sydney sightings

after the easter weekend in the wilderness, we headed for sydney, where we stayed with some great friends of ours, jo and magnus. they have just returned to australia after living in london for about 3 years. in fact, we even had the wonderful opportunity to visit them in london last year, and then they also came over to the u.s., so we showed them around baltimore, washington d.c. and new york. they live in an ideal spot in sydney now, a short walk from coogee beach (this is taken from the rooftop deck of their building).


since i only saw a quick glimpse of sydney on my first visit a few months ago, we made a point of going back to the harbor and having a closer look. last time, we walked around the area near the harbor bridge, and saw views of the opera house from there. so this time we started at the ciruclar quay and walked along the opposite side of the promenade to the opera house. it's such an awesome experience to see such major icons of cities up close (i had the same feeling when visiting the eiffel tower in paris!) - you just can't help but snap tons of pictures to try to capture the moment! from there, we went for a quick stroll through the peaceful botanic gardens.














we then took a ferry through the harbor to manly - a touristy area near the north "head" of the harbor (supposedly they used to quarantine people there upon their arrival to prevent the spread of diseases...). the ride through the harbor was equally as enjoyable as our visit to manly, as we passed the kirribilli house (the prime minister's private home, away from canberra), fort denison (was used to protect the harbor and once served as a prison), and watched all the sailboats racing or simply enjoying the beautiful, breezy day. once we got there, we followed the crowd from the harbor to the oh-so-manly(!) beach.














this photo actually has a funny story that goes with it. as we were walking away from the beach, i looked up and saw a message in the sky (a few minutes before taking this) that read, "marry me ange!" we all stopped and stared at it for a minute and i thought, "wait a minute... could that "g" and "e" possibly be another "n" and "a" written badly??" magnus, who was walking on my left and knew what i was thinking, said, "well? aren't you gonna say 'yes'?!" i turned to jason and yelled out an enthusiastic "yes," but quickly realized that it wasn't really intended for me since his enthusiasm didn't really match mine. awwww. we all had a good laugh, but i couldn't help but wonder if the message had actually been seen by this "ange" girl. i'm all in favor of creative proposals and everything, but how much would it have sucked for the guy asking if she had been in the bathroom or something at the time it was written, and missed it?!

well folks, that's it for the trip recap - i have a feeling, that with all the family and friends around sydney, newcastle, and catho, we will be back there again soon, which is good because each time we're there, there's always more that i'd like to do and see!


as for life back in perth, this first semester seems like it's already wrapping up and i have more than enough work to keep me busy through to the beginning of june. we were happy to watch our western force play their 2nd to last match at home last night (another big win) which means the atmosphere there next week will definitely be crazy as the season draws to a close.