Totally Ripper times in Sydney

It's a gift, having friends who live in a foreign city. Well, you obviously miss then when you're at home, but when you get to visit them, THAT is really, so cool. We had it with Neesha in Singapore- it was so nice being able to hang out with her in Singers and also get her inside knowledge. And it went too quickly! I realised how much I miss her.
Before we knew it we were already on our way to Sydney. We were so lucky in being able to stay with Engine and Celine. Coogee is so cool! It's got this super laid back vibe, all surfer/seaside town. Our first day, and totally unintentionally, was Australia Day!! Or "Invasion Day", as it's referred to by Aborigines. By the way, I never saw an Aborigine the whole time I was in Australia. I think that's saying something.
Anyway, we had a pretty awesome Australia Day. We started with a barbie at the Cannam Residence, where I tried ROO, ROO! It tastes like beef steak only it's much more lean and I'm pretty sure that if it was cooked more than medium rare it would be pretty tough.
Then Engine and Celine gave us a driven tour of the beaches that line the Coogee to Bondi coastal walk, starting with Clovelly and finishing up at Bondi. Clovelly is cool for snorkelling and we got to try out the waterproof camera for the first time (although Engine had to dunk it in first). But BONDI baby! Totally awesome! Super white sand! I attempted some body surfing but quickly lost my nerve when the waves tried to drag me under.
And to finish off an awesome Aussie Day, we headed down to Darling Harbour to watch the fireworks. Selling fireworks is illegal in Australia, so they really go to town on their public displays.
Most people get a day off for Australia Day, so we had 3 solid days to hang out with Engine and Celine, which was really nice as we hadn't seen them since their engagement party back in the UK 18 months earlier.
Sunday we had an amazing coffee with amazing cake at The Grove and then pub crawled around The Rocks.

On Monday the weather rained all over our plans to go to Manly so instead we hit the fish market for a seafood platter at lunch and then the Cannams drove us up to Middle Head, for what would have been an amazing view, had it not been covered in cloud and rain. But on Tuesday the sun came out again, so we could do the Coogee to Bondi coastal walk, before making it to Manly on the Wednesday. And we topped that off with beer and mussels in the Belgian Beer cafe, super nom nom!

Not that I wasn't before, but I'm really looking forward to when Engine and Celine move over to the UK. It's kind of weird - we saw them on the Sydney leg of our trip and when we get back to London in July they'll be living there!