I'm still here

My apologizes to those who 7 weeks ago were looking forward to a bi-weekly or even weekly update on my blog while I have been in Australia for work.  Just take my lack of ability or drive as a sign that I've been having way too much fun.

I don't know what the date is anyday, everyday.  I think due to the weather my strong internal clock rejects the idea that it is (*checks calendar to ensure*) Dec. 4th at 8pm.  Its just not a possibility really.  Or is it.  I'm generally just confused.

Tomorrow starts my last week in Australia and I have made a bucket list of things I want to do within the Sydney area while I am here.  My work assignment should allow for a flexible schedule so daytime activities should be not ruled at in the least.  So, here is what I did today on the T-8 day left in Australia.

December 1st marked the first day of summer but it has been so much hotter here before then.  In fact the first 3 days of summer were just rain.  Hard rain - none of this "English rain" which I define as light drizzle.  It's like the Brits are all going to melt if they get wet at all and if the sun should shine on their wet skin like an ant under a magafined glass on a hot sunny summer's day.

So today being the 2nd beautiful day out of summer- yesterday I was in the office -, I asked my manager if I could work in the evening instead of during the day today.  As soon as he gave me the thumbs up I was in the shower getting ready to hit the beach.

It was the most windy on the beach then I have ever experienced here yet.  I laid on my towel reading a book for an hour while the wind blew across my body from the left.  When I sat up to move, the left side of my towel not protected by my body was not just covered in sand but was growing into little mounds of sand.

Also while on the beach, there was a siren that sounded.  My first thought having come from Indiana where you practice more for tornado drills then you ever experience of tornadoes, was that it was a tornado horn.  But that couldn't be because its beautiful and sunny out even though the wind is fierce.  SHARK!
Thats right, shortly after the horn the lifeguard was on the beach's loudspeaker instructing all swimmers, particularly surfers to get out of the water due to a shark siting somewhere a couple miles, give or take as I really am not sure exactly where he was talking about, from the Manly beach area.  Heck it could have been that area and he just called it something different.  A helicopter over the next 30 minutes circled the area of Manly Beach as well as a near by beach, I believe looking for more sightings.  On that note, I am still glad I booked my first surfing lesson for tomorrow morning 2 hours prior to this.

I walked around Manly, got a massage, did some souvenior shopping, and had a great cajun burger as a late lunch.  Then I took a nap.  It's now almost half after 8pm and I haven't started work yet, BUT I will as soon as I get back from visiting the nearby bottle shop for a bottle of white wine.

Apologies there are no pictures.  I have limited internet bandwidth from the company and they have asked me not to upload or download too much.  I do believe I already cost them a pretty penny doing some internet TV streaming last month while in Melbourne, so out of guilt the pictures are not posted here.

Some can be seen on my facebook page and there are 2 photo albums of my trip so far on my shutterfly page. http://sarahjames.shutterfly.com/