The farewell lunch (Star Trek High Five!).

Do I look tired? That's because I was fucking tired. And I wanted kwoffee.

Touch down.

We went to the airport at 06:45 to pick up Nicole's parents who were coming back from vacation. This is their Air Malaysia flight touching down. The landing looked very gracious.

Wog fest 2009. Naturally, because I wanted to make a photo of them arriving, some unknown force in the bloody universe decided to plant 3 families in my line of sight.

The in-laws. Tony and Vicky.

This is my international drivers license with which I can drive a car anywhere in the world for a year. I dunno, it could also be a WWII pass of some sort...

Today we had our farewell lunch at Uleybury. Here we see Greg, Gianna and Nicole.

Stephen, Anna and Greg.

Karin and Stephen.

A particularly good photo (if not the nicest ever!) of natalie and Luke (who actually drove two hours to be there!). Thanks so much for coming guys!

STAR TREK HIGH FIVE!

A bit of after chit chat in the parking lot.

We drove home the scenic way, through the Adelaide hills. Everything was still very green. Pretty soon it will be dry and brown again.

We past a hot rod with a dog in it.

While going home we decided to hit the beach. We went to Largs.

Larg's jetty.

Largs beach.

People fishing at the top of the jetty.

A seagull on a pole.

Do I still look tired? That's because I still was bloody tired.

Me! me! me! ME! mE! ME! me! ME!

Sydney day 4.

This morning I woke up around 5AM thinking the city was on fire. Or maybe at least the building next of our hotel. Outside was nothing but a orange-red glow, I could only just see the building directly opposite ours. Later it appeared to be a dust storm. While the storm was still going we walked towards the Opera House nevertheless. The orange glow had turned in to a brown-beige haze.

EDIT:
This is a photo from the news showing what I saw at 5AM:



Sydney Harbour bridge in a dust storm.

The Sydney Opera House in a dust storm...

You can imagine it was a bit disappointing. But then we came across a Guylian store which had lots of delicious things for us to try... After spending nearly two hours in there, the storm had gone and we could actually make the photos we came for!

(Click to enlarge REALLY big)

Sydney Opera House.

I always thought the roof was metal but it is actually tiled. Very pretty from close by.

(Click to enlarge REALLY big)

Sydney Harbour Bridge.

They actually take tours of people over the top of the bridge. You should not be afraid of heights!

Remains of the dust storm.

(Click to enlarge REALLY big)

Me in front of the Sydney Opera House.

We walked back to the hotel to pick up our bags and waited in the lobby for a cab to take us to the airport.

It was party-time at the airport. Due to the dust storm flights had been cancelled and re-routed. Our flight was delayed by only 3-4 hours. But we met our friend Gianna, who had come back from Japan and her story was a LOT worse. We flew back on the same plane which was funny.

It was great to be back in Adelaide again.

Thankfully we did not arrive too late; 11PM. But we had to take a taxi home. Unfortunately all other 150 people coming off our flight also wanted a taxi so we had to line up and wait.

The four days we spent in Sydney were absolutely wonderful. I now find it the nicest city in Australia. Very nice, friendly and social people. Even though there are 5 million of them. Transportation is civilized and the city looks clean. people live here, I like that.

Lunch at Gianna's

Today we were invited for a lunch with Gianna and her parents. It was great to see them again. The food was fantastic and so was the company. These are just the anti pasti.

Anna, Gianna and Pasquale.

The apricot tree in our garden is in full bloom.

I like the first photo.

Early morning, leaving the house to go to breakfast.

On our way we saw the clouds pushing up against the Adelaide hills.

We met Gianna for breakfast. It was very nice.

Walking back to our car we saw these very colorful parrots in a tree. You can't see their colors because my camera makes everything black and white against a bright background.

Then we went to the Central Market.

We bought mushrooms, amongst other things.

The Rundle Lantern

I had a salad for lunch.

After work I walked to restaurant Lemon grass. I passed the Rundle Lantern on my way.

I had a very nice dinner with these two lovely ladies, Nicole and Gianna.

Super Gianna

Gianna dropped by after work for a bit of dinner and a chat which was very nice. We discussed Rammstein and Peaches :-)

Coffee with Gianna

I picked up Nicole from her work at noon. We drove straight down to the charcoal chicken where you get really good, charcoal grilled chicken. It's delicious and very lean because it's grilled.

I waited in the car.

Awesome view.

In the afternoon we went to Hahndorf. The view was better there.

We had coffee and cake with Gianna. It was nice to be out with her again and we had a nice time. In this photo, Gianna is doing her best Anne Frank impersonation ;-)

We went to Chocolate @ No. 5.