Swimming Pretty in the Glass-Half-Full 2012: Day 77 - Out and About In Sydney Town

 It's a truism that's been been proved time and time again - you never really explore your own city until visitors comes to town.

So it was that today I went to Paddington Markets - where I bought the coolest hand painted cloth cats (trust me, totally awesome) and a pair of authentic 70s-era silver sunglasses, unearthed I think in an archaeological dig somewhere in Europe! - the Paddington Reservoir (an old 19th century brick reservoir that been converted into a cool sunken garden), Rekorderlig Swedish pear cider at the Paddington Inn, and Brett Whiteley's gallery in Surry Hills, which was fascinating, absolutely fascinating since it came complete with his art, the LPs he listened to as he painted, his graffiti still on the wall... as I said fascinating.

My guy glaming it up

The delightful Darren and Melissa

Melissa told me about this cool new photo app called Hipstamatic. So much fun!

And why did I do all this cool stuff, stuff I wouldn't ordinarily do? Because my gorgeous guys brother and sister in law, Darren and Melissa were in town for the weekend and wanted to hang out, and so we did. We had a ball! For a start they're seriously fun people to spend a day with - the conversation and laughs don't stop, and they're willing to explore and see all sorts of things. I haven't enjoyed a day more in a long time.

One of the things I am grateful for, apart from primarily being supremely grateful U have the beautiful partner I do, is that his family are the loveliest people. Spending time with them is such a joy and frankly I wish we saw more of them. The same goes for my family too. It's the one part of living in Sydney I don't like - not seeing family as much as I want. Anyway we got to see them today and it was so much fun.

Then after a quick dash home, we had dinner out at Blu Ginger, an Indian restaurant I love in Milson's Point - our first choice, Ripples was booked out - and Steve's friend from Canberra days in the late 80s joined us, Lynette. She is animated, fun, extrovertive, and it was such a pleasure to meet her after hearing so much about her.

Awesome view of the harbour down on Lavender Bay (and of Melissa's arm too!)

Steve and Lynette as we dropped her off at Double Bay

An awesome day and night all around. Thank you everyone!