Having sat for six hours on a wildly swaying bus, having sat in an uncomfortable restaurant eating overpriced and undercooked food, having spent a restless night on a mattress I'm not accustomed to, I woke up at three o'clock on my first morning in Sydney, and all I could say to Padma was, "I just want to go home!"
There was a time when I jumped on a plane and jetted halfway around the world at the mere whisper of some vague job offer, but now wild horses couldn't drag me away from the comfort and, most importantly, the peace and quiet of "Riverbend" which, if the previous owners hadn't already called it "Riverbend", I would gladly have called "Bonnie Doon".
The noise, the sheer bedlam of Sydney fell away when we entered our old hide-away, Golden Grove, and Peter Ying, its friendly housekeeper, welcomed us back. The guests who stay there happily talk to strangers. "Come as a guest, leave as a friend" is absolutely true of Golden Grove.
The consultation with a young and friendly dental surgeon specialising in previous cancer cases, Dr Martin - whom I promptly called "Doc Martin" - was thorough but a little short of what I had expected. He took plenty of x-rays, photographs, and dental impressions, but pulled no teeth. I hope it was not because he also suffered from haemophobia. Anyway, it looks like a second, maybe even a third trip to Sydney will be necessary.
We spent the rest of our time in Sydney wandering all over Newtown, visiting the quadrangle of the University of Sydney, and shivering at the mere sight of early-morning swimmers in Victoria Park's public pool.
Unfortunately, our favourite Chinese restaurant, HAPPY BELLY, where Padma had always enjoyed her salt-and-pepper tofu and I my congee, had closed and it was now a Thai restaurant which we didn't fancy.
Observing that other whirlpool of people around me, of which no more than one out of ten looked Caucasian, I realised just how much Sydney, and the rest of Australia, has changed! Funnily, when I first came to Australia I couldn't understand the people on account of MY bad English; now I can't understand the people on account of THEIR bad English!
It was an early start on our second morning in Sydney and, after having taken a photo of Padma under the big clock on Central Station's Grand Concourse and talking to a few more total strangers, we checked in for our swaying ride back home. "I'm glad to go home", I said to Padma. "Me, too!" she said. Six hours later we were back at - ehem! - Bonnie Doon.
