Back from the Big Adventure.

We're Baaaaaaaack.....Now did you guess???Hmmm????
Sydney, Australia..................
December 14.......................
AHHHHHHHH....someone has twigged........

Ok - We went to the taping of Oprah Winfrey's show at the Opera House in Sydney....

See...no REAL biggie......
But think about it. My friend from work, Carol, put our names in the lottery. There were 350,000 (yep) entrants in the ballot for 6000 seats and SHE WON tickets!!!!!!!!! So yeah it became a biggie. Something that will not happen again and we were there for it!

Anyway - up at 4am on Monday 13th, flew to Sydney. Went and picked up our tickets (hooray they DID exist!! wouldn't that be a bummer to get there and find out the email was a hoax????) and sauntered off over to our accommodation. Now if you are ever in Sydney and want good, clean but cheap accom - this is the place! The Mercantile Hotel in George Street. Basic stuff. Beds, kettle, tv in rooms, nothing flash- but cozy, tidy and clean.....LOVELY Irish pub, LOVELY owners, LOVELY staff, LOVELY food....(oh yeah the salt and pepper squid was WONDERFUL), in The Rocks right near the bridge, couple of minutes walk to the harbour. Add to that an ENORMOUS fully cooked brekky and $120 AUD for 2 people for the night became even more value!

The afternoon consisted of ferry rides around the harbour, sightseeing, ice cream in Manly and entertainment at Circular Quay - ahh the joys of Sydney. Then back to the hotel, semi-snooze, dinner, walk around the historic Rocks area then another ferry ride to take photos at sunset, back to the pub for a couple of drinks outside and by midnight we were totally knackered...!!

Alarm went off at 5am Tuesday - promptly got "snoozed" until we finally got our act together enough to go downstairs, stow our gear and get into the never ending line to shuffle our way down to the Opera House. Met some lovely ladies from Brisbane who "bumped" into us again when in line.....pushed in actually - but we all had a good laugh when we saw who they were!! We had met them on the ferry on Monday night! SO we stuck together and dodged the TV cameras and reporters all the way down the the Opera House.

When we got there we found a tiny little clear spot right at the foot of the steps near the railing - just enough for 4 of us and we could just see over the rail - but we had a good view of the stage so we propped there...only to find out a few minutes later that this was the EXACT spot Ms Winfrey stopped to be introduced to the people of Australia!!!!! (So much for camera dodging.....) Unfortunately there was a no camera rule for us and everything on the day is copyrighted to Harpo so I cannot put up the sneaky little pic that "materialised" from one of our group members phones......but it is a good one and VERY close!! Maybe one day we can post it.

I could not say I am a fan of Oprah, I do not know much about her show, so I was really pleasantly surprised at how friendly she was. Her sense of humour showed through on and off camera and she came across as a genuinely nice lady. I think she has made that impression nearly everywhere she has been over here. There has been none of the usual "lets find something bad" from the press here which is a refreshing change. She has slotted into the Aussie way of life easily and despite the heat and the flies had only good things to say about her time here!!

Our guests were Russell Crowe, Jay-Z, Bindi Irwin (with her mum and brother in tow) and BON JOVI (YEAHHHHHHHH!!!!!! - our morning group had SUCH a better deal LOL)

The couple of hours there were entertaining and engaging and to be honest I am really glad we went. Her team are so slick and the whole thing flowed beautifully. Once things got going it was never dull.
The rest of the day was just chilling around the Quay, lunch back at the Mercantile, more ice cream, watching Hugh Jackman leap from the Opera House on his unfortunate trip across to his spot on Oprah's stage, coffee at Guylian and then the plane ride home. Hmmm.... flight home seemed to be so short.....just a couple of yawns.. bit of a recline in the seat and all of a sudden we were there....................

All in all a wonderful, relaxing couple of days with a good mate playing hookey from work. Who could ask for more.

THANKS CAROL.