Kings Cross, Hyde Park, Soho.. hang on, which way did we fly?

So we arrived in sunny Sydney where we stayed for just over a week. 

It just happened that the Melbourne cup (horse racing) was on the day we got there.  Even though we were miles from Melbourne, everyone had the day off, dressed up and were celebrating in style as if they were there.

Posh lunch party in the Botanical gardens

People watching the races on a big screen near Circular Quay

Great signage on the way to town!

We found a few very useful free (!!) city tours.  Here we were walked around town and told about some little known Sydney facts. 

For example this is a statue of Queen Victoria´s dog with a famous Australian radio DJ providing its voice asking people to donate coins in its fountain.  The voice even ´woofs´ if you put coins in..

Outside the city hospital there is this heldiggris (lucky pig) which drools and grants wishes (apparently)..again, if you donate coins.

There was also quite a bit of street art around, including these bird cages and accompanying bird noises.

We also caught up with an old friend from the China tour, Vic.  We spent a day walking a costal walk between Bondi and Coogee beach.


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The scenery on the walk was really nice and made for some fantastic photos...

..and opportunities to mess around with the camera.

Sandstone rocks everywhere..

We obviously also visited the famous landmarks several times, including the Sydney Opera House.  We were incredibly lucky and excited to find two shows in the Opera House that were right up our street. 

The first being a talk with Prof. Brian Cox about his usual space stuff as well as some new animal project snippets.  He was awesome as usual..

The other show was an amazing presentation (as part of the ´Graphic´festival) from Pixar by Lee Unkrich (who directed Toy Story III!)!  It showed the full film lifecycle from storyboards through to lighting as well as funny outtakes.  He also showed the most amazing short film called Partysaurus Rex (here is just a small taster as I can´t seem to find the full version, probably not available yet):

They were very strict on taking pictures during the presentation, so this was the only pic we took.  The auditorium was very impressive too!

We then braved another walk to Manly which was a couple of hours through forest terrain (always on the lookout for creepy crawlies) and beaches.

When we got back we rewarded ourselves with some lovely steak in our local pub.

It had been many years since we´d both last visited.  Everyone seems to exercise more and everything seems twice as expensive compared to last time.  Oh, and we saw Charles and Camilla drive past us in their car..

Vic, thanks for the company and the term: slosh it out! :)

Until next time, G´day..