Yesterday we slept in, had a final breakfast at a little café we have begun frequenting, strolled around and bought some final souveniers, appreciated thi differences between the city on a work day and the city on a weekend , and mostly counted our marbles and packed our suitcases.

At five, we met Marc and Janette at the Sydney Tower for a tasty dinner and a breath-taking view. And the restaurant revolves! 360 degrees of splendid vista for us to enjoy during our meal. My photos don’t do it justice but here they are.









Janette and Marc are the kindest,most gracious people one could ever hope to know, and I don’t know how to thank them for the wonderful time they have shown us. I wanted to bring them splendid presents from the US. Instead, I gave Marc my cold - and it’s a bugger. He's fighting the good fight, though. Best of luck to him!!

So today we begin the 28 hour process of going home. DH wants to take the train to the airport. Much cheaper.. We don’t have a schedule or a ticket, and it’s Sunday.. The hotel conceriege has been a phenomenal resource so far. Maybe he can help with this as well.


Later: The concierge gave us clear and complete directions for finding the ticket kiosk in the train station. That was the last complete and correct instructions we got. The guy who sold us the train tickets said to pick up or train on platform 6. He did not mention that many trains stop at platform six and we needed to take the one to Wolli Creek. We wound up on our way out to Guzzunderdabed or something like that, so we had to get off, cross a set of windy platforms, and catch another train going in the opposite direction.
Then we followed signs and guesses to the check-in counter where we had to wait an hour for the nice boys and girls to show up and check us in. Safely checked in,and waving goodby to our two check-through bags, we got incomplete instructions for finding the business lounge. the sweet girl neglected to mention that we had to go through security first. And no one told us we had to fill out a green card to get out of the country. What's that all about? Anyway, we made it through all the hoops and are now sitting in the business-class lounge, enjoying tea and cookies and waiting for ourflight to start to load.

My cold is making a last ditch effort to incapacitate me. It has settled above and between my eyebrows with four Taiko drummers beating the crap out of my sinuses. But alll I have to do is get on the nice airplane and I will have 14 hours to sleep the sucker off. I have been a big whiney baby today. I don't feel good, my ribs hurt from coughing so much, and I'm not ready to leave. Snivel!!! If I hadn;t had so much fun, in spite of being sick, it wouldn't be so hard to go.

Thank you, thank you, Janette and Marc, Jejune and Dotter, Rose Red and Grandma Flea, for showing me such a grand time!! When you come to Oregon, I know how totake care of you now!