Well I caught up with Charlie and Judy yesterday for lunch at one of the ubiquitous Thai restaurants in Glebe Point Road, before I had to head off to put in my few hours of hard slog across the other side of town. fortified with one (only one) beer, I breezed through the afternoon, and was soon fighting the peak hour traffic to get back over to Glebe and the Dengates.

There were some nice munchies waiting there and a good glass of red, before Judy, Dale, John and I set off in the tram for the Craig. Charlie had left earlier. We could hear the strains of Charlie and the banjo as we approached the ship. The weather was perfect - a warm and balmy night, and the lights on the harbour were magic. We managed to ignore the sound of thousands of noisy merrymakers drifting across the water, and made our own merry.

Charlie has already mentioned the pub fiasco with the hats. When we couldn't get into the first pub, I decided to ring George, my son who lives just up the road from there in a top floor security apartment overlooking all of that part of Sydney. It was only about 10.45, and I thought I might be able to encourage him to join us. Unfortunately he was having an early night and I woke him up. He must have thought his mother was drunk (I wasn't), with me babbling on in high spirits, surrounded by a noisy crowd. At least he managed to tell us where to find another pub before he went back to sleep. They don't make young people like they used to, that's all I can say!

We finally got our round of drinks, sitting outside a pub across the road from George's place, with Sandra naughtily trying to get me to ring him again and wave to him. Fortunately for George, I didn't do that. A bunch of yahoos in a car called out to us as we were sitting there, and asked us if we were sailors (Charlie looked the part). I called out "No - we're PIRATES! ARRR!" the trams having all gone by the time we were finished, we shared a cab back to Glebe, I collected my car and went home. It was a great night!

We are meeting up again with Charlie and Judy on Saturday (tomorrow) after they have completed their packing, and we are hoping to take them to our favourite Greek restaurant - Scorpios in Annandale. The Greek Lamb there is to die for!

What a shame your trip is almost over! I hope you are already planning the next one!