The view from the porch of my new lodging near Sydney. Not too shabby.

Tuesday, February 27. I woke up at 4:30 AM in anticipation of having to wake up at 5:00 to finish a bit of packing, get cleaned up, and be picked up at 6:00 by Fiona. We had a nice drive to the airport—not too much traffic because we got there at half-hour early. The accolades have been pouring in from the three-day training. People’s insights have been popping all over the place even after the training ended. It’s always a beautiful thing to see and hear. So Fiona and I bid each other adieu—she has really been great to me—and I hopped on a plane to Sydney, really tired. As I finally got a chance to recline my seat when we got up high enough in the air, whoever was sitting behind me pounded the back of the seat twice. What was I supposed to do, not recline my seat? Anyway, so much for sleeping on the plane. I landed in Sydney at about 11:30, where Kari-Anita picked me up at the baggage claim. Since we had never seen each other before, we had to guess at who we were, but it wasn’t too hard. Then she brought me through the main part of the city and beyond to her parents’ place. A beautiful place overlooking part of the harbor and the city, even though we were in a suburb. We ate lunch, then I thought I was going to get a nap, but it didn’t work out that way. By this time, I’m almost running on fumes. Then Kari left to get back to her family, and her mother scooped me up and took me for a little tour. First we went down to a beautiful beach with many surfers. We couldn’t really take a long swim there because of the powerful surf, so she took me to a sheltered cove beach with no waves. I swam for about 20 minutes. Then we continued on our tour; she was certainly a nonstop tour guide. Very interesting. What they say about Sydney is true. It is really a beautiful city. It is surrounded by cliffs and beaches. After the tour and getting a little lay of the land, we came back and had dinner, I took a bath in a really nice bathtub and wanted so bad to get to sleep but I had some stuff I had to take care of. So by the time I got to sleep, I was really ready!

One of the many amazing Sydney beaches