I flew in to Sydney on Boxing Day and reached my hostel by about 8.30pm which was right next to central station. ideal! there was no one in my room when I arrived but the other guests were clearer girls as there were clothes EVERYWHERE!! 2 germans who never said hello, a hairdresser and a nurse from leeds and a girl from England that worked in Amsterdam but mother was from Australia. (the last time i saw her was NYE, none of her stuff had moved by the time i left so i informed reception; I hope they got hold of her :-/)
I decided to have a quiet one and headed to bed early.

I had some random patches of dry skin on my neck and around my eyes so my first stop on Wednesday was to the pharmacy. thankfully it's all cleared up now! the area that I was staying in edged on to china town hence the pharmacist was Chinese. I told him I also needed a bag as I was carrying my belongings inside a scarf. he humorously told me of a good bag shop down the road- Louis Vuitton. good one! so instead he gave me one of those Eco reusable bag things. certainly not the height of fashion but it's jolly useful. I don't know what I ever did without it!
I then attempted to find the opera house, my bearings not great at this point I ended up at darling harbour (this will make sense to Julie!!) nevertheless it's a lovely place so I enjoyed some shade and a good spot of people watching before heading to Circular Quay; this is where the harbour bridge and the opera house are.
Whilst there I had a drink by the water and made use of the free wifi. German Andy from my kiwi bus family was in the area so joined me for a coffee. I was later joined by Hannah, who grace and I met in Thailand, for lunch. after a good catch up we got in touch with Grace and headed to meet her and Adam in the Royal Botanic Gardens. After lolling in the sun for a while we headed home our separate ways to get some food then later rendezvoused at Grace and Adams apartment for a drink. Whilst walking home a RAT ran across the road and an inch passed my feet. I did a triple jump on the spot and got a pace on, not looking at the ground. until I reached the tunnel. 7 rats scurrying around in the floodlit entrance. I stood about 10meters away with my scarf over my mouth wondering what I was going to do! luckily a couple were walking through the tunnel from the other direction and they all ran into a hole. family,I'm sure u can all imagine that I pretty much ran through the tunnel!!

On Friday morning I walked down to circular quay. it's about a half hour walk from my hostel straight down George Street. I met Hannah, Grace, Adam and Laura (Adams sister) and we got a ferry across to Manly for a day on the beach. not as relaxing as planned. it was soooooo windy!! We walked through the town centre to another beach but it was just as bad so we sat on the grass and enjoyed the last of the sun. despite the wind, Manly is a lovely town.

I spent Saturday morning trawling the Internet trying to work out the rest of my trip. eventually I booked a flight up to Brisbane with the view of heading up to do Fraser Island and the Whitsundays. I also booked a train ticket from Brisbane to Sydney which I can hop on and off of on the way down.
In the afternoon I did one of my favourite things-OPEN TOP BUS TOUR! which was obviously amazing! a great way to see the city and learn something. much of which I've forgotten!!
After a nap and some grub I caught the train down to Circular Quay where I met Churchy, Pandy, Swanks and Dai for a drink at the Opera House Bar. harper reunion :-)

On Sunday I'd arranged to meet up with Therese, auntie Karens friend Laila's friend! she picked me up from my hostel at 10am and took me to The Rocks. This is an old part of Sydney next to the Harbour Bridge. it has some of the oldest buildings in the city, beautiful shops and a weekend market. in one of the shops we watched a man making sweets out of mounds of sugar. it looks as though you'd have to be pretty strong to work it! we then wondered through the market then up on to the bridge. Therese pointed out the shot towers to me. apparently they built the towers and dropped bits of lead from the top to make gun bullets. George??!
We walked part way across the bridge to see the views; it has 8 lanes of traffic, cycle and pedestrian paths and 2 train lines!
I'd mentioned to Therese that I missed walking Magic so she suggested going back to her house for lunch then walking their dog Goldie.
Along with her daughter Meegan, we took a drive around their part of sydney then headed to The Brickworks. this used to be a clay quarry for making bricks. After building the Olympic facilities there was some money left over so they made a circular walkway above the quarry. typically I forgot my camera but it was pretty cool! it's right next to the Olympic stadium itself so they showed me round which was interesting.
We headed back home, i had a sit down which i was already grateful of considering id only just left david and Cyd's! Therese starting preparing tea, she'd invited their english friends over. Andrea went to
boarding school and in her holidays spent time on a farm...near Cricklade! she couldn't remember exactly where but i think she said it was called Seven Bridges. Dad?! p.s. does anyone know the name of the chemist in cricklade back in the 70s?!

I spent New Year's Eve traipsing round the city looking to treat myself to a new dress. I thought this would have been easier in a capital! Along the way I bought a card and a small gift to post to Daz and Cydders. It was difficult to repay their generosity so I decided upon a replacement spatula as a small token!
After a break down at circular quay to recharge my batteries I headed back up to the hostel via Pitt Street. I found a dress to wear by 5pm right before I lost the will to live!

After toying with the idea of sitting in one of the parks all day to get a good view of the fireworks we decided waiting in the heat with thousands of spectators from at least mid day would be not so enjoyable. Super Grace found a guy on gumtree advertising to take up to 10 people out on his boat at 10.30pm and returning at 1.30pm. To check it was all legit she called him to ask if we could leave a deposit. She and Adam went over to his house. She rang me immediately afterwards laughing, describing Greg the Skipper as the 50 year old virgin. She said, 'he's legit, he even has a picture of him and his boat on his fridge' must be safe then!
Our group of 9 Harper graduates hiding from the real world met at 8pm for pre-drinks. We went and got some drinks and nibbles and hailed down a taxi to take us to Sydney Fish Market Harbour where Greg had asked his rented crowd to wait.
After a briefing of 'so long as you listen to the skipper everything will be fine' and a quick lesson on how to use the 'loo' we set sail.
We got stopped by the river police as Greg didn't have a light on his mast. naughty naughty. on reflection I don't think he spoke a word, everyone else kindly spoke for him; that's probably what saw them off!
The fireworks were amazing! they shot off from all over the city; you get engrossed in the bridge then suddenly the surrounding skyscrapers have fireworks bursting out of them too. we had such a great view, and we could hear Kylie!
When we got back to the harbour near 2am the boys stripped off and jumped in, shortly after being chased off by security. they were not amused in the slightest. we had to abandon them briefly and get pizza. Having been at uni with Grace for four years I should have remembered what a messy eater she is. I walked home through Sydney centre wearing most of the pizza she handed me. standard!

On New Year's Day I get another laughter filled call from Grace saying that Greg had emailed her:

Hi Grace, hope you all made it home in one piece! Did you get good photos?? Can I ask a favour? Your friend Sophie? (light dress sitting opposite me) kindly invited me to the beach, but I had no way of following up. If you could send her number or something, I'd love to meet her again if she’s ok with it. Thanx, and happy new year!

Obviously I have no recollection of this invitation so laugh alot then go to meet up with Bostock, Wooley, Swanks and Dai for a day at Bondi Beach.
The beach was busy as expected but we found a nice spot and enjoyed the sun and sea. you may have seen in the news about the shark? I read a few articles on it...I'll tell you what really happened! The shark siren went off. everyone got out the water for about half an hour whilst the helicopters went over. then they got back in. end of.
apparently there was a shark on the edge of the bay by the rocks but I didn't speak to anyone that actually saw it.
That was the first event of the day. second event:

Hi sophie,its greg. I hope you got some good photographs last night. I hear you may have gone to bondi beach today. I was thinking of getting the bus through, maybe we could meet for a drink. G@

OH GOOD ONE GRACE!!!!! She said she didn't think he'd actually text me. REALLY!!! Obviously I did not reply. I hope he's over it now!!

Just after half seven we headed back to the bus stop. we waited for 45 mins with about 40 others watching full buses pass us. we were all grumbling that they didn't put more buses on, Wooley clearly curious of the opinions of our fellow bus w***ers shouts 'I am really angry. who else is angry?' within seconds we were stood alone. hilarious! before we became totally unpopular we hailed down a taxi to take us back and invited an Iranian man in with us to split the cost.
By the time we get back it's 9pm. we head to a small open fronted Thai restaurant for a bite to eat. When we finished churchy happened to walk by and spotted us so came to say hi. I'd just popped out to get some cash, when I came back I was stood behind churchys stool. Prepare for the third event of the day: standing behind her and saying hi I started to shuffle my feet to climb back to my seat when I touch what I think is the back of her stool. I remembered that it was wicker so look down to see what the soft thing is that my toes just touched.....…A RAT. I JUST TOE POKED A RAT. I tried not to cause to much of a scene as I shuddered and climbed on to the closest chair possible. the waiter came out with a broom and chased it round the restaurant till it eventually scurried back out on to the street! I much prefer the country rodents that hide when people come!!

On Wednesday I tried (again!) to meet up with Max from home to go to the Wallace and Gromit exhibition. It's often just easier to do things solo! The exhibition was as good as hoped. its actually quite nice being on your own as you can read everything and go slow!
Family you'd have loved it!
I got home at about 5.30 and did my laundry. I always resent spending the money but the freshly tumble dried clothes make it worthwhile. I sat on the floor of my room hugging it for a while. don't worry, everyone else was out!
That evening I went out to meet Belle and Andy (kiwi bus family) for drinks. just a quiet one as I was up early to fly to Brisbane that morning.