Jemsweb

I’ve had a fun four days with my friend Annemiek visiting from New Zealand. I took her around the tourist traps of Sydney. Now I have sore feet and a happy but exhausted demeanour. Here’s a few of the highlights we took in:

- Ikea (FIRST destination)
- Harbour Bridge / Milson’s Point / Luna Park / Domain
- Sydney University
- Darling Harbour
- Powerhouse Museum
- Monorail
- Chinatown
- “Wicked” at the Capitol Theatre
- Taronga Zoo
- German beer and food at Essen restaurant
- Apple Store
- Pitt St Mall (such as it is at the moment with massive renovations underway)
- Krispy Kreme doughnuts

Phew! No wonder I am a little sleepy. Lots of fun though – especially Wicked – what a show!! God, I don’t remember the Zoo being that expensive though. $41 for an adult? Really Taronga Zoo? Really?

It all did wonders for my foursquare stats too.

I was amazed to see the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald today which features Snoop Dogg in a Holden, surrounded by a mob, in Redfern, right outside the house that we lived in for six years in Hugo Street. It’s almost enough to make you wish you’d never sold the house! Wow.

Here’s the story: Rudd gives $20m to black scholarship fund.

Read about this guy in the Sydney Morning Herald, he uses a special lens and some other tricks to make the stuff he’s filming look really really small and toy like. It’s an amazing effect and reminds me how beautiful my adopted city really is!

The North Wind Blew South from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

More clips at keithloutit.com.

Thanks to the efforts of my darling Sydney side of the family, we have a house to go to when we arrive there in a couple of weeks’ time. It is slightly disconcerting that we have seen NO photos or plans of it – the estate agents didn’t put any up. The best I’ve done is the view to the left, taken from Google Earth. Nice roof.

However by all accounts it is very big with a huge garden and even a view of the Harbour Bridge from the master bedroom. And the name of the street is Wellington Road, so it’s clearly destiny.

We’re very happy and looking forward to settling into the lovely suburb of Earlwood. Much appreciation goes to Dins, Ned, Rosie & Jake!

Hanging in the food court waiting to go. Total luggage was 65 kg so had to pay $50 but we can live with that! See you on the other side…

We went to the Sydney Aquarium again on Saturday – Ned & Din were very keen to go and Max had never been. I enjoyed it again, though it is very expensive – $24 to get in! Why, that’s practically a DVD! There were lots of seals this time though. Archie had a great time as well, he loves it even better than the zoo for some reason. Even Harry got into it. Then we went over to Darling Harbour shopping center. I hadn’t been there since we first arrived in Sydney but it was surprisingly good. Managed to get an Atkins-friendly meal in the food court (roast beef, roast pumpkin and salad).

Ned & Max went to Radiohead on Saturday night, apparently they were amazing. Personally I am not very into them, even though every single other member of my family (including my mother) is obsessed with them. Guess I will stick to Britney Spears and Madonna. ;-)

Mum got a reply back from the eye doctor. Basically he denied everything and is “deeply offended”. Not sure where we go from here, maybe us the parents will have to progress it. I’ll keep you posted.