SYDNEY

Well, it's the last two weeks of this epic trip of mine & I'm wondering where the time has gone!? It's gone by so fast, but I've had some really fantastic adventures, & now tomorrow I'll be having another one first thing in the morning with Derek. For my birthday, he's treating me to the Harbour Bridge Climb. This ought to be interesting, considering that my lower back muscles have been acting up this week, but I'm going to go & do it anyway, muscle spasms be damned!

Arriving in Sydney has been a bit eventful. Last night didn't really go that well, as the room I'd gotten, turned out to be horrible for noise. I'd fallen asleep a bit early, but got rudely woken up around 12:30am to the lovely sound of industrial garbage trucks picking up & emptying loads of garbage. This went on about every 15-20 minutes all night long!!! Who does that in the middle of the night!?!?!? Around 2:30am, I'd had enough, so I marched down to the lobby to speak to someone, only to be told they couldn't do anything then & there & to speak to a manager in the morning. Fine. Needless to say, it was a very sleepless night!

In the morning however, after explaining the situation, I was told that they would move me to a quieter room. Whew. After that, even though I was still mad about the situation, I took myself out for a long walk, & went to Darling Harbour which is lovely. I ended up spending the day at the aquarium which I loved; I really have a new found respect for sea creatures who are just completely awesome. Then I went the the wild animal place next door & saw again, koalas, wombats, kangaroos & lots of other interesting animals & creepy crawlies, thankfully behind thick glass windows!

Tonight, I came back from seeing two more of my message board friends, Karen & Tabatha, who were both lovely, we all came together bearing small gifts for each other which was great. Tabatha got me a personally autographed to me cd from one Mr Nick Seymour of Crowded House...WOW!! I think that definitely made my night. Tomorrow night, after the day climbing bridges, Karen & Tabatha & I will be heading off to the big gay/lesbian mardi gras thing that's on this weekend, that will be fun. In the coming two weeks, there will be at least one more meet up with one more person, a harbour cruise which I'm looking forward to, the Sydney Opera house area, there's still a lot more to do before I return to the land of ice & snow, which I hope will maybe be on it's way out by the time I get back.

Lisa xo