Visitors

Artwork on Tamarama
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We had our first visitors the weekend before last, so we found ourselves showing off a city we've called home for just six weeks. Ed's brother Jim was up from Melbourne, and Candice's friend Robyn was over from South Africa for work, on the same weekend. Jim kept on remarking how weird it was to be over from Melbourne to see his brother  in Sydney. Considering they lived two streets apart in Clapham only six months ago, he's probably right. Ah, the global village.

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So sleeping arrangements in the one-bedroom flat, I hear you ask. Well Robyn, five months pregant no less, shared the double bed with Candice while Ed and Jim took the blow-up bed and pull-out sofa. Just like those sleepovers in Plett. Ed certainly found himself thinking it was Christmas 1985 all over again. Cosy.

We finally had an excuse to go to the zoo and see all those funny looking marsupials.

Their visit finally gave Ed and Candice an excuse to go to the zoo and see all those funny looking marsupials. And they weren't disappointed. Candice was surprised to see dingos ("I thought they were extinct?") while Ed was fascinated by the world's largest pigeon. There's a dodo theme there somewhere. We couldn't drag Robyn away from the koala enclosure.

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Saturday the girls went to Watsons Bay for fish and chips but really, let's face it, so Candice could gawp at the houses again. The boys went up Centrepoint tower, the tallest in Sydney, courtesy of one of Jim's colleagues who won two entry tickets in a raffle. Fortunately the prize didn't cover the 270m-high see-through outside bit, much to Ed's relief.

The afternoon saw a trip to Manly to see Jim's mate Rob Wynn-Jones, where Ed picked up his new surfboard (new world order - move abroad, get flat, buy board, get job). It's a 7"0 Rusty hybrid board with cutaway rails for those who are interested, with fins, leash and bag all for $300 (120 pounds). Bargain. A debut surf that very afternoon in fairly large and choppy surf was less rewarding. Sunday we went to the Bondi-Bronte beach art fair, with sculptures scattered along the boardwalk, further proof that Aussies 'do art'.

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We've spruced up the flat with a few trips to the local markets. Candice is pleased as punch with our new distressed mirror, she's looking to go for a 'beachside shabby chic' look in the flat eventually. Ed is confused, but happily concurrent.

It's much the same on the work front. Candice is freelancing at Sydney's other real life magazine, Take 5. Ed is in the midst of interviews, and with almost all jobs being online, is looking to go down that road. Alas, perhaps his dream of becoming Ron Burgundy just isn't meant to be.

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As for friends, we've made quite a few. Lizzie, Ed's friend from university, moved over with her boyfriend Jack a few weeks ago. We've also been to a few parties including one at a flat in Kirribilli overlooking the harbour and opera house. Symptom six in Candice's recurrent flat envy problem.

Neither of us won on our first Melbourne Cup yesterday. Billed as the 'race that stops a nation', they're certainly not lying. Candice had to take a hat to work (there are fascinators everywhere) but was slightly disappointed to find 'stopping the nation' meant a tray of sandwiches and a glass of wine during the three-minute race and not a sniff of the nice plate of cheeses that, as it turned out, were for another magazine. The Melbourne Cup itself is actually the seventh in a series of races and doesn't have the same one-off savage marathon feel of the Grand National. But the crowds are equally dolled up and sloshed on champagne, and boy do the Aussies like a flutter.

Trip to Manly
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We're off camping next weekend, our first foray into the great Australian outdoors, and we have tickets to Australia's first Global Gathering in a few weeks. Mark Ronson et al are coming to town, and it would be a shame to miss them. We do like visitors.