We are moving back home to Katoomba next week and perhaps I should make some observations of our ten months in Sydney. The apartment we rented was full of natural morning light and spacious for the two of us, now that our young men have moved away (sob sob). I loved the bike trail outside our apartment block that took me along the Parramatta River every afternoon, or even all the way to Botany Bay if I was feeling adventurous. In fact, that's what I'll miss most. And the proximity to so many food shops - the poet who ate Sydney should be the title of my next book. And I really liked that not one game of football was cancelled due to bad weather - every weekend I could look forward to playing for Lokomotiv Cove without scanning the distant skies for rain clouds and arrogant council rangers wanting to close the sports field so the grass can grow untrammelled by overweight footballers.
Things I didn't like? The obvious, I'm afraid - the traffic, the noise, the self-obsessive nature of most large cities. Cathie and I quickly decided that instead of paying rent, we'd rather travel, so next year's Sydney rent money is going to be spent in Europe instead.
I also missed the small community feel of Katoomba. I'm not really one for walking down the main street and talking to everybody I meet, but Katoomba does have a... peculiar atmosphere all it's own. We move back next week and for the first time in my life, I will have a study of my own. Eighteen books have been written in the lounge room. I hope I can toss off another eighteen in my study looking out over the garden. Or perhaps I'll just daydream about pruning the hedge?
