It's the weekend, mates (so stop calling me!)

SYDNEY -- The work week sputters on in the U.S. like a car that won't turn off. One of the joys of being here is that co-workers can call you into a meeting at 7 a.m. Saturday and not feel terribly bad about it. I certainly wouldn't, if I was there instead of here.

But now that the 5:30 bell has rung in the Eastern Time Zone, it's time to officially start a Sydney weekend.

A co-worker and good friend, S, landed here yesterday. This is his second trip to Sydney for this project, but it's more of a homecoming of sorts for him. He grew up in Melbourne, and still speaks with that accent that American women (including The Wife) love so.

When he came here back in October, he seemed more excited about it than I expected he would, given that the Australia Novelty Factor was less of a factor for him than it would be for, say, me.

"Well, mate, I've never been to Sydney," he said.

Wait a minute. You lived in Australia for more than 25 years and have never been to Sydney?

"Well, it's not exactly a small country," he said, with that slight touch of miffedness that Australians will occasionally express when a common misconception about their country is brought to light yet again -- say, for instance, the common belief that Keith Urban is Australian (he's actually from New Zealand.)

Australia, you see, is a very large country. Geographically, it's about the same size as the U.S. The main difference is that 280 million fewer people live here. Melbourne and Sydney are as far apart (and, in many ways, as different) as New York and Charlotte, N.C. And I was in my mid-30s the first time I visited New York.

The other difference, of course, is that some 90 percent of the population is in about 5 percent of the land mass. Imagine the U.S. being populated from New York, down the East Coast and around Florida to New Orleans ... and Los Angeles. Everything else is virtually empty. That's Australia.

So today, my friend and I will explore downtown Sydney, and I'll be the one with the funny accent. Tomorrow, we're loosely planning a trip to wine country in the Hunter Valley. And I'm hoping like hell that cell phone reception is spotty.