Holding the Reins of the Runaway Extrovert 2013: Day 131 - Family time!

Helen and Shayne and my lovely niece Zara came to Sydney for a brief holiday and we got to spend a wonderful sunny day with them, largely in and around Darling Harbour.

Started off the day at Buddha's Birthday Festival which was fascinating. Zara LOVED the dragon dance which culminated in the bowing to the giant Buddha on the stage. Lots of fun stuff to see and do including amazing calligraphy, and displays of art, food, religion. Zara even got a fun balloon animal!

Met up too with Shayne's cousins who were just lovely.

While they had a late lunch, Helen, Steve Zara and I went on one last ride on the monorail - after Zara and her second cousin rode the merry-go-round - which was our way of saying goodbye to a Sydney institution that for good or bad I still like.

Finished up with curry dinners from Coles and wine in Shayne and Helen's beautiful serviced apartment - after Zara had her nightly swim in the pool - before catching the train home.

Awesome day and so lovely to see Helen, Zara and Shayne in my own city :)

Irish Line Dancers at an Asian Buddhist festival ... I LOVE multiculturalism!

Swimming Pretty in the Glass-Half-Full 2012: Day 172 - Dinner with Justin

The day started off well with a gorgeous crisp morning by the Harbour ...

Followed up by dinner at Nok Nok, a new Thai place in the revamped Darling Quarter at Darling Harbour with the lovely Justin, followed by dessert at Guylian's which was sublime (so much caramel cream! YUM!)

As always it was wonderful to catch up with one of my best friends in the world, talk about news and life and just enjoy a relaxed evening together.

We kept it reasonably bland as my stomach was still flirting with being unwell (thankfully much improved from yesterday) - food was nice but not spectacular  

The light fitting at Guylian's - so fabulously OTT! Makes a gay boy's heart glad

SO delicious!

I ate it ... and my stomach troubled me not

They run a 150m light display along Darling Quarter - Friday, Saturday and Sunday it's interactive.