Day 4

Another day of waking up on my own and not to the sounds of a bird that is being strangled. I wouldn’t mind if that thing doesn’t make an appearance for the rest of the trip.

It was also another morning and breakfast at leisure in the apartment. When we were all ready Leslie, Jen and I head out the door for a run in Centennial Park. Rob has to stay behind to get some work done regarding the school and take delivery of the window blinds that are coming back from the cleaning place today.

We had a nice walk to the park, followed by a nice run/jog in the park, proceeded by another nice walk. The park is huge and is comparable to Central Park back home. It’s not as big overall, but big in it’s own right and has tons to offer. A major highlight of the run in the park is that Jen was telling us how she is finally comfortable with directions and finding her way around the neighborhood and what not. Low and behold, we get lost trying to find our way out of the park so we can go home, and had to ask a Dad with his two little girls how to get back to the road we needed. Ha!

The plan today is to have another beach day. We all have lunch at our leisure at the apartment and then pack up our gear to head out to Bondi (http://www.bondivillage.com/). We take the car this time in lieu of the coastal walk since we have our stuff to bring, including Rob’s surfboard. The quick ride to Bondi is nice. The area reminds me of just about any other beach town I’ve been in. We continue winding down the roads to the beach with “Return of the Mack” by Mark Morrison playing on the radio.

After claiming our spot on the beach, I made my way up to the shops along the road to rent, or hire as they say here, a boogie board. I’m not as anxious to try surfing as I was before the trip. I figure, and many people back home have agreed, that a condition to learning how to surf should be knowing how to swim. Agreed. Especially after seeing how rough the water can be out here. Count me out.

Count me out of boogie boarding as well. I got to the rental place and didn’t have my passport on me to leave as security, so I had to make the walk back to our spot on the beach sans boogie board. Not too disappointed. I’ll still be, and was, perfectly content with lounging on the beach. I did get up from my towel a few times to take a walk up on down the beach along the water. It was very soothing, relaxing, calming, etc.

It was already decided that tonight was going to be the night we splurge on a nice dinner. After the beach, we all got ready to go out. Rob wasn’t going to be able to join us again since he had to be at the school. We went along with him so Jen could help him out with some office/computer stuff that he needed help with.

After finishing up at the school, we hopped in a cab and made our way to George Street so we could go to Hemmesphere (http://www.merivale.com/#/establishment/hemmesphere) for drinks and sushi. Dinner was amazing, with the exception of nearly getting stuck in the elevator and then abandoned by our escort once the doors finally opened on a floor that wasn’t even ours. The scene at the restaurant was nice, the drinks were good, and the sushi was even better. Rob made his way to join us after class at the school was over, but the doorman wouldn’t let him in the building since he had sandals on. No big deal since we were done with our dinner and drinks, so we made our way outside to meet up with Rob and make our way back to Bronte.

We got back to the neighborhood, had a quick beer at a nearby pub, and then called it a night.