If you are not here, you are square, it's that simple.
Even Andrew Morton, whom originally did not plan to attend, caught a last minute flight so he's here too.
It's 80 degrees (fahrenheight), sunny, with a light breeze. In short, wonderful weather.
We arrived Saturday morning, around 7:30am (an hour late) so many on our flight missed their connections. Scored an upgrade to business class and was able to sleep 10 out of the 14 hours of the LAX-SYD leg. The food was excellent, and since there were many empty seats in the business class cabin the FAs were in a great mood and gave great service.
There is nothing like the warm nuts they give you in business and first class on United, absolutely nothing.
First things first, bought bus passes, took the 373 downtown to the Circular Quay to eat a meat pie. Went to the top of Sydney's AMP tower for nice views and some shopping in the malls.
After a brief sushi second-lunch, we headed over to the Sydney art museum to see some of my favorite Picasso works which they have on display.
After a bus ride back to the lodge and a brief afternoon nap, we headed out to Coogee Beach for food at A Fish Called Coogee. Tasty seafood and, above all, chips. Just about any fast food or greasy meal is offered with "chips" in AU. Many menus look like "X and chips, Y and chips, Z and chips" etc etc
After having a VB at the pub, it was back for some much needed sleep.
Sunday began with breakfast back at Coogee at The Bohemian Cafe where you can get crepe style pancakes with ice cream on top. They were as good as I remembered them from 5+ years ago, during my previous visit to Sydney.
Next, back downtown and take the ferry to Toronga Zoo. After getting off the ferry, you take a gondola to the top of the hill the zoo is on. Then you visit the zoo by basically going side to side downhill till you're back at the ferry dropoff on the shore. For a zoo, the food offerings at the main food court were really good. I had ravioli in red sauce that was warm and yummy.
Ferry back to downtown, then off to Darling Harbor for drinks at the cafe and some paddle boat fun. The boats were hard to control and it was a bit warm, but it was nice.
Off to china town and some Korean food, along with the usual coffee and shopping. We found the main Korean district and surveyed the various grocery stores, so that we know where to get the basic necessities of life such as kim chee.
The shops were closing down, as it was Sunday, so we made our way back towards the Opera Bar (near the opera house) where we were to meet up with the UNSW Slarken Society for drinkies at 7PM. I saw a lot of folks I haven't see in years. Off to bed around 11pm.
Registered to the conference Monday morning, checked out the virtualization talks in the morning whilst Horms and Alex went for a bike ride. Just had some lunch and am ready for more talks.
Great stuff so far, and looking forward to more of the same.