Day 1: Sydney

I had some training to attend on a Monday. And decided to fly in 2 days earlier for a quick getaway. This was my second time in Sydney. Back in 2007 on one of our month long marathon dates (we were still doing the whole long distance relationship thing then), X and I did a roadtrip there and back.

My favourite colleague CF, who hails from the city had reiterated several times, "You must go to DFO! They've renovated it! It's amazing! They have G-Star Raw!" I'd gone to the Homebush DFO before and found it a bit of a disappointment but fueled by her enthusiasm, decided to dedicate my first day to that mall anyway.

It turned out to be a big mistake. Although it's not actually that far from the airport, it took me 2.5 hours to get there, via 2 buses and a train ride. Sydney traffic is scary! It never fails to give me a heart attack amaze me how the buses squiggle and squirm into the tiniest nooks and crannies.

And when I did finally get there, I realised lugging your unwieldy baggage around tends to further ruin the shopping experience. The mall was crowded and shops revealed items which could have easily been bought in Queensland for less. I wandered about for an hour before giving up.

In spite of her crazy busy schedule, I had forced Eliss to take me inEliss had kindly offered me to stay a night. Prior to this, we had never met or spoken, our only correspondence via email/ Facebook. When I had been desperately seeking work, she had tried to help pass my resume around. With husband and two friends in tow, we'd met up later and headed through the jam to the harbourfront. The ViVd festival going on and throngs of tourists and locals were keen to see the different light projections on the Opera House sails. We spent some time taking pictures (including lots of Asian poses) as the patterns evolved behind us.



We'd later gone to the Harbour Hotel for dinner, where I had a very yummy Rib-Eye Steak. The weather was freezing. In spite of my triple-layers, I shivered and lingered at every standing heater I came across. I was pretty exhausted by the time we got back and fell into peaceful dreamless slumber on the surprisingly comfortable air mattress.

This poor guy resides in Eliss' kitchen. RIP.

Much thanks to Eliss and Ernest for their hospitality.