g'day mate

mark and i were in australia for work this month. both sydney and melbourne. mark was able to plan his trip around mine, so it was sweet (lucky we both have offices in the same cities). and it was nice not to have to come home to an empty hotel room at night. we had some really delicious dinners in both cities. azumo - a rockin' japanese restuarant in sydney. even though we had to troll through wind and rain to get there - it was some of the worst weather ever in sydney. some guy on the nab's (national australia bank's) trading floor lost the roof of his house. and his entire second floor got destroyed. unbelievable.

in melbourne, we went out with gamble one night to a real greek tavern. the food and dips were divine, and the wine (in karaffs) was tasty. then they brought out pans of grilled scallops, lamb and shrimp. yum. melbourne is such a cool city - we both loved it there. we spent the weekend exploring - heading to chinatown for some dragon dancing to celebrate chinese new year and to a bunch of shops (a bit more extensive than welli!) to peruse.

there are all these little alleys in melbourne, with paintings on the wall, little cafes and we even saw a jazz band. so cute. i spent one afternoon exploring wedding dresses with two sweet girls from the office. so nice of them to take me around. we went down three streets (one with wedding shops in particular) in three hours. mainly just popping in and out. the wedding dresses were a bit too formal and wedding-y (if i can create that word) for a beach wedding - too thick, too poofy, too lacy. so i'm still looking in that department. i'll start stressing in a couple of months.