What a rush!

Back home after 6 days away in Sydney and Canberra. What a lot of rushing about! I left last Thursday on the afternoon coach from Hallidays Point, after seeing my last client for the day, packing up the office, doing the mail, dashing home for my lift and hurtling down to the corner with 2 minutes to spare. Split second timing and I could feel my stress levels hovering up there. I sat up the front and the coach driver told me his life story (why do people do this to me?) while we clunked through the potholes around Smith's Lake with nothing left in the shock absorbers. Then the citylink train from Newcastle to Sydney. All those K's for $5. There are some perks to being senior.

It was nice to be in Surry Hills with David and I also enjoyed being with him on the morning train commute across the harbour to be his Significant Other on Family Day at the pain clinic at Royal North Shore Hospital.

 He's getting a lot out of it and I can see why. Its a well-run and professional course, based on some useful strategies, including psychoeducation, cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), physical exercise and group support as well as individual counselling. They encourage participants to give up reliance on medications, props and avoidance. You learn to accept, live with and desensitize to the pain, rather than trying to make it go away.

We got out on the town on Saturday night and went to an arty French movie in Newtown. Called "In the House", it is a subversive and funny story about a rather strange lad and his English teacher. The boy writes about another family in the school and progressively pulls the teacher and his wife in. Fiction and reality get blurred and the dominoes begin to fall... Recommended. 4 stars.  After that, pasta and risotto at this place: The Italian Bowl.

What a slick operation. While some eateries in Newtown were deserted, with worried-looking cooks eyeballing you as you walk past, this place was smokin'. Two chefs, a sous chef, a maitre d' and a dish pig all running at warp speed. We watched the guy do our meals, two of five frypans he had going simultaneously. They must have served 40 or 50 meals in the half hour or so we were there. It was pretty good food, too. Traditional, fresh.

Then we had a bit of a walk around King Street, which is trying hard to be Fitzroy. Even some street art on the buildings, but sadly they had all been tagged extensively. No respect.

Finished our night out with a gelato. Nothing like these in Hallidays Point!

Sunday morning I was off again, to Canberra. Mae is in John James hospital having her stoma and chemotherapy port removed.

It wasn't quite the straightforward procedure we had hoped for: significant amounts of pain and nausea followed, not to mention the emotional hard work involved in being back in a hospital setting, triggering all sorts of fears and memories. But she is over the worst of it now. The plumbing appears to be slowly starting to work again after a year of being bypassed. She will be able to go home tomorrow, she says, after being in for a week.

During afternoon visitor-free rest time in the wards, I managed to go out to enjoy some Canberra pleasures, such as a visit to the Gallery with Malise to see the Turner from the Tate exhibition.

This was my favourite, Sun Setting Over a Lake (c.1840). The exhibition was fascinating. And huge. What a treat, so many Turners in one place. He really was ahead of his time in his treatment of light.

This is not a Turner. It is a bronze cat, as big as a labrador and $14,000 at Beaver Gallery. I could so picture that in my hallway.

I try to catch up with a few friends each time I go to Canberra. It was good to see Sally, who shared yummy pumpkin soup made with her own vegies. Visited Ariane and Andrew, as well as having dinners with John and Malise and also Kris and Ed.

Once again I stayed with the wonderful Malpoakes. Marg's spare bed is so comfy. Thanks, Marg. This is Keir showing off his new miniature replica Hurricane. It takes nearly as much skill to fly as the original WW11 real version. He tells us it nose dives unless you keep the right amount of thrust on it during take off and landing. It has flaps. He started it up and it made a tremendous racket and you could feel the wind drag from the propellor. Amazing little devices. Hours of fun for the technically minded.

Being technically minded, Keir has mastered making the pathetically weak cups of tea I prefer, which is a skill that still eludes some of my oldest and dearest friends. Plus he brought me a cup each morning. And drove me to the coach at 6.15am with the heated seats on. Thanks, Keir.

I'm glad to be home again, thanks also to Tim who came and picked me up from the Hallidays Point turn-off after  my 11 hours travel today, including a stopover at this truly beautiful (not) building for what felt like a long, long time. It may have been a broad meadow once, but now it's pretty dire.

Back to Sydney on Sunday, but this time, I will drive.