Splendid Sydney....

When I returned to Sydney Mark was working, so I dropped my case off and had a walk around the complex casino area. Didn’t gamble this time as looked a bit more serious than Vegas.

In the evening Mark and I went to meet the Sydney and Singapore team- 20 of us. Terry (Dals husband) had arranged whole thing. The Grand Pavillion was a wonderful Indian restaurant and not having and a proper Indian for months, it was extra special. It was filled with wood carvings and the interior had a carved pergola. So beautiful. The food was honestly the best Indian food I had ever had!!! Terry and I discussed about how the food and I told him about our favourite Indian restaurant called Zaffrons (now closed) and he said that the names I was using were Pakistani influenced and the Indian names used were slightly different. I wish I had written them down, but we’d had a number of wines by then. I said my favourite dish was Balti and Terry said that’s exactly what it means – bowl! It has nothing to do with what spices it has in it. I’ve have to look it up.

It was a great night. Carmen and Claudia were part of the sales team and were twins. They were a hoot! Carmen talked about her Botox and fillers. She gave me all the inside info. On way to her marriage in Vegas last year she had fillers and her lips swelled like balloons she said. When she got off the plane and met people at the airport, people meeting her screamed. Luckily it settled and looking at pictures you wouldn’t know.

Day 12

Mark went to work and so my travel buddy Jannet and I met up again and had Breakfast over looking the Haaaarbour. Once I heard it said like that I couldn’t stop saying it, It was the same when I was in Boston. Haaabaaa

We had a lovely healthy breakfast again overlooking the water of my other favourite smashed avocado toast and chatted, putting the world to right. Its amazing how I feel Ive known her for years not just months.

We again got a Big Bus and bought a 2 day ticket this time that included a Captain Cooke boat ride. Jannet and I love a boat ride….

The Bus tour- driver asked me where I was from and I asked him the same as he sounded as if was from London. He was most put out and said ‘ I’m an Aussie, born and raised!!!!’ I apologised and said’ of course you are’, meaning it, but he thought I was being sarcastic. Not a great way to start a conversation. Anyway after a bit of back peddling on my part it turns out that his parents were from Kent.

We then took the Captain Cook boat trip to Manly Beach. On the boat, I went up the front and it was s windy, I felt my eyeballs were being pelted.e around it. The gardens are flanked by high glass and metal skyscrapers, but are wonderfully tranquil with lakes with large koi and beautiful waterfalls. There were amazing carvings and beautiful pagodas with seating underneath – a real escape from the city.

Opera House and the Haaabaa bridge from land, we took a boat and saw it from the water. We were dropped off at Bondi Beach and had a lovely walk on the sand and chips and beer in a bar – very healthy!

We then travelled back to Cockle Bay Wharf opposite the Hotel and met up with Jannet’s friend from 20 years ago. She hadn’t seen her for all that time, but had worked with her in Holland. She was now married to an Australian and lived just outside of Sydney. We ended up chatting for so long that afternoon wine turned into evening meal, so we just moved tables to nearer the harbour water, which was lit up by the harbour hotels and listening to the fountain next to us, we had a lovely fish dinner with yet more wine.

Day 13

The lovely Jannet and I were ready for yet another day of experiences and set off to the Chinese garden which is a serene area in amongst the noisy city life around it. The gardens are flanked by high glass and metal skyscrapers, but are wonderfully tranquil with lakes with large koi and beautiful waterfalls. There were amazing carvings and beautiful pagodas with seating underneath – a real esape from the city.

We then took the Captain Cook boat trip to ManlyBeach. On the boat, I went up the front and it was s windy, I felt my eyeballs were being pelted.

Manley beach is so beautiful with gorgeous white sands. We walked in sand and sea. It is so good for the soul!

We found a restaurant overlooking beach for lunch and had a bottle of wine - delicious

On our boat trip back, it was as if we had timed it perfectly as there was the most spectacular sunset across the harbour and behind the Sydney Opera House. Magical!

It was our last evening and we met Eric and Jannet in the Japanese hotel bar and had tapas type small portions of food which was delicious. It was supposed to be just us, but the team wanted to say goodbye too and they all showed up, so it turned into a party atmosphere again. This time we had the other twin next to us who had hilarious stories. We got chucked out at 11.30pm and Carmen ended the evening by reading our palms- always good for a laugh.

It was established that I have short stubby fingers but that doesn’t mean anything. Apparently, the ring finger being longer than the index means you are a leader. Good on marks but mine is pretty much the same. Then she looked at life lines - heart and head. Saying both were strong lines with no breaks- apparently good😁 To be honest she said a lot more, but this was after champagne and wine.

Weirdly Claudia only had one line which meant she made snap decisions with both heart and head. All probably suspect readings but great fun at the time. Mark got worried as she paused for ages reading his- he felt something was wrong, but she was most probably pissed.

Day 14

We got packed up again and off we went to the airport to take another internal flight.

Yet again queues were low and the whole thing seemed way more organized than the chaotic LAX airport. Read a posting on Facebook from LA expats which said that LAX had closed green card and visa users do all had to use same queues, so it was 2 1/2 hrs to get through immigration. We had that to look forward to when going home…..

The Qantas internal fight to Perth was 5 hours, but I still managed to get a good sleep in. Onto the next part of our journey and Mark’s actual holiday.