Friday, August 6

Yesterday the jet lag seemed to get to me. I had to drag myself out and felt groggy all day. Gary had said the 3rd day was when the jet lag hit him too. I wanted to check out the Catholic Church down the street. It's called St. Patrick's and is one of the oldest and busiest Catholic churches in Sydney. They have 11 Masses on Sundays and 5 Masses on weekdays. It is run by Marist priests and there are 6 at this parish. It is a beautiful church. There were several people in there when I was in there about 3 p.m. Today I went back for Mass at 10:30 a.m. and then went to their coffee shop for lunch. There was a wonderful, warm, sweet aroma wafting from the coffee house. It was such a welcoming aroma and the people inside were very welcoming too. The shop used to be the convent chapel that has been restored and is beautiful in itself. The shop is run by a nun and 6 different volunteers per day. They are open Sunday through Friday from 10:00 until 2:00. I visited with the nun and a couple of the volunteers, one of whom had just taken a month-long trip to Alaska and Vancouver and had found it lovely. By the way, "lovely" is a word used often here. The volunteers were interested to hear that my parish in Ohio has a coffee shop too. I will go back there for lunch again while we are here next week. It's fascinating to talk to the locals. They definitely had the gift of hospitality.

I have been doing some research on opals in different shops around here. Opal shops are everywhere here. I'm sure we need to be very careful in making a purchase. I asked Gary to ask his co-workers for a reputable jeweler.

Today I wandered around a steet fair and through several shops selling all kinds of souveniers and clothing. Scarves are definitely the thing to wear here. Gary and I are going to a market this weekend, kind of like West Side Market or Soulard in St. Louis except they include clothing and souveniers. I'll compare prices with those of all the shops I've been visiting. I'm fascinated by the aboriginal art. I'm looking forward to it.

We went to a place called Wolfie's tonight for dinner. Very nice but very pricey. I'm off to dreamland!

By the way, I didn't realize that I needed to bring a certain cable for my camera to download my pictures. So I need to retrace some steps with Gary's camera so I can show you some of the places I've been.