*blink*

Yes it got here in three and a half days.  So I would have been happier if I'd paid half the postage and had it take twice as long to get here.  hrmmm.

But anyways.

So people got lots of cool stuff.  The Khet game looked like it'd be fun, although a lot smaller than Laserwar.  And the "black light" desk lamp (that was actually just blue I think) looked friggen spectacular in a dark room!

But my toy was the Bucky Balls.  Actually ball-bearing sized magnets that are *extremelly* cool.  I'd seen the video and a guy at work had a set, so I had to get myself some :)

An actual bucky ball!

For dinner we walked down to Jing Jo Thai.  I was expecting it to be in the main part of town, but it was actually over the bridge and far away heh.  Had the banquet which was really good.

Echidna trying to escape us

Kangaroo River

The cafe even had a Bookcrossing shelf!  If I'd known this I'd have brought some books to release :)

Getting creative with the decorations

Chris and his cake

Hampden Suspension Bridge by night

Construction of the new Nowra-Nerriga road

Train at Tarago

Was a bit bummed that you can't get anywhere near these things.  Big fences and no tresspassing signs everywhere :(

So that was the weekend.  Except it was only half over.  Monday felt like Saturday so did housey type stuff and then played with some Lego, and listed a whole bunch of sets for sale on ebay.  Today I lacked direction and actually got a bit bored with everything :/   Oh well.. at least is a short week...

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.  

Edit:  it's all about the money, why does this not surprise me:

Didn't put noodles in - we already had wayyyyyy too much for two people (leftovers, hurrah!).  Stu said it could have done with a touch of fish sauce for saltiness and a little sugar.  Next time :)

As promised, a riot of colour!

End result - yumm!

I've never been before so I didn't know what to expect.  I imagined more of a light show, with flowers being light up by coloured lights or fairy lights or something.  So in that sense I was a little disappointed, as there wasn't really much of that.  But there were some pretty things and we ended up staying til after 10pm.  

Of course the first problem was getting in.  The tickets said 6:30pm, so that's when we arrived.  As did everyone else who had a ticket.  So all these people started crowding around and it was all a bit unorganised cause people didn't know if there were two different queues for people with or without tickets or what.  Took about twenty minutes to get through the gates.  I think if we were going to do it again we'd turn up at 7pm and be done with it.  But don't really think it was worth the $20 to do it again.

More photos after the jump...

Edit: hurrah she's fixed it!! :)

On a lighter note.  I did get some stuff done at work that I really needed to.  Flowers and trees are budding and blossoming all over the place.  Got the kitchen significantly cleaner from the weekend.  Perfect score in walking in Wii Fit - and it thought I had a Wii fit age of just 20!

So that finishes the fiction section of that collection of books, leaving the two autobiographies - Boy and Going Solo.  Both of these I've read at least twice, I really quite enjoy them.  But might read some other things first.  My pile of to-be-read books just seems to keep growing - especially since people keep lending me books! heh