By the sea

By the sea, with the fishies splashing! By the sea! Wouldn't that be smashing?

By the sea, with the fishies splashing!

It was time to move on again in Sydney. With my suitcase packed and thank you and goodbyes all done, Daniel gave me a lift into central Sydney to drop me off at my next place. I would be staying with Em, a friend from back home and the first lesbian host of my travels. We had caught up briefly a few days before but I was looking forward to spending some time with her. Don’t tell her this but I had missed her since I had left on my travels. I missed going up a couple of floors in the old office to see her, swap insults and generally annoy her. I gave her a big hug when I saw her and, for once, she didn’t pull away. She did however say “Hello Fattie”, her standard greeting to me. Em asked if I had any preference as to how we spent the day and I replied that I was easy. Em let that one slide and suggested a trip up the coast to Balmoral for some fish and chips and a walk along the promenade. I was up for that – sunny weather, deep-fried food and the opportunity to look at men on the beach in their (hopefully) small swimwear. Throw in some gin and it would be a perfect day.

Em had promised I would get to witness something magical down in the basement car park. With a slight feeling of trepidation we made our way down. Once there Em waved a tag over a little black box on the wall. A message flashed up on the screen saying that the car was being retrieved. Em led me across to a large glass window and after a couple of minutes her hire car came in to view. It slowly started to rise from the depths of the parking system, delivered to us by the parking wizard. I was suitably impressed. We drove up to Balmoral and spent a while circling the streets looking for a place to park. We finally found a spot, parked up and made our way down to the fish and chip place that Em wanted to take me to. There was a big queue and we joined the back of it. She assured me it would move fairly quickly and it was worth the wait. We contemplated getting ice cream while we waited but decided against it. After we collected our food we headed across the road to sit on the wall by the beach. There is something about eating fish and chips out of the wrapper at the seaside that improves the taste dramatically. We ate in virtual silence. After finishing lunch we walked along the promenade, arm in arm. I asked Em if she thought we looked like a straight couple. She turned, looked me up and down and said no.

We had a great catch up while we walked along. It might have been our first proper grown up conversation in all the time we had known each other. We were both a lot more relaxed outside of the office. We finally came to the end of the promenade where there was a small café and shop. I treated Em to an ice cream and we walked back the way we had just came before making our way back to the car and home. Em said she needed to have a lay down for a bit, probably the trauma of having spent several hours in my company. I left her to it and went to meet a friend, Claire, who I knew from London and who was over in Australia on holiday. I hadn’t seen her since my leaving drinks more than six months previously so I knew there would be a lot of gossip for us to catch up on.

We met up and had a walk round Sydney for a little while, taking a stroll through Hyde Park before we decided that we needed some liquid refreshment to keep us hydrated following our exercise in the warm Sydney sun. We found a table outside in a shady square and got a couple of pints of lager. As we sat down with our drinks I said to Claire “So fill me in on what has been happening with you on the man front”. The next time in the conversation I spoke it was to ask if Claire wanted another pint. Claire is a barrister so is used to talking a lot and I really enjoyed just sitting and listening to tales of her dating life. It made me realise I was missing some of the smaller things in life while I was away travelling like being able to grab a quick pint and catch up with a friend. We decided to go somewhere else for another drink, finding a bar close to Em’s place that had Wi-Fi so we could do some research on where to spend New Year’s Eve and to look at some wine tours. We made some tentative plans before Claire had to head off to see some family for dinner. I needed to get back to shower before going out for dinner with Em so we said goodbye and arranged to meet in the morning to finalise our plans.

By the sea! Wouldn't that be smashing?

The view at dinner

When I got back Em was just waking up from her nap & we both got ready to head out to dinner. We had been invited to dine with some friends of Em’s at their place. Em and I jumped into a taxi to Kings Cross, getting the driver to let us out by a bottle shop so that we didn’t arrive empty handed at Matt and Tony’s. Introductions were done between the other guests in attendance and drinks were opened. We sat on the balcony for a while enjoying a drink while Tony pointed out the corner where the local neighbourhood transsexual hookers would tout for business. The balcony was a great spot from which to watch the goings-on but Tony assured us they had never sampled what the “ladies” had to offer. Before we got too settled in on the balcony watching the comings and goings, so to speak, we decamped to the roof where there was a large terrace and a dining table already set for dinner. The roof terrace had amazing views of the harbour, the Bridge and the Opera House both in full view. It was a stunning spot to have dinner. I asked Tony and Matt if they would be up here the following evening for New Year’s as they had such a smashing venue for a party. They were off out somewhere else, objecting to the building management company who charged the tenants a fee to use the roof terrace on New Year’s Eve.

I had managed to go nearly a two weeks in Australia without having a barbecue so I was excited about my first Ozzie barbie. I was trying to avoid the clichés so didn’t ask if anyone would be throwing another shrimp on it. We did however have Vegemite flavoured crisps while we were waiting for the meat to cook. Tony and Matt had put on an impressive spread for dinner and soon I was feeling quite full. We stayed up on the roof for most of the evening, the alcohol and conversation both in plentiful supply. Dinner was rounded off with some Christmas pudding and custard that the boys hadn’t got round to eating on Christmas Day. I was disappointed to find that it had been cooked in the kitchen rather than on the barbecue though.

Roof top dining

The evening flew by and it was soon time for us to leave, our beds were beckoning. I thanked Matt and Tony for dinner and wished them the best for the New Year before Em and I made our way out of the building and into the street in search of a taxi to take us home. We flagged a taxi and it pulled up on the corner of the street, right in front of the transsexual hookers we had been told about earlier. It looked like a slow night for them but neither Em nor I were about to give them any business. We hurried into the taxi and headed home.

“By the sea, with the fishies splashing! By the sea! Wouldn't that be smashing?” 
Lyrics from By the Sea from the musical Sweeney Todd