The Sydney Harbor Bridge – view from my hotel room.

Hi ya’all! Sitting in my rather luxurious hotel room just having eaten a lovely dinner. :) :)

I woke up this morning in a different hotel – we chose to stay at two different places – at Olympic Park to a beautiful view from the window of the big blue and yellow building we all love. While the other half showered I looked out the window dreaming of Ikea shopping. When he got out of the shower he pointed out that also in the view was the city of Sydney, and the Harbor Bridge. I hadn’t even spotted it.

Let me tell you about Ikea shopping on a Saturday. We’d only ever been during the week before. Apparently on a Saturday every man, woman and child in need of *something* turns up at Ikea. It was packed. And we discovered that people in the city in general (not counting any of you reading this who are in a city because obviously you’re much better behaved!) are rude, pushy, and even happy to walk smack bang into you if you don’t get out of their way. They’ll push their trolley into you, and it’s not because they didn’t see you. They did see you, they just don’t give a shit. They’re hoping to hit you and they hope it hurts because you shouldn’t be in their way, though they *might* say sorry if you catch them in the act. They drive just like that, too. It’s scary.

At one point I was looking for this little ufo shaped power board called something like a rabalder – it’s not on the website. I couldn’t see any but I really wanted it. I have a thing about plugs and Ikea were using these all through their lighting section, they are beautiful, I can’t really describe it. So I was walking around, calling its name, hoping I would find it somewhere. Then, like it was dropped out of the sky, I found one sitting in a basket. It was the only one available to buy. It must have been meant to be! And no, it didn’t seem weird to the city people that I was walking around calling an inanimate object.

I’d forgotten how crazy city people dress, too. There was a guy in Adelaide who used to get around town in just a black leotard. He was pretty tall and quite noticeable. It was raining a lot here today so I didn’t spot any leotards but I did see a few outfits worthy of an arrest by the Fashion Police.

So after Ikea and Lone Star, we drove down Parramatta Road into town. This is because we had heard rumours of many car yards on this road, and we want to get a look at the new model Corolla. However when we did find Toyota it wasn’t possible to park there, so we kept going. Into the city where we handed the car to Valet Parking and entered 5 star heaven. This place is so gorgeous it puts a smile on your face just to walk into it. I’ve stayed in a lot of hotels but this must be the most pretty. No wonder my sister won’t stay in anything less than 5 star.. :)

At one point during the drive here, a 747 just appeared above us. It was nice to see something bigger than a pelican in the sky. :) Maybe some plane spotting and Krispy Kremes on the way home tomorrow.

This afternoon we remembered it was ages since we’d been to a proper bookstore so we went in search of Borders, and I got me a few nice books. One by Gene Kranz from Nasa during the early years, I’m looking forward to reading that. I’ve seen him interviewed many times and he’s such a lovely guy.

Late checkout tomorrow so we’re going to lounge around before heading home. No aquarium, it was too rainy and a bit far to walk after we’d already walked around half the city – we thought we’d eat room service and chill out a bit.

There were Americans in the lift – the first time I’ve seen friendly people since we got here. :) Other than the Hotel Staff.. lol slightly but I am actually serious. Sad but true.

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