Friday, January 31st, 2003

Time	Event
10:03a	What a night! The Opera was fabulous. I had such a wonderful time and it was so funny, and enjoyable. As an added perk I got to see Christopher Reeves- yes the american actor who's a paraplegic. He was there with his family. Talk about odd timing and coincidences. It was a lovely evening all around - I went wearing my sarong as a dress along with my Tevas. The Sarong actually looks quite nice - like a nice long strapless dress. But I must say paired with the Tevas it's just a stunning ensemble (har har) but I felt good anyway. I remember standing outside on the balcony area of the Opera House with a glass of Chardonney before the Opera feeling the wind gusting across my face and over my shoulders and thinking right then everything was perfect. It was so nice. It was a great place to people watch as well - people who were dressed to the 9's in the james bond tuxedos and the slinky fancy dresses in ankle breaking high heels and then folks in shorts or jeans and a T shirt. On the way out after the show there was a live jazz band playing at the Opera Bar an out door bar right on the harbor. So I stopped and listened - along with several other people for quite a while before I realized I was just ready to crawl into bed. So off I went and caught my subway train back to the hostel. Today I let myself sleep in - of course I woke up right at 6:30am and finally gave up the ghost about 8am when the rest of the women in the room were up and moving. But I'm taking it easy today with no timelines or anything. I'm going to the aquarium, the Chinese Friendship garden and then the Botanical Gardens if I have time. But I'm not going to rush and go crazy. One of my roommates told me this morning that last last night I laughed a few times in my sleep. She said it was such a nice friendly laugh that she was compelled to laugh along with me. I'm glad she wasn't bothered that I woke her and was quite happy about it. I'm also amused that I was laughing in my sleep. I have no idea what I was laughing about but I guess this vacation is doing me the good I have needed for a while. Well it's time for me to head off and have another wonderful day. It's already 23'C (73'F) but www.wunderground.com says it's supposed to get up to 32'C (89'F) so it's another tank top and shorts day. I'll bring my anorak rain jacket in case it gets chilly inside and I'm wearing my convertible pants so I can put the legs back on when I finally take them off. G'Day Mates (still haven't had anyone say it to me - ah well No Worries). Current Mood: happy (2 Comments | Comment on this)
4:39p	Auckland Locals!! masterfish if you see this - I am having the devil of a time trying to get thru on the payphone here at the Hostel. The # here is +64 9 309 2802 - Auckland City YHA - corner of Liverpool and City Streets. I'm going to go down and give it another go but please try to call me there and leave me a message on when you want to meet up and if you want to get me here at the hostel or where I should meet you. duhast if you see this after you get off work any help would be great! (1 Comment | Comment on this)
8:00p	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! Current Mood: tired (2 Comments | Comment on this)

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