Arrived in Sydney absolutely wrecked from lack of sleep. I was worried about immigration since I'm supposed to have an onward ticket - and I don't - but no problem. Sofie was waiting at the airport for me - she looks exactly the same except she has hair (last time I saw her was two years ago and she was still recovering from her drastic hair cut in Milan). We went back to her house and I recovered a little with a shower (wow! hot water!) Chris, Sofie's husband, Sofie and I then set out on a drive around Sydney. The city is beautiful, and after Indonesia it's pleasantly cool. Had coffee and then walked around by the harbor on the north shore. Chris and I went for beers while Sofie did some shopping, then it was time for a nap.
An hour of sleep helped a lot, and really made me look forward to tonight. We went in to the city to meet Sofie's sisters, her parents, and a few friends for diner. While diner was somewhat average (there weren't very many places we could get in to on a Saturday night), everyone was wonderful and it was a great evening. Back in bed fairly early.
I had a lot of difficulty falling asleep. when I got up to go to the bathroom there was a ridiculously large spider watching me. Obviously it was fake, but then it moved. It was the largest spider I've ever seen that wasn't a tarantula (body between two or three inches). I agonized over what to do. Ignore it, kill it, put it out in the yard... I decided the only real option was to kill it. But with what? I didn't want to squish it because that would make a real mess. I finally ended up trapping it under a plastic cup (the cup to pour water in to the iron). Now what?!? There are no magazines, newspapers, or books in the bathroom (how natural is that?) so I have to scrounge for a piece of cardboard to scoop under the cup. I go to throw it into the toilet and it clings to the wrong part and goes flying the other direction. The hunt repeats because sleeping in the next room I understand it's him or me. Eventually I get him again and he gets flushed. Now I can try to sleep again...