My 1994 travel diary is rather short compared to the others since I was working for the whole of the year until the end of November. After 8 years of working as a Systems Engineer for EDS, a large IT company, I decided to resign and go off and do what I really wanted to - Travel! My last day of work was 1st December and on 6th December I boarded my flight to Sydney, Australia. I decided I would begin my trip with a visit to my brother, Jason, who had been living in Sydney for several years. I had previously visited Sydney for a couple of weeks in their winter of 1986, so I was looking forward to rediscovering it in their summer.

I arrived in Sydney on the morning of 8th December and was collected by Jason at the airport. It was great flying from the depth of the English winter to the height of the Australian summer. We drove back to Jason's office and after a quick coffee I went out for a stroll around North Sydney. I couldn't believe my eyes when after only ten minutes I bumped into an EDS colleague of mine - it certainly is a small world!

The build up to Christmas was hectic in Sydney and it was certainly nice being in the warm. We went out to several good parties and outdoor events such as 'Concert in the Park'. For New Year we went down to the Harbor Bridge and watched the impressive fireworks, before hitting the celebrations down in the Rocks area.

It was a great feeling as the New Year rang in and I realized that the next year was mine to travel and have fun - not to work! I had a feeling that this trip was probably going to be a long one!