at the airport [last saturday] doris was totally ribbing me, insisting i was going home. she made me realise london is not my true home, i just live there. sydney is where my family and everyone i love are. it took a while, but i know it now.
ready for a recount of my last week in sydney?
a few stray rays on sun broke through on sunday morning so lils, tadz, and i pile into the car and try for rozelle markets again. we came away empty-handed but no matter, tadzio dug deep and proud to produce this nugget of comedy gold.
i met up with mira and ameli [my mad cortes bosses] and their girls at their house. i used to baby-sit milla and lola from when they were 1. milla would give me a hard time and howl at the sight of me, the idea of her parents leaving upset her. it was such a revelation when she tells me "i like your t-shirt with the horses". why, thank you! i love it when kids talk. patiently waiting for my young cousins to start conversations has been worth it. i cannot remember anything funny they have said but i like it they can tell me what they are thinking.
come evening time, doris and i head to hurstville to have dinner at our parents' with our uncles, aunts, and cousins.
do not be fooled, my cousins are only pretending to be camera-shy.
here they are showing their faces.
who is the cutest cousin of them all? that is right, the baby!
i feel for her parents. how are they going to say "no" to this face?
on monday i see samson and delilah on my own. whatever it was i thought i was bracing myself for did not compare to what i got. does that make sense? you should see it.
do you know who these women are? you should be ashamed of yourselves! they are part of team poepke. i met up with millie, grace, and a bicycle-riding amelia on tuesday afternoon for tea and cake at yellow in potts point. after, we visited juliet and her baby, beatrix. i am sure everyone has heard this story already but it still makes me melt a little just thinking about it. in juliet's living room sit a pair of bongos and beatrix is hitting them with her hand and laughing. i am saying something to her and, mid-sentence, she takes my hand and places it on a bongo. i hit it and she laughs. die! it is so silly but for a second there, her acknowledgement of my existence made me so happy.
the late afternoon sees me back at my parents' rummaging through my boxes of clothes [i am so over wearing the same wardrobe for the last ten months] and i take up my mother's offer of new underwear. why are undies so expensive now? we head to k-mart in hurstville westfield to stock up on some bonds and i think the three pack is cheaper than buying singles but it is not really. i can feel myself internalising a tantrum again but then i remember who is buying them and everything is ok. sometimes i cannot believe i am twenty-eight.
for dinner, lily, mayor of dumpling town, makes [from scratch] steamed vegetarian dumplings with chilli soy dipping sauce and stir-fried vegetables.
witness the magic for yourselves.
my uncle, who is a dentist, cleans my teeth on wednesday morning. i open wide, he does nothing.
"what is wrong?"
his silence sounds expensive.
"there is nothing to clean", he sighs.
there is a lesson in there, kids. yes, you can make friends with salad and vegetarians have cleaner teeth.
later, i meet caryl for lunch and we head to chinatown to a new noodle bar. halfway through slurping my hot and sour noodle soup with tofu, dave calls saying he has locked himself out of doris' apartment. he wants to meet me to get the spare set of keys i am holding. when he meets us, dave is noticeably uncomfortable and a little bit sheepish. ok, nothing too strange, i mean, locking oneself out of a flat can be very annoying. when i see doris later that day, she asks me if dave was weird. i nod. she laughs and explains he was in his pyjamas and had not had a cigarette yet that morning. he looked the same to me!
while caryl and i window shop our way to dinnertime, this sign gives us the giggles.
my cousin and her new groom host a dinner for my parents, doris, and i at a seafood restaurant where we eat ourselves silly. this giant lobster was the main attraction.
love
o
No comments:
Post a Comment