It's Thursday here today but wanted to recap the weekend. Instead of drinking away my first four days off in a row, I decided to drink away only a small portion of it and spent the rest of the time taking in some local Sydney attractions. The weather has been fabulous with temps ranging 25 - 37 degrees over the last week, the exceptions being today and yesterday. Lots of rain.

Friday night was a gong show, as it usually is when you spend a night in the city. The night saw us through 5 bars, 6 cab rides, 1 lost cell phone (not mine), 1 recovered cell phone and ++ money spent on various alcoholic beverages. I recall lots of laughter and lots of dancing AND we made it home before the sun came up. Because we'd had such a rough evening, we felt that Coogee Beach would be appropriate for Saturday . . . turns out the three of us all have matching Australian beach towels (red with big map of Australia). You can't go wrong for $10 at Budget Beaters. It was a hot day, somewhere in the 30's which might make you think that the water would have warmed a bit. Not so. Word on the beach is that the water is the coldest its been. Usually hovers around 22 but is now a cool 16. Who knew?! Either way, the water is damn cold! I've submerged my body twice since I've been here, first time was in a wetsuit and second time, at a beach with no crashing waves that cause body damage. They were asking people over the loudspeaker to refrain from body surfing as there had been suspected spinal injuries because of the strength of the waves. If that's not incentive to stay out of the water, I don't know what is. Sharks in the area, I suppose.

Anyway, after reviving our bodies with a little sun, surf and rehydration, we felt that we had recovered enough to proceed to the Coogee Bay Hotel, the local watering hole. Apparently, drinking was not yet out of our system. Coogee Bay Hotel: 4 bars in one with just a guess, 3:1 male to female ratio. Let's just say we had fun. Made it home around 300, slightly intoxicated with kebabs in hand. Word on the street is that doctors live on the 1st floor so we decided to make a stop in their lounge to finish our eats. It remains unconfirmed, as we saw no one.

On Sunday we figured it was time to get down to business, so we headed to The Rocks Market in Circular Quay. Circular Quay is the main ferry hub, and from what my Sydney guidebook tells me, it's where the first fleet landed its humen freight of soldiers and convicts . . . sort of a historical area. The Rocks is an area within Circular Quay that forms part of the promenade (see pic) between the Harbour Bridge and The Opera House. History and geography aside, The Rocks Market is much like any market at home, offering an eclectic range of jewellry and crafts. Lot of hype surrounding this market and was expecting to be walking around for a couple hours at least. We made it through in under an hour though. Nice area of the city though. Our group was in a pretty sad state anyway, so the less walking the better. I did buy a scented candle, prohibited in our dorm rooms. I have since burned my candle and blown it out with no untoward effects. They claim the fire alarms are very senstive. There's signage everywhere warning of hairspray use in our rooms. Nice try. I spent a quiet night in watching a DVD on Jen's portable DVD player, which she has lent me for the whole time I'm here! How nice is that?! She's got a laptop so doesn't need it.

I got up early on Sunday to head off on my own to the acclaimed Taronga Zoo. Apparently, Taronga has the best view of any zoo in the world. The zoo itself was unexceptional. I was pumped about seeing the koals and kangaroos but I guess I went at the wrong time of day. The ONE koala that they had was sleeping, along with the kangaroos. The wombat and platypus were nowhere to be found and I only saw the blinking eyes of the tasmanian devil from within its nest. The highlights were the meerkats and echidnas (strange porcupine-like creatures with a snouted nose). The rest of the animals were typical of any zoo; elephants, gorillas, seals, giraffes.

After the zoo, met Jen for a walk across the Harbour Bridge (the bridge climb costs upwards of $250). No thanks. 30 minute walk across with fantastic harbour views. Added to my collection of opera house and harbor shots (see pic). Stopped by Luna Park, an old theme park from the 30's. Took a pass on the rides and headed home. Went to see Blood Diamond. I'm sure it's been in the cinemas at home for months. It's THE new movie here. Everything comes out late here.

On Tuesday, did the coastal walk from Coogee to Bondi. Thought I should spend at least one day on the famous Bondi Beach. Quite big and lots of surf shop shopping. Relaxing day. Good weekend. Next time I have four days off though, definitely heading out of the city. Off to Blue Mountains February 3,4. Will have more to write then.

Val from Calgary is coming to Fiji in February! Yay! Will be nice to see a friendly face and hear news from home. Talk soon!

Just a quick update . . . seems all I've been doing is working. Work, work, work. That's one thing that never changes. Except the scheduling here is absolute crap. They shortshift you like crazy and it's perfectly acceptable with the union. Just one more thing to add to the list of things that I don't like about Australian nursing. Can you believe their pharmacy is only open M-F from 9-5. Meds don't even come in blisterpacks. You basically search through this huge vat of medication boxes to find the one med that you need. It's sooo time-consuming . . . gotta stop ranting. Must go to beach and remember the good things about being here.

Have checked out the club scene and it is definitely better than Calgary. However, some bars stay open 24 hours. Who knew!? I didn't get home til 800am one morning. It's crazy. Expensive too. I paid $18.00 for a double vodka soda. EVERYTHING in Sydney is expensive though. I'm doing a harbor pub crawl this weekend where you get onboard a boat and they take you into different pubs around the harbour. Should be an expensive night! The guys here are absolutely crazy. They haven't got a clue about personal space and try to drape themselves all over you upon meeting them and talking with them for 3-5 minutes. I don't think so buddy. I suppose they're not ALL like that though.

Anyway, booked a trip to Fiji. Will be leaving Feb 16 for 7 days. Think Val from work is finally coming as well! Yay! A friend from home. Will update when I can. I'm off to spin class.

Happy New Year to all! New Year's Eve day was spent at the mall, rushing around last minute to find a new dress. Successful, thanks to the fashion advice from Vickie. I never know about dresses. Went to The Watershed, a club in Darling Harbour. The fireworks were amazing, both at 900pm and 1200am. They love fireworks here. Today was a great day. Kicked my opponent's ass in body combat at the gym and went down to Coogee to relax on the beach. The weather reminded me a lot of Calgary weather today. Cloudy, sunny and hot, cloudy, hot and then an insane dump of rain, on my walk home of course. Better than Calgary I guess, as in there was no snow. Burned the crap out of my face though. SPF 30 just doesn't cut it here. So have finally posted some pics to my online album. Check out the links section under the clock. It took FOREVER to download the pics on there so take your time.

Alright, so I'd been in Sydney for 3 weeks and still had not gone down to the harbour to see the icons that ARE Sydney. Strange to be the one taking pictures of these structures that I had only ever seen in pictures. I went on a cruise around the harbor to all the hot spots. Got to see the bridge and opera house of course, as well as all the millionaire estate houses on various bays within the harbour. Lot a rich folk here.

And on to New Year's Eve . . .

This is a picture of us waiting outside the emergency department for our taxi's, both of which did not show. Our residence is so ghetto that nobody knows where or how to get to it. We ended up taking the bus . . . wasn't super pumped. We had tickets to the Watershed, which is a club on Darling Harbour. We didn't see the fireworks come off the bridge, but we did see a pretty impressive fireworks display, both at 900pm and 1200pm. It was strange to be celebrating the beginning of a new year in a country so far from home, but it was a pretty amazing experience. Phoned my parents to wish them a Happy New Year. Typical of me to do so, typical of them to be asleep, especially with the time change. After the second set of fireworks, all the men burst into song, a song I thought to be their national anthem. Turns out, as I learned from my UK friends, it was some kind of chant about cricket. Needless to say, it went on for a good hour or two. Nonstop. I had to work the next day, but everyone else headed to Coogee Beach to watch the sun come up. Ended up being a really great evening.

So, here we are at surf camp. Went out to a place called Crescent Head, which is a 5 hour bus ride from Sydney. We surfed at a beach called Delicate Knobby? Interesting name. It literally felt like I was at camp. Went up with Vickie and Jen, a couple of great friends I've met while here. We stayed in a room with bunk beds, there were campfires and lots of music. Maybe a little bit of drinking. I was super apprehensive about getting in the water, but after receiving some instruction, was feeling a little more confident . . . until it was actually time to get in the water. Turns out though, I didn't think about sharks once. Your so focused while you're in the water that you don't really have time to think of anything else but getting on your board. I was more paranoid about drowning or getting dragged into a rip tide. It turns out I'm a natural. Picked it up really quickly. Made it onto the board several times. Also fell off several times as well. I thought I was in good shape before I hit the water but once I got in there, I quickly realized how intense the workout is. No wonder surfers are totally cut. I found out when I got back that there had been 3 shark attacks in the area. Whether those were nips, bites or amputations, I'm not sure. Don't care to know to be quite honest. I DO want to get back in the water again. The trip itself was amazing. Great to get out of the city and I can't remember the last time I was able to see so many stars in the sky. It was surreal.