Current mood:

tired

G'Day Sydney and Helloooo New Zealand
So it's my last night here in Sydney. I'm pretty wiped and it's only 8:00pm. Just grabbed some Japanese in Chinatown which is a few blocks from my hostel. I really lucked out because the hostel is convenient to public transportation and other fun things. It's also large, clean and decent.

I got to the Aquarium and the Botanical Gardens today. The Aquarium was really nice and I loved the shark exhibit where you're under and beside the sharks for viewing. They had tons of different kinds of sharks in there too. The great barrier reef exhibit with all the fish was lovely as well. Same sort of things except without the underwater tunnels but you're viewing HUGE tanks of fish. They were playing some nice soft music and I sat myself down right in front of one of the huge windows into the tank (floor to ceiling ~10' and about 20' wide maybe) and just let myself relax into the moment with the music wash over me and relaxing. It was lovely.

After that I picked up a few post cards for family and wrote them up and found a post store to grab some stamps to mail them. Then I grabbed a sandwich and wandered over to the botanical gardens and wandered and had a bit of a picnic and read a while. It started to get chilly with the wind and I realized it was getting overcast. So then I wandered by to Circular Quay and grabbed a cappucino from of all places a Starbucks - it was the only coffee place I had seen near by. I had them make it up to go but on my way out one of the comfy chairs was free along with a local paper so I sat down and read that a while. It's odd to see the differences in terminology. You can see some of their background from the British - someone was 'sacked' because they had extreme morning sickness (hyperemesis gravidida) and their solisitor brought the company to court and the barrister....etc etc. There was some discussion about what Dubya (that's what they call him here too) was doing with a new something or other to be written by the UN Security Council that would allow good ole George to go into Iraq by force without putting the UN into a bad position. Odd to hear news of the world from somewhere else.

I also managed to find the T shirt I wanted to buy for myself here in Sydney. It's actually pretty nice for a tourist t-shirt. It's not a big loose T but more of a fitted woman's style with Aboriginal influenced design on it. I also picked up a little tank top in a similar vein that I'm sure will get a lot of use this month and then sit waiting until it can be used this summer.

I've repacked my backpack with all the goodies I've already bought. I was planning on sending them home to Ornoth to keep for me before I left but they're not too bulky and my pack still has room so I'll wait until things get tight and make a shipment back from NZ at that point. I'm trying not to buy too much for too many but there are so many folks I know I want to come back with little things for that makes it difficult. Not to mention I told my immediate family that they'd be getting gifts from Aussie or NZ for belated Christmas gifts. But I'm doing ok with those already. I just hope I remember that I buy myself a little something from NZ too. I found my opal necklace - I ended up not getting the one by Circular Quay and am totally ok with that. I really like the one I got and I found a pair of opal earrings that match it at another store for a steal!

Ah well I ought to wrap things up here and head back to the hostel. I ought to catch up on my postcard journal - I've bought a post card each day I've been here to write about what I've done but haven't written on them. I have written in a paper journal and in here so I've got plenty of source material. I'll be doing the post card things as I go thru NZ too so that by the end of the trip hopefully I'll have a journal with pictures to go with the entries.

At any rate the next journal entry should be from New Zealand assuming I find network connectivity.

Oh before I forget - A Big Hello from Down Under to my buddies at The Guardian. Thanks for the note! I miss chatting with you all but I don't miss work ;).

Also canyoncat I got the email thanks!