Macleay Lodge Sydney

... our favourite place!
People are lovely
The beaches are great
The sun is hot!
The birds are pretty!
The environment demands respect!

Sad to leave but excited to see what comes next...

Love Us xxxxxxxxxx

Happy Birthday Patsy
Congratulations Barbara for becoming a Grandma!

Today I was collected from my airport hotel (after getting in at nearly midnight) and taken to NSW police HQ where I said hello again to the guys I met over in America at the IAI conference.

We had a brief chat and discussed what I would be doing tomorrow before I was driven over to the University of Western Sydney in Parramatta where I said hello again to an Australian Churchill Fellow who visited the NPIA earlier in the year. Jenny was over in the UK as part of her ...

... to say, if anyone here was meeting an American for the first time, they would probably think we are all homeless smelly vagabonds.  i never thought the most exciting part of my trip to this point would be to take a shower, i'm holding my nose till then...

... as Edna would call it 'Hot On Hot Off' bus - don't know what is going through her mind and that was without drink). We have booked the Bridge climb so Ed and Rosie's kids will be proud of them. They are even going to remain tee total for the night so that they pass the breathiliser test you have to take before hand - what is that about!! However Rosie wants me to go too so that she has ...

June 29th - July 21st... 3 weeks of fun and adventure in Australia!!

23 days in Oz
20 days of which involved alcohol!
Everyday involving stories, memories not to be forgotton and plenty of fun!

Our australia trip started in singapore on 28th June where i met up with my travel buddy Kaysi..

Monday 29th June we left singapore - destination Perth - followed by an immediate connnecting flight to Melbourne. We made the most of our time in Perth airport ...

... I looked I could find no one who I could feel comfortable striking up a friendship with.... Then one day I gave up... I finally gave up, I was lonely and just really craving my female friends from back home... I wanted to talk about everything we girls talk about.... but I was so completely alone in a foreign city (by the way my job was in investment banking made up of all men over 40 and one Romanian woman who wanted nothing to do with me for some reason)..... And so I sat ...

... amazing – it was truly breathtaking. By the way, I had a meat pie for lunch, because “when in Rome, do like the Romans.”

The zoo fulfilled one of the purposes for my trip – exploring unique wildlife. We saw dingoes, wallabies, kangaroos, koalas, platypus, as well as other animals like tigers, bears, etc. The zoo was nice, with the ...

... community". A large beef nachos and sampler plate, doesn't sound like much, but it beat out 75 other meals to take the number 1 spot. An honourable mention goes to Bubba Gumps in San Francisco for a wonderful seafood dinner.

Best value:
Premium Plaza Lounge in..you guessed it.. Vancouver airport (yes really, Vancouver is pretty good!) $30 Canadian per person from 3pm until midnight. Buffet food (yay), as much to drink as you want, alcoholic or non ...

... was just a couple of metres after the storms had whipped up the sand off the bottom over the last couple of days. I saw about 2 fish! Disappointment aside I went on a tour of the Hunter Valley the next day which is a large wine region to the north of Sydney. The countryside and scenery was absolutely beautiful. Rolling, lush green hills and loads of vineyards. Probably got through about 30 (very small) glasses of wine as we tried our way through ...

Patrick et moi avons pris notre premier cours de surf - il était temps avant que l'hiver arrive ! Je me suis inscrite à un atelier de photographie pour toute la journée du 8 mars en espérant que mes prochaines photos seraient meilleures (ça m'a appris qu'un atelier d'une journée a besoin d'être suivi de 10 autres au moins). Je tricote mon chum pour le convaincre de prendre des cours de cuisine, je pense que j'y suis presque arrivée mais lui penche plutôt vers des cours de golf !