Organising things...

We're leaving Sydney today, in theory, depending on whether our car arrives at the hotel this morning and whether we can arrange the insurance on it. We kind of forgot about sorting that out, but it should be relatively simple to get a cover note. We have been sorting all sorts of stuff out: Michael got his New South Wales driving licence, we went and talked to the Medicare about the equivalent of National Insurance, and Michael spoke to the phone and electricity companies about hooking up the utilities.

We also established that we can't possibly afford to rent furniture! Michael had found what looked like a great company on the internet that would rent us washing machine, fridge, sofas, tables, desks and beds by the week but it turns out that they would have charged us AU$2,000 for delivery and collection which kind of puts it all out of our league! So it's back to Plan A, which is to buy things like a sofa bed which Patrick can sleep on for a while, a single mattress for Ella that will eventually go on the single bed frame that's in the sea container, a cheap fridge and garden furniture to do us for eating on.

It's been fun in Sydney but I have to say that the Intercontinental Hotel has been a bit of a disappointment this time around - which has really disappointed us as it has been our home from home whenever we've been here over the last 7 years. Traditionally we've spent our last night at a restaurant called Aria, next to the Opera House and we asked the Concierge to book a table for us, but when we turned up it was clear no booking had been made and they were booked out. The front of house staff couldn't have been kinder: they booked us into the Kirketon in Darlinghurst (where they go to eat, apparently!) and found us a cab, and we had a great evening. But when we got back and I went to talk to the Duty Concierge, he couldn't give a stuff, which was a great shame. Oh well, never mind.

Gotta go as Michael needs to use the computer!