Sydney - Take Two

On Friday KJ & I are headed to Sydney for the weekend. You may recall me mentioning Sydney before, and how it’s a cornucopia of convenience stores, gun shops and erotic book stores. Fun place.


The last time I was there was a little over a year ago for an annual work function, and this Friday night we’re headed to the same function – so it’s a mini holiday, but on the company’s dime.

This time I demanded to be left in charge of hunting down our accommodation as I’m a compulsive internet bargain hunter and figured I could find us somewhere extra nice to stay that was still within our budget. Last year KJ made the arrangements, and while the place we stayed was nice enough and very centrally located for visiting Darling Harbour, I wanted to stay somewhere where I could ring for room service 24 hours a day. Somewhere I could demand that someone do something about my mattress being too hard or to come and fluff the pillows. Somewhere that I could pick up the phone and have someone arrange my entire trip for me while I sat in bed drinking miniature bottles of booze and eating overpriced Toblerones.


Of course I never actually do any of those things (except for maybe the 24 room service), but it's nice to know they're available to me if I want them. Even though I’m the queen of laziness, I don’t like demanding that people do things for me, even though in this case I’m paying them to. I don’t even like having someone carry my bags to my room for me, because although it’s part of the whole 5 star experience, I feel bad that someone else has to do something I could just as easily do myself.

But despite all of that, I still really like 4 & 5 star hotels - mainly because the beds are bigger and more comfortable and because someone will park your car for you, which can be a pain in those tiny, cramped city carparks.

So I managed to book us a room at the Swissôtel Sydney that was well within our budget and includes free breakfast and internet – and best of all, it’s right in the middle of Sydney, so everything will be within easy walking distance – including Circular Quay, where the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House are. I’m hoping we can spend our Saturday having a bit of a look around there, because last time we were in Syndey we were so tired when we visited the Opera House/Harbour Bridge that I can't really remember them.


So this is where I’ll be spending my weekend, trying to pretend that outside those luxurious hotel walls I’m not surrounded by vast amounts of porno, guns and 7-Elevens.