But we forced ourselves to go out, and had a lovely curried chicken of Nanette's and had some beer and did lots of Singstar. 

Was a fun evening :)

(did you know how freaking hard "The Circle of Life" is to do on Singstar???)

I hadn't seen a single preview for it, or read any reviews, so I went into it with no idea what to expect (which I usually find is a good thing heh).

Stu's complaint was it was totally predictable, and James Cameron ripped off other people's ideas yet again.  And that is true.  But you have to remember that this is a James Cameron Hollywood blockbuster - of course it's going to be like that.  You don't go to a movie like this really expecting any new ideas.  

What you can expect is a movie that visually is utterly stunning and incredibly beautiful.  As someone who likes bright shiny coloured things I was enraptured by the forest at night :)

A big downer for me actually was the 3D.  The glasses really dull the colours and brightness of the picture to the point where even scenes in the sunshine look subdued and lifeless.  I think there's more to lose from the 3D than to gain from the experience (which is fairly distracting anyway).  

So anyway.  The test of a good movie for me is in repeated watchings.  Maybe we'll see it again in 2D ..

Realised last night we hadn't left the house in four days :)  Bliss!!

Yesterday morning I finished rebuilding the Millennium Falcon.  It only took twelve hours this time instead of eighteen (so that was six hours of my life last time just hunting for pieces in the bags!  This time each little section was in its own bag from when I pulled it apart carefully).    I found the two 2x3 grey plates which I couldn't find during the first build.  I think I must have added them by mistake in the engines.  Either that or I just missed them this time around :)  But the missing left wing never showed up, and I was still left with a right wing instead.  So think there must have been a mistake in the packaging - doh!  

Look at the difference in colour between the "old" light grey and the "new" light grey!

Not quite the same scale :)

Last night Nat and Andrew came over and we had some pasta to go with our cheese, and then played lots of Wii into the early hours.  We had fun dressing up Nat's Mii :)

This morning the little brother had a look at my battery and confirmed my suspicions that the thing was, in fact, rooted.  So called NRMA out again (last time they came in 20 minutes, this time it was closer to 120 :/  - me poor little brother was trying to leave but very nicely waited around for them).  So they sold me an overpriced battery but the good news is it seems to be working ok now, *and* we decided it was probably the central locking draining the battery too quickly, so that has been disconnected.  So hopefully will be betterer for a while now...

Quite enjoyed the book.  Again, the stories give a great insight to American (kids) life in the 1860s.

Friday night was just a quick trip out to get ice cream for dinner (I had a massively huge lunch at work).

View from the hotel balcony

The jackhammering began at 8:00am Saturday morning.  This whole piece of roof was gone by the afternoon.

Kent Brewery is no more

Brunch on Glebe Point Road

Walked up to the light rail station and caught it into Darling Harbour.  

Lombard St, Sydney

Sydney Light Rail

Wandered around a bit, then went to Sydney Wildlife World (photos in a separate entry).  

Fountain in Darling Harbour

Fountain in Darling Harbour

Ibis in Darling Harbour

After Wildlife World Stu felt like a beer, so we got beer and wedges.  It felt very much like our Europe trip.  Except a lot warmer :)

In fact the last couple of trips where we've stayed in hotels, we've been in other countries that don't speak English. So it felt really weird that hotel staff and the public actually spoke the same language as us... yeah I know, I'm strange.. 

Seagull vultures

Saw the Sun Princess docked at Darling Harbour

Wandered back to the hotel and were just in time to see the Sun Princess depart

Anzac Bridge

The Peak and Sydney buildings

For dinner we went to a sushi place on Hay St.  It was pretty good.  It's the one where you can watch them preparing the sushi and a big fish tank right in the middle.  I saw someone from work there.  Well actually, she and her friend saw me and was waving (through the fish tank), except I was expecting to see Sydney people (if anyone) and so didn't make the connection that I knew her.. heh oops.

Wandered up into the Capitol Theatre atrium thingie, where all these photo booths and claw machines were setup. That and the sushi made it just like being back in Japan for the evening. :)  Stu spent three dollars trying to get one of these dudes for Nat .. he even picked the thing up in the claw, only to have it get jammed at the top of the chute.  Rage!!

Then we went and saw Up in 3D.  It was pretty good, although I have to say the 3D glasses do dull the colours somewhat.

Sunday morning was relax, then head over to my parents for lunch.  Watched a slide show of all their Europe and UK photos, and they fell asleep through my Japan photos.

Then headed to Sunday Night Dinner, where I surprised most people there by coming.  No James and George tho :(  

Then commuted to work Monday morning.  

Sunday we decided to go to Tidbinbilla, as they were interested in seeing some kangaroos up close.  So off we went.

The funniest thing I didn't get a photo of was an emu being chased by an angry masked lapwing plover :)

Welcome Swallows

Various emus

Various kangaroos

A magpie

Through a gate

Some sort of ant

And then we left.  Could have spent longer there, but they needed to drive 450km.  So just had lunch in Belconnen and off they went.

Finished Little House in the Big Woods last night.  I started this book *ages* ago, in our last house I think so probably nearly a year a go.  There's not much in the way of plot in this book, it's just a series of recollections about their life in "outback" Wisconsin in the 1800s.  As a history lesson it's fantastic!  Descriptions about all sorts of things they used to do to get by and making cheese and using every part of a pig etc.  I actually found it fascinating.  

For my birthday, Stu bought me a copy of Shreve's book of the same title.  I abandoned reading the Roald Dahl book I was up to in preference to this.  I have to say I loved it.  It is just a beautiful story, and wonderful to get so much more detail about their life that is not covered on the website.

Highly recommended!