We arrived ok in Sydney after a 4 ½ hour flight across the continent and a +3hr time difference. Our friends Frans & Gemara (originally from Holland but now very australian) kindly picked us up at the airport and took us to their amazing house which borders on the national park to the north of Sydney. As well as the 18m X 9m swimming pool, tennis court and architecht designed house which is a certified national « monument » it has two seperate guest houses in the grounds. There's also more wildlife than the average zoo with exotic frogs, snakes, bats, colourful LOUD birds a possum in a hollow tree and of course kangaroos in the 16000m² garden (they only come out a night but we spotted one hiding in the trees yesterday ).

Stewart met Frans at Harvard and this week is a reunion with another friend from Harvard Hank & his wife Lisa flying in from the USA and Brian, a larger than life local making up the quartet that met at Harvard 15 years ago.

Hank & Lisa missed their connection in San Francisico and were delayed by a day so we spent the first day with Gemara visiting the beaches of northern Sydney and a walk down world famous Manly beach. The weather was a bit wet & windy but a pleasant day.

Hank & Lisa arrived the next day and we went round to Brian's house for a barbecue. Another amazing house, this time set into the cliff with stunning views over the harbour and paraqueets perched in the trees.

Next morning we set off for a 2 day trip with Frans, Gemara, Hank & Lisa to the Blue Mountains. It looks right next to Sydney but it took for EVER to get out of the endless urban sprawl of Sydney and a good 3 hours to get to the Jenolan caves which we duly visited. We spent the night in a little traditional wooden guest house at 1100m altitude which was pleasantly cool and finished off the day with an excellent very authentic Thai meal. The guest house was run by a really friendly girl (originally from Wales) who turned out to be Australia's N°1 female triathlete.

The next day was fabulous weather and we took in the sigts of the Blue Mountains which were very spectacular. They really are « blue » and apparently the blue haze is created by eurcalyptus evaporating from the trees. You could easily have spent a week there doing some fantastic walks but sadly we only had 2 days so had to fight our way back into Sydney through the urban sprawl to Frans's oasis of peace and tranquility and a swim in his enormous pool.

Saturday saw us taking in the sights of Sydney - bridge, opera house etc at break neck spead so that we could be back in time for a swim and Brian coming round with his wife Gail ( a 1m85 blonde « amazon » who used to play basketball for Australia) for a whole lamb on the barbecue.( Frans barbecue is the size of a piano ! ! ).

Today Sunday is our last day before we leave north to Brisbane but we've just time to catch Freddy who is the son of an Australian I worked with when we lived in St Etienne. Sadly Freddy's dad died a number of years ago but we are planning to visit his wife Norma who we have kept in touch with for alll these years when we get to Melbourne. In the meantime Freddy, who we've never met has invited us to his house for - yes you got it - a barbecue ! !