The last day of a long weekend! Very nice to have three days off. Friday I went to a teppanyaki restaurant with my friends from work Anna (kiwi), Sandi (pom) and Caro (paddy). We had a very good girly night. I managed to catch the bowl of fried rice, the raw egg landed on my lap. Afterwards we headed to my favourite cheesy backpackers pub for a few drinks. Woke up with quite a hangover on Saturday. Met with Sandi and Caro again at the end of the day to watch Balconies, a theatre performance that's part of the Sydney Festival. Very very good and entertaining. Could have been part of the Parade in Holland.
Sunday was Australia Day. Due to a total fire ban, the fireworks were cancelled. I was gutted! Had really been looking forward to that. As it was close to 40 degrees, there wasn't a lot that I wanted to do. So met with Carla and Paul for an iced coffee and made our way to Balmain, where Paul and Polly were expecting us for a Sunday roast. It was really too hot for a roast at 3 pm, but Polly's cooking was just too good so we ate loads. Beautiful meal accompanied by loads of wine. Desert was creme brullee with some cocksucking cowboys. Off to yet another pub afterwards where we sat outside for a few hours.
As I still hadn't been to the Art Gallery of New South Wales and today's weather was crap, Ciaran and I went to the gallery. It was quite nice. Beautiful building and I really liked some of the contemporary Australian artworks. There is a Picasso exhibition as well, so will have to go back to the gallery for that next week. Was very busy today
Ah, and of course I booked my flights to start my travels! Will be flying to Perth on 24 February and from there to Melbourne on 9 March. Plan to spend a while in Melbourne and from there on to Adelaide, Alice with Uluru and Kata Tjuta, Darwin and Kakadu, Cairns, Brissie and back to Sydney. But my plans always change so we'll see what happens.
I was very surprised to see the Dutch elections on tele here (on SBS, the 'foreign' channel). Weird to hear Dutch politicians speaking English and see Ferry Mingelen on screen here. The news here is very local and very American oriented so this was quite weird. Most of the news these days is about DubYa and his plans. Howard sent many ozzies to the Gulf and not everyone here is too happy about that.
Time flies when you're having fun. It feels funny knowing I'll be leaving Sydney in less than three weeks!
Last weekend was the Lunar New Year. DIdn't see too much of the celebrations. During the parade I was in the Powerhouse museum with (Chinese) colleague Pauline and her husband and baby. There was a good photo exhibition on hip Tokyo streetlife in the nineties. We went to Rival Restaurant for yum cha afterwards. Thanks to Pauline's husband knowing the manager, we could avoid the queue of about 80 people and just walk in. I am not a big fan of yum cha, but it was still very nice.
Sunday night I was invited to a Dutch bbq in Balmain. About 12 Dutch expats and temp migrants were there. I only knew one, but everyone was really nice and I had a very, very good time. Bumped into a girl I went to school with. Small world.
Started my last week at DuPont today. Feels kinda weird. I will really miss the girls I work with, we have so much fun and got to know each other quite well. But that's how things go.
So, what did I do last week? Went to Govinda's again, this time with Carla. We saw My Big Fat Greek Wedding, good chick flick. Friday night Carla, Paul, Ciaran and I went to the teppanyaki restaurant where I'd been before. This time I had to catch two eggs in two bowls in one go, all the omelet pieces and a saltoing bowl of fried rice that landed all over me (I did catch the bowl though).
I am utterly disappointed that we haven't yet received our safe-australia-kit. Now I won't know how to spot a terrorist. Seriously: every ozzie household will receive a kit this week with info on how to recognize a terrorist, what to do when you think you may see one (or the bomb he left behind) and which goodies every household should have (battery operated radio to listen to Howard, duh, waterproof matches etc). With all the respect: I find this extremely overdone and funny.
Did anyone know Holland is playing in the cricket world cup? I was very surprised. Had the cup been here, I'd have started the orange army. Unfortunately it's being played in South Africa and Zimbabwe.
Only 8 more sleeps before I will leave Sydney behind! It feels funny packing my bags and saying goodbyes. Friday was my last day at DuPont. Was pretty good. I left along with Anna and Sandi and a team lunch at the pub was organised for us. I will really miss the girls I;ve worked with and we all felt a bit strange leavig on Friday. But....the upside is: no more getting the 7.15 train each morning and no more work for the next four months or so! After work Anna and I went to town where we saw the M.I.L.K. photo exhibition. I love these photo's and the exhibition was very good. It was at the forecourt of the Opera House, a beautiful location. Later that evo we met with Sandi and her friends en Anna's boyfriend at Mickey's, a brilliant little restaurant in Paddington.
Today I went to town to do some final shopping. Apart from Body Shop goodies, I bought the most perfect travel thing: the vacuum bag. All the clothes that I want to send home are now vacuumed (spelling?) and take up a lot less space. Will do the same with the stuff I leave at Caro's. Bloody briliant!
So, back to the packing now. Two more days of mucking about in Sydney and off to Canberra for three days on Wednesday!
