Idiot's Convention in Sydney

I'm going to steal Jing's idea and just cut and paste parts of my diary. Although I took my break in Sydney to do some revision of C code, so most of my diary ended up being code. Very boring for you all, I'm sure.

Saturday 02/07/05 8:27AM

Anna's Thoughts From the Plane to Sydney. Everything i know and love have been left behind in Melbourne, and now I am going to meet Qwest (Nelson) at the airport in Sydney. I barely know him so i am a little nervous about going to see him, but he has been nothing but nice. Then on Monday, I'm going to meet Ballar (Antoni). I had no idea that when I first met them, while playing WoW, that I'd be seeing them in real life one day.

I also have no idea what I'll be doing while in Sydney. I do have to get photos of the Monopoly® streets, and photos of Qwest and Ballar. I brought a few books, including The Alchemist to read on the plane, but I already finished it. So have nothing to do for the rest of this flight.

Saturday 02/07/05 12:07PM
Met up with Qwest, and am OK... finding Qwest was hard. It took me a while to pick him out.

Saturday 02/07/05 6:31PM
I had my first meal alone in Sydney just then, and I walked to the Sydney Opera House. It was nearly deserted where I was so I got quite scared while there, but nothing bad happened.

I'm getting too lazy to do this. Summarise.

Saw some ads for a forensic science exhibition. Waaaaaaay back in year 9, I wanted to be a forensic scientist. In year 11, Mr Hanna talked me out of it saying that I'd hate the routine analysis of evidence and report writing and talked me into doing engineering instead. Haven't regretted it since. Worked out how to get there and checked it out. Even though it was aimed at 9-year-olds, I still found it very interesting.

Got lost. I spent 3 hours walking around Sydney. Even though I was lost, I knew that I could just call Qwest and ask him to pick me up, but this was my test of independence, so I didn't want to do it until I absolutely had to. It was OK though, as I managed to find my way back. Felt very homesick along the way though.

Oh, have to say, buses in Sydney are horrible. The signs on the bus stop (if there are any) tell you where the bus stop is, and the route number of the bus, but not where the bus is going! So you have to know all the route numbers, or be at a junction where someone can tell you where you're going. The bus drivers aren't too nice, and a lot of them don't speak English very well (which is why I was lost in the first place - I don't think he understood me).

Mona, my Israeli roommate, noticed that I was feeling a bit sick (cold sick, not homesick) and gave me some Israeli medicine to take. Argh, I just remembered that I forgot to check if there really is Prozac in there. Everytime I took a tablet, I felt better. Was still feeling a bit homesick though, so I went and bought a sudoku puzzle book - yes, I am sad. But the book had a few new types of puzzles, including tsunami puzzles (renamed Pixel Puzzles after the tsunami crisis). They're great fun.

When Qwest and I went to meet Ballar, we found out that he had lost his house, so he had to go househunting or be homeless in three days. So he couldn't make it. He said that he'd meet me when he came down to Melbourne though. Checked out an art gallery, and a cathedral. Got more photos of street signs. (I haven't had a chance to see my mum's face when she sees the photos, but I hope I have a camera at that time.)

I discovered that Sydney has a Chadstone wannabe, and a QV wannabe. And in the QV wannabe, they have these annoying benches. I took a photo, but I'll try and describe it. It's a normal wooden bench, but one of the planks has been moved too far to the right, on purpose! It irritated the obsessive-compulsive inside me to no end.

Oh, and Jean, you've had more influence on me than you think. I went shopping for clothes! Well, I was looking for one thing in particular that I haven't been able to find anywhere in Melbourne, and that's a Mrs. Claus jacket. Anyone who has seen me around Christmas time knows that I love Christmas, so I've been trying to find a jacket like hers. No luck though. :(

The mysterious pants. I found a pair of pants, that I thought were quite nice, in my bag. I was trying to decide whether or not I should wear them, so I sent Jean an SMS asking her what she thought. I decided to wear them, and I thought they were my size, but they were a bit big. So I spent the better part of my travels around Sydney that day pulling them up. :S I still don't know where the pants came from, but they're sitting in the laundry basket at the moment.

And that was Sydney. Was a lot more fun that I made it out to be, but I'm really not in the mood to be cheerful at the moment.