Hello friends and family!

After week 2 here is anohter update about my life in Sydney. As I had told you before I have a couple of friends who are travelling in Australia, I was hoping to see some of them, but didn't expect to see one of them this soon! Gert texted me on Friday that he and Daniel would arrive the next day to visit Sydney. I told Jen and James that they were coming and that I would be hanging out with them this weekend. They thought it was great and asked me if I wanted to invite them over for dinner. A bit later when James came home they told me that if the guys wanted, they could even stay here for the weekend. It would save them a lot of money and it would be nice to not be in a hostel for a change. I called up Gert, he talked to Daniel, they cancelled their reservations and that was that. I was really excited to see Gert again, someone from my hometown J and I'm sure he was even more excited since he'd been travelling in Australia for more than two months already without seeing a familiar face.

The next day Jen had dragon boat race practice, the company she works for enters a competition next week at darling harbor and she is part of the team. I went with her to the practice and then she dropped me off at the train station where I would meet Gert and Daniel later. I walked around a little and had a look at my Sydney city guide! There was an interesting walk in there that I thought we could do. At 1 o'clock the boys arrived and it was great so cool and unreal to see Gert on the other side of the world! Daniel is a 19 year old German who Gert has been travelling with for a bit. They put their big bags in a storage locker and off we went into the city. I told them about the walk we could do, we wanted to do it, but then decided it'd be a lot easier to just follow signs and not walk around with a map. We went into George street, to Paddy's market (not sure about the name) where you could buy anything! It was a huge market place where you could buy, fake uggs, prada bags, souvenirs, food, lots of fruit. We walked on further in the direction of Darling Harbour. This harbor is surrounded with bars and there are a lot of street performers. At the harbor there was an event going on: National Championship of Sausages. So a couple of butchers from all over Australia were there to prepare their best sausages for the crowd. Of course we had a look, stayed a little and tried many delicious sausages! We walked around a bit more at the harbor and decided to go back into the city. We went to the Sydney tower Eye, it is the tallest building in Sydney at about 250 meters and up there you get an amazing 360° view of the entire city. It usually costs 26dollars to go up, but some lovely promo girls were handing out vouchers which would allow us to get in for only 15dollars. Before you actually go up the tower you watch a 4D movie about some of the sights in Australia. It was an interesting experience. After witnessing amazing views and taking lots of pics, we walked back to central station through hyde park where we picked up the boys' backpacks and then took a bus to Ryde. James picked us up there and took all of us home. The boys were going to sleep in the room above mine, it is the kids playroom and has a big pull-out couch in it. Everyone took a shower, boys did their laundry, we had some nice chickenwraps and had a good time. Jen and James were meeting up with some friends that night, so we'd be babysitting the kids. They went to bed on time and so did we because Gert and Daniel were pretty tired of their 8 hour bus trip of the previous night!

The next day Alexander cooked us an Aussie breakfast: bread rolls with eggs and bacon. Delicious! Jen was hosting a babyshower in the afternoon, Harry, Xander and James went to golf and the three of us took a train back into the city. This time we went to walk over the harbor bridge, went to the opera house and saw the botanical gardens. In other words, we walked a lot! There was a small market going on at a place called 'the rocks' it's a small area near the harbor bridge. We decided we should get some gifts for Jen and James since they were letting the boys stay over and have as much food as they wanted. One of the stands was selling hot sauces and I know Jen loves them, so Gert and Daniel bought her the world's hottest sauce, rated 15/10! The label says: stupidly hot BBQ sauce. Gert tried it… a bit stupid… his mouth and throat were burning away! When we got back home Jen had put some sausages and lamb on the BBQ and we had an amazing meal with food in abundance as usual. She tried the sauce and was very happy with it! She admitted it was pretty hot! J

Monday morning I took the kids to school, the boys said goodbye to them as well. When I got back we all had some breakfast and hung out for a bit. In the afternoon I took them to Macquarie University where the train station is and we said goodbye. It was great having them over and awesome that I could explore the city together with them. There are of course many, many more things to see, but I can't do everything at the same time and it is always nicer if you can share it with other people!

The rest of my week wasn't too eventful. Jen was at home most of the this week, she didn't have to travel anywhere. James left for Melbourne Sunday night, came back Wednesday and left on Thursday to go somewhere else, coming back on Friday. He has been travelling a lot lately! On Wednesday Jen came home with a little surprise for me, a box full of cupcakes! They looked amazing and tasted delicious! Thursday Eliza had a sporting event with school, 'footy' tournament. Kids from different schools play touch football against each other. It was interesting to see since I had never seen a game of football before let alone a game of touch football (which is American football, similar to rugby, but instead of tackling people, each person has to tags attached on their hips and the other team has to try and rip them off). It was a lot more interesting to watch than cricket!

This Friday I finally went out here for the first time! Jen's brother, Nick took me out to the rocks where we had a drink in an old pub. We arrived there around 7pm and the place was packed with people. Everyone was super chill and Nick is super cool. As I said before he has dreadlocks, is about 26 almost 27. We talked a lot about a lot of stuff. He's travelled a lot, been to Africa and Europe. He also speaks Swahili, how cool is that J anyways we had a lot to talk about. We had a couple of beers, then one of his friends came over, Clint, interesting character to say the least. I think he'd been to a party before he met us at the pub. We ate some pizza, drank some more, then Suzy came over, Nick's girlfriend. She is the nicest person ever! We talked and talked, Clint, Nick and I went to Oxford street and Suzy went home around 12. She had to get up at 5am in the morning… Oxford street was very interesting, there are a lot of gay bars around and you can see many extravagant people walking past. In addition there were many Halloween parties going on, so some people were dressed up even more! We went to another bar where we met up with Jimmy and his girlfriend Laurianne who is French and has only been in Sydney for a couple of weeks, just like me! We had a really good time and Laurianne and I decided to keep in touch so we could go and do stuff during the week because she is here on the same visa as me, working holliday, and she doesn't have a job yet. Perfect! We all shared a taxi to go home around 3 o'clock, I went home with Nick who is currently living at his parents' house until his and Suzy's condo is finished. They are moving in in December if all goes well. I slept in Jen's old room, fell asleep immediately! I'm getting up in the mornings at 7 am and I'm used to going to bed around 11. So 3 o'clock was a big achievement! I woke up around 8 hoping not to have a hangover… and I didn't! J Yeah! I went down to the kitchen where Katherine and her husband were having breakfast. They were a little bit shocked to see me at first, so I realized they had no idea I was staying over and Nick wasn't up yet! So I explained to them that he took me out and it was easier if I stayed there as opposed to taking another taxi home to Jen's. It was all good and they made me some breakfast! We talked a bit about the kids and about going out. Not that much later Nick woke up as well and at about 10 he took me home. Jen and James were at Harry's cricket game, so Eliza and Xander were home alone. Nick, who is Eliza's godfather came in and played a little with them and then took off. I had the most refreshing shower ever and then hung out with the kids, knowing that if I were to lie down or something I would definitely fall asleep! In the afternoon the whole family went up to a friend's house with some other friends and their children and I tagged along. It was really fun, though I think I would have a better time if I weren't that tired! J

Anyways, we came back around 9, 9.30 and I went straight to bed! It is Sunday morning at the moment. Eliza just took of to a B-day party, Harry just got home from swimming, Alexander is studying for exams, Jen is at the dragon boat races and James went to the golf club! So all is good at the Dunlop house!

(Dutch version will follow somewhere this week J)