Last week in Sydney!!

Finally!! We are actually leaving Sydney - for real this time!! I think I've mentioned to a couple people now that we were leaving but those times have come and gone and still we sit here in this big city. We have booked our flights out of here though and come Feb 18th we will be in flight headed to Alice Springs. Right in the middle of the Outback. We have 1 week to explore the area in which we will partake in a "3 Day Camping Safari". This consists of us exploring King's Canyon, The Olgas and Ayer's Rock. We will be doing alot of hiking, some swimming in waterholes, watching sunset & sunrises, a camel ride through the desert and sleeping in a swag (sleeping bag) under the stars - that's right - no tent!! Just us, the snakes, spiders and stars.

We have a question for everybody though. Ayer's Rock is the former 'tourist' name for the giant red rock in the middle of the outback. It is now known as Uluru - it's Aboriginal name. Our question is this... Do we climb the rock or not?? Basically we are allowed to climb this rock if we want to but the Aboriginals in the area find this offensive because the land is sacred to them. So we don't know if we should just climb it because we are in fact tourists and came here to see and experience all that we can... or if we should just see it from the ground because we may offend someone. I should point out that there are people climbing it non-stop because there is an area designated for those who want climb it... but do we join in?? Let us know what you all think we should do!!

Anyway - let's rewind a bit to bring you all up to speed as to what's been happening since our last post. On February 4th we were invited to attend a birthday party!! We were promised lots of fun, games, cake and lollies!! All we had to do was bring our bikes and teddybears down to Blackman Park and join in to celebrate Charlie's 4th birthday!! We did attend, however we were a bit empty handed with no bikes and/or teddies. It was a good time considering I don't think I've ever been around that many 3-4 year olds since I too was that age!! Her actual birthday wasn't until February 7th and when that day arrived we had a small celebration at the house for her. Steve made his famous Fish Pie for supper and we followed that with some Strawberry Cheesecake!! It was a nice quiet evening spent at home and I think Charlie really enjoyed herself!!

I can't say the evening after that was as quiet though!! We met up at the StarBar with our friend Chris whom we haven't seen since we've been in Sydney!! We met him back when we were staying in Brisbane. Anyhow - Nathan and I went there with the intention of only having a few drinks so we were able to get home at a reasonable hour because both of us had to work early the next day. Well after about 3 'shouts' each I can say we all were intoxicated. You have to remember that a 'shout' is when 1 person buys everybody at the table a drink. So do the math and that's approximately 9 pints of Carlton Draught a piece!! *L* Ouch!! Umm - I can't really get into details about the journey home because honestly I don't remember it. Nathan has captured some good pics of me rolling around on the ground. I guess my legs turned a bit rubbery from the beers I drank. Now I know where that grass stain on my jeans came from. Haha. Anyhow, both of us managed to get up for work the next day - however only 1 of us actually made it to work. At about 9am I get an email from Nathan saying he went to the bus stop and basically turned around to go home and back to bed. Not fair!! I suffered the whole morning fighting off the nasty hangover from the nigth before. I did however leave work at noon to go home and laze around the rest of the day. Ahh - the joys of being a traveler and being able to do these things with 'no worries'!! If we were back home we both would have had to suffer through the work day.

Today we went down to ChinaTown to watch the "Year of the Pig" Chinese New Year's Parade. It was a good time in which we saw alot of costumes, dancers, dragons and fighters. The parade went on for about 1 1/2 hrs and afterwards we went down to the main stage to watch a bit of the entertainment. There were food tents galore and Nate got the courage to eat some Octupus. I had all the intentions of trying some too but when I actually saw what he was eating I just couldn't go through with it. In fact I had to turn my head and not watch him. He swears it tasted like pork and wasn't at all chewy. I let him enjoy it all though!! At one of the Chinese grocery stores we were in we found cans of A&W Rootbeer!! We scooped up one of those since you can't buy them anywhere else in Australia and enjoyed every bit of it.

So now here we are and our last week in Sydney. We have a few things planned but they will mostly be dining out experiences. With Valentines Day, my birthday and our farewell supper with the family we'll be getting in some real good eats!!

We're not sure when we'll post again. Maybe if we can find the time in Alice Springs otherwise you'll have to wait until we get to Perth. Which is only about 2 weeks away so I think you can all handle that!!

E&N

Aussie fact of the day:
- Uluru is 346 metres (1135 ft) high and more than 8 km (five miles) around.