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UPDATE:

I received a suprise phone call today from Kate of NSW Tourism, who have been very concerned with my rambling rants on how I have been trying to haul my arse over to Sydney and have been receiving little help. My posts were just what they were – rants of frustrations and me trying to update the large porportion of my Australia-based readers who had been expecting me for Christmas. It was very refreshing that Kate was concerned (even though it wasn’t anything she nor visitNSW did to provoke my stress!), and has kindly offered to help me sort things out. I have now left things with her – and I might therefore still be winging my way to Australia this summer!! Watch this space – I am still hoping to do Febuary. Nothing like surfing in Bondi in the hot Australian sun….oh, I DO miss the magnificent beaches.

I must say, my posts were just my rants and I did not think anyone would actually 1) pick up on it 2)be concerned about me ranting like a madwoman. So thank you 1000heads kindly for pointing this out to the lovely Kate.

I have now removed my madwoman rants as I believe if someone is trying to help me out, the least I could do is give it another chance to change my opinion of the bad experience. And yes – this IS the first time in my 4 years+ history that I am actually removing a blog post.

Remember on #me2sydney week2 when I came up with that fabulous Sydspired collection? And my efforts in vain to sell off my super-awesome (yes, so modest as well!) creations in support of adopting a shark? And NONE of you *yes you reading this* emailed me to purchase my items!! Aaargh…!

Well, fear not fluffy, as promised in week 5′s challenge (ableit slightly late) I will personally be adopting a shark with the remainder of the budget given to me to throw a Sydney inspired event …. plus a top up from my paypal account of course to make up to the AU$75 cost. And I feel very proud to be supporting such a worthy cause – if you are thinking of supporting a charity this year, please make saving fluffy a priority. And oh, the Sydspired collection is still up for sale – with the full payment heading towards the Adopt a Shark programme.

Thank you Tourism NSW for making this a possibility

My feet will once again step on the shores of Sydney..

I won

Yes, I am heading to awesome, awesome Sydney after winning the Awesome Tour of Sydney. OMG I ROCK. And such modesty too! Thank you so much Tourism NSW, 1000 Heads & STA !! So giddy with excitement – it was very unfortunate that I was unable to be there for the award show as I was stuck on the boat on the way to Amsterdam – mobile internet will not let me logon to watch the award ceremony! Grrr!!! Elle broke the great news to me after I bribed her with some tulips & ceramic clogs…..it definately made my weekend!!

To watch the Awards show, click below….the winner announcement is around the 58ish minute. They gave us fascinating insights on what they thought of each of our project, which was very good to know after all the effort…the beans were definately a hit…but I was very nervous about merrijig (yes, I DO know it’s scary) but glad that it was all taken in with a pinch of salt!

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As I was trawling through my Sydney pictures, I found the below which I took whilst on a bus going past Kings Cross….and remembered how it made me smile….:D.

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Don’t you just love their humour? Well, I do, so I’m going back!!! YAY!

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Just want to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who helped send me to Sydney….I will send a postcard if you send me your address . And am so looking forward to visiting the fabulous Sydneysiders like Zona (also, my fav ex. boss is now a Sydneysider as well!) and other Australians like my godsons spawned by my oldest friend & Moo (who incidentally is away every xmas & NY…grr). I’m bringing Katie with me to Sydney for the contributors’ prize – so we’re just waiting for further details from our generous benefectors on how to claim the prize…I am definately thinking Christmas & NY in Sydney if possible!!

Update: Oops, forgot to include the pix of the lovely care hamper that was sent over by Tourism NSW the day before the announcement! Tin of Milo, bag of Twisties, box of Arnotts’ Shapes (too bad it’s not pizza flavour) and TimTams brought tears to my eyes reminding me of my childhood….thank you

It’s been a long but exciting and interesting summer being involved with the #me2sydney project…I would like to thank these people for coming to my aid :
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Katie’s sport(ing) family for coming out to play Wicked Wicker Wicket
Zona, Dreyb & Lisa for inspiring the Sydspired capsule collection.
Zona who inspired me to create the much-loved Breakfast on the Bridge monument. And of course Katie for making that delicious ANZAC monument!
All the creative peeps from the twitterverse that contributed in creating the thoroughly unique merrijig – with Katie completely taking over the reins whilst I spend the week at hurricane country that is Cornwall.
All those that turned up for my awesome Sydney event
All those that commented to aid me in coming up with the Awesome Guide to Sydney & NSW
Katie & Zona, for agreeing to a confessions piece for the Awesome Guide to Sydney & NSW
And Katie again for being my very valuable second-in-command, always excited and inspired by the whole #me2sydney project!

Oo, and Tourism NSW & 1000 heads for giving me the chance to participate in this experiment. And not forgetting all those that have commented along the journey! I hope I have inspired many of you to start planning your pilgrimage to Sydney, I know I have inspired MYSELF..:)

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To relieve the magic all over again, just click here to get to all posts tagged with Sydney. All twitter conversations, retweets and comments are (mostly) hashtagged #me2sydney. As for me, I’m now at Bristol for a weekend of eating, drinking, shopping and sleeping…I deserve a break after working so hard! I can now reveal that each entry took me an average of 12 hours to create/blog/video/write/edit (not including the hours needed to plot and brainstorm!) – with the Sydspired collection taking about 20 hours and the Breakfast on the Bridge taking me 4 hours. So yes…I so throughly deserve a break!

View from Sydney Towers

Phew, what a journey and a half !!

With week 6′s submission, I looked back to 2006, when I was plotting my Christmas escape to the shores of Sydney. It’s always very exciting planning for new sights and sounds, but with the plethora of information out there, it was just all abit too much. You could get a Lonely Planet guide book, or alternatively just print stuff out from travel sites or travel blogs. I did both. The Lonely Planet book proved to be a little too heavy to bring everywhere, whilst the printouts from travel sites was one too many piece of random loose-leaf paper for me.

What I needed was a short but sweet guide to the things not-to-be-missed in Sydney, with a similar amount of attention paid to the things to do off the beaten path . I didn’t want to dictate to-do lists on a day-to-day basis; your Sydney experience should be laid-back like Sydneysiders, not rushed, hurried and structured . Step into the sunshine and smell the salty sea breeze. Under the shadows of the Opera House or at Luna Park – your choice!

With input from you lovely people incorporated into ‘lessons learnt’ in the past six weeks, I included my real life experience in Sydney into a handy guide for an awesome time. I have designed this to be a comprehensive enough guide that you can carry with you everywhere – I for one would’ve loved to have this for me to read on the long flight over. I will definately be bringing this guide with me on my next trip to Sydney, it should fit in nicely for explorers planning to spend a week in Sydney.

I must stress that this is by far not a comprehensive list, but it is most definately the list that I would say define what Sydney is for me. Fun, sunshine, amazing people, lovely animals and beautiful eceletic food. I don’t think I would be able to hand-on-heart declare that I have explored Sydney inside out even if I was there for a full month – so here are my ‘best bits’ as they would say in Big Brother.

I present to you, the Awesome Guide to Sydney & NSW in pdf!

All pictures in the #me2sydney series (including this guide) have been taken by yours truly on my trip to Australia in 2006…none of that ripping off flickr rubbish! I have thoroughly enjoyed my #me2sydney experience, and I hope you had as well! I’m sad to see the end of #me2sydney, but feel privileged that I walk away from this experience with a good feel of the essence of Sydney. This blog had become so Sydney-centred that a PR company hunting for bloggers to attend their media event in Leeds thought my blog was actually BASED in Sydney!

Now, can you pretty pretty please send me to Sydney so I can use my own guide??

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ON MY GUIDE. PLEASE DO NOT REPRODUCE WITHOUT PERMISSION FOR ANY COMMERCIAL USE WHATSOEVER