G'day from Sydney

Sydney Circular Quay
Originally uploaded by John and Debbie.

Hello there, sports fans. John and I have had a great trip to Sydney. Here we are on our first day out with long suffering Meimei taking us round to see the sights.

You can tell that we are a bit jetlagged because of the forced smiles on our faces.

Please also take note of our bulging bellies. This is because we had breakfast at the Divine Monkey Lounge on Glebe Point Road, which is just round the corner from Meimei's apartment in Ultimo. We highly recommend the fryup breakfast here - not too expensive, and the portions are large enough for two (or three).

The Harbour Bridge
Originally uploaded by John and Debbie.

And they have exceptional coffee according to John and Meimei. This is because you can choose not to order fairtrade coffee. Fairtrade coffee is expensive, and it often tastes pretty bad. As Meimei puts it, 'It's not good coffee unless I can taste the sweat of oppression!!" I contented myself with a cup of Lady Grey tea - very nice floral taste and a pleasant scent, great in the morning.

The Sydney Opera House
Originally uploaded by John and Debbie.

John booked tickets to the 'Marriage of Figaro' at the Sydney Opera House for all of us as a special treat. The acoustics of the opera house leave much to be desired - the tall spinnaker shells do not reflect sound very well, so there are huge sound boards suspended in the theatre. One has to be very careful, when booking seats, not to choose a seat where the view of the stage is obscured.

We watched the opera later on in the week and enjoyed it very much - it was hilarious. It was in Italian with surtitles projected above the stage (very occasionally, the surtitles would run a few minutes behind the singing. Guess the projectionist kept nodding off).

To our great surprise, some of the audience members were displeased by the light heartedness and all-round silliness of the opera. This is Mozart's Great Work, you know. The actors were Pandering To The General Austalian Public. Opera, is supposed to be serious, heart-wrenching stuff, don't you know. There was Laughing and cheering, and I din't cry At All! Atrocious. What is the World Coming To?