As you already know, we spent five days in Sydney after NZ, trying to regroup, get T a green card, and spend some time with our friends Dennis and Ali, whom we met in Vietnam on our honeymoon. Spending time with these two is fun. A testament to their funness is the fact that they are grown-ups, and we met our friends Cara and Ian through them, because Cara is Dennis’ daughter. It’s rare that you meet people traveling who are in a totally different age group, but whom you like so much that you continue a friendship with them, as well as with their children. We met these two on our most expensive outing in SE Asia last time, and it was the best money we ever spent.

Not only are they fun, but they are also excellent hosts. Dennis picked us up in Sydney AT RUSH HOUR when we came in from Christchurch, and drove us all the way back to Manly. Ali hung out with us all day and made us banana bread. It’s unusual to feel completely at home in someone else’s house, but we really did. Not only did we eat their food and watch their movies, but we also cooked dinner for them–a Mexican feast that surely put at least five pounds onto my thighs.

Because they were working a lot of the time, we were on our own. We went to the zoo, had the interview, came back for the visa, and did some shopping. We also had a gorgeous brunch with them on Saturday, where we walked along the water in Manly, past homes of unreasonable proportions. And, we ate crepes. I heart crepes.

The last night we were in town, Dennis and Ali went to the symphony, so we had a dinner in town by ourselves. By the time we ate, we were starving, so we decided to go to a nearby Chinese restaurant. This was a big mistake. We thought we had chosen well when we came into the restaurant and it was full of Chinese people. This was not the case. We ordered what we thought was simple Chinese food, impossible to screw up: spring rolls and sweet and sour pork. This was a terrible idea. Had we been in another, less sophisticated country, I would swear that we had dog for dinner. I’m still not sure what it was, but it tasted like a wet golden retriever smells. We ended up leaving almost all of our food on the plate (save for one chewed up hunk that T deliberately left) and ran for the hills. Back at the house, we had PB+J and tried to forget. $47 later, and I can say it was the worst food I have ever had, and let’s not forget, people–I found fingernails in my milkshake in Cambodia! When you’re longing for fingernails in your food, something is surely wrong.

I’m taking that meal as a sign that it was time to leave Australia. Out of all the beautiful food in Sydney, we ate wet dog. It is definitely time to go.