I've been looking after some overseas visitors. They've been to Sydney before. They are regulars to London and Paris and Rome. But they've never, never come across prices like they have experienced this week in Sydney.

Sydney, when you start making Paris look cheap, you have a problem.

And it's not just the strong Aussie dollar. I earn Australian dollars and I'm utterly gobsmacked by how expensive this city has become. There's no such thing as a $10 cab ride any more - $10 in the CBD would get you as far as the next set of lights.

I don't really care whether it's ''the high cost of doing business'' in Australia. No matter how you dress it up, $42 for a portion of fish and chips is just ridiculous. Oh, they were very nice fish and chips, but so they should be. And yes, there was a menu on display at the door, but when you're entertaining visitors it's not always something you check out first. And once you're seated, it would spoil the day to walk out.

It was the same with the water - it was very nice fizzy water. But more than $10? For water? What sort of mark-up is that? Foolishly we had three, and only saw the price when the bill came.