Back from Sydney! :)

With John flying to Sydney for a big work 'meet'n'greet'; Maddy and I took the opportunity to fly to Sydney (well, Newcastle initially) to catch up with relatives, meet up with friends and then spend some time with John in his fleeting moments off. Despite some very heavy fog, we flew out of Brisbane at 7am and arrived in Newcastle after a lovely, smooth flight (a good thing as I am NOT a good flyer) and landing. My Aunt Julie & Uncle Phil met us at the airport and took us back home.

Later that morning, we headed over to my grandparents (who are a fighting fit 93!) whom had been kept in the dark about our visit. Truthfully, I was terrified I would give them both a heart attack; but they were definately excited to see me again and finally meet their second great-grandchild. We had a lovely day with my grandparents, aunt, uncle and cousin. Hopefully I will be able to get some photos of us together as my Aunt was very 'snap happy' that day! :)

Thursday evening was an opportunity to catch up with my uncle & my other cousin and his new wife. They'd travelled an hour from work and were staying the night (despite the fact they'd have to leave before 6am the following morning to be at work on time!); so we had a lovely time chatting over dinner - although it was difficult to be heard over Maddy's chattering. This was despite the fact that she was busy knawing away on a rusk at the time!

Friday morning involved an early wake-up with Feruk the cat launching himself onto our bed; and little doggy Charlie offering a snout to mouth exchange of one of his favourite toys. My Aunt dropped us off at the train station where we spent the next hour staring out the window at the beautiful scenery as the train chugged along the river. One of the prettiest train rides I've ever been on, although Maddy was not in the least bit appreciative of being stuck in her pram for so long. A lovely girl helped us at the train station by escorting us to the lift and helping us onto the train so that we could get into the station at North Sydney.

20 minutes late we arrived at the North Sydney station to meet my Belly Belly friend Meg and her little girl, Coco; only to be faced with the lovely prospect of two flights of stairs and no lift. How backward for one of the major train stations in Sydney. Fortunately two men came up and offered to help us up the stairs whilst I carried Maddy. We had a lovely time at Yum Cha for lunch with Meg; although our two little princesses each took a turn at freaking their mothers out by choking on a rusk & baby wipe. I've never had Yum Cha before, but it was SO yummy! I had nightmare thoughts about chicken feet and brains, but thankfully the servers explained the dishes even if it did take 20 minutes to get some soya sauce! *L* Our meeting was capped off by a coffee around the corner before Meg & Coco had to head off to pick up her older daughter Tilly from school.



After a short yet expensive taxi ride across to Darling Harbour with a rather rude taxi driver where we ended up at the wrong hotel; Madeline and I made our way to the Novotel to meet John in between his meetings. He had a three hour break before an awards dinner; so we went by the Sydney office of the company he now works for (LOVELY) and had a quick chat with some of the employees who were on duty. We picked up some Thai food on the way back to the hotel so I could sit back and watch TV while John went off to the awards dinner.

Bright and early on Saturday morning we checked out of the hotel and headed to a gorgeous little cafe nearby to have some breakfast before we headed to the airport. It's obviously a popular little spot as it's tucked away in an alleyway, yet there was a steady stream of early visitors dropping by for a very reasonably priced breakfast. I was rather impressed when former Australian test cricketer Michael Slater dropped by for a coffee with another man who I recognised as another former international player for Australia but couldn't put my finger on. Honestly, he looked a lot like Justin Langer even though I know it probably wasnt him.A fairly cruisy flight back home to Brisbane (it's infinantely easier to negotiate the airport with an infant when you have your husband with you to help) and my lovely mother-in-law picked us up from the airport.

Edited on August 6th to add: So now that I have probably bored you to death, what else has been happening? I have my driver's license exam in 2 weeks so hopefully I'll be able to drive myself to the Westlife concert next month and the Australian World Trials in gymnastics up at Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast a few days later. Maddy started crawling properly last week and now she is hard to keep still...we're currently bidding on one of those wooden playpens to keep her still. *L* Her latest trick is to crawl at mad speed over to the DVD case tower and to pull the DVDs down one by one as quick as she can.



Catch you all later!
Bec