We are both good travellers, and I only get mildly irritated by passengers who insist on doing their 'stretching' exercises too close to where my seat is.

I do my deep vein thrombosis bit, by rapidly moving my right arm to savour the many drinks available, and then both my arms as I eat everything on offer.

Luckily, we had four seats to ourselves for the first leg as the aircraft was half empty; quite a bonus.

After hanging around Kuala Lumpur for three hours or so, we boarded another aircraft bound for Sydney, which was full.

On arrival I found that just like the currency exchange desk I had been robbed of a further eleven hours or so. Luckily, I had not adjusted my watch, so I just needed to turn it back an hour for the right time (eleven hours ahead)

The weather here is rather good (30 degrees or so), with some heavy showers every now and then, keeping us from feeling homesick!

We've already been to the excellent (and huge) fish market, which I really enjoy; this time buying a fair sized 'red snapper' for which I have a rather good oriental recipe.

Nothing like cooking on a proper Barbie in Australia. Elin (our daughter) has taken time off work, and we have walked miles around Sydney, visiting the botanical gardens (where the fruit bats hang out), the opera house, various restaurants, parks and beaches.

It really is a great city, undulating, green and leafy, with trees and shrubbery everywhere, water all around, and bridges to cross with great views.

It's a very friendly place, breakfast on the pavement, water taxis to take you to different parts of town and plenty of birds; some of them exotic and some less so; such as the magpie outside my bedroom window.

The Queen Mary 2 sailed into Sydney harbour on Sunday, stopping off on her 101 day world cruise, which was quite a spectacle... 19 cruise ships visited Sydney in February, which shows how in demand Sydney harbour is to cruising passengers.

Sailing past the Royal Opera house and up to the Sydney Harbour Bridge is quite a spectacle, and it's easy to see why it's so popular.

Bondi beach is pretty crowded at the weekends, but a pleasant place to walk around and laze in the sun during the week.

The one feature of most beaches is the shark nets, protecting bathers from becoming snacks, as helicopters keep a watchful eye out at sea. A

ustralians are very active, swimming, surfing, running, cycling, which means that on average I don't need to do any more than stroll around.

Plenty of fresh fruit and fish makes this a nice place to be, and it's odd to see Woolworth supermarkets everywhere; thriving.

Old fashioned (or should that be cutting edge?) paper bags for the groceries and no alcohol can be carried unless it's in a brown bag.

Wine is not cheap, and considering the volumes produced here, that is disappointing. Mind you, with the current exchange rate, everything is expensive

Elin is very happy here and I can see why.