It's been a while since I have updated this, but things have been plodding on. I've been working but still trying to see some sights and stuff, in between going to the beach :)

January is a busy month in Sydney, with the Sydney Festival, Australia Day and Chinese New Year. There have been lots of things to do and lots of free things, too! I went to the first night of the Sydney Festival in the Domain with my roommate. It was a lovely atmosphere - very different to when I went to Carols in the Domain as there were less families - and we saw a brilliant band called Cat Empire. The MC then brought on a dance group to teach the audience a dance routine (all about picking apples and shaking it like a worm...) that we then did it with all the other audiences at all the other venues around Sydney - 250 000 people shaking it like a worm, apparently!

The main reason everyone was in the Domain was to see Grace Jones. She was good and very dramatic, but it didn't really go with the picnic atmosphere in the park and she had her back to the audience at times. She just seemed to be singing to herself! So we left early and went out to eat pancakes instead.

The festival is still going on and we went to a free concert by the Sydney Symphony in the Domain at the weekend, and we might be going to free opera next weekend. The symphony was really good - the sound quality was brilliant right across the Domain - and they played some scary-souding modern stuff (SO could have been monster theme music in Doctor Who) which was great because at that moment all the bats came out from the Botanic Gardens. The bats are HUGE and it was really cool to see them all flying about while the music was going on. I'd seen them before but not in such big numbers, so it was very freaky!

Monday was Australia Day so we all got a day off work. I spent the day with two of my roommates and we walked around Darling Harbour, down to Hyde Park to see what was going on there, down to Circular Quay, around the Rocks, and back to Darling Harbour and then back home. It was a long day! There was a lot of street theatre and entertainment and almost half of all the people I saw were wearing t-shirts with the Australian flag on, or things in green and gold. As we walked from Hyde Park to Circular Quay we saw a massive display of classic cars. We went down to Circular Quay to watch a tall ships race. The ships were all replicas of the First Fleet that arrived to settle Australia (the reason behind celebrating Australia Day) but for some reason the race got cancelled so the boats just sailed through in their own time. It was weird seeing the ships sail past all the buildings and ferries and things and made me realised just how different everything must have been when they first arrived.

We were aiming for Darling Harbour in the evening for the fireworks and entertainment on the water, but it was raining. Everyone was crammed inside the shopping centre waiting for it to stop - it was manic and hot. Eventually we just went outside and stood in the rain, so we couldn't see much of what was going on on the water because all the umbrellas were in the way. The fireworks, though, were PHENOMENAL and I loved them :) I actually ducked at one point because it felt all lights in the sky were coming towards me and the final fireworks went off like glitter in the sky, like at the end of concerts on the telly. They were awesome :D

The Chinese New Year celebrations are next weekend, with more fireworks. Can't wait!