Waking up early on a sunny Monday morning and being able to go back to sleep is a wonderful luxury when you are travelling, which we are enjoying more and more the closer we are to coming home.
We finally got out of bed and had a coffee and brekkie in our favourite coffee place in Newtown. It had WiFi so we spent a bit of time planning and booking accommodation, looking at flights, blogging and other administrative chores.


Eventually we shifted ourselves and got into town and a ferry over to Manly beach where we wandered up and down the beach front in blazing sunshine, admiring the kite surfers, surfers doing their thing, and seeing lots of mums walking buggies up and down the front.

Guy took lots of photos on the ferry.
He took more of a massive cruise liner doing a 3 point turn in Sydney harbour.
And even more of the bloody Opera House.
As it was clear blue sky and a Monday our plans to have a day off drinking were looking shaky, but we managed to get home without being distracted by a bar.

Having decided to come straight home after visiting New Zealand for about 3 weeks (maybe with a short Bangkok stopover on the flight home if we can arrange that) we decided to celebrate with a Chinese at Mulan Temple and a bottle of BYO Reisling, it was as closest to not drinking we have come for days!!! The food was absolutely lush, the Chongqing noodles were spicy, meaty and sprinkled with pickled greens, just how we remember them. The aubergine was sweet, umami heaven.
The fried and steamed dumplings were a wonderful taste that brought back great memories.
To end the meal, Guy dropped a dumpling into the black vinegar from a height of 1ft and managed not to splash himself (or me!). Yep, it is a slow news day, folks.
Wine (NOTE; that is the singular used) tasted:
Jim Barry Reisling 2016 – tasting notes – blooming lush with asian food, tropical fruits and citrus flavours, an absolute stunner as you can tell from the gold stickers!