visitor

Sandy has been out from France for the last 3 weeks, but had been staying out with friends in Cleveland, which is unfortunately a long way from anywhere else. On Monday she came into town and we hung out, before going to a couple of New Year's parties in the evening: a BBQ at Dave's in Paddington, and then dinner and drinks at Southbank with Chad, Mirri, Craig, etc.

On Wednesday, Sandy and I got up early and flew down to Sydney. The move proved wise. Brisbane had been pretty inclement weather-wise for the whole of Sandy's stay, but Sydney turned on some glorious weather. On Wednesday we walked around town, from Central station through Hyde Park, then around through the botanic gardens to the opera house, and through the Rocks to Darling Harbour. In the evening we headed out to Pymble to stay with Dave, a family friend of Sandy's.

On Thursday we did the beach thing. Manly beach was beautiful, but closed to swimming due to dangerous surf, but we had a lie on the beach, then moved to Shelly beach and then the inside beach for a dip and some more sun. I collected rather too much, and have some nasty red bits on my back and feet now. In the evening we headed to Andrew's place for a barbeque, which was lots of fun, both in terms of seeing their apartment, meeting Steven, and just hanging out with them for a while.

On Friday we again did the beach thing, this time heading out to Bondi, which was open. We didn't swim, though, just walking along the beach, then up and around the cliffs towards Bronte. We spent a while watching some surfers trying to get out to the big break off Tamarama. It took them a good half-hour to get out there, and in the half an hour we watched after that, they weren't able to catch any waves. To end the little holiday, we caught up with Dave in Darling Harbour before heading out to the airport and home.