The final countdown, I have 2 nights 3 days left, I leave Friday night and Andrea leaves early Saturday morning – Perfect!

The weather forecast was for rain, however, has changed to 10% chance so we decide to postpone our visit to the Taronga Zoo (Be careful it turns out their are two Zoo’s in Sydney, if you are booking make sure it is for the one you want to go to) until Thursday. We have heard good things about Manly beach and decide to have a lie in, no alarms and head there late morning and spend the afternoon on the beach.

The public Transport in Sydney is outstanding, the location of our hotel, The Ridges is perfect and it is good. 3 stops from Central to Circular Quay, where the water buses are waiting, everything is tap on tap off, the service is amazing and the water taxi’s are really fast despite the volume of people getting on and off, it is just so well organised. Also, get this, the seats in the train can be easily changed for forward or back facing, I had a double take when a guy popped his over, so cool and clever.

The huge cruise ships in Sydney harbour depart early evening and new ones arrive by the morning, most of them are enormous and obviously bring huge revenue to the cities they go in to.

We arrive at Manly and just walk around 5-10 mins over to the beach which is really busy, we hire 2 of the low reclining deck chairs and an umbrella and watch the world go by, again the sardines are between the flags and the life guards are not only warning about the rip’s but the Box Jellyfish! Explaining that if stung it is really painful for around an hour and then uncomfortable for around 24 hours after this, you would think this would be off-putting! It is the children’s summer holidays in Australia and approx 100 children arrive with their inflatables, about 20- 30 guards get in the water next to the flagged area and then it’s ready steady go! What a joyful sight, my heart is in my mouth worrying about what if one drowns or gets stung, what I have forgotten is that this is where these children grow up they are literally water babies, respectful of the water, they are also very well protected both in the water and on the shore by their group leaders and guards.

It was impossible to swim due to the numbers in the water, jumping the waves and diving through them was the height of the pleasure and it was fun. We travel back in good time as I have tickets to see La Traviata tonight at the Opera house, a Christmas treat from my lovely children & spouses, unfortunately, Andrea was unable to source a ticket and my concern is getting back after, it turns out one of the girls on the trip Aine, somehow sourced a ticket this morning and so I am delighted to have company later.

La Traviata is a tragic tale of a young Parisian courtesan, Violetta, who attempts to leave behind the life she knows and finally find true love. When she meets the romantic Alfredo, the hypocrisy of upper class society threatens their love and someone must pay the ultimate price! And yes, I did 😢

Every walk of life is heading to Sydney Opera House, from the very casual/unusual to the beautiful people! I am so excited and it was a memory that will go to my grave with me.

The opera house translate the words the non operatic types (including me) to fully understand what is going on. I had done my homework beforehand, however, this enhanced my experience further. A HIGHLY recommend to book something here if you come this far.