i've been out and about again ;-D

one of the perks with work is that i get to travel a bit and occasionally it works out that i'm in a different city for an exciting event!!  my most recent escapade involved a trip up to sydney during mardi gras weekend ;-D  i had a full day at the 'office' travelling around sydney doing different site visits before meeting up with some friends for after work drinks on the roof of the glenmore hotel (http://www.glenmorerooftophotel.com.au/1_home/).  we had some great views of the harbour bridge and opera house.  from there, the group of us headed to dinner at kings cross (a suburb in sydney known for its unruly characters and gritty charm).  we had dinner at a fabulous mexican restaurant and then headed over to a neighbourhood gay bar for some further drinks and socialising.  

i woke up saturday morning with a minor hang over and little planned for the day except shopping until the parade later that evening.  i'd been informed that today was officially "gay christmas" and i was most excited to watch the events unfold ;-D  i met up with a friend (and his friends) for pre-parade drinks and dinner and then headed down to watch the parade.  what i actually saw can only be described as madness!!  heaps of people dressed in fancy costumes (and not in the parade), people standing 10-12 people deep on milk crates, trying to get a view of the parade, lots of drunkenness and drinking; all up, a fabulous atmosphere!!  i can't say i managed to see much of the parade except on a big screen but i definitely enjoyed the energy and think i'll be back for another mardi gras weekend!!

i arrived back in melbourne with enough time to do laundry, see a couple of friends and pack before heading up to townsvillle with shannon for a holiday.  (my boss has been mocking me for the last week as it's the rainy season in northern queensland so i had no expectation regarding good weather!!)  we took a ferry to magnetic island and disembarked to torrential rains as few places outside of the tropics can boast!  we dashed to our hotel room, drenched and looking like drown rats after 5 mins and spent our first day indoors, fearful that our week's holiday would be spent watching dvds while the sun shined in melbourne!!  fortunately, the sun came out the next day and we hired a car to tour the island, taking pictures and hiking to see some world war II relics. amazingly, the next day was equally as sunny so we had a swim in the hotel pool before heading for a long walk along the beach!!  we headed out that night to watch a toad race with the other tourists on the island :D  a gentleman does a hysterical job auctioning off the toads (all with colourful ribbons around their necks, of course ;-D to the highest bidder before the race starts!   i bought a toad for $25 who seemed super speedy however he must have gotten confused when it started to rain as he performed very poorly ;-(  truly, it was over within a blink of your eyes!  

we then headed down to airlie beach which is the stepping stone for the whitsunday islands and the great barrier reef!!  (the weather didn't promise much but it was better than heading north!) we booked ourselves into a backpackers that actually had a really nice setting with a small creek running through the back area of the hostel with tropical plants growing all along the garden walkway!  we planned to go on a catamaran for the first day which included a snorkel along the reef and a swim on whitehaven beach for a bit of variety.  the sun was shining, the scenery impeccable and we had a lovely day sailing around some of the 74 islands that make up the whitsunday islands!  our next day, we went on a massive power boat out to the great barrier reef where we spent the day snorkeling and scuba diving!!  (it was shannon's first experience doing both and he loved them!!) the water was really clear and the fish were so plentiful and varied that it was easy to spend the entire day under water with them!  we left airlie beach and drove back to townsville in the pouring rain!!  we were super lucky with the weather!!  i might even have managed a couple of VERY light tan lines!! ;D

the only other piece of good news to share is that my permanent residency application has finally been approved at work!!  now it's up to me to get all of the documentation sorted and submitted pronto!! it's a bit of a race against time as i'd love to get my application approved before i take possession of my new house (so that i can get the first home owner's grant) but i'm not going to hold my breath...  there are far too many bureaucratic agencies to contend with in two different countries to expect much!!

hugs to all!
s

p.s.  i've discovered that blogger has a stats page and i'm AMAZED to see how many international readers i have :-D  thanks for reading!!