Pussy Cat Dolls at the Opera House

The Pussy Cat Dolls recently performed at the Opera House for a small group of about 200 people. X-Box was doing some promotional thing and they put on a private show for people who won tickets on their website. Unfortunately, Rob and I didn't win. We took a stroll down to the Opera House anyway to see if we could get a glimpse of the Dolls performance and happened into a bit of luck (well, for me anyway). It was a pretty nasty night out and about halfway through the show it started to rain and people started to leave the show. One guy was heading out and I asked him how we could get in (I had already tried schmoozing with the security guards...to no avail) and he slung off his VIP pass and threw it to me and said that it would get me into the after party too. So I scurried in around security (different guy by this time) who yelled at me to come over to him so I did. He looked at my pass and said, "You know you can't come back in once you leave." And I said, "What??? Are you serious? I didn't know!" (true). And he told me that I wasn't supposed to, but then he waved me on in. I got right up next to the stage and caught the last 2 songs that the band sang! Poor Rob was stuck waiting out in the rain while I got close ups of the Pussy Cat Dolls and then got into the private tent afterwards where they were serving hors devours and free alcohol!

I got some good pictures and 2 videos of their songs:

VIP Tent



Pussy Cat Dolls Video: 'When I Grow Up'

Royal National Park

This weekend was Australia's Labour Day weekend, so Rob and I decided to go on a little adventure trip and hike some of the trails at the Royal National Park. The park is the world's oldest national park (1879)-the second oldest is Yellowstone (1883).

We took a train from Redfern (suburb of Sydney) about an hour south to Cronulla and then took a ferry from Cronulla to Bundeena.

Ferry ride



There are several ways to get to the Royal National Park, but we chose the little-known access point from Bundeena because Frommer's told us to. In fact, our enormous Frommer's guide says that Arthur Frommer actually lives in Bundeena. After seeing it I'm not really sure why, but to each his own.

We wandered through some small villages in Bundeena then reached the Royal National Park right where the "Coast Walk" started.

Which way do we go?????


The long ride home

New Studio Apartment!

New studio apartment near Circular Quay (where the Opera House is). It's an even better location than the last place! Right near The Rocks. The rooftop has a pool and a view of the Opera House, Sydney Tower, and the Harbour Bridge.

More pics to come.

Sydney Running Festival

On September 21st, Rob and I joined about 25,000 other people in the largest running festival in Australia: Blackmore's Sydney Running Festival. The races included a marathon, a half-marathon, a 9km bridge run and 4km family fun run which kicked off around 6am. Guess which one we did? Yep, the family fun run. We weren't feeling up to much more than that.

It was a really cool experience though. We trekked over the Harbour Bridge which they completely closed off to traffic and ended the run by the steps of the Opera House.

Not my most flattering moment

Check out the video of our finish:

Olympic Athletes Return to Oz

Australia is a PROUD country. If it wasn't blatantly obvious before, it definitely was during the Olympics. I had no idea what was going on with any other team around the world during the Olympics because the Aussie news only focused on their athletes the entire time. Not that it's a bad thing, but it would have been nice to see what else was going on. The Australians even have an "adjusted medal count" that they calculate which takes into account the smaller population of Australia and pretty much always puts them in 1st place for gold, silver and bronze.

Anyway, there was a big "Welcome Home" event in Sydney for the athletes. It was at Town Hall which is just around the corner from our place. Here are some of the pics:

Not sure who this one is

Not sure about the athlete but the lady with her is Clover Moore-Lord Mayor of Sydney

And this is Steve Hooker. He won a gold medal for pole vaulting. He looks like Carrot Top.

Luna Park

Just on the other side of the Harbour Bridge is Sydney's oldest theme park: Luna Park. The heritage-listed park first opened in 1935, and has since experienced multiple closures, changes of ownership, legal battles, and community action in both support of and opposition to operation.

The historical little fun park is pretty pricey (although entry is free) but it's really cute and a prime location right on the water.

We took a water taxi over, stayed for a few hours and enjoyed the gorgeous weather and some lunch, walked around Milson's Point, then took the water taxi back to Darling Harbour (AKA our backyard).

Out with the Canadians, In with the Aussies

Katie and Gracie moved out on September 5th. They moved into one of their co-worker's mom's house to save money.

On September 8th we got 2 new Aussie flatmates: Mark and Leaf. Yes, Leaf. I've now lived with "Tree" and "Leaf" and guess what Leaf's last name is? BUSH! Haha, seriously! Tree, Leaf, Bush. All I need is "Shrub" and I think I'll have it covered.

Mark and Leaf are nice guys. They both work for the Red Cross. Mark cooked us dinner the first night they moved in so it's so far so good in my book!

Still looking on getting out of this place ourselves. It's a great location but the place needs some serious upgrades.

Updates to come.