Brett Lee, Pad Thai and Merlot...the perfect day?!

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Jesse and Heidi have gone away for a couple of days and despite my notoriety for waking up early, I failed to get up in time to see them off at 7.30am. It's been a busy couple of days and I'm tired, so I was out for the count last night. Another hectic but fun day ahead beckons so the recharge of batteries will have done me the world of good.

Today I'm off out for lunch and then this afternoon I'm going to watch a T20 cricket game at the SCG. In readiness for lunch, I made sure that I did 500 sit ups and a few leg raises while catching up with Geordie Shore on the telly, before treating myself to some of the fruit salad leftovers from last night. I know how to live! The novelty of having a television again is ever-present - you get so used to these backpacker rooms having nothing other than a couple of electric points (or not even that, as you'll no doubt have read, in others) and if you're lucky, carpet. A television - and a television with Foxtel as I have here - is the ultimate in luxury. In Australia you can also watch any Premier League game, even if it's a 3pm kick-off (unlike back home, for those unaware/couldn't care less folks). I might even watch the Liverpool v Blackburn game as a special treat.

Treat went out of the window when I spotted the 1-1 scoreline courtesy of Facebook before watching the match. Clearly I missed little - although it was a Liverpool player that put the ball in the net on both occasions...

Off to lunch with Marie, who I met in Byron Bay. We walked from Central Station, through Chinatown and over towards Darling Harbour, stopping at a beautiful little Thai place for lunch. Which reminds me - I've seen some of the best named Thai restaurants since I've been here. Up there with the sunbed shop 'Tantastic' and hairdressers 'Barnet Fair'. How's about 'Thai me up' and 'Thai Foon'? Genius.

Pad Thai, wine consumed and world put to rights, we then wandered round Darling Harbour, around WILD LIFE and the Aquarium, and took the 3km walk to the Harbour Bridge, trying to suss out suitable New Year's Eve fireworks vantage points on the way. We eyed up a few swanky restaurants with good views around the wharf - well after all, we're only here once - and vowed that New Year would be a civilised affair. Most public places are booze-free on New Year in Sydney, so a restaurant or bar is our only hope of a glass of bubbly at midnight. We may well be looking at AUD 200 a ticket, or worse, for sitting in a restaurant and having a glass of vino. Worth it though, don't you agree? If you don't, please don't answer that question, as I'm looking for justification right now...

Another quick vino stop at The Rocks, and we hopped on the bus to Moore Park, home of the SCG. Tonight is Brett Lee and his local Sydney 6ers versus Shane Warne and his Melbourne lot, in a T20 game of cricket. The crowd was nearly 28,000 - the total of dreams back home in a 20/20 game. The beer's not too pricey but we weren't in the mood for it, so it was the 10 dollar cans of Smirnoff Ice that took our fancy. We took our seats in the non-alcohol bay with our 'lemonade' (there's a trend here with us and our 'fake' alcohol), and sat down to watch Marie's first cricket match. A real tight game, it came down to the final ball, with Sydney sneaking it thanks mainly to an outstanding catch by Brett Lee, and a nail biting final over bowled by the same man. Melbourne needed 4 from 1 ball - Lee made sure they didn't get it. What an atmosphere and what a game. Marie's converted to the cricket fan club - and after a night like tonight, it was easy to see why - the Aussies put on a great show, in a tremendous stadium. We even managed to persuade punters in the alcohol queue to buy us drinks to avoid queuing ourselves. And then there were free buses put on for all of us from Moore Park to Central Station on the way home. English sporting organisers could learn a lot from their Aussie counterparts - a real slick operation. They even had a machine to pour 4 pints at a time. We could probably have queued and been served in less than 10 minutes - we were just impatient!

And so back home, and it's time to catch up on typing up all my blogs. A quick Skype with my favourite people too rounded off my day nicely. What will tomorrow bring?!

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