Monday, February 11, 2013

The Big City


There's something about a massive conglomeration of people all bustled together in glorious profusion that's oddly attractive. I've been a country girl now for awhile, and going to the Big Smoke is always such a buzz. I love all the ideas, the imagination, the liveliness of it all. I love the shops, the shoes, the coffees. On an everyday basis it's overwhelming - as a holiday it's intoxicating.

I hopped on a train last week and had a day 'on the town' with my oldest friend. We've known each other since we were four and I have a clear memory of hiding behind my mum's skirts when we were first introduced. We haven't seen each other for awhile so we talked solidly for ten hours. I missed not one, not two but three trains home.

We followed our old routines: meet under the clocks at Flinders Street Station, make our way past  all the cafes up Degraves street, through the gloriously ornate Block Arcade out to the far laneway for a coffee in the sun, a quick drop in at Oxfam for fair-trade essentials, a glass of wine on a balcony looking over Swanston Street, then on to the Cafe at the State Library (a sop to my inner librarian) before finishing with green tea and spring rolls at a fluoro-lit Vietnamese place.

The characters I'm writing about now live in the city and I kept craning my head around to take in every detail: the sparrows that hopped into the cafe, the haphazard mosaic on the wall, the fighting colour in the street art along the narrow laneway we stopped to take photos. The people... I'm still digesting all the people... (not literally!)

I've come away brimming with ideas to ponder, books to read and promises of meet ups soon.

This week I'm grateful for old (obviously not age-wise, as far as I'm concerned mid-thirties is young!)
and dear friends, catch-ups and coffees. Okay, and the odd glass of wine.

 I'm joining with Maxabella for 52 Weeks of Grateful, thankful for summer in the city and catching up with friends.



Goodbye Melbourne, I'll see you soon! (Skyline from Flinders Street Station just before I hop on my V-Line train home)


1 comment:

  1. Nothing quite like catching up with old friends.

    Glad you had the opportunity to do it!

    ReplyDelete