Sydney

It was a little bit touch-and-go for a few moments as to whether I'd make my flight after 28 hours of continual carousing, but my fears

were unfounded and it was no time before I was buckled up next to a nice gentleman from Marseilles who insisted (not much provocation required) i have some cognacs with him. My grand plans of reading and working for the entire flight were canned in favour of flicking through the inflightmag and passing out. Stopped off in Bangkok oblivious to the coup d'etat that was going on at the time, then bunkered down for final leg to syd.

Arrived to glorious weather and went straight to Coogee Beach for b/fast and beachside ramble:

Walked into town that afternoon to MCA,

then caught up with Grant who hasn't lost any of his unique ability to summon amazing facial expressions.

HIghlights of subsequent week:

Morning runs round Balmain and across the harbour bridge, round botanical gardens (i made the mistake of sprinting off from Maarinke on the way over the bridge - she offered to do the whole circuit again - i was in no state to call her bluff, which was probably obvious from my purple face)

Placebo concert at Hordern

Giacometti exhibition at AGNSW

I discovered after all these years that the iconic statue outside AGNSW was in fact by Brett Whiteley, whose studio in Surry Hills we finally got round to visiting.

Some fab dinners at The Wharf, Oscillate Wildly.

Brekky with Hoffmans at Dee Why - i can't believe it was still only early spring and such amazing weather.

Went to the Structural Integrity and Fracture Conference and gave not one but two talks, that looked a little something like this: The conference dinner was on my birthday so I celebrated by drinking not one but two bottles of wine.


If you thought i looked kinda funny in the photos when I was talking, check out this corker of my PhD supervisor, Mark, the (now past-) president of the Australian Fracture Group during his after-dinner speech. What a bewdy!

Had a more laidback bday dinner the following night in Balmain. Saw out my final weekend with a BBQ, strolls round Balmain and brekky at Balmoral Bathers Pavilion. $93 for breakfast for two helped me prepare for my return to English prices. Fab trip, very busy, great to see everyone! Might be while before i'm back so good to packed as much in as i did.