There are many things to see and do whilst in Sydney and after having lived in Sydney for many years, we both knew what to expect from our brief visit in May 2008.
Suffice to say, the harbour area and the weather were absolutely superb and with temperatures coming into Winter at around 23 degrees, and fabulous blue skies, it was very easy to wander around the harbour area.
The Harbour Bridge was its usual spectacular self, the Opera House was superb and the botanic gardens were also very pleasing on the eye.
Not a great deal had changed in Sydney to be honest and even Bondi Beach was looking pretty similar to when we lived around that way, around 14 years ago.
Sydney is a nice place to visit, no question and it's also a decent place to live and work but made all the better if you can live in a decent area...at any rate, it was cool to get back there, catch up with friends and family and see a few sights we hadn't seen for a while.
Onwards to Canberra, the capital of Australia.
We wouldn't necessarily want to live in Canberra but it's definitely a good place to visit for a few days.
Essentially a country town, albeit a large town with plenty of decent restaurants and the like, but a country town nonetheless. Canberra does though, have loads of brilliant museums and art galleries - all paid for by the Aussie battler taxpayers and free at that.
We ventured out to the National Museum to check out the Australian Rugby League exhibition - 100 years of league no less and from there we went on to complete a tour of the Old Parliament House.
The Old Parliament House was actually a temporary building but it's still there and it's pretty bloody good all in all....many years on.
Whilst there, we heard that this was the anniversary of both the New and the Old Parliament Houses and we then went through to the New Parliament House to check out the 20 year celebrations.
In fact, we were allowed in to Kevin 07's office which apparently is pretty rare - so that was interesting and added to the visit to the PM's office in the Old Parliament House earlier.
The best bit about the Australian Parliament House is that the roof is covered with grass - so we had a wander about on the lush turf of the Parliament House roof!
We stayed at Samantha's Aunt and Uncle's house, which is just out of Canberra and in a beautiful part of the world....as you can see, there were some kangaroos having a peek at us, while we looked at them.
So then to Melbourne...and our house.
My folks have been kindly looking after our house and more importantly, our two puppies.
Suffice to say, Spencer and Roy are two of the main reasons why we ventured home to Australia and they were pleased to see us, especially when they went for many a walk around town!
Melbourne itself hadn't particularly changed either....with the city its usual stylish being and a great place for restaurants, shopping and a general wander.
We checked out an AFL match at the Docklands - not the most interesting ground to be honest and compared to English football the atmosphere was somewhat lacking but still, was a good night with Samantha and Min and a load of nutty Collingwood supporters.
It was great to get home to Australia to catch up with friends, family and our two puppies and we have included a few pics to view for those interested.
