Arrived in Sydney

It was humid and hot when I arrived in Sydney. It was almost like I never left Singapore!
As my studio apartment at Meriton Serviced Apartment would only be ready at 2pm, I deposit my luggage and went for a look see around the area and more importantly, I needed to get a new thumbdrive because I forgot to bring mine!! I discovered I am actually very near to World Square and Chinatown, both only a block away. So I am close to supermarkets. :)
From 9+am till 2pm, I browsed in Coles, World Square, Paddy's Market and City Market. I certainly took my time. But by 11.30am, I was so bored and I just sat down on a bench and people watched lol. I bought some grocery and souvenirs before I went back to Meriton at 2pm.
I am staying on the 16th floor but unfortunately, there is no view. The apartment, at the end of a long corridor, is just right for a single person or a couple. It has everything including a small kitchen, dish washer, washing machine and dryer. :) It is also very quiet because it is right at the end of a long corridor with only 2 other apartments in this section.


A little corridor leading to the study and bathroom (on the right, not seen) and into the living room

The small study area and the bathroom



The laundry area next to the shower in the bathroom

The dining and  living areas

The bed just beyond the living and dining areas

The kitchen



The view of the living and dining areas from the bed



The view of the kitchen and dining area from the bed

After settling in my apartment, I had to nap from 4 to 5pm as it has been an exhausting and stressed trip to Sydney. I spoke to my best friend, Min and it was really good to hear her voice! Lol. At 6pm, I slowly walked to Harbourside Shopping Centre for dinner and a bit more of window shopping. :P Intended to have dinner at Pancakes at The Rocks but I went too late and the queue was long! Did window shopping instead haha. Besides I was more exhausted physically than hungry. Finally had a bite at Gloria Jean's just after 8pm. I stayed till 9pm because of the fireworks display at the Harbourside. The display was spectacular. A pity a lot of my shots were blurred but there were still a couple of nice shots :)

Chinese Garden of Friendship, Darling Harbour

Chinatown

Wonderful selection of cakes, tarts and buns, the traditional way of baking. Prices range from AUD$1.40 to 2.10

The mango mousse cake from the above bakery. Really delicious and not too sweet :)

Came back to my apartment around 9.30pm and after my shower, I did my laundry and ironed my clothes. It is like back to my uni days in UQ lol. Spoke via Skype to my girls and they were thrilled to see the apartment. It has been a really long day and I think I would knock out very fast. :) Good night. Talk to you tomorrow.

Green Light

My staff development leave has been approved! I can go ahead to register for the conference held in Sydney at the end of the year, book my accommodation and my air ticket. I have also made arrangement to meet up with my best friend, Min in Sydney. :) Although I was just in Sydney last June with my girls, I am looking forward to going back to Sydney and Australia in general. :)

Scenes of Sydney

Here are some of my favourite shots that I took on the recent Sydney trip.

Sydney Trip Uploaded!

I have finally uploaded all the photos and posts from our Sydney trip. Sorry for the long delay. One thing after another just got into the way of uploading the photos and posts onto the blog. Here are the links. Thanks much for your patience and for checking back. :)

Sydney Day 1 (06/6/11): Cold

Sydney Day 2 (07/6/11): Freezing Cold!

Sydney Day 3 (08/6/11): Dolphins!

Sydney Day 4 (09/6/11): Last shop, last shop, I promise!

Sydney Day 5 (10/6/11: Beach and Babes... Oops

Sydney Day 6 (11/6/11): The Rocks

Sydney Day 7 (12/6/11): HM Packing Service
Sydney Day 8 (13/6/11): Pancakes, Shaved Ice and Kangaroo

Sydney Day 9 (14/6/11): We'll be back, Sydney

Coming Soon - Sydney Trip Updates

It has been a week since the last post on my blog. My apologies.

It has been really exhausting looking after two kids on my own, 24/7 for 9 days. It was definitely a holiday for the kids but not a holiday for me lol. I will update after I return to Singapore on 14 June 2011.

Please check back later in the week. Thank you for your patience. :)

FREEZING COLD!

That is what my girls and I agreed on on this second day of our Mother-Daughter trip to Sydney. We were off to the Blue Mountains today.

We were picked up at 7.30am by the Gray Line coach and on our way to the Blue Mountains at 8am. On route to the Blue Mountains, we first stopped at Featherdale Wildlife Park where we fed kangaroos (really hungry marsupials), took photos with a koala (really sleepy marsupial) and saw other indigenous animals such as emu, Tasmanian devil, dingoes, etc. We spent an hour there from 9.30am to 10.30am. It was quite nippy, only about 6C. The girls were complaining about the cold. *shiver shiver*







Around 11.30am, we arrived at Katoomba, the home of the Blue Mountains. We were dropped at Echo Point to take photos of the Three Sisters rock formation. It was freezing! The girls wanted to go home lol. But it was really cold, I could hardly feel my fingers. When the coach driver picked us up 30 minutes later, he reported that the temperature was only around 2 or 3C. No wonder!




The sun came out from behind the clouds to shine upon the Three Sisters

The sisters struggling to walk against the wind and the cold lol

We were dropped off at Scenic World Top Station for 2 hours, 12.20pm to 2.20pm. I decided to take the girls on the rides before we had our buffet lunch that was included in the tour. First, we took the Scenic Railway that is the world's steepest incline railway down to the bottom of the Jamison Valley. It was really exciting but all too soon, the ride was over.

Photo while waiting for the rail train


Us, waiting for the rail ride to start

All in one piece :)

We walked along the Scenic Walkway (the 10 minutes route) where we saw the old coal mine entrance as well as local flora, e.g. tree ferns, ribbon gum trees, etc.






We went back to the top via Scenic Cableway, the steepest aerial cable car in the Southern Hemisphere. After the cable car ride, we went on our last ride, the Scenic Skyway (return) which is 270m above ancient ravines and dazzling waterfalls. We were suspended over Jurassic rainforests as the Skyway glided across the sky, except that it was also swaying slightly in the wind which was blowing at 40km/hour. The Skyway driver reported that with the wind chill factor, it was -6C then! NO WONDER, we were FREEZING. We saw Three Sisters (again), Katoomba Falls, Mount Solitary and the never ending expanse of the Jamison Valley.

Katoomba Falls as seen from the cable car (can see the skyway hanging in the air)

Orphan Rock, used to be accessible but no longer, as seen from the cable car

Scenes from Skyway - Katoomba Falls


Jamison Valley



Us in the Skyway

The Three Sisters

Orphan Rock against the background of Jamison Valley

After the Skyway ride, we had our buffet lunch at the Revolving Restaurant, Scenic World . The girls and I were really hungry lol. The girls were so hungry that they even ate kangaroo meat with gusto lol. :P



We left at 2.20pm and we drove along the Cliff Drive where we saw fantastic views over Megalong Valley. Next, we stopped at the mountain village of Leura for 45 minutes and we visited a local attraction, Treasured Teapot Museum at Bygone Beautys, Leura. Leura is a picturesque village but it was too cold (only 0C) to walk and browse around the village. :S brrrr...



On our way back to Sydney, we were given a quick tour of Homebush Bay, the site of the 2000 Olympic Games, the stadiums and facilities of the Olympics.





We reached Sydney city centre around 6.30pm. It was good to be back and to warmer temperature in the city (around 11C) lol. Apparently, it started snowing in the Blue Mountains as we made our way down the mountains.

Tomorrow we are going on a Port Stephens Dolphin Watching day trip. :)