This weekend was really fun.  The weather held out and the sun was around all weekend.  Friday after work I went out with the Childfree Girls again to a delicious Thai restaurant on Pitt St. in the city.  It was  a lot of fun and there are a bunch more from the group in the Sydney area, so we will try to meet up again soon.  Saturday was a good day at work with lovely clients, then I walked around in the city to get our mail.  We finally got our Australian credit cards to use so we don’t have to keep purging our US accounts.  It is expensive and inconvenient to transfer money internationally; with transaction and currency exchange fees.  We transferred money here once and hope to never have to go though it again.  We gained money when we did it since the US dollar is stronger than the Australian dollar at the moment.  Our new credit cards have points we can use toward travel and also traveler’s insurance.  I have only taken traveler’s insurance out once (for our move here) and always thought it was wasteful.  In the past, our health insurance told us while traveling, if something happened, we would have to pay out of pocket, but then be reimbursed by them.  Having Australian health care is different.  In the UK and other commonwealth countries, they honor Australian Medicare, but in the rest of the world, you are on your own.  Most travelling Australians take out travel insurance for this reason, so we picked a card that covered us for it too.  Australian credit cards are also fancier than US ones.  Using our US card here, we would always have to sign it, even with the chip, but out new cards can just tap if under $100 and you just enter a pin if over.  It will be fun to explore all the features and I hope to rack up all the points so we can do more traveling.  🙂

Speaking of, one of the first things paid for on our new credit cards is our flight back to WI.  We will be home August 12-21.  We are then stopping over on a mini vacay in Seattle from 21-24 (if anyone wants to join us, let me know!!) then back to Sydney the 24, but arriving on the 25th. It will be great to see everyone and if you want to do something let me know asap so we can plan it.  I am sure our visit will be busy and awesome.  It will have been over six months by then since we left.  Crazy how time does fly.

Saturday evening, Brandon made dinner, then Heidi, Brandon, and I took the bus into the city to check out Vivid Sydney.  For the next few weeks, parts of the city will be lit with color displays including buildings, boats, the Zoo, the Harbor Bridge, and the Opera House.  We walked around Circular Quay and it was crowded and a bit chilly so we decided to see the rest another time.  There are harbor cruises you can do to see the whole coast and bars and restaurants around Circular Quay are popular to sit and watch the light party on the harbor.  There are also a lot of art displays, concerts, and exhibitions that go along with Vivid as well.  The whole sha-bang goes until June 17 with all the events and activities, so I am sure we will get our chance to see more of it.   I want to take a ferry around to see it all from the water and also walk across the Harbor Bridge since I heard that is a neat view as well.

On Sunday, after church, we took the bus to Manly for the annual Taste of Manly event.  They had booths from local restaurants, breweries, and wineries serving food and alcohol all along the corso and beachfront.  It was delicious and I even found a rose (wine) I liked.  There was also a market and so many people had dogs there; it was a good breed test day for Brandon.  He learned the difference between a Pug and a Frenchie and a Bichon and a Westie. 😉 I do have to say it is harder to ID breeds here with un docked tails and uncropped ears, but they do look happier this way.  I have enjoyed seeing more exotic cat breeds at work as well.  Way more fancy than the domestic shorthair that is so common in clinics in the US.  My favorite was a British Blue Shorthair named Gus.  He had the biggest cheeks!!  They do have mutt cats here too and they call them Mogies instead of DSH.   After eating and drinking our way around Manly, we stopped for dessert by the bus stop and gorged on Nutella waffles and a caramel tart.  A nap was in order when we got home to digest, then I worked on Brandon’s hat more.  It is taking much longer than his scarf since it is 40 some stitches across instead of 21.  He told me I had better hurry since June 1st is the official start to winter and it is only a few days away!

Today, Monday, I am off of work and enjoying a lazy day with the cats.  It has cooled down since the weekend, but the sun is still shining.  Enjoy our pictures from this past week.  RIP to the skink that got stuck in our sliding door when I tried to save him from the cats.