Reporting from Sydney

I haven't been taking pictures, so I'll post more from the first day. Thursday I walked all around the University of Sydney and Newtown, in the morning by myself, then in the arvo (that's Australian for 'afternoon') with S & M. It was so pleasant out that I was in my t-shirt for awhile. In the evening I walked back and picked up Justin and we walked back and met S & M at B's house, then we all walked back to Newtown for a good Japanese dinner.

Friday turned out to be really rainy all morning and until just before 3 when I finally left the house. Justin, S & I met MK where she works at the ABC, an impressive building where all the ABC radio and tv programming is recorded. We didn't see any famous people (that I know of), but we watched some impressive tv on 4 huge monitors in the lobby. Groups of people getting off work would come through in waves every few minutes. We realized that they must be coming out of the elevators.

MK took us to her place, where we waited for N (S's brother). Then we drove to MK's parents' house that they've just finished fixing up. There was a great balcony with a few of twinkling Sydney below and dark patches of water, but it was too cold to sit out there. We had a fabulous meal, accompanied by great stories and jokes. Eventually we went back to N & MK's place, where I managed to stay up all the way to midnight. I still woke around 5 a.m., but I think I may be as adjusted to the time difference as I'm going to get!

This morning I've come back to the house in Rozelle, while Justin attends the conference. Today's weather is a mix of blue skies and now thick white puffy clouds. It's really lovely, especially when you remember that this is winter!
This isn't the best picture, but these trees are fantastic and all over. They have these clusters of red flowers and no leaves right now. Quite stunning. A little like the effect of persimmon trees when they have their orange fruit and no leaves.

This was part of a series of indigenous culture plaques along a trail near the water where I walked on the first day. It shows the indigenous language groups of the Sydney area.