Elle’s Neighborhood

We had fairly good flights in spite of the new airline security arrangements and arrived back in Washington DC late Saturday night.  I went to bed pretending that I had just had a big social night hoping that would help me get back into the time zone quicker.  I'm not sure it worked as I still needed a big nana-nap yesterday afternoon. 

First day back at work today and by 3pm I was wishing for a little lie down.   It's a three and a half day week this week as we close early on Thursday -  a nice re-introduction to a full week.  I was not so thrilled at the bitterly cold winds this morning and I've come home tonight to find that our heater is not working!!!!!!!     I'm going to have to go to bed now to stay warm. 

Last images of Sydney taken from the plane - a cloudy take-off:  (I wanted to also take photos of our arrival in Los Angeles but we were not allowed to have any items in our laps for the last hour)......

While we were in Australia, Washington had a 17" snow fall ......   this was all that was left on our top deck yesterday, one week later: 

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Merry Christmas; Happy Holidays; Best Wishes for whatever you celebrate at this time of year.

I will see you on the other side of the 25th ......

We will have Christmas day with my three children and my new daughter-in-law.....   firing up the barbie and tossing some prawns and seafood on it.

On Boxing Day (26th)  we start the flights back to DC  -  arriving in Los Angeles before we leave Sydney - LOL -  I love that International Date line!

 

I just paid rent to my building manager, and he gave me a bar of Ghana chocolate to say thank you! And I guess as a kind of Christmas present. How sweet. Literally!

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We spent yesterday with my parents who live about 3 hours drive north of Sydney -  in Tea Gardens/Hawks Nest. This will be my last visit with them this trip. It is always really, really tough saying goodbye to them as the thought is always in the back of my mind that this might be the last time I see them.

  Their little town is  sandwiched between the Pacific Ocean 

and the Myall River, Great Lakes system:.  We were only on the beach for a short time before I could feel my too fair skin starting to burn. The water was clear and so inviting, and there was no seaweed here; just tiny shells washing ashore:

The river is also lovely and clear....

 

The pelican was hoping we had some fish for him - he was disappointed.

 

it was full of seaweed: 

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I'm not sure I want my food to announce it's going to make my jiggly bits dance but this was a wonderful dinner on a hot evening:;

And how could I resist wine with a label like this?   It was actually pretty good and I've bought another bottle...  :

Huge storm last night.  This was after a day where it hit 40 Celsius here in western Sydney.  A day where I went to the city to meet my Economist son for lunch and in my "wisdom" decided to ride the Monorail from Darling Harbour parking over to city centre (Pitt Street). 

 

There was a notice at the "station"  warning that due to extreme heat the a/c in the little cars would not be efficient.    Well,  I got a $9.50 all day ride (cheaper than a return) and got on it anyway.  Holy Moly - it must have been over 50 degrees Celsius in the little tube!!!.   "I can do this;  I can do this"  -  I repeated to myself  - surely it won't take that long....... 

There are more stations now than I remember and it seemed to take a very, very long time though it's probably only 15 minutes - but 15 minutes in that kind of heat and stuffiness is no fun.  I considered getting out two short of where I wanted to go  but that defeated the entire purpose of taking the monorail in the first place as the walk would've been longer but surely it could not have been hotter.

I had images of a news story "woman collapses in heat of monorail"   or worse - the monorail breaking down and everyone expiring before we could be rescued.     

Last night there was a tremendous storm with  lightning so intense I saw us all being fried in our little tin huts.

A one stage there was a large crash as a branch fell and first thing this morning I checked that now not-so-new rental car to make sure it didn't have a bough across its bonnet.
 

So today it is raining and there is a bus strike so it should be fun on the roads - but at least it is cooler. 

 This is Rose Bay, Sydney - I have a friend who lives in this idyllic location:

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For the last few months my neck and shoulders have been killing me.  I went to the gym with the Hubs for a couple of weeks thinking it would help ease the pain.  Turns out the gym only aggravates my neck and shoulders.  AWESOME.

 

I went to the chiropractor last week thinking it would help, but it only provided temporary relief.  Temporary as in a couple of hours.  Sigh.  I made an appointment with a regular doctor.  I hope she doesn’t just prescribe pain meds because that’s not what I’m looking for.  My neck and shoulders issues went away when during my reformer pilates classes last year and I think I need to start those up again.  They are just so dang expensive!  We’re in a recession, there has to be SOMEONE out there that offers reasonable rates.

 

I would also like to ween myself off of my coffee addiction, but dude, if this cute little bear can’t even do it, how do you expect me to go cold turkey?