Australian plants

So I must admit that I often write all of my blogs for the week on the weekend, because I rarely have time to do such things during the week. This one is a last-resort blog. If you're reading this it means I'm either super lazy and don't have time to write about more interesting things that have happened to me, or I have not had any time or energy to do anything interesting! Let's hope it's the former.

<Note from today: It has been insanely busy! But tonight I had a really nice dinner with a guy on my team and his wife, in Mebourne. More details to come tomorrow - I'm very tired now!!>

In any event, here are a few pictures of plants from the Botanical Gardens! If we lived here I'm sure daddy would have Birds of Paradise growing in the backyard!

Birds

Made it to Melbourne - but it was quite the trip. Full details and more proper update will have to wait until the weekend. It's been a very crazy week ... energizing because the work has been interesting, but exhausting because it's been so busy!

Here's some more news from last weekend. Not very new anymore though!

The botanical gardens had tons of really interesting birds. Some quite large and with very sharp-looking curved beaks. Here are some wonderful parrots I saw. They are very common - like squirrels (I didn't see any squirrels in the gardens, I guess they don't have them here. Parrots are a good substitute.)

Does anyone else find this strange?

This is the entrance to the Sydney Hospital, the oldest hospital in Sydney. Does anyone else think this is a strange statue to put at the entrance ?!?!?!?!!?!

In other news, work is going well but busy. I am flying to Melbourne tomorrow night for some meetings on Friday and then staying for the weekend to hang out with KM and KM2 (ref. older blogs). Looking forward to seeing them, but the prospect of getting my work done and packing up my room is daunting. Somehow everything always gets done!!

St. James' Cathedral

I think I can see this church from my window. (It's dark now, I will have to check in the morning.) In any event, it's only steps from the front of the hotel. Right behind it is "The Junction" which is a big park space, which connects to the Royal Botanical Gardens. I really love the location of my hotel!!

Perhaps I'll go inside it some day and have more pictures to share with you!

Attractions of the Royal Botanical Gardens

You might be wondering "What is a Royal Botanical Garden?" Good question. I don't think we have one in Canada, even though we're a "royal" country ... and I'm not quite sure what the formal definition is. But, it seems to be a large park with a lot of landscaping inside a fence that is only open at certain hours (e.g., 9-5:30). In this case it has fantastic views. In many cases (e.g., here and in Melbourne, my sample size of two) they have signs that tell you about the plants. And in this case it has sculptures and interesting things to look at. Here are a few that I spotted in my first venture. I'll have to go back - it's like a scavenger hunt looking for them!! (I can't understand people who don't like to travel alone - there's so much to do in every city!! And some of these things are better to do alone!)

I'm still alive!!

So, I know I've been a bit of a delinquent blogger this week. But I can't even apologize. It's been a crazy week, with the time change and starting a new project. Everything's going well though, and I'm super happy. The team is great, the client is great, the topic is great ... work is going to be a lot of fun (and possibly a lot of work). I also didn't have very much interesting to write about last week - it was a week full of work and sleep (or not sleeping and laying in bed, looking at the ceiling, wishing I were sleeping as the case may have been). Last night I slept 13 hour though so hopefully things are better next week!!!

This afternoon I walked through the Royal Botanical Gardens and had a lovely picnic overlooking the harbour. (The harbour has over 300 km of coastline!!) The Gardens are terrific - there is a sign when you come in saying "Please walk on the grass, eat in the garden, and smell the roses." This sign made me very happy!

It was a beautiful day and this is really a beautiful city. I walked around the Opera House and under the bridge. Then I stopped by a really fancy food court in the mall near my hotel and bought some soup dumplings (I can only find these in Australia!!!) to take home with me. After a bit of relaxing I went to the hotel gym (I was the only one there - extreme luxury) and now I'm getting ready for bed.

Here are a few pictures from today - but I will have to save the rest and dribble them out to you over the course of the week, because it's not too likely I'll be doing much interesting on a Tuesday night!! (PS I wasn't even trying to take good pictures, everything looked so nice it was impossible not to!

Picnic spot, view of the skyline:

Picnic spot, turned 90 degrees, view of the harbour:

View of the skyline:

Opera House and bridge:

I made it! It's great!

And now I'm in Sydney! Singapore Airlines was terrific - I watched 3 movies, did some work, got enough sleep, ate some gourmet food, and then boom! I landed in beautiful Sydney, 20 degrees Celsius. Lovely hotel, great gym, and amazing executive lounge. I was hungry when I got here (the only mistake Singapore Airlines made was not waking me up for my fruit plate just before we landed, but I'm not complaining because I enjoyed being out cold for almost 7 hours) so I went for canapes in the lounge. WOW! Samosas, mini pork buns, sandwiches, cheese plates, and .... raw oysters !! Daddy should be here! I had some snacks, then went to the gym, which is just perfect - and was much needed after lying down for 24 hours straight! Now I'm all unpacked and hoping to be tired again. Sydney is 14 hours ahead of Toronto and 8 hours ahead of Amsterdam, so a little bit of a time change to get used to!

The only bad thing so far about Sydney is that the sun starts to set at 4:30pm!! It was pitch black well before 6!! I'm afraid I won't be seeing much daylight except for weekends!

Here's the view from my room - around 5pm!!

I'm going back!!!

Welcome back to "Emily in Australia" - this time it will be the SYDNEY EDITION!!!

I leave Amsterdam tomorrow around 11am and arrive in Sydney Sunday around 4pm. It will be a fun weekend of travelling before work starts Monday morning! I'm looking forward to 24 hours of being horizontal in my plane seat and catching up on movies. I think it will be quite comfortable :-)

You can subscribe by using the box in the top right, or just check back when you feel like it and see what I'm up to! Hopefully something fun and interesting!!

Talk to you from Sydney!

Emily