Home safe

David felt well enough after his surgery to be able to travel today.  So we left Sydney after breakfast and I drove him home. The trip took it out of him though and he slept most of the afternoon and has gone to bed again now, at 8.15pm. He's not a good passenger and is inclined to micromanage the driver, so it was something of a relief when he dropped off. Remarkably, we survived despite the lack of supervision of my driving for the last section of the trip (after Heatherbrae pies).

Quite a busy day yesterday. Breakfast with niece Julia at The Book Kitchen on Bourke St, what a treat. http://www.thestyletree.com/index.php/2010/02/06/the-book-kitchen-surry-hills/ Only 5 minutes' walk from Linda and Phil's place, good food and great coffee, it looks just like a Melbourne cafe. Julia observed that there are a number of "industrial chic" cafes looking like Melbourne cafes starting to appear in inner Sydney. We talked politics and lamented the state of ethics of almost all our leaders, and reflected that this country is slipping further and further behind Europe and Scandinavia in our social policies. Julia is thinking about a move to France for a while. That sounds pretty good, we thought we might go too, once we get our new place established. Somewhere in Provence, perhaps...

A big nap for David was in order after the rigors of walking, talking and eating most of the morning.  But by dinner time he was well enough to go out again, this time to a very trendy hipster-haunt called something like The Eatery Diner (can't exactly remember, and frankly, don't want to). There were nine of us, and the occasion was a farewell to James and Shuang, who are on the plane to China (her home country) tomorrow. James has finished his Chinese medicine degree and has been enjoying working recently in a practice, doing acupuncture and so on. He has been treating David for some weeks now with herbs to improve his immune system and prepare him for the surgery.  Every day David has been drinking up his "tea" a potent concoction he brews up in a special clay pot lent by James. And so far, his recovery from surgery has been much faster and more trouble free than the surgeon and anaesthetist predicted it would be. So, thanks James. We are giving you credit. James has also been treating Bette (David's aunt and James' great aunt) with acupuncture and massage following her recent fall and fracture. She has been delighted with the improvement, and so has her GP. There is something in this Eastern medicine.

The company was good for this dinner but I can't recommend the cafe. They seem to have a set against groups and have a range of strategies to discourage groups from coming. Such as charging more, limiting the menu and forcing you to serve yourself at the table from big communal plates onto bread-and-butter size dinner plates that they don't replace between courses. We drew the line at that and demanded fresh normal sized plates after entree, that were clunked in front of us by a somewhat surly waiter. Plus the place was overpriced. But other than that, we loved it! (Just joking). The decor was fun, though. Eclectic: Diner/Acapulco/Day-of-the Dead/1950's Hollywood/New Guinea style. And the wait staff sported little floral aprons. Very hipster.

But I have to tell you, it was such a relief to get home to our comfortable, slow, quiet, spacious place where the racket comes from birds, not from traffic and the next terrace and the inner-city weirdos walking past the window. Sydney is an interesting place to visit, but I couldn't see myself living there.