Sydney: New Year's with Kellie & James

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Thought we'd put Sydney as a sepatate entry to our general New South Wales adventures as it felt more like a break from travelling than part of our main trip. It was a welcome break as we were feeling a little exhausted when we arrived and were glad to spend a few days chilling with good friends.

James & Kellie were brilliant hosts. James' parents Cheryl & David arrived just a couple of hours after we did so we spent a bit of time with them too. On relfection most of our time together was spent eating which suited us just fine! We had some lovely food. In summary: massive Aus style burger down the pub with James on the first afternoon, stunning home cooked Moroccan chicken (James) the next night, yummy Thai meal out for NYE then amazing Italian pizza on the last night. Special thanks go to James for the brilliant fried eggs a la Sadler breakfasts!

On our one day out in town (out of 4 or 5 days..) we managed to get a little bit of much needed clothes shopping done (especially Graham) & then down to the harbour to see the Opera house & bridge. We also wandered into the botanical gardens but it was too hot for us so we didn't see much of it. We assume that we'll be coming back another time so have left most of the other sights for next time!

New Year's Eve was amazing. We had a brilliant, mostly unobscured view of the fireworks from Balmain side of the harbour - a nice walk from the Sadler residence. While the fireworks were obviously the highlight of the night we were also particularly impressed with the organisation of the whole thing: abundant clean porter loos with toilet roll(!), no crowd issues - with so many venues around the vast harbour everyone that wanted to had a perfect view. AND IT WAS FREE!!! Brilliant, just brilliant. We applaud you Sydney!

On New Year's Day we went to wish Pat a happy birthday at his birthday bbq where we met up with Kerry's old housemates from Balham - her 1st London flat and bizarely they were ALL there, all 3 of the original flat mates (4 including K)! More bizarre since only 1 lives in Sydney: Maree, our host.

Not a lot else to report about Sydney. As I mentioned we mostly chilled out. We had a wicked time though. This should not be underestimated by lack of "events". It was just what we both needed & wanted.

Possibly more photos to follow from Graham's camera...

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Photos

Dinner
with Kellie, James..

still dinner..
..Cheryl & David

Sydney Panarama
trying out the funky setting on the new camera. Not too bad..

Comments

[Chandra]

So jealous. I do envy you, obviously, but I do also wonder how on Earth you're ever going to handle going back to living in the UK with a 9-5. Glad to see you're both keeping well and that Kerry hasn't been forced into lesbianism or something equally interesting.

[KerryAndGraham]

hmmmm, agree that 9 to 5 might prove difficult to get used to again. that said, it´ll be better than working in the Bolivian silver mine that we saw today, or in a Delhi tuk-tuk, or as a go-go girl in Bangkok, so we can´t really complain :) btw, impressively random sentence to close your comment, def the most leftfield we´ve had so far!