We spent much of this afternoon, walking around the Australia Museum and were pleasantly surprised to find out that we weren't bored at all. Just when we were beginning to worry that it must have meant that we were getting old, we realised that it was in actual fact because they had some bloody good displays inside the museum and not just some rocks and piles of bones with twelve hundred years of dust on them. Maybe it's because Australia's history only dates back a couple of hundred years when the white settlers first came over here. Or maybe it's because 95% of the Aboriginal past that existed before then has all but been destroyed and the little history of the Aboriginal people that does remain, is the history told (once again) from the perspective of those early settlers?

Anyway, along with the usual displays of early Aboriginal art that seems t occupy the smallest corner of any museum over here, there was also an exhibition on monsters. There were storyboards and artists sketches, as well as moving animatronics from films such as Inspector Gadget (not sure on the monster relevance with this one) and a some Werewolf B movies, as well as some 'alien guts' that people were encouraged to put there hands into!! The last section of the exhibition had about a dozen Playdo models of various monsters (anyone remember the blue thing from Trap Door?), with detailed instructions on how to make each one. It was pretty amazing to see, although well beyond anything our incapable hands could manage, just how simple some of them were.

After we left the exhibit behind we came to a room full of some truly amazing photographs that comprised the National Geographic Photographer of the Year 2005 competition runners up and winners. After several hours of staring at these magnificent photos, and convincing ourselves that we too could take such photos if only we had the right camera (what's that about a workman always blames his tools??), we finally emerged from the museum to find that the afternoon was rapidly disappearing.

After an early dinner of yet more turkey, we had finally slain the beast and with our new found assurance that we were the next David Bailey in waiting, we set out into the evening with tripod in hand (no laughing at the back!) to capture the very essence of Sydney at dusk. Our first obstacle was the fact that we couldn't get to Mrs Macquarie's point because it was closed while they prepared for New Year's Eve. Not to be deterred we set off to find vantage points of the city that we convinced ourselves nobody would have thought of going to before so that we would ensure we would capture unforgettable images that only we would have! Some of the highlights included a foot while we were walking along, an over exposed street sign and a delightfully blurry shot of three unknown strangers by the fountain in the middle of Hyde Park!!

Some hundred odd photos later we realised that maybe we shouldn't give up the day job, but returned home satisfied none the less.