For TSTO friends. 2004 December. Sweden

First Christmas in Australia. Suzanne and her RED mom

Suzanne invited us to her place on the Christmas Day. Her mom too had come. We enjoyed their hospitality a lot. Ken joined us over the phone. Suzanne brands her mom as RED. Daughter of a left wing father, mom is still in the same spirit she must have been in some decades ago. She is extremely worried about the current system which lays off employees at every turn and affirmed "I never swipe my card at self service checkouts (registers) at supermarket because someone else looses job".

Milith, Ruchinda, Calum and Amanda x 2

Sydney Aquarium. 650 Australian aquatic species. 6000 individual fish

Sydney Aquarium (a public aquarium) is located on the eastern (city) side of Darling Harbour to the north of the Pyrmont Bridge. It showcases a large variety of the Australian aquatic life, displaying more than 650 species. It comprises of more than 6,000 individual fish and other sea and water creatures from most of Australia's water habitats. Acrylic tunnels through which visitors could see fascinating creatures such as sea cows, sharks, sea turtles, giant ray fish swimming gently over them are definitely one of key highlights. The Great Barrier Reef live coral environments give the visitor a glimpse of one of the most precious world nature heritage. Opened in 1988 during Australia's bicentenary celebrations of colonization, the aquarium is one of the largest of its kind in the world and is regarded as one of Sydney's premier tourist attractions with over 55% of its visitors each year coming from overseas. (Though I have serious reservations about keeping animals in captivity I must say) the Sydney Aquarium gives both adults and children a vast knowledge of the Australia's aquatic life.

Ruchi. First match. Campbelltown City Junior Cricket Club

Ruchi played his first match for the Campbelltown City Junior Cricket Club against the Cobbitty Narellan Cricket Club today. Match was held at the Liquidamber Grounds in Narelan Vale. He enjoyed it immensely and owes a big thank you to Fred, Rob the coach, team mates and parents who helped him fit into the team smoothly.

Mount Annan Botanic Garden. Dharawal people. Native plant garden. Place of peace between peoples

The indigenous aboriginal people or the first Australians called Mount Annan "Yandel’ora". The land belonged the indigenous Dharawal people. The highest point in the vicinity (290 m) was used as a meeting place for the indigenous peoples for a ‘once in a generation’ law-making corroboree. The name means ‘place of peace between peoples’. Today Mount Annan which covers 416 hectares, is one of the largest botanic gardens in the southern hemisphere. Mount Annan is a native plant garden and it hosts 4000 species of Australian native flora.