3 things to do when it's raining cats & dogs in Sydney: eat in Westfields, go to the Gallery New South Wales and walk the wet streets.

At the Gallery, I went to the Archibald Prize Exhibition - it's kind of like the equivalent of the UK's BP Portrait Awards. Quite a good collection of short listed paintings and definitely worth the extra $10 entry. I times it so that my trip coincided with the free curator's guided trip. Ordered tea and cake and went outside in the cafe gardens.

As soon as I sat down, 2 colourful parrots flew onto my table and snatched one of my packets of sugar. Had fun watching them tear the packet and luck the granules of sugar off the table. Shooed them away as soon as my cake appeared as didn't fancy sharing it with them (I never share my dessert with anyone or anything).

Walked around the wet streets of Sydney - trying to avoid stepping into mini-lakes in my increasingly wet ballet pumps and playing with dodge-the-umbrella with commuters trying to get home.

Luckily, Dimitra (a friend I met in London via my sister) works in the city so we went for dinner at a Greek restaurant called Xanthi in Westfields City. The food is delicious and has a definite "East meets West" influence from the nostalgic Constantinople days. We ordered far too much food - which tends to happen when 2 or more Greeks get together - but left feeling very happy and full! Definitely perked me up after a very wet wet wet day in Sydney.