Today, I arrived in Sydney to attend a 3 day trauma management course which starts tomorrow. I’ve been to Sydney many times before but never on my own. Also, never on my own paycheck. It feels good, and a little more free.

It could be that I’m renting a car here for the first time ever that’s made the difference. Seeing the city behind the wheel certainly puts a fresh take on things. Also, it’s cut travel time tremendously and since I’ve only got today free, I was able to pack in as much as I could in the time that I had. And I had an amazing time. Completely inspired, completely sold on moving here in the future if I had to for my job.

First of all, sun sun sun. I had my first coffee at Oxford St sitting out in the sun this morning. It was at a little cafe right across from my hotel that had its own bookstore (not a cafe within a bookstore but the other way around). It had a little sun-drenched alleyway with little tables and 3 legged stools by a colorful mural. I had a bircher muesli and a really good cafe latte whilst carelessly flicking through my study material. A hipster’s dog came over and paused at my feet hoping for a food offering to roll off the table. In the distance, you could see Victorian terraces curving off round a street corner. Imagine all this drenched in sunshine. Perfect perfect weather. 

Oxford st, being oxford st, was full of model-y looking ordinary people walking around - all living and breathing this whole fashion ‘thing’. It felt authentic, not at all like how Chapel St in melbourne is - trying so very hard to be ‘fashion-y’ but coming off as quite pedestrian and almost slutty. Think of Oxford St as more like an upmarket Windsor. Again, it must be the constant sunshine, but don’t Sydneysiders just seem alot healthier-looking? Envious.

So as I wandered the laneways (surprise! Sydney has them too) and admired the overgrown, bohemian facades of these Victorian terraces tucked away behind the backstreets of Paddington, I wondered if I may live in this city some day..already I’m appreciating the quirky individuality of its people, how one can get lost in the crowd and just ‘be’. Having lived in Melbourne all these years, I’m getting a little tired of just how visible I feel, how serious Melburnians take themselves and their all-black-wardrobes and foodie culture. How slow life can be. Sydney feels a bit more modern. A bit more like Singapore. A bit more like home. 

Of course, I had to see the Annie Leibovitz exhibition while I was here, so I hightailed it to the Museum of Contemporary Art at The Rocks. So inspiring. I bought the dvd documentary on her life. I’ve always found the vision behind the photographs more interesting than the finished product. 

On the way back to the hotel, I thought I’d try to find that little cafe I loved the last time I was here (after a failed attempt to locate it on foot that morning). And there it was, right there on Crown St in the evening sun - Kawa. Hanging basket ferns, doilly tables, colorful china tea pots. organic food, worn cream french doors - my rustic haven right there between those Victorian terraces again. I sipped a morrocan mint tea and had a coconut cake I didn’t need, just so I could savour the moment. 

So now I’m in my shitty little room on the 2nd floor of my hotel in Paddington listening to the rumble of the city outside.

An unapologetic urbanite through and through.