Last full day in Sydney.

I spent all yesterday walking around Sydney taking as many photos as I could to try to remember the moment. My fifteen minute walk into work, all the places that I would eat lunch and shop in. In the afternoon I caught the Manly ferry to see Manly beach. I only had about an hour on the beach but I still managed to catch the sun a little!

Well I'm all packed up now and finally ready to leave Sydney. We went out for some final drinks and food last night in the CBD.

Started out in the Bavarian Beer Cafe for a swift 300ml (it's all metric here) and then on to the Orbit Bar for some great views of Sydney at night. For food we went to Wagamamas, and strangely enough it was the same Waggas that I first ate at when I got here on my own. What a strange coincidence.

We ended up at the Opera Bar for some drinks into the night. Deirdre, Allen and I wanted to have one more drink but unfortunately at 12.30am we couldn't think of anywhere close to my hotel that was still serving. The Forbes bar was strangely closed as it's normally still open at this time during week days.

Well what can I say. I am very sad to be leaving Sydney and Australia. No question that it has been one of the best years of my life. Like all good things it has to come to an end eventually. I have done so many things over here that I would never have thought of doing in the UK. If there is one thing that I have learnt while here is to make more of an effort to do things with my free weekends. Rome is only a short and relatively cheap flight away from Bristol!

I have really appreciated it when friends visited me over here in the past year and seeing them over here while on holiday in a city that I lived in is very strange.

Best of all, better than sky diving, ice climbing, mountain biking, snorkelling and bush walking, is that I've made some really good friends in Deirdre, Allen, Roger, Ian and Joe. I'd like to think that we have all had lots of fun here and hopefully if the coming year can be half as good as this one then I'll be very happy.

Hong Kong again next... Hopefully I won't be married off before I leave the country!