Making Time for Lobby Time

[once again, i can't post pics right now, but i will as soon as i can!]

After our marathon hike down the coast at Manly, we hopped on a bus back into the city. We were all pretty exhausted, but since it was our last night in Sydney, we were determined to make the most of it. The CCSA people were headed out to dinner at Thai-Foon (hardy har har), a favorite Thai restaurant in Darling Harbour. So we showered, changed and headed back out the door (although I nearly fell asleep while waiting for the girls).

The restaurant experience in Sydney has been an interesting one to say the least... For those of you who don't know, tipping is neither mandatory nor expected in Australia. However, as a result, many servers don't really pay a lot of attention to your needs. Getting water is almost impossible at some restaurants. Getting the bill can be even harder... I thought maybe living in New York has conditioned me to expect everyone to move at the speed of light, but most of our friends from the South thought the service was pretty terrible too.

But I digress...

Anyhow, our dinner was fun... I discovered Heather's aversion to mushrooms was much more severe than I had first imagined. She found what she thought might've been mushrooms in her Empress Noodles, tried one, then almost puked all over the place while trying to extract the half-chewed vegetable from her mouth. She then carefully plucked anything even mildly resembling a mushroom from her dish.

I also discovered that Jessica had never tried tofu before. Despite a few attempts by Kime to get her to try it, she just wasn't having any of it. But, all in all, everyone enjoyed their food. Eryn enjoyed her veggie pad thai so much that she actually finished it before Jackie AND I finished our food! (For those of you who don't know, J & I tend to inhale rather than chew... Eryn eats as fast as any normal person would, but probably just seems slow next to us.)

After dinner, we headed back to Chez Travelodge for some "lobby time," which just consists (big surprise) of hanging out in the lobby, usually drinking alcohol and playing cards. Many CCSA folks have commented that lobby time has been among their favorite activities on the trip. I agree with this sentiment wholeheartedly. Even when there is no drinking or card playing, lobby time gave me the opportunity to get to know a few people on the trip that I am now pleased to call friends.

The night pretty much tapered off from there. We played a few rounds of Kings and one more round of the Phase Game before I called it quits. After doing some last minute packing, I dozed off... I was going to need some sleep to get through all the travling that awaited me.

-e