I Still Call Australia Home

Last day of our annual holidays in Sydney brings with it a tinge of sadness. Sydney at Christmas is always warm, welcoming, happy, even when it's muggy and raining, you know it will pass in a moment and the glorious beaches will beckon again.

Highlights of this trip include swimming at Bondi, Maroubra (rough surf there, great white churning waves. I'm not much for being dumped, so more a watcher than a bather at Maroubra, but I love watching the waves there, they are so dramatic.) I went to Little Bay for the first time ever, a charming sheltered cove of a beach. We went sailing on the Harbour and danced under the Bridge on New Years Eve.

We went to far too many restaurants - and the standard of food was uniformly high. Sydney has great restaurants. My favorite, Longrain, was closed over Christmas so have to remember to go there earlier next time. The Quay Restaurant (at Circular Quay, great views of the opera house and city) was a bit too much for me, but DH and our friends just loved it (very pricey too). We went to old emotional favorites - Schnitzel at the Gelato Bar, ice cream at Bar Italia, didn't eat enough Thai (Asian food is fabulous in Sydney!) but ate a lot all the same...

We saw Tina Arena at the Sydney Opera House. Don't mix her up with the little girl you saw on TV, she's 40 now and with the most beautiful soaring voice. She sang with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra backing her, and sangs songs 'of love and loss' which were so beautiful. I loved her version of Windmills of my Mind. It was a great evening.

Cocktails have gone up considerably since I last noticed. Mohitos were $18 at quite a few places, but were all excellent. (then again, I love Mohitos)

The best thing about Sydney for me is catching up with friends and family and we were lucky that Christmas is a good time for them and we had lots of time and laughs together.

We leave tomorrow... not looking forward to that at all... luckily I lined up a few things to do in New York or it would just be too hard to go!

Life's a Beach

So we are visiting friends and family in Sydney and trying to spend at least one hour a day at the beach. The Australian sun is too fierce to have whole days at the beach, as we did in my childhood. You would burn to a crisp, factor 30 notwithstanding. We try for an hour or two from 10 - noon or even better from 3 onwards, where you can end up eating fish and chips, as you sit all sandy on the steps, and feel the good life around you.

We usually go to Maroubra beach (pictured) - closer, with great waves, but rougher and windy; or Bondi - further, much more glam but very expensive parking and half an hour away. I love the waves, and jumping through them fills me with a child like glee. It's wonderful to jump the waves in my childhood beach with my son. I always say that Sydney is a great city to grow up in, because even though it's as urban as any other metropolis of five million souls, the beach keeps it from getting too detatched from nature. In the city of Sydney, you are still aware that nature is bigger than you, with awesome thunder storms and the every day majesty of the surf.