It’s chilly in Sydney.  People are wearing way too little for the weather.  They are running around in tank tops or really short shorts.  I wonder if it’s like the phenomenon that happens in Denver in Spring where it’s warmer than it’s been so people want it to be summer and they dress for summer and then pretend that they don’t notice that it’s still too cold for what they are wearing.  I went on a whale watching tour on Sunday.  It was the very last tour of the season.  It was freaking cold.  No whales.  I met James though.  We had great conversation on the boat and it was nice to have someone to have dinner with afterward.  Sunday evening, the girls at the house invited me to go to a local bar for live music.  I kind of just wanted to stay in, but, hey, I’m not going to get this opportunity again, so I went.  The band was good and it was fun for a while.  I went home early though.

On Monday I rented a bike and rode around Manly.  You know that story about having to walk to school in horrible weather uphill both ways?  I think that story was invented in Sydney.  Everything is up hill in all directions.  It was a real challenge on a bike, but great exercise.  There is park called North Head where you can go out to the ocean cliffs.  I rode around there and had a very expensive lunch with bad service.  I rode down to the beach.  There were so many people enjoying the beach and it was actually warm today.  I almost went in the beach but decided not to since I wanted to buy a new bathing suit and I remember all the shops closed early.  I went in every store.  No one sells board shorts for girls that aren’t unreasonably short – it kind of defeats the point of having shorts.  I noticed that all the stores have more men’s clothing than women’s.  Most of the stores, the men’s clothes were featured in the front of the store and the women’s were in the back.  The complete opposite of the US.

My last full day in Sydney I went and had my hair colored.  The “red” I got in Thailand has turned to an ugly brown so I just went back to all black.  I ate, worked on the computer, had coffee and then went to the Manly Sea Life Aquarium.  It’s smaller than the one in downtown Sydney, but features things found in Manly so the highlight was the tiny penguins.  Manly has the smallest penguins.  They come up and nest under the warf.  They are endangered.  The aquarium has some of the ones that were rescued and they also have a successful breeding program.  I love penguins.  I think I was more excited about these than the koalas the other day.  Then I had a completely useless massage and dinner with bad service.

There is always one fly on you at all times in Sydney.  I thought maybe I brought him from Thailand until my new friend, James asked if I had noticed that there is constantly a fly.  I thought I would be rid of constantly having bugs on me.  Not yet.

(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore