This is the life...

Had a great week in Sydney this week, despite it being my first full week back at work since the holidays. I am really taking this opportunity to heart and trying to live up every minute of the remainder of my time here! Part of living it up includes all of the wonderful food that Sydney has to offer. And because I want to be able to enjoy the food, I also need to remain very active for my last weeks here. This week, I alternated each weeknight and took a lovely walk/jog either around Lavendar Bay or across the Harbour Bridge. Both are about equal distance and equal challenge...oh yeah, and amazing scenery! Somehow, these just aren't quite the same as my walks in PV at home...especially in some of the parts right around my house, in PPPV, as my brother-in-law calls it! So, I think I will continue to enjoy my endless options of gorgeous places to exercise outside here while I can!

Friday was a fun day at work. Not only did we end with Beer Friday, but we also had a Morning Tea (everyone brought in treats) in the office to help raise funds for the Queensland Flood Relief Efforts. The damage in Queensland is just devastating and we do have some associates that live in areas that have been impacted. So, the office in Sydney and the office in Melbourne decided to all chip in and donate some money to the Red Cross-like organization here. We had a great time with wonderful food that everyone brought in and we ended up with $2500 to donate!

I hadn't been to Beer Friday in a while because of the holidays, so it was fun to be back with everyone again. A group of about 12 of us headed across the bridge and to The Rocks after Beer Friday. We were going to walk around The Rocks Night Markets, but stopped in a bar shortly after getting there...and then didn't leave the bar until the end of the night. Was a good time with fun friends!

Saturday was cloudy and a bit dreary, so I just ran a few errands and had a relaxing day around here.

Today (Sunday) started off really cloudy and misty again and I was pretty disappointed because this was not the weather that had been predicted. But no fear, it finally did clear off and, although a little later than initially planned, I headed to Bondi Beach to have a beach picnic with a few friends from work!! And it is now official...I LOVE the beach! We all put our towels together and had an awesome picnic right when we got there...dips and crackers, cheese, salami, olives, fruit, veggies, tim-tams and beer...YUM! And then we just alternated between laying on our towels and watching the action and going to actually be in the action! All of the clouds from the morning had disappeared, so it was a hot day and that meant quite a bit of time in the water to cool off. It was really cold at first, but we got used to it quickly. They were also filming some pieces for a show here called Bondi Rescue...was really fun to watch that action, but don't worry, I did try to stay far away from the cameras, ha! I am definitely going to try to get to the beach at some point each weekend that I have left here...it just doesn't get old!

I forgot to take a picture during our picnic, but here are the girls at the end of our beach afternoon!

Hope you are all enjoying Winter and staying warm! ;-)