I wrote the line above in a poem for my grandmother. And Sydney has just done me proud. In town to farewell friends and family before I head for the US, I have had a perfect time so far.
My party at The Different Drummer was upgraded to the top-level room with the superb view of the Sydney skyline, all the way to the bridge, with a clear, warm night to enjoy it in, garlic prawns and other tapas to savour, jugs of sangria followed by raspberry cocktails and a superb turnout melded from the old Manning crowd and my editing friends and one of my favorite cousins, Joanna, and the lovely pollyanna_n to represent the Melbourne crew.
Then Joanna and I went back to her place and talked until 4.30 in the morning and emerged into the day weary but happy. I went down to Divine Monkey Lounge for delicious brunch and a spot of working, over the road to the Glebe Markets where I found Karmababy, a magical stall filled with eco-fair trade baby toys and bought some for Ada, turtlesnake’s baby, found another with gorgeous amber jewellery called Forever Amber and talked with them about custom settings for wedding rings.
Wandered down to Newtown to go to Satellite, because I wanted one last bite of poached pears with vanilla ricotta (mmmm) and since it was so insanely hot added a pineapple mint frappé to that. Then over to Waterloo and L’il Dynamoes for Ada’s party and most of the other folks from my times in Sydney: Phil and David, their new partners, and all the people we hung around with back then.
On my way back to Mum’s, walking down a tree-lined street on Sydney’s North Shore, the heavens opened and thunder sounded and all of a sudden I was racing up the road, soaked to the skin, laughing madly with the joy of it.
Tonight I’m heading for a comedy performance by my old friend Daniel Cordeaux, who I knew at ATYP.
Thank you, Sydney, for the wonderful farewell. One more day to go (if you want to catch up with me tomorrow in Sydney, call for details of where we’ll be).