Half Way
Spent the first half of the first half of my two weeks of holidays doing very little with Em.
Wednesday night she had a family birthday dinner for her father, so Casey, Benny and I went to The Clarendon for dinner (and to spend my $20 Eat Local voucher - as I tried to go on Sunday for lunch with Steve, but they weren't open).
Last time I went there the food was great - but this time it was spectacular! The three of us had different meals and were all very, very pleased.
Nikki met us there, then we went back to the House Of Sin for drinks and catching up.
Thursday wasn't quite the early morning it was supposed to be, but Em and I started our journey to Sydney.
Arrived at Taronga Zoo pretty early in the afternoon, despite thinking we might run out of time before we saw everything. As it happened though (250+ photographs later) we were ready to leave the park five minutes before closing, couldn't've asked for better timing.
I'll upload the photos soon, need to do some minor editing first (and there's no way I can upload using Em's dial up). Should have at least one new userpic out of them, yay!
From there we crossed the bridge, headed for our LastMinute.com mystery hotel booking - The Menzies Sydney Hotel. Dropped Snatch off with the valet (didn't that make me very, very nervous) then settled in for some brief recouperation before starting the evening plans.
Got picked up by Kate (a boarding school friend of Em's) and Mike - in his BMW and headed back over the bridge because he's definitely a north shore boy through and through - couldn't wait to get out of the city.
Tried a few restaurants in ... I don't know where ... but ended up going to Kirribilli Pub. Good food, then we got drunk. Oh yeah, met up with another Paul (a friend of the Sydney people, from England) and some other guy whose name completely escapes me. Had great drunken chatter ... as we got drunk.
They dropped us off at The Aurora just before Smem started his shift. Must've had to wait a while because we paid for one drink before he got there, haha.
Sometime after 1am we caught a taxi back to the hotel... and stayed in bed 'til 1pm Friday.
Friday was a lot of walking (not that Taronga Zoo wasn't)... nothing much of note except the usual shops full of kitsch in China Town. It's very difficult to find gluten free food in Sydney city, too...
A bit more rest back at the hotel, then we headed towards The Rocks, where we stumbled upon The Rocks Market (and Em got corn on a stick).
Still couldn't find anywhere to eat, so we grabbed some snacks from Coles and headed back to the hotel.
Saturday was Sydney Aquarium. First thing we realised was we should've gone on Friday - they're open 'til 10pm!!
Took hundreds more photos - both of us realising around the same time how to take better photos so we went back and did the shark and seal tanks a second time.
Drove back to Newcastle...
Picked up the very sick Nay, stopped off to wish Maz a happy birthday (and give her kitsch)... and that's me up-to-date.
P.S.: Many thanks to Case for sewing a button back on my shirt. It's great to be able to take advantage of my friends skills, 'cause I couldn't sew if my life depended on it.
Wednesday night she had a family birthday dinner for her father, so Casey, Benny and I went to The Clarendon for dinner (and to spend my $20 Eat Local voucher - as I tried to go on Sunday for lunch with Steve, but they weren't open).
Last time I went there the food was great - but this time it was spectacular! The three of us had different meals and were all very, very pleased.
Nikki met us there, then we went back to the House Of Sin for drinks and catching up.
Thursday wasn't quite the early morning it was supposed to be, but Em and I started our journey to Sydney.
Arrived at Taronga Zoo pretty early in the afternoon, despite thinking we might run out of time before we saw everything. As it happened though (250+ photographs later) we were ready to leave the park five minutes before closing, couldn't've asked for better timing.
I'll upload the photos soon, need to do some minor editing first (and there's no way I can upload using Em's dial up). Should have at least one new userpic out of them, yay!
From there we crossed the bridge, headed for our LastMinute.com mystery hotel booking - The Menzies Sydney Hotel. Dropped Snatch off with the valet (didn't that make me very, very nervous) then settled in for some brief recouperation before starting the evening plans.
Got picked up by Kate (a boarding school friend of Em's) and Mike - in his BMW and headed back over the bridge because he's definitely a north shore boy through and through - couldn't wait to get out of the city.
Tried a few restaurants in ... I don't know where ... but ended up going to Kirribilli Pub. Good food, then we got drunk. Oh yeah, met up with another Paul (a friend of the Sydney people, from England) and some other guy whose name completely escapes me. Had great drunken chatter ... as we got drunk.
They dropped us off at The Aurora just before Smem started his shift. Must've had to wait a while because we paid for one drink before he got there, haha.
Sometime after 1am we caught a taxi back to the hotel... and stayed in bed 'til 1pm Friday.
Friday was a lot of walking (not that Taronga Zoo wasn't)... nothing much of note except the usual shops full of kitsch in China Town. It's very difficult to find gluten free food in Sydney city, too...
A bit more rest back at the hotel, then we headed towards The Rocks, where we stumbled upon The Rocks Market (and Em got corn on a stick).
Still couldn't find anywhere to eat, so we grabbed some snacks from Coles and headed back to the hotel.
Saturday was Sydney Aquarium. First thing we realised was we should've gone on Friday - they're open 'til 10pm!!
Took hundreds more photos - both of us realising around the same time how to take better photos so we went back and did the shark and seal tanks a second time.
Drove back to Newcastle...
Picked up the very sick Nay, stopped off to wish Maz a happy birthday (and give her kitsch)... and that's me up-to-date.
P.S.: Many thanks to Case for sewing a button back on my shirt. It's great to be able to take advantage of my friends skills, 'cause I couldn't sew if my life depended on it.