The Purple Penguin

Yesterday we arrived 6am at Sydney Airport. Let’s be more specific, Sunday 1 December, cause we’re now in the future! We left the UK on Friday night and skipped Saturday (though we were in Doha for Saturday morning). Most of Sunday was spent staying awake. This involved walking out to the Opera House and Harbour Bridge, and meeting a work colleague who was out for his morning run. It’s a small world sometimes. Then meeting up with a friend for brunch and, later, dinner. Then finally falling into bed and sleeping.

One other thing we did was to buy some local sim cards so we could stay in contact. You can get pay as go for a one-off cost that last about a month with unlimited calls and texts in Australia and some international countries and 35gb of mobile data. So that was a deal. If you want to do this, be warned that you have to register the sim and it won’t take a foreign address; but it did take the hotel address! It will also require your passport number and full name as on the passport.

Today, Monday, I went to work in the Sydney office. Kathleen did holiday stuff, because she’s not working.

K: That’s cause Joe’s here to do a meeting thing for the first week, then work with the Sydney office for the second week. I’m not. But it’s ok, because of the meeting we get to be in Australia for a few weeks. 

Joe left out that yesterday we walked around The Rocks and the market there (it’s there at weekends). Don’t really remember what we saw as we were very tired, but do remember some porcelain pins and jewelry that were very nice. Then we went to the MCA (Museum of Contemporary Art) to meet our friend. We ate in the cafe there – it’s on the top floor with an excellent view over the harbour. Except there was a huge cruise ship in port, so the view was blocked by that. Still a nice view. Then we walked back toward the hotel – we had checked in when we arrived but couldn’t get keys until 2pm. So we rested and unpacked and showered before dinner, then out to China Town for dinner and the best sweet dumplings. The dumpling place was a tiny hole in the wall, with a really nifty dumpling machine. Go up to the window, say how many you want, hand over very little money for wonderful dumplings. 

Today I went to the office with Joe, mainly because we were up early so we headed out to get breakfast. Once he was safely at the office I went out to Hyde Park and the ANZAC memorial – a large Art Deco monument. Walked down to the fountain, but skipped the Australian Museum because it’s closed. Instead I headed for the bookshop – Dymocks, which is associated with a Children’s literacy charity. So I’m looking for the section I need (the shop is very large) when I hear someone say my name. Turn around and there’s another friend – we’d been meaning to try to meet up but hadn’t managed to arrange anything. But that’s ok because we just randomly ran into each other. Hooray! So planning for dinner next week and a catch-up.

I then headed back to the Rocks and had a look around some of the small alleyways and older buildings. Went to the Tourist info and then into the tourist shopping area, before heading to The Rocks Discovery Centre which is a lovely tiny little museum. As it was getting to be later afternoon, headed back to the hotel to meet up with Joe when he finished work. Now trying to decide where to go for dinner – I know where to get great dumplings!