Great news - It's raining!

I've just got in from work and got absolutely drenched on my way back from the bus stop. I don't know what happened as at lunchtime it was in the mid-twenties and I had a lovely lunchtime stroll, but the skies have just turned grey and heavens opened!

It's a weird concept to change your mindset from the usual british 'oh no, it's raining' around to 'great, it's raining' - and it's kind of cool to feel it happen! What with that and our new South Australian driving licences, I'd say we're half way to becoming Aussie!

Things are still going well but we are certainly still going through a transitional period. Adjusting to a new life, new jobs, a new house, a new car, and a new country is probably a bit harder than I anticipated but it is all good.

We spent last weekend in Sydney and it was great fun to return to our old haunts. We stayed on George Street so were really central but George Bush was in town for a world leaders conference so a large amount of the CBD was shut off. We arrived to a deserted city on Friday as they had declared it a public holiday to keep everyone away from the city!

We started with a $10 breakfast from Scruffy Murphys - Bacon, two eggs, sausage, steak, tomato, mushrooms and toast! And I wonder why I put on weight when I lived in Sydney! With our tummys full, we decided to 'wander' and it was amazing to see a huge barrier throughout the CBD and circular quay. We knew that George Bush has arrived the night before and saw several heavily guarded hotels - there must have been a world leader at each! We ended up at the Aquarium and then lunch which was a lovely bottle of red in our old favourite bar - Pier 26.

We did a little pub crawl on Friday night - starting at Scruffy Murphys again for $5 steak, followed by the Three Wise Monkeys and then Watershed at Darling Harbour. We ended our evening at Five Star Kebab - which if you were with us in our travelling days you will know the significance and excitement around this...

On Saturday we travelled out of the CBD and visited our old suburb Balmain. An anti-Bush march was happening and riots were predicted so it was nice to get out of the CBD. We walked to Balmain which was quite a trek but lovely to see the city skyline from so many different angles. I absolutely loved being back in Balmain and seeing our old house was surreal to say the least! Of course we had to pay a visit to the London Hotel for a quick one!

On Saturday evening we tried a new pub (radical) but weren't that impressed so headed for the one, the only, Pyrmont Bridge Hotel! It was great to see the same bar man that used to serve us years ago (I don't think he remembered us!) and of course I had to have a go on my trusty favourite the video jukebox! Brilliant!

We tried to stay awake for the Rugby which was due to be on a 2am our time but I'm afraid I let the side down and had to go to bed! We're planning to get up at 5am on Saturday to watch the England-South Africa game so wish me luck!

Enough for now anyway. Hope I haven't bored you too much but I know that those of you who we spent time with in Sydney before will relate to all of the above!

And after all that, the sun is now shining! Yeay! They'll never take the joy of the sun shining from this English girl!

Becks
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