Up Under: Four Days in Sydney

day 3

P dropped me off at F's place and we walked out from her apartments to the nearby cafes for breakfast. It was a sunny winter's day, but here in Sydney, you can actually take the sun seriously. The morning chill hung over the air, but the bright sun tingled on our skins as we sat out in the back courtyards of this quaint little cafe.

Overhead there were dangling Chinese lanterns, and we were surrounded by young mothers with their prams and magazines, by older men and women who had earned their right to be out here on this beautiful Monday morning.



We had the most wonderful conversation over milkshakes and Mardi Gras tea as the leaves died their natural deaths around us, and as pigeons curiously surveyed the floor for crumbs that had fallen from the tables. F had just begun a relationship which she had been praying for, and we laughed and talked through the uncertainties of her new relationship.

P picked us up after breakfast and then we went over to Sydney's equivalent of Lygon Street. When I say equivalent, I mean, poorer imitation of. There was like a few pizza places and maybe one or two gelati shops but nothing to the extent of the Italiano feel of Lygon. We ended up having a pretty good hearty lunch anyway, considering me and F having just eaten half an hour ago!

We went home after for an afternoon siesta, but P was soon busy again - walking little M to the park to sit her on the swing - getting mini gelatos for dessert that night, and cooking up a respectable briyani meal for the night. We had A and M over for dinner, and P looked like she was trying her hardest to set the both of them up!

Little M chose F to read her bedtime story that night, and when everyone had left, and little M was tucked nicely into bed, P and I just sat in the living room, two friends talking late into the night for what was going to be the last time for a very long while...