After an essay finished at 4am, a poor sleep, flying, and beer, I was tired. My late mother's old suitcase, while highly sentimental, is not particularly easy to handle. It (1983) is pre-dates me (1989). I reach the hotel, and check in. The hotel asks for a flat $100AUD deposit to cover my 3 night stay, which seems low for a 4* property offering a bar, a separate restaurant, dry-cleaning, room service, minibar, and in-room massages. $100 per night would have been more in line with this class. Nonetheless, I wasn't complaining.

At check-in, I requested a switch from my booked bed arrangement (2 double beds) to something more practical. The young woman at the front desk agreed on the prudence and switched me to a queen. In front of me was a couple making some unreasonable demand. I made superficial negative judgements based on their clothes (the woman was wearing boots with utterly overdone heavy brass metalwork; the husband wore a heavy grey wool coat that would have been rejected as unfashionable by the Soviet Army or Madame Mao/Jiang Qing). They then justified my irrational judgement by way of rudeness toward the young woman and offering the "ultimo ratio" Parthian shot on their way out: "We'll tell our friends!"

My polite request ended up in an upgrade, as I was on the 12th floor now with a premium city view. The south side rooms basically face a building. My view is this:
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The bed is a proper queen, not 2 pushed together, and the mattress is quite comfortable. I chose the Mercure hotel simply to be close to Central station and its reasonable price ($170AU) relative to the market. Of course, it is on par with a $90 Hilton in the US, but welcome to Australian pricing!

After a night time dip in the pool (top floor; small, but well done), I retired to bed.

I rose at 4:30 the next morning and telephoned an old friend in the UK to catch up. Despite being a relative introvert and my extended sojourns/time spent out of contact, I do still feel deeply and find such few friendships as I have immensely gratifying. After that much needed nourishment of the spirit, I tended to more mundane needs and took my breakfast at the hotel. At $25 for the full buffet, I did not object to the price. I sat next some tables of flight attendants. I did not identify them. There were some wearing saffron/orange uniforms, and others wearing teal/grey (CX?)

I left at 7:45 am and before noon hit the botanical gardens, the harbour bridge, the opera house, and the Taronga zoo.

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I took the cable car from the zoo down to the ferry (downhill). As my car was speeding away, a little boy in the car behind bent his fingers in a "bye" gesture, with a countenance of grave finality. I guess he wasn't too confident in me surviving the journey.

So here I am.

I will probably not have a chance to update this substantially until the 15th. I am using a mobile broadband dongle (much cheaper than hotel internet charges), but I doubt there is 3G on the Nullarbor.

Edit: Big pictures!