The joy of time and space to cook
Roast chicken nestled in sweet potatoes
Red peppers, purple onion
Whole garlic gloves and beets

Unpacking my bags
Abuela’s buddhas
Sitting on my shelf

​Flying home to NYC
A lovely aerial view of Sydney to send me off
Bye Coogee Beach!
Bye Harbour Bridge!
Bye Opera House!
Bye North Shore!
Bye Pacific Ocean!
Waking up mid-flight and opening the window
To a spectacular sea of white puffy clouds
And on the horizon
A fiery orange sun

Breakfast with Dana-Lee
At Soulmate in Newtown
Hands down the best avocado on toast I’ve ever had
DL and I haven’t seen each other in 13 years
But it’s like we saw each other yesterday
And we’re just continuing the conversation
Filling in the gaps
Of love and loss and babies and work and all the things in between
I don’t want it to end
A surprise catch up with the lovely Jenna
Sushi train with Miles
And riding through Newtown on his bike
With his mirror ball helmet glinting in the sun
And me laughing giddily in the cargo hold
If I die, I died happy!
Another surprise catch up
This time with Michelle from primary school
It has been over 2 decades since we saw each other
Happy memories and warm friendship
One last pub dinner before I go

Visiting UNSW
Being awed by the construction
And Miles’ work in the food pantry
Sitting on the Library Lawn
Remembering the lunch time bands
And traipsing around campus at all hours
Flyering and giving tours
Promoting shows and
Tripping the light fantastic
And also the dwelling in the darkest depths
A place where I learnt to write
And studied history
​And put on shows 
And became myself

​A beautiful picnic
Overlooking the harbour
On a gorgeous Sydney summer day

A gorgeous dinner at Totti’s
A newer Sydney institution
On a drizzly Saturday night
Wood fired bread to go with with
Juicy red cherry tomatoes dressed with olive oil and basil
'Nduja (which, according to Martha Stewart dot com, is pronounced in-DOOJ-ya)
A spreadable smoky pork sausage
Prosciutto
Caramelized peppers
Barata and
Olives
The pasta and chicken and fish and crispy potatoes were also delicious
But I could’ve snacked on the antipasti
Per sempre!

My baby sister is 21!
In the morning, a lovely walk through the park
And across the bridge
Acai bowl for breakfast
And getting our nails did together
​Lunch at the Tramsheds 
In the evening, a High School Musical Marathon
Lara got matching “Sharpay-pink” robes
And Nati made creme brûlée
And a lovely menu
Showcasing the items for the evening
I made cheeseburgers
And cheese fries
(Quite impressed with myself actually
That I can make a scrumptious cheese sauce without a recipe!)
And we watched High School Musical
And sang along
And cheered and laughed
And then we all had a good cry
And I can’t believe my little babies are 21
And we’re all in this together

Out to Parramatta
Wandering through Jubilee Park with its statue dedicated to Gandhi
There is a woman dressed in a sari and walking laps and
A man sitting cross legged on a bench, his shoes on the ground next to him
He is meditating
He looks like a real life Buddha of Suburbia
There is an older man who looks unsteady on his feet
Carefully doing exercises on the free equipment and
Two women sitting back to back in the circular swing
Chatting as they swing back and forth
After breakfast with Lenny
We wander through the park
The day is hot and sunny
It may have been 5 years but we
Pick up where we left off
Later, churros with Emma
Suddenly several hours have passed
I squeeze in one more hug with Zaza and Courtney and Augie
Before boarding the train
All stations to Berowra (the strange familiarity of it)
Dinner with the familia in Crows Nest
Catching up with the Aussie aunts and uncles
Proper prawn chips!
An absolute plethora of food spins around on the lazy susan
A surprise ice cream cake
Cut with an actual sword
I cannot stop laughing

Treating myself to breakfast at City Extra
Overlooking Circular Quay and the Bridge and the ferries
Meeting Zaza, Courtney, and Augie in Darlinghurst
Reading stories and watching Bluey
A gorgeous visit to the
Chinese Gardens
Looking lush and verdant after the rain
Lovely enormous lotuses in bloom
White petals tinged with pink
Like they’ve been flirting with pots of paint
Lotuses grow from mud
A beautiful literal metaphor for life
And the biggest lily pads I’ve ever seen.
Making friends with the lizards and
Feeding the fish and
Reading the symbols of the Chinese zodiac with Augie.
Playing in the park at Darling Harbour
Augie doing nudie runs under the fountains
Zipping across the park on the flying fox
Slipping down the slide with room for three or four
Climbing the jungle gym
Being awed and humbled by the Indigenous art at the MCA
Giving Chantal a hug
McCookies, an absolute rarity of a treat
I feel like a little kid again
Except this time, no one will yell at me at the end of the day