Friendship

Looking back at my entries in this diary it does seem that my past memories of trips to Australia have been centred around alcohol.

Whilst I will admit to having a lot of fun on my previous visits, I can assure you that I did also work bloody hard when I was here previously. Those organisations that paid for me to visit in times gone by certainly got their moneys worth. But there was no point in coming all this way and it being all work and no play.....

And Australia, in particular the people here, makes it very easy to have a lot of fun. This trip is entirely for pleasure and it is certainly proving to be one of my best holidays ever. In no small measure because I am here with Paul. Although we have both visited here before, we have never done it together and neither of us have done it for a holiday.

Paul and I celebrated our 23rd Anniversary here in Australia last week and one of the reasons why we are still going strong after all this time is that we enjoy each others company and, in particular we enjoy being on holiday together. It is one of the areas where we just click. We generally like the same things and doing the same things and Australia is proving to be the perfect melting pot for that aspect of our relationship.

After a glorious couple of days in the Hunter Valley in a fabulous suite with Kangaroos on tap, we headed back to Sydney through picturesque countryside. After taking a diversion on our way home to stop for a pretty forgettable lunch at an unforgettable location near Woy Woy on the central coast, we arrived back in the city, with Paul ticking off a bucket list item when he drove over Sydney Harbour Bridge.

There is something special about Sydney for me, arriving here always feels like I am returning home. I can’t put my finger on it, but it feels like a natural place to be. After a couple of hours R&R at our AirBNB apartment we headed out to the affluent Surry Hills to meet up with Luca and Kal.

Luca is a Sydneysider by birth, but I met her when she worked at aka in London where we shared many an international adventure in both the US and Australia, in particular here in Sydney. I remembered us

shopping together here, she seemed to have stronger memories of our nights out (more alcohol?!) - we both remembered our work and shared stories of the people we have met in our professional lives. But the last time the four of us, Paul, Me, Luca and her extremely charming husband, Kal, were together was another holiday in Thailand for the wedding of Adam and Claire Kenwright in 2013. Luca and Kal have now relocated to Sydney where she works as the marketing director for an international theatre producer and he is a very successful heart surgeon,raising two beautiful girls together- and I can’t think of a better place to do it.

It was a lovely evening with great food and wine and the conversation flowed effortlessly, proving that friendship is always enduring, despite the barriers of time and distance.