Surprising Miss Amy...

During the drive home, after taking MIL home, my friend Lyndal,  yes I do have more than the one I pay... Hi BFF!!  hereafter to be known as LJ, called to see if I wanted to go on a road trip with her the next day to surprise another friend, Amy, whom I shall call AM.


Some of the 12WBT crowd were meeting up at the Blackbird Cafe in Darling Harbour for an unofficial End Of Round Party, and she wanted to go, but didn't want to go alone.  I said that I was quite over travelling for the time being and would pass.  But not to be deterred, she soldiered on and wore me down.

So the next day I threw some stuff in an overnight bag and headed off to LJ's and Sydney for dinner on Saturday night.

A word to the wise.  When you've been travelling for a while, and are not a seasoned traveller, it isn't really a good very idea to go on a road trip when you've just come home from one, and are exhausted.  Lets just say that the overnight city break cost me significantly more than it should have, due to the fact that I forgot to pack clothes.  And shoes.  Necessitating a trip to the shops before getting to LJ's place.

So after a whirlwind shopping trip for new jeans, a top, and boots which incidentally were my first pair of high heels in nearly 20 years - thank you Madam Lash & 12WBT   we were off to Sydney to surprise AM.

Sophia Loren

The trip down was uneventful, until we got to the bit in the middle of Sydney itself.  Along with LJ's posh new car, it's not a car it's an Alfa Romeo, which we have named Sophia Loren, coz she's a smoking hot Italian, and the car is a smoking hot Italian, there was a posh new GPS to go with it, but it had only arrived that morning and she hadn't had time to check it out or get the programming exactly right.

There had already been a brush with it speaking Spanish, and as the car speaks Italian, and we speak neither, she decided that the GPS would be better in English, and it was of course, but in telling it to speak English, she also told it to speak in yards and miles...  Which can be slightly confusing when all our signs are in metres and kilometres...

We managed to find our way until a point, where for some unknown reason, I felt the need to point at said GPS and the blasted thing picked up my finger and turned itself off!  In the middle of freaking Sydney!  Well.  There we sat, squawking, not knowing where to go, pushing buttons, trying to get it to work again, when LJ managed to get it into Demo Mode.  Which was great because it kept the map we were using to get us to the hotel, plus it told us the directions, all at once rather than turn by turn, which we were really glad about...

Until it began saying the same thing over and over and over...

I have faithfully promised never to poke her things again...

LJ had been on to Hotels Combined and booked a secret hotel for an awesome price that turned out to be the Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel in Sydney.  It was amazing!  There was a dude who came out to park the car and another dude who would run up the street in search of a cab, and another dude who would help you in and out of your car, plus there was a very yummy Frenchman who served us breaky the next day...  It was all very nice, but I was a little disappointed to find there was no pillow menu...

So we arrived, went to our room, at which point I remembered to tell LJ that I snore.  Poor thing.  I think the bottom fell out her world at that moment.  She had been looking forward to a night away from her snoring husband, and got stuck with a snoring friend instead.  We gussied ourselves up, she plastered a bit of war paint on for me, then she laughed at me trying to walk in my new boots.  We grabbed a cab because it was too bloody cold walk to Darling Harbour even though it was only a 10 minute walk, and I learned that to drive in Sydney you have to pay attention to absolutely nothing!  You have to ignore the traffic lights, the speed limits, the pedestrians...

Once we were dropped off at Darling Harbour we made our way to the Blackbird Cafe, at which point I sent this photo to AM with the message "Look where I am".  You could have heard the squeal from the International Space Station.  I love surprising that girl, she has the most amazing surprised face ever.

The Blackbird Cafe was interesting.  I think I would have to go back during the day to see if it was any different.  It was like it couldn't decide what it wanted to be...  Shall I be a restaurant? Or a cocktail bar?  Perhaps I'll be a nightclub!  Having said that, the atmosphere was great, the staff were friendly, fast and very efficient, everyone was smiling, and the food was amazing!  But the best part as usual, were the beautiful people we shared the night with, many of whom I had only been FB friends with until that night.

After dinner, but before the headache set in, we went downstairs to the Lindt Cafe for a perusal of the shelves, and a hot chocolate.  The hot chocolate was delicious, but for the $8 it cost me, it could have been much larger and significantly hotter.  It, like the one DD had on her birthday at Sabor, was made with real chocolate.  You could choose from white, milk, or dark chocolate, and when it comes out, what you get is a mug of hot milk and a small bowl or jug of melted chocolate.  The idea is to pour the melted chocolate into the milk and stir like crazy.  It is seriously yummolicious!

While we were all sitting around getting to know each other at the Lindt Cafe's outdoor tables at 9pm on an Autumn night, with the wind blowing, and the temperature down around 11 degrees and LJ and I without coats  the city was so thoughtful they put on a fireworks display just for us!  They probably have them every week, but don't burst my bubble okay?

When it was over, we headed back to the hotel, and being the granny's we are, got ready for bed.

At which point I discovered that not only hadn't I packed clothes and shoes, but I also hadn't packed pyjamas.  It's usually about now that my Mum would say something like 'You'd forget the hole in your bum if it wasn't attached!'  And she'd be right.

That night the top I had worn during the day became my nightie...

I didn't get much sleep as I was paranoid about keeping LJ awake with my snoring, but when I asked her in the morning she said it wasn't that bad and she thought it was quite a gentle snore.  Which leads me to conclude that either she was lying through her teeth and just too polite to say that I sound like a diesel engine pulling a fully loaded coal train, or her husband sounds like the space shuttle launching into space!

Next morning we were up and ready to go by 7am  which is unheard of in my house  so we went downstairs and had an amazing breaky served by a very dishy Frenchman, and then got lost again on the way out of Sydney, but this time it wasn't my fault!  Roads that had been open the day before were suddenly closed.  I swear they close roads just for shits and gigs down there.  The rest of the trip home was mercifully uneventful, I think we would have lost it if anything else happened...

The Three Amigos - from front - Amy, Annie, Lyndal, and a photo bombing meerkat known as Michelle.

We had a blast, and I can't wait to do it again.