CUWAM- Mission Accomplished

13 May 2012 3 Comments

by Catch Up With A Mate in Sydney : Home Sweet Home Tags: , , ,

All events this week were overshadowed by a single phone call….

‘The ring you had on order has arrived in store’

Time stood still…till I arrived at Tiffany’s and Co on Saturday morning…..

One might say it was lucky that this phone call arrived via mobile on Friday afternoon…for the working week required 99.73% of my attention.

The office focus was our annual International Exchange Fair, where partner universities from around the globe, send representatives to promote the benefits of studying overseas….It was a full on…and I was consumed by the event from Monday through to Wednesday….when I wasn’t awake living and breathing exchange, I was asleep dreaming about it…

Thursday came, and I could breath again….small breaths, in and out…I went shopping for socks and stocking and Target in my lunch break…….still in post-exchange fair recovery mode…only capable of amounts of joy….

And then Friday….a phone call…a mood change…and a new focus.

The little silver bow ring from Tiffany’s and Co that I had fallen in love with in New York city 8 months ago had made its way to the Sydney store…

When in New York, the jewellery focus has been on my friend Jenny, I was buying her a replacement necklace, the original piece had been lost….I had entertained the idea of purchasing myself a piece of silver …the silver ring had graced the middle finger of my left hand for a matter of seconds…and then been returned to the display cabinet….

Five months later, back in Sydney, and pining for the ‘ Big Apple’ it seemed to me that the little bow ring would elevate my mood…I just had to have it.

With the Australian Dollar so strong and with a family friend and cousin venturing to the States on separate holidays…I handed over instructions and payment plans in the hope that they would return to OZ bearing gifts of gold, frankincense and Tiffany jewellery.

Days, weeks, months passed…

Holidays started and ended….

And still the ring was not with its rightful owner…

Two tour of duties of the States had failed to locate a size 7 bow ring….I took matters into my own fingers….logic suggested I place an order for my specific size, in Sydney…

And that is what I did…and the ring is now mine

The ring is mine

The ring is mine

And it would not be a complete post without a song to commemorate this momentous occasion…So a duet, the King, Michael Jackson and Sir Paul McCartney ‘ The Girl is Mine’…when they say ‘ Girl ‘ insert ‘ Ring’…

So go forth and listen to ‘ The Ring is Mine’….oh, and I need to mention that I now have my sights set on a pair of Prada sunglasses? That in itself is another story!!

Whilst the ring acquisition overshadowed most events this week, it was closely rivalled by seeing Bic Runga and her band in concert at the Angel Place Recital Hall, Sydney on Saturday night.

It was inspiring to be in the audience on Saturday evening for on stage, was a women, born to entertain, to tell her story through the medium of music, voice.

Bic Runga’s lyrics captivate, her voice soars….effortlessly her music filled the concert hall….The audience tapped their feet, their hands, anything that the seating venue permitted!!, rested their head on the shoulders of love one when the tempo slowed down…

It was over all to soon… before I knew it I was back on the bus home…but happier, lighter, accompanied by a sweet melody that played over and over in my head…that and the fact that on my left middle finger was a bow, a little silver present to myself!!

Sunday…ah, the joy of Sunday…Inspired by Bic Runga, I dusted of her first album ‘ Drive’…got in my car and headed to Bondi Beach….The sun shone winter is seemed had arrived unannounced, the sea was being whipped by a strong icy wind, autumn leaves danced up and down streets…

I had a coffee at Café of the moment, Bondi Picnic, and then went grocery shopping.

Home by 11am I took part in my own personal cook-off….the rules…to make as many home style dishes whilst using as many kitchen utensils possible.

Two hours later I had one spinach and feta quiche, one batch of pumpkin soup and 24 Anzac biscuits….and as the photos suggest, I was successfully completed part two of the challenge, using every bowl, pot and knife I own!!

And as a result the remainder of Sunday was spent….washing up…

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CUWAM- Living for the city

09 May 2012 2 Comments

by Catch Up With A Mate in Catch Up With A Mate Tags: ,

Last week was a week where I fell in love with Stevie Wonder’s song ‘ Living for the City’…

I listened to this song on high rotation at work…over and over to the powerful lyrics, a tale of hardship, will power and sheer determination….Lyrics just as relevant today as when they were first recorded in 1973.

My life in the city of Sydney, so very different to the life of the people Mr Wonder sings about…the song reminded me last week of just how lucky I am.

My mood was light….I laughed on Monday night, as UK comedian entertained a full house at the Marrickville Factory Theatre, a dined with the parentals on Tuesday night in Randwick, watched the Australian film ‘ Wish you where here’ with buddy JK in Paddington on Wednesday, watched the sun rise at Clovelly Beach and set in Sydney city on Thursday….and one the fifth work day…I rested.

The weekend was just as fun….I drove 2.5 hours south of the city for a supreme hair make-over by my future sister-in-law ( only 1 month to Wollongong’s wedding of the YEAR!!). Walking out of D’Luxe hairdressing salon Shellharbour, feeling a million dollars, I took myself  to North Gong beach for fish and chips, made a few phone calls and hit the jack pot, securing a catch up with my lovely mate Kate. Over coffee we chatted about life, the biggest looser and hair cuts….

On Sunday I spent my morning with Flora the cat, then drove to a quiet street in Sydney’s inner west for a brunch date with two friends and a baby boy. The street in Annandale might have been a quiet tree-lined street, but the cafe we were to dine at was packed, and rightly so. We waited for close to an hour for a table, which allowed us to catch up, the soak up the sun and play and gush over the cuteness of our smallest brunch guest. When a table became available, we were seated and quickly attended too…coffees, followed by corn fritters and smoked trout, old school style cheese burgers, fresh juice..the food and beverages flowed…so did the laughter and conversation.

I would urge those who appreciate good cafe food and coffee to check out Revolver Cafe in Annadale…and suggest you leave room to sample some of their home-made cakes and buscuits…the vanilla slice with passionfruit icing was extremely hard to resist!

Revolver Cafe Annandale

After we parted ways, I took to the streets once more, heading this time to Stanmore, for another catch up with a friend who has just purchased a new home. It felt very grown up to be shown around a 3 bedroom home, complete with two dogs!! After a quick viewing, Steph and I headed to the Marrickville organic markets….which truely does feel like a little bit of Nimbin (the hippy haven located in the Northern Rivers region in NSW) in the inner city. Steph and I brought fresh produce from the tye-dye wearing and the dread locked…and when we left the  free-spirited market, pan flute music and the sweet smell of incense bid us adieu …

A lovely week in the city of Sydney…I truely am a lucky girl.

CUWAM- The Fragmented Self

23 Apr 2012 Leave a Comment

by Catch Up With A Mate in Sydney : Home Sweet Home Tags:

CUWAM has made a conscious effort to rebuild her sense of self over the last 7 days.

It has been a time for reflection….which in turn has led to the realisation that whilst travel is good and catch up with friends are GREAT, moderation is key.

Life is the slow lane, it almost a foreign concept…and I must admit the previous weekend spent in relative solitude , containing only one phone conversation and a smattering of general chit-chat at the local coffee shop and newsagent…was challenging….For I had started to believe that to be happy, one must always be busy, buzzing around a new city, or town, constantly on the go…..

Yet this busyness belief resulted in a feeling of mild burn out….I was starting to go about life, running of half a tank of fuel….The concept of slowing down scared me….To be with just me…a harsher term…alone….

When you are alone with yourself, the silence can be scary…And for me, the tendency to fill that silence with inner chatter is all too familiar…I entertain thoughts that pop into my head ( I have the time to!!). These thoughts are most commonly self-critical, I over analysis, worry…

My fear was that I would enter the working week, exhausted by a weekend of worry, unable to relax, crippled by fears that ( as always) fail to materialise….

But this did not happen…the worries were there, but I could still go about my day….gym sessions,reading, kitchen cook offs, house work and pet grooming,

When Monday came, only a little baggage followed me to work ( and most of it was my lunch!!)…And sure enough soon my weekend worries dissipated…And I was pleased….for clearly I was making progress…Time spent alone was now starting to be…..enjoyable!

With this outlook, and a new sense of rejuvenation…it was time to take to the streets…Sydney, you have much to offer. So hold onto your hats as a relay the week that was-

It goes without saying that between the hours of 9am-5pm- I was office bound….enough said!!

Monday- Cocktails and Schnitzel in Darlinghust.

I admit that the fact I had this to look forward to on Monday evening, made the weekend of isolation bearable….Under the bright lights of Darlinghurst, Fairy Floss Martini’s were consumed at Li’Darlin

And then with a click of our shoes, my girlfriend Alex and I was at Una’s- Schnitzel Emporium, were we failed to consume even half the portion of schnitzel laid out before us….xxx

Tuesday- A 7am down pour of rain….both outside and INSIDE my residence…A spectacular storm, streets flooded, foot paths disappeared, and water streamed down my hallway and through the man-hole that allows access to the roof….Flora was beside herself!! Clawing onto my mattress, as if it were a life raft…this was scary shit!!

No sooner had the rain started, that it stopped, and I hazard a guess that I had collected about 5 litres of water INSIDE…A phone call to my landlord was in order.

That evening, flat resident Thomas, a builder was enlisted to assess the roof…And to celebrate this victory…I went to the gym.

Wednesday- Come to think of it, the indoor flood may have occurred  on this day…I am not sure!! But of one thing I am sure, Wednesday evening was again a white wash of bad weather…Flash flooding, heavy downpours…But when their is a birthday to celebrate…one has no choice but to put on there best wet weather gear and get amongst it!!

To the Norfolk Hotel, Surry Hills for pre dinner drinks….then a meal at the divine Nourishing Quarter…for a vegetarian extravaganza to herald in April, the birthday girls coming of age ( well 28th year of life on planet earth)

Thursday- For the life of me I cannot remember what I made of Thursday…lets just say I was a looser and watched ‘ The Biggest Looser’

Friday – Half day in the office, mid morning coffee at Dues Ex Machina, Cycle works shop- Surry Hills, farewell lunch for colleague at the Royal Hotel, 3 hours worth of office administration followed by birthday drinks for former colleague, Scottie D….Yippee…The cider flowed, as did the conversation with colleagues past, present and future….

Saturday- Read much like the previous weekend…tv watching,reading, kitchen cook offs, house work and pet grooming…And as the sun took a bow, I began to feel  restless…It was time to get amongst it!!…well dessert anyway. I hopped in my trusty vehicle , placed the Cold Chisel cd on high rotation and drove west, destination, Bar Italia, Leichhardt…for Tiramisu and conversation with my former flatmate Sarah.

Sunday- Inspired by Saturday tv watching , re-runs of Channel 9′s Celebrity Apprentice….I got caught up in David Hasselhoff’s enthusiasm for beach culture and took a morning swim at Bondi beach, shopped at the markets and sipped coffee with the locals….

The afternoon comprised of coffee, cake and conversation with a friend in Woolarha, Anzac biscuit making in the evening and more Channel 9 tv watching.

And it seems fitting to end with a tune… to bind this post and my sense of self together…a song that inspired me to get of the house on Saturday night, drive 30 minutes in a westerly direction for a desert comprising of lashings of mascarpone cream and coffee soaked biscuits….

Friendship Fire Starter: Dinner Date Part Two

11 Mar 2012 4 Comments

by Catch Up With A Mate in Food and Drink, Friendship Fire Starters Tags: ,

Anatomy of an Evening / Location : Stitch Bar, York Street / Jamie’s Italian, Pitt Street, Sydney

If you have asked me in 2008 if I would be prepared endure a 3 hours waiting period for a table vacancy at a Sydney city restaurant the answer would have been a stern NO. The likelihood of me having a group of friends willing to partake in such lunacy four years ago…also highly unlikely.

But transport to the year 2012…not only was I willing, able and above all determined to partake it this culinary endurance test, I had 3 other friends keen to join in the proceedings.

Let me introduce them:

Dinner Guest S

Dinner Guest S

Dinner Guest B
Dinner Guest B

Dinner Guest K
Dinner Guest K

Dinner Guest A
Dinner Guest A

Jamie’s Italian….Jamie Oliver’s Italian…Opened in Sydney 6 months ago….and the buzz surrounding this eatery is alive and well.

A fan of the Naked Chef for many years, my excitement was clearly visible as I waited eagerly for my chariot, the 339 bus to take me to the city

‘You going somewhere ?’ asked the local corner store owner upon seeing me at the bus stop

‘Yes, I am going to Jamie Oliver’s restaurant tonight’

‘ Wow’

‘ I know, at least it is not McDonalds’ ( such was my enthusiasm that I really can’t recall why I even said that)

Luckily, the bus turned up and I was whisked off, city bound.

I meet S, A and B in the queue for the eatery at 6.30pm. A queue some 20 people deep….interesting, slightly unnerving….My posses reached the restaurant lobby, our request was placed : ‘ Table for four please’

‘It will be a 2 ½ hour to 3 hour wait guys’

That is fine’ remarked A

‘Can I have a contact number for the booking?’ and A recited 10 digits quickly, perhaps in the hope it would reduce our waiting time by 15 minutes.

I could not help myself…I had begun to feel slightly responsible for arranging a 6.30pm dinner party that would not touch a morsel of food it seemed, till close to 10pm.

I gathered the strength….and whimpered to the host taking our reservation details: ‘ What time to you open on Saturday night’

The response…’ We don’ t close…we open in the morning and close at midnight’

My brain slowly processed this concept…So to get a 6.30pm booking on Saturday night we really should have placed our names on the list at 3pm that afternoon…Interesting…I would not thought of that….

But the looks on A, S and B’s face said it all…we were in it for the long haul…If the host had said: ‘ Guys, there is a 5 hour wait, is that ok?….More than likely we would have replied ‘ No worries, we’ll just head home, take a nap and when you call us for our 11.30pn reservation we will be here!!’

For as you might have realised…Jamie’s does not take reservations…for bookings under 6 people any way….This was a slight setback, the concept of 10pm dining… but all four of us regrouped and took to the streets, to a nearby watering hold that came the highest recommendations ( You will feel like you are in Melbourne!!)

Stitch Bar on York street…Wow Wee….I do love thee…A cute little basement bar, with a wonderful array of cocktail….So wonderful that my posse helped themselves to three each over the next 2 ½ hours….My fear that the night would not so much be about the food, it would seem, was to become a reality….the cocktail I chose to kick start the night ‘ Elegantly wasted’…I will say no more…It was there and then that the dining experience looked set to take a back seat….

But what was that I heard…the sound of a phone ringing….It was Jamie…He was ready for us….Saving us from certain death by liquid dinner….we took off in the direction of dinner….

Jamie’s Italian…Wow Wee….I do love thee… We were seated upstairs, on the mezzanine level, which enabled us to take in sweeping views of the kitchen, the chefs and the controlled chaos as they pumped out dish after dish, military style…it enabled us to spy on all the other restaurant patrons, but with the clock fast approaching 10pm, our eyes were firmly planted on the menu.

Fast talking, and super enthusiastic Sebastian, was our waiter…I was almost overwhelmed by this guys passion for his job, that I found it difficult to focus on the array of dishes on offer….But as luck would have it, a colleague from my office job, had printed off the menu and scribed down words of advise, wisdom on just about every dish….So really the job was already done for me!!

Sebastian thought this was rather  amusing …here was a group of people who had researched there dinner date….Hilarity aside, we got down to business and ordered…and before you could say, ‘ Wow, it is 10.05pm’ our dinner had hit the table!!!

Pictures tell a story….so I will let the three pictures I managed to take do just that…..I realised in hind sight that I should have taken more, this was after all, meant to be a review….But I think back to the time spent at Stitch bar and the cocktail ‘ Elegantly Wasted’….enough said.

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The food was fresh, flavoursome and at times inspiring in terms of the combination of texture and taste.

All dished looked authentic to the style of Mr Oliver…they were not pretentious….they were simple good quality dishes served with passion and love.

The restaurant layout, décor and design complemented the cuisine perfectly…Throughout the meal, as I gazed around, I was often had to pinch myself that I was still in Sydney…the buzz inside was suggestive of New York, Berlin, Paris, London….as a result I feel in love with the place just that little bit more….

Was it the best meal I have ever had? Was it worth the long wait?

I am yet to make up my mind.

Will I go back for second.

Yes I will, but I might try a mid week lunch…or mid week dinner

At the conclusion of the evening, B and I made up a rating scale, scribbling over the menu with a pen supplied by Sebastian, rating the dished we had tried. I will share it with you, the reader, for I think it will help you to decide whether you will embark on this food odyssey, a dining experience, which at its very heart, remain true Mr Oliver’s mission : love, passion and verve for food, family and life.

Rating Scale

* Not worth 3 hour wait

* * Consider waiting 3 hours

* * * Amazing, worth 3 hour wait

PASTA Reveiws

Prawn Linguine * * *

Truffle Risotto * *

Buffalo Ricotta Raviolo * * *

MAIN Reviews

Tuscan Wild Boar Sausages * * *

Veal Saltimbocca * *

DESSERT Reviews

Tiramisu *

Italian Bakewell Tart * * *

Affogato * * *

WAITER review

Sebastian * * * * ( in a category all of his own!!)

CUWAM- Living the High Life

28 Feb 2012 1 Comment

by Catch Up With A Mate in Odes to the Ordinary Tags: ,

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I am slowly losing the will to live ( within the confines of an office block anyway)…but the will to blog remains….it  grows stronger each time I am sidetracked from my ‘true calling’.

I am a day behind in my blog entry and each time I answer a work related email, or provide some awesome level of customer service to a newly arrived University student, a voice inside my head say ‘ You need to work on that which is MOST important, that which brings you most happiness, your true calling in life…the life of a writer’

Well maybe the voice is not that DRAMATIC, but I honestly have been wanting to hit the keyboard from the past 27 hours and have failed miserably each time I have thought the moment to write was upon me…until now.

There is also another factor plaguing my writing ability….I am sick. Struck down with a summer flu, feeling blue….hard of hearing, heavy of head…the usual tale of woe that goes with flu-like symptoms….Looking to anyone for sympathy, rarely getting any and just having to ‘ get on with it’…even though you feel like staying in bed, and sleeping off this dreaded head cold, awakening hours, days later if necessary, all shiny and new…fabulous and fancy free!!

But no…I have had to muddled through the past couple of days in a daze…I long for the light at the end of this summer flu.

The week that was, last week, was golden….till I got sick that is….So forgive me if I glance over Thursday through to Sunday ( and all the people I spent time with during that time period, please take no offense…I truely enjoyed your company)

Monday and Tuesday: Movie Nights. I saw the ‘ Dictator’, the new Sacha Baron Cohen Film and ‘ The Separation’ , an Iranian film which won an Oscar last night for best foreign film. Both movies were interesting in their own right, and could not have been more different ( from that sentence you can tell my forte is not film reviewing)

Wednesday: An after work swim at the devine Wylie’s Baths in Coogee with friends, following by burgers and chips from my favourite Clovelly Burger shop: ‘ Out of the Blue’ on Clovelly Road…Burger heaven…Do yourself a favour and next time you are in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs….Burger it up!!

Thursday: The Highlight

A roof top swim in Kings Cross in the early evening….Following a body pump session at a Darlinghurst gym ( a session which reduced my walking skills to a mere shuffle by Saturday…the pain of avoiding weights for 8 months and then assuming your body can take it….oh so wrong!!)

But the roof top swim…what was not to love? I have ideas above my station…A roof top swim on NYE 2011-2012 developed in me a preference for swimming in pools at skyscraper level ONLY…. for water frolics that allow the swimmer to feel as though they are amongst the clouds…who is really into earth-bound swimming anyway?

Thanks to a body beautiful colleague, a Thursday night roof top dip was possible…This was followed by ice cream, sushi and wine.

The next day I awoke to sickness….

Friday, Saturday and Sunday…whilst I did my best to will my sickness to the back of my mind….and get on with my life as best I could….I faltered often. In between naps, and drinking lots of fluid, I caught up with my wonderful God Father in Haberfield and dined with the parentals at my new favourite restaurant in Randwick: Chat Thai.

Monday- I have repressed it

Tuesday: The day I found the time to blog, and put my sickness to the side and hit the keyboard running….

CUWAM- ‘ They had it all….then they ATE it all’

30 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment

by Catch Up With A Mate in Odes to the Ordinary Tags:

Late last year I joined the online writing group ‘ Write on Wednesday’…it was a great descision….Each week a writing prompt is given and you have 5 days to submit a short piece of writing. Last weeks prompt gave much joy…it encouraged us to listen into other people’s conversations, in the hope of hearing a ‘pearla’ of a one liner….A line of conversation that you could take away with you, and later, in front of a computer, with a glass of wine, write a fantastic story.

I was lucky enough to over hear the line ‘ My heart says’…and so naturally my head told me to write a story about love….Yet the Write on Wednesday prompt seemed to creep over into the everyday… I began to listen with great intensity to everything around me. My cat Flora snoring in the early hours of the morning, the bird songs, the muffled music coming through the headphones of the young school boy on the bus, the sound of my fingers hitting the keyboard, pumping out emails at a fast and furious pace.

Summer sounds also echoed through the television…that was on quiet frequently. The Australian Tennis Open, 2 weeks of high intensity, gladiator style encounters, where men and women do battle with racquets and green balls. Commentary provided some light relief as men and women staged epic battles, lasting for up to 6 hours….My favourite line from Jim Courier during the mens’ final between Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal was ‘ The chair ( umpire) is on fire’ in reference to the accuracy of his line calls….Loved it!! I am sure there was plenty of other great lines, but I retired from the match at 10.30pm…and another 3.5 hours of tennis still to unfold!!

And then there was my favourite line that came through my car radio as I drove to Ramsgate, South Sydney for a catch up lunch for my wonderful friends, Al and Steph…Ramsgate RSL…It was a pleasure. Yes, I overheard a classic promotional line for the new series that airs this evening on Channel Nine’ Excess Baggage’…. A show about down and out celebrities who have all gained a few too many pounds since finding fame….The radio promo bolding claimed…’ They had is all…..Then they ATE is all!’….I just think that is pitch perfect….And sadly I can’t weight ( pardon the pun) to see K-Fed ( Brittany Spears ex) hitting the tread mill…Heart attack scares , time in Mount Druitt Hospital, some might say that K-Fed is accruing baggage of another type whilst attempt to lose the weight….But I am hooked…and I have not even seen one episode….As the billboards state…’The weight is OVER’…the show beings tonight….

I was privileged to hear to sublime sounds of Megan Washington and her band at the Sydney Opera House on Wednesday night…The last hurrah in my Sydney Festival ticket binge….well worth it.

It was a week that I participated in a  casual hit of tennis after work, I took to the treadmill at Kings Cross gym and puffed and panted my way through a 30 minute workout.

I listened to barista’s frothing milk at my favourite Potts Point cafe, Cafe Hernandez, paying $4.50 for a coffee on Australia day and then tipping them 50cents…an expesnive but tasty brew. I spent the public holiday at home with Flora, watching tennis, cooking a lamb curry and generally lying horizontally on my bed.

The weekend came and went all to quickly….there was the birthday lunch, a catch up coffee with my friend Sarah, and a quiet Saturday evening at home, watching the splendid Australian movie starring Sam Worthington and Abbie Cornish ‘ Sommersault’….a movie I watched many times, I just love it….Whilst it is not the most uplifting film, it is beautifully shot, the acting mesmerizing, the  soundtrack pure bliss…

Sunday was spent lazing around on Coogee Beach with new Mum Elena, her bub Søren, and comrades Jane and Glen…We cramped ourselves under a single  beach umbrella, frolic in the sea and ate fish and chips on the sand…A perfect day….

On reflection, the week was near perfect….but I could not help but think back to my motto for 2012….Expect the Unexpected…The only time I questioned this approach to 2012 was on Saturday night, when I curled up with Flora on the coach for a DVD night…knowing full well that nothing unexpected would happen…I had even seen the film at least 10 times before…..

If I am to embrace 2012 will gusto I am going to have to up the anti…no more Saturday nights in front of the tellie…..This is my solemn pledge!!

CUWAM- Earth Bound and Aware

16 Oct 2011 2 Comments

by Catch Up With A Mate in South Coast, Sydney : Home Sweet Home Tags:

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It is hard to come down to earth  when you have spent the last 4.5 weeks gallivanting in Paris, parts of Denmark, the United Kingdom and the U. S of A….but a trip to my home town, the Gong aka Wollongong, was the perfect way, the only way to return to ground level….to street level anyway (in all honestly it threatened to put me 6 feet under )

Reality you are no friend of mine….

I am on struggle street….struggling to embrace the life I left only one month ago, the lifestyle I loved and the city I called home…Travel has a funny way of doing…A way of turning everything on its head…a way of making you question your life choices, your perceived happiness…question the bus route you take to work and the job you do day in and day out….

The desire to lodge a green card application has never before entered my mind, but I have spent a good part of each day since returning to OZ fantasising about getting Flora the cat a passport and relocating to NYC, so I can be closer to Wholefood Supermarket, the High Line Park and the atrocious Starbucks Coffee houses….

Yet, for better or worse, I am a realist….I understand that the lifestyle I lead whilst overseas was above and beyond that of a normal everyday routine…If I was to relocate to London for example, I could not afford to live by the Thames River in Canary Wharf as do my friend Jo and Yo….My weekend would not be filled with movie screenings in private bars, charity function dinners in Mayfair…If I was to relocate to the Big Apple, I could not afford to swan about, eating cakes and sipping lattes in Soho…chances are I would be serving them!!

Reality you are no friend on mine…Fo my travels now seem but dream….and I am left questioning if it ever happened at all…But travel, you have made me realise how incredibly lucky I am to have had the month of September spent in far-flung places, global hotspots with great friends, fabulous weather and mouth-watering cuisine.

And the crash back to earth, back to work and to routine…..onlycements the belief …I am one lucky girl, for the month of September, the shared experiences, the laughter and the tall tales, will forever be in my memory ( till alzheimers strikes anyway!!)…and that is the beauty of travel…though the adventure may be over…the memories stay with you, become part of your day-to-day and help to shape the type of person you are, person you want to be…curious, inquisitive…a dreamer…

And with a huge thud, the crash landing occured…the return to work, and the ho-hum, high ho 9-5 daily grind…made only slightly more bearable by a morning coffee from my friendly local cafe…Parc cafe…the silent barista not so silent anymore…whilst away, I had sent a postcard, ‘Greeting from Brooklyn’…and it paid off….My Monday morning coffee was delivered with a huge grin ‘Welcome back to Australia…Have a nice day’….Damm the silent barista…Did he really have to talk??..

But by 9.02am..the effects of coffee had worn off, and I was faced with the horrific task of surviving another 7 hours and 58 minutes…desk bound, staring mindlessly at the computer screen, air of some condition being pumped into office cubicles,  surrounded by colleagues who looked as though they could all do with a holiday…there was nothing else I could do but pray….’Dear God…please end this nightmare!’

Not being religious, I did not expect a response and none was given…. dazed and confused, probably still jet lagged and always underwhelmed, minutes rolled into hours, hours into days.

Colleagues took me out to lunch for dumplings, a lunch date at the Opera House complete with beverages, picnics in the park….During the evening I went to the Cinema, and to the Hyde Park Night Noodle markets and outdoor art exhibition ‘Art and About’….and still I felt detached, uninterested even….from the city of Sydney, from myself….

And to the weekend….an early morning departure, with Flora in her travelling capsule…Gong bound for some birthday action of my dear friend Rebecca….A birthday party at the German Club in Port Kembla….celebrating Octoberfest…W0llongong style…..And my crash landing was complete…

Driving to a beer drinking festival is not normally a good idea, but at this particular event, I was happy with my descision…At this particular event the attitude appeared to be drink hard or not at all…Well, I went against the grain and drank in moderation….preferring to spend an entire 5 hours locked in conversation with one person…my friend Jess….It had been 5 weeks since we had talked…really talked……this converstaion was epic…and included almost every topic known to man….martial status…..salt content of food….ear lobes….and whilst the conversation went on and on and on….and a strange feeling came over me….contentment……I was glad to be back…..I finally felt grounded.

And to herald such a feeling, the sun came out..finally…a day of warm weather….Sunshine where the hell have you been this past week?

The much awaited catch up with my brother and his beautiful bride to be….the ring…ah the ring…..Wow wee…A Sunday breakfast date at Fireworks Cafe , Moore Street, Austinmer, possibly my most favourite cafe in the WHOLE world…with travel nomad Brendan Lee, Michael and Tennelle….another special moment….Over coffee, fresh juice and big breakfasts I guess I started to feel at home, but at home more so with those with whose company I shared….location seemed to be irrelevant…xx

And as I brace myself for the drive back to the city….the thought of another working week creeps into my mind… I have come down to earth with a thud…but slowly but surely I will pick myself up….

Steering my mind toward the happy memories of the weekend down south…..the 6.30am garden session with Flora, picking strawberries and mulberries from my parents garden…Rebecca,the birthday girl, enjoying the sun, the beer and the company of her many friends, time with Jess, her partner Wade and the divine Ms Mae…conversation with the loved up Michael and Tennelle….

Enough to get me through another week? Who can say…but it is all that I have…That my current dream of winning the green card lottery, relocating to Manhattan Island, hand in hand with Johnny Depp and Flora….

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