Thursday, February 22, 2007

Two Queens

So it happened...

The biggest luxury cruise liners (Queen Elizabeth 2 and the Queen Mary 2) were in Sydney Harbour at the same time and it was a big city festival. For the whole day, crowds flocked to see the HUGE liners in Sydney Harbour. Traffic was slowed as people stopped to see the HUGE QM2 docked at Woolloomooloo and slowed down even more at 7pm when the QE2 (left) came into the Harbour dragged by a little tug boat. There were hundreds of boats and yachts in the harbour to see the QE2 come in, and you can see amidst the traffice, the little tug boat had to spray water to clear the path for the huge cruise liner.

The two ships started their round the world tours in Florida and this stop in Sydney was the only time their paths crossed on this tour.
When the QE2 and the QM2 passed each other, they each honked their horns which could be heard 20 KM away. Apparently the last time the two Queens were in Sydney together was during World War II, when the original Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth made joint visits as troop carriers in 1941 and 1942.

Then that evening right before the QM2 left port, the city put on fireworks to celebrate the day!

posted by Leighna @ 10:36 am 0 Comments

Kims Visit Sydney

So after seeing my parents in Hawaii for Christmas, they ventured down to visit us last week. My mom came in on Friday afternoon after a 9 hour delay in JFK - terrible -and my dad flew in on Friday evening from Hong Kong where he had been visiting for business and where he had bronchitis - poor guy. It was such a great weekend. We walked around the city, went out for a hit a golf (the first time my parents were on a course!) and showed them the sites of the city. My dad took off on Tuesday morning and my mom is still here with us for a combined 2 weeks. They've been helping us put in the finishing touches to the apartment.

I think they feel better now that they know where we live and that the city isn't such a bad place to live. I feel better because I get to see my family whom I miss lots and now that I have someone to hang out with during the week.

posted by Leighna @ 10:29 am 0 Comments

Monday, February 12, 2007

Rain Rain Go Away...

Sydney Morning Herald Reports: "More than 450 calls for assistance were made in the 24 hours to midnight yesterday, as heavy rain hit NSW and parts of the ACT...But there was some good news as the deluge continued ... much of it has been falling in Sydney's catchment area, boosting dam levels."

We are in the middle of some pretty severe rains. Apparently Sydney has been in drought for as long as anyone can remember. By drought, I don' tmean that it never rains, rather, it doesn't rain in the "catchment areas" which are just dams that wait for water to come down from the sky. With th amount of water that has been falling these past 2 days, i cannot doubt that we must be clear from drought and into severe flood watch. The rain has been coming down in sheets making it impossible to see any of the buildings that usually grace our view. CRAZY!

This weather is terrible. But I can't really complain - it's 73 degrees F and we haven't seen rain in a long while. But funny how quickly one can acclimatise to weather. I've gotten so used to having good weather that 2 days of bad ones can easily make one depressed! Spoiled I know! I just hope that the weather doesn't make people's travels too difficult.

Speaking of which, we have a packed schedule! We have 3 people coming into town in the next week! First my cousin and her husband head to sydney for 4 days, then parents come into town, and then a friend from HBS comes in....

Seriously...when it rains, it pours...:)

posted by Leighna @ 2:50 pm 0 Comments