The last days in Sydney

The weekend around the 28th and 29th of January was our last in Sydney and at the same time marked the end of our time in Gymea. We spent the two days rather leisurely and enjoyed having a roof over our heads and full meals before continuing our journey in the car.

On Saturday we slept in until 10:00am and then had a cozy breakfast. We spent the rest of the day chilling, chatting, and taking care of organizational matters. There was also a highlight in between: the neighbors got a puppy and Alana, Cameron, Andi, and I had to go see it right away. It was a dark Labrador and he was only a few weeks old. The family's son (10 years old) was super excited and talked to us endlessly about how he wants to train the dog and how it would be kept in the house, etc. Somehow cute :D And the puppy itself was of course super cute too. His name was Buddy and I had never held such a young dog in my arms before. Really great.

In the evening, only Hilkka, Sol, and Cameron were at home and we ordered Japanese food for dinner. It was really delicious! Afterward, we all sprawled in front of the TV and watched Harry Potter. In the meantime, I also organized my photos again. Later on, Luke came home and he loaned me his old laptop for writing the blog. I mentioned that I was thinking about buying a used one so that I could write the blog more often while Andi could do other useful things on his tablet. At the moment, he could only occupy himself with his phone when I had the laptop, and it's a bit difficult to write a job application with that. Getting a new laptop for myself would have been too much, so I looked for a used one. Cameron also had an old notebook, but unfortunately, the screen was broken, so that was out of the question. Finally, we came to the solution that I could simply send the laptop back at the end of our trip, so Luke could lend me his old one, which he only uses every few months but would like to have back. It was really the perfect solution for us! The laptop is also not too big or heavy, so it's great for traveling. Unfortunately, it has an English keyboard, so z and y are swapped, and there is no ö, ä, ü, and ß. I have to somehow adapt my touch typing for the former, and for the latter, I have set up shortcuts in Microsoft. But now I have to write oe, ae, and ue in the internet and thus in the captions of my blog posts. The advantages clearly outweigh the disadvantages though :D

We didn't go to bed until midnight that evening, but that wasn't a problem because we could sleep in the next day. Although we set an alarm for 9 am, we didn't get out of bed until 10. After breakfast, I did something useful and cleaned our car. As thoroughly as we have never done before. So decluttering, vacuuming, and wiping inside, as well as foaming and removing all the dirt stains outside. Alana helped me with the foaming, which was really nice. Andi somehow managed to stay out of it because he went jogging first, then took a shower, and then sat around without allegedly knowing where I was. At least afterwards, he admired how great the car looked and that it was like new.

During a break while cleaning, I also took off our bed linen and threw it in the washing machine. With the hot weather today, the bedding would dry quickly outside, and I could put it back on right away. For lunch, Andi made me a sandwich, which was very kind of him, and afterward, there was some rest and a few rounds of billiards and table tennis with Alana. She has a small multi-function game table in her room, and because she was bored, we played together. It was a lot of fun!

In the evening, we had a very delicious barbecue with sausages, meat, salad, and potatoes, and then a round of spa for Andi and me. The Solomons already have a heated spa on the terrace, and we hadn't tried it yet during the whole time. That's not possible! Overall, we spent over an hour in the water, and at some point, Alana and Cameron said goodbye to us because it was our last evening and they will leave for work and school before us tomorrow. It's sad that we're already leaving because we got along really well with Alana.

Before going to bed, Luke came home too, and we had a farewell beer or a glass of wine with him, Sol, and Hilkka. Then it was time to say goodbye to Luke and Sol. Hikka didn't have to work tomorrow, so we would see her again. We went to bed at half past 12.

The next morning, we set an alarm for 8 am, had breakfast, showered, and then said goodbye to Hilkka. Of course, we thanked her a thousand times for the accommodation and for the warm welcome into the family. But Hilkka just said that it was a pleasure for them and that they enjoyed our company. Such nice people!

At 11:15 am, we hit the road again, and the road trip adventure continued. Next stop: Blue Mountains!