of the circle. We're chuffed to bits

we're going and very pleased it's something fun and not too serious.

And then we have to pack because, if all goes well, when we wake up in the morning the

Queen Mary 2 will be berthed opposite our apartment. We go on board tomorrow and then

stay in Sydney for another night and sail out on the 8th. We have loved staying here;

the quality of the accommodation and service and the friendliness of the staff have been

fantastic. We'll be a bit sad to leave but also a lot excited to embark on the next

phase of our journey.

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