Another Weekend Has Blown By

Well, folks, another weekend has come and gone. I don't have much in the way of updates to give you, so this post will be very brief.
Saturday was not at all exciting. I actually had to do a little work, so I did not get out to do anything exciting. Well, aside from grocery shopping. If you can call that task exciting. I will say that I searched throughout Mosman, and could not find a photo processing place. Weird, but true. So I have to continue my search for somewhere that can develop my shots from the race last week!
As I said, I did a little work on Saturday. Of course, I fully intended to knock my work out when I got back home from my errands. But I turned on the Olympics and got sucked in to watching the events on TV. Through my eyelids. Quite the talent, I know. Yes, I dozed off on the couch. Once I woke up, I got motivated to get some work done. Of course, by that time I also had to start cooking dinner. So my day was pretty much shot!
For the second night in a row, I wasn't tired, so I didn't get to bed until about 1 am. I fully intended to get up for church on Sunday morning. However, my neighbors had other plans for me. Or should I say, my neighbor's kids. At 7 am, my neighbors woke me up banging around in their apartment. Then I heard some kids down the hall yelling. After about 30 minutes, I managed to fall back asleep. An hour later, I heard some crazy screaming! I didn't get up, but I think I figured out that a bunch of kids were outside, running around in the lawn area behind the apartments. Freaking loud kids! I mean, I am 5 stories up, and could hear everything they were yelling. I might end up beating some children before I get out of this place... But I did manage to fall back asleep. I woke up a little while later and figured out that with the early church services, there was no way I could get up, shower, and get out of my apartment in time to make it to the latest service at 10 am. So I thought, "I'll go next week," rolled back over, and went back to sleep for a little while longer while there were no kids around screaming.
I got up and got going, and decided I was going to head into the city today. I took the ferry across, and found a 1-hour photo mat in Circular Quay. So while I had an hour to kill, I walked up to the Rocks. Hold on to your hats here, folks: On Sundays, there is a huge craft market in The Rocks. And yes, I was there. Those of you who know me well are probably laughing hysterically at the thought of me wandering around a craft market. No, it was not really my "thing," but I thought I would walk around and see what was there. It was crafts. Shocker.
So after walking through the craft booths, I walked down one of the streets in The Rocks, and stumbled upon what was advertised as "The Oldest Pub In Sydney." Now we're talking! I walked inside, ordered a beer, and hung out for a little bit, enjoying the crowd that was in there with me. There was a guy next to me with his wife, and he kept staring at me. Maybe it was the Wake Forest ACC Football Champs t-shirt I had on. I don't know. I mean, he was nice - offered me his bar stool. But eventually, I had to talk a walk, since he just kept staring.
Walking around was cool. I don't know if the pub really was the oldest in Sydney, but they had these really cool pictures all around on the walls of Sydney from the early 1800s. On the door of the pub, it claimed that this pub had been around since 1828. So it was definitely worth the pictures just to go inside this place. But there was also more excitement. There was a band playing inside the pub, and they played older jazz and blues type music. Or songs that they jazzed up to make sounds like jazz or blues. Then an older lady (probably 75 or 80) got up with them and started singing along. She sang "Ain't Misbehavin'" and "Blue Moon." She also sang a few other songs that I knew, and it was pretty entertaining to hear her sing. She was good, and the band was pretty good. The people in the pub were pretty into it. So it was really cool to be there.
I left the pub and headed back to pick up my pictures. The girl handed them to me and said, "So was the race fun?" I just kind of looked at her. "I'm sorry. What?" She pointed at the pictures and said, "Did you enjoy the race last week?" OHHHH. Right. "Oh! Yeah, it was great! Hopefully the pictures came out okay!" She told me some of them were a little fuzzy, but that they were pretty good. "Open them up and look at them," she told me. So I went through them with her standing there, looking at them with me. It was pretty cool to relive last weekend. Although hard to believe I just ran the race a week ago! And she was right - there were some pictures that were really fuzzy. It must have been my blazing fast speed! So I have the pictures. My next task is to figure out how in the world I can get them uploaded online for you guys. I'll see what I can do - hopefully I'll have something for you guys next weekend!
After picking up the photos, I walked over to the wharf and got an ice cream. That's right - they sell and I'm the sucker who buys. There were several people lined up for it, though, even though it was pretty cold out. Not quite as good as it is in the US, but for some reason I have been craving it lately, and it hit the spot.
So with a little sugar buzz going to warm me up, I decided I would walk over to the Botanical Gardens for this week's little adventure. The Botanical Gardens are on the other side of the Opera House from the Bridge. Pretty much the only thing over there is the Botanical Gardens. So with my camera in hand, I walked all through the Gardens.
Now, I am not really one to walk around and look at plants. (Between crafts and gardens, I was really out of my element today!) But I have to say, the walk was really quite pretty. It was more like a park, although there were tons of plants everywhere. The walk goes along the Harbour and back into the park. So I wandered all around. I got to the other side of the Gardens just in time. I looked back towards the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge and had the most amazing view with the sun setting. I will get the photos uploaded for you guys this week. Hopefully you will enjoy seeing them as much as I enjoyed taking them!
After getting some awesome pictures, I walked back towards the Harbour and Circular Quay. I had to wait a bit for the ferry, but got on and headed back home. And I managed to doze off on the ferry ride back. It really is quite relaxing riding on the boat! But I woke up with plenty of time to spare, jumped on the bus, and got back home in time to finish the laundry, work out, and cook dinner. It's kind of sad how much of a pattern I have gotten myself into here! Although Sally will be happy when I get back, because I'll be in the habit of making dinner and doing the dishes every night! Yikes!
Well, folks, I need to run. I have a meeting at 8.15 in the office tomorrow morning, so I'll have to get up early in order to get into the office by 8. I do have a request before I go: I am running out of ideas for weekend adventure trips! So if there is anything you guys want to see while I am in Sydney, post a comment and let me know. I'll see what I can do to accommodate all requests in the next 5 weekends!
I don't have much in the way of a funny fact or story for you guys today. But I do have something I think is interesting to show the high cost of living here. Apparently, one of the flats in my apartment building was leased last week, because I got a flier in my mailbox this week about it. Although from the picture, it doesn't look like the same building, even though the address puts it on the first floor here. Anyway, the apartment is 2 bedroom, 2 bath (also with a garage spot, even though we don't have a true garage). So about one and a half times the size of mine, if not twice as big. The interesting part of this lease agreement would be the rate. $640. PER WEEK. Holy crap!!! If it weren't for the office paying for my accommodations, I don't think I could live in this city!