Our plans were to stay in Sydney two nights before heading back to China. We were lucky to be able to catch up with our friends Andrew and Marie and their two kids Jess and Jenn (who are a little older and younger than Alex) as we stayed at their house. We were collected at the train station by Andrew and he managed to squeeze all of our luggage into his car - no mean feat! His two girls, Jessica and Jennifer, were very excited to have Alex and Sebastien to play with. Conversely, Alex and Sebastien were tickled pink to have english speaking kids to play with.
The first night was filled with action as the kids got to know each other - it was a struggle to get them to settle down. But eventually everyone settles down for the bedtime story.
The next morning we took the train into Circular Quay to meet Grandie and Poppie who had driven all the way from Armidale to spend the day with us at Taronga Park Zoo. It was fun and excitement as we took the ferry across the harbour to the Zoo - Alex and Sebastien enjoyed it, but not as much as the chocolate coated liquorice that we had brought as a small gift for Poppie (who we hadn't seen before now on this trip). Poppie was lucky to have some left for himself as both Alex and Sebastien liked it.
Unfortunately the wind was so high that they closed down the skyline from the ferry landing up to the top entrance of the zoo so instead we waited for what seemed an interminable time for the bus.We had a great time at the zoo
- it was a great day filled with animals,
(Alex trying to imitate a monkey in the mirror)
(Grandie giving Alex a lift to see the giraffes)
(Grandie giving Alex yet another boost to check out the penguins training session) a train ride,
and birthday cake. Yes, Grandie had packed a special cupcake dessert to celebrate Sebastien's and Mummy's upcoming birthdays. Yum!
Sebastien did the rounds to collect all the lollies/candy that graced the tops of the cupcakes. Grandie even packed party hats and blowers!
We enjoyed lunch there - Grandie and Poppie introduced Alex to the delights of prawn crackers...a whole bag!
Whilst Sebastien delighted in scaring off the pigeons. It all ended too soon - Grandie and Poppie were driving all the way back to Armidale that afternoon so we didn't want them to stay too long - for it would already be a long drive. We made our way home on the train.
We saw to the homework requirements (Jess being in first class and Alex wanting to show off her chinese homework) - 
and then made our homemade pizza for dinner - we probably needed to make three as all the children wanted more than we'd thought they would! 
Then it was time to hit the sack ready to rise and shine to catch our flight back to China in the morning. Lucky for us, Andrew was able to swing past the international terminal on his way to work to drop us off and save us the pain of public transport with our luggage (and children on the loose).We had a horror trip home, with Sebastien refusing to sleep
(except in the waiting lounge) and Alex not doing too much better. Thankfully they are both young enough to share a seat (this is Sebastien's last trip as an "infant") 
and there were enough children's programmes on the in-seat entertainment system to keep them reasonably amused.
And thanks to H1N1, we saw a very few passengers with surgical masks - the majority of them at Hong Kong airport.
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