After dancing the night away to Beach Boys hits we had an unsatisfactorily small amount of sleep before we began the journey to Brooklyn for our morning’s boating on the Hawkesbury River. The skies remained grey and it refused to warm up, despite our optimistically summery clothes! On the water by 7am we tried very hard to pretend we were having fun as we navigated round Dangar Island and wandered along the river… The boat was equipped with a simple BBQ so I knocked up some eggs and bacon, and pancakes, but the highlight of the morning was definitely the ‘coffee boat’, which we waved over with an air of desperation, to nurse our hangovers with some much-needed caffeine and read the quizzes in the Sunday papers. About half an hour before our boat needed returning the sun came out, and we caught a glimpse of how the day could have been… Nevertheless it was still a great (if rather gruelling) experience.
In keeping with my determination to expose mum and Keith to aspects of my life in Australia we have eaten quite a lot of Asian food. (Asian over here means Chinese/Thai/Vietnamese etc, not Indian.) I would say that 60-70% of the meals I eat are eaten with chopsticks. We’ve been to a Japanese RSL Club, where mum tried some tasty eel, and sashimi (raw fish) – I coaxed her into eating the eel by reminding her that Siobhan had eaten cockroaches in Cambodia and nothing could be as bad as that! We also went for Yum Cha, a Sydney tradition, where Chinese ladies walk by with trollies full of plates and steamers and you take your pick, while sipping green tea.
I even managed to drag them to the cinema on one occasion, where we watched Atonement with Ikea Knightley and the lovely James Mcavoy from the luxury of GU Gold Class. The Sydney Festival has formed the staple of our social life since the new year, with a night at the State Theatre watching the divine Pink Martini. Mum's favourite song was 'Sympathique':
Je ne veux pas travailler
Je ne veux pas dejeuner
Je veux seulement oublier
Et puis, Je fume.
We spent a couple of nights in the Famous Spiegeltent, including a fab performance from Andrew Bird, who plays lots of instruments and loops them, playing along with himself and finally singing along: absolutely captivating.
On their last night in town we watched the hilariously risqué La Clique, which was a great end to a packed three week visit. Yesterday I said goodbye to mum and Keith as they began their two-day journey back to the UK, and it hasn’t yet sunk in that they’re gone! I think it probably will when I get back to work on Monday…
After they left I came back to the house and tidied up, and then got my shorts and vest on and went for a jog in the evening sun. As I jogged along the promenade in Bondi, I realised that although the holidaymakers are slowly leaving Sydney after Christmas and New Year, I am lucky enough to call this home. I jogged up a huge flight of stairs to the top of the Tamarama headlands and triumphantly looked out over the view – the ocean, with the pink sky as the sun set, and the waves crashing against the rocks, the last few die-hard surfers catching a wave before nightfall. I really live in a beautiful part of the world, and it’s been great to share this with my visitors, almost like pinching yourself to believe something is real. This feeling was emphasised today when I walked down to my local pool, swam a few lengths in the afternoon sun, while looking out over the sea as the waves crashed into the side of the ocean pool, and birds flew overhead. We’ve not traditionally been an ‘outdoorsy’ family, but I think mum and Keith have had a taste of how impossible it is to escape the outdoors when you live in Sydney, and having them here has shown me how much my lifestyle has changed from my seven years in London in that respect. So my next visitor is Siobhan, who arrives in February, and then Noreen, who arrives in March. Hopefully I will share this wonderful place with many of my friends and family while I’m here.
cx
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