Tuesday was a rainy, chilly, windy day so I spent a good bit of the day in the room just enjoying reading, writing, emailing and napping. I did venture out to lunch at the nearby church coffee shop. I was introduced to another American woman who lives in downtown Chicago. Her husband works for IBM and is training people just like Gary is doing for his company. She has relatives in Parma, Cleveland Heights and other parts of the greater Cleveland area. It's a small world after all. My plan was to go to the Museum of Contemporary Art but I wasn't going to get soaked. Our highlight of the evening was skyping Krista and the boys. We really miss them. Rob is off in Arizona with his guy friends and will arrive home Friday night.
Wednesday was a beautiful day so I walked quite a ways to the David Jones store (kind of like a Nordstrom). I found a lovely blouse for only $645. Luckily my better judgement prevailed and I passed it up. On the bottom floor they have what they call a foodhall where they sell delicacies of all kinds. It was like a huge food court so I had lunch (spinach and tomato pizza) while I sat next to two ladies enjoying sushi. I couldn't look. Then I hit the bakery for some cookies.
Thursday I went out for awhile to a nearby park where people were lunching and reading and just enjoying the day. I spent a good part of the afternoon researching different parts of New Zealand for our trip there next week. We were planning on going to Queenstown on the South Island which was recommended to Gary until I learned that it is peak ski season and air fares were around $912 per person. And it's cold and not much to do unless you like to ski. So we are going to Auckland on the North Island which is close to places for day trips. It's about a 3 hour plane ride to Auckland but about half the air fare that it would have been to Queenstown. The weather is milder, like it is here. It's been sunny and chilly and breezy, but we are comfortable in the jackets we brought. We're loving the sun! We've only had 2 days of rain since I've been here.
Last night we went to Guylian Chocolate store that serves lunch and supper. We had quiche and salad which was delicious and then, of course, hot chocolate. They gave Gary a chocolate shake which he had not ordered but went ahead and drank anyway because he didn't want to complain. Then they brought his "super hot chocolate" with lots of whipped cream and he finished that off too. I had a yummy berry muffin with my hot chocolate. I mentioned to him that it is a good thing we are walking so much to work off all the extra goodies we are enjoying. He makes fun of me talking about food in the blog, but food is interesting to me, especially in another country. So I'll keep writing about it.
Today I had lunch at my favorite coffee shop at the church down the street. I invited a delightful elderly lady who sat alone at a table too to have lunch with me. She has always lived in Sydney. We had a lively conversation about many things. She wondered if I had climbed the bridge. No way. No way. No way. She said she never did it either because of her fear of heights. She gave me more ideas of places to go. There is lots to do in Sydney. I spent part of the afternoon going to opal stores which are everywhere since opals are mined in Australia. We are thinking of buying a necklace and earrings, but I don't think we are getting any deals just by buying them here. I am learning a lot about opals which I've always loved. I wanted an opal engagement ring but we were told they are not very strong stones and wouldn't hold up well in an engagement ring. We shall see.
Bye for now. We are going to skype Krista now.
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