Back amongst politicians, government workers and old people

Canberra is undeniably beautiful at the moment; the natural surrounds are exhibiting a spectacular display, one final proclamation, before winter. Strolling around campus, one can see a cacophony of rich bright reds and yellows. Withered leaves flutter gracefully to the ground, forming haphazard coloured piles. The paths are covered with crisp leaves that make a familiar ‘crunch’ sound as you trod on them. The leaves linger in and flood the gutters of the roads and when a car drives past, they leap, swirl and dance behind it before falling once more.

Although I have always tried to appreciate each of the seasons, I never really had been able to appreciate winter until my trip to Japan. For me, winter always marked a time of sadness, emptiness and death; the leaves have fallen off the trees, the nights seem everlasting and generally there seems to be a lack of life. Finally though, I have realised that winter is an essential part of an endless cycle, a time for reflection. An image that sticks in my mind is that of a Japanese garden we visited in Kanazawa: a bustling microcosm of life suspended in the thick pure white snow and the translucent frozen lake. I think this was the turning point for when I started seeing beauty in winter. Winter is the time for nature to rest, recover, revitalise and reflect before spring arrives, when trees burgeon and the birds do whatever it is that birds do in spring (I’m not going to give you the ‘birds and bees’ speech). After all, how can one decide where they are going if they don’t stop and think where they have been?

Before I mention any more about Canberra, I’d like to talk about the remainder of my holiday in Melbourne. On the Wednesday I had to make another ‘fly by’ visit to Sydney, this time for an interview with PwC. I must make an effort one day to visit Sydney when I’m not half asleep and out of my mind with stress and nerves, I’m sure it is a lovely city, not as nice as Melbourne, but nice in its own ‘obvious’ way. Anyway, the interview was quite informal and seemed to go well. Afterwards I went straight back to the airport, flew home and spent far longer in traffic getting home than the flight took.

On Thursday night I went to Sherly’s place for dinner. This was arranged, because almost every time I spoke with Sherly online whilst in Canberra, we would always discuss what we had eaten for tea.
“Have you had dinner yet Trav?”
“Ahh yeah Sherly… There was cartilage in the chicken schnitzel they served us. I don’t want to think about what else was underneath the layer of crumbs. Oh and they gave us crunchy rice as well. Have you had dinner yet?”
“Yeah I have Trav. I had: quenelles of eggplant, pecorino, raisins and pine nuts on tomato ragout with grilled zucchini”
“… Please cook for me Sherly when I come back.”
“OK Trav…”

I had tried Sherly’s cooking before at Cheryl’s housewarming and was impressed, yet I still didn’t really know what to expect. When I arrived at Sherly’s place, she took me to her room, where four delectable dishes were siting atop a small table. We sat down on the IKEA stools and began our meal. Each dish was truly delicious and, to comment in the style of ‘iron chef’ judges, took me on a wild culinary adventure. The way the ingredients were accentuated reminded me of the spring time and I felt that the ingredients had served their destiny and were happy being part of such a tasty dish. It was a lovely meal and lovely company, I can’t thank Iron Chef Australian, Sherly enough! Next time if she agrees to cook for me, I think I’ll give her a themed ingredient and have her prepare the meal within a time limit of one hour. Allez Cuisine!

The following night I again had the pleasure of Sherly’s company. We decided to see an act at the comedy festival and all in all had quite a fun night. Before the act started, Sherly was ‘warming up’ her jaw in preparation to laugh, by opening and shutting it, which was really quite amusing and unbelievably cute.

Soon though my holiday was over and it was soon time to go back to Canberra. After a frantic day of finishing off uni work, I had a lovely dinner with my family at a Thai restaurant and spent the rest of the night in the city celebrating Cheryl’s new job at AXA. I met up with Sherly and walked her over to Alfred’s apartment, where we met up with Cheryl, Dennis and Alfred. Our destination was Robot Sushi, a bar dedicated to Neo-Tokyo culture. We met Winnie at the bar, took a seat and ordered drinks. The general consensus was that the bar was disappointing and so we headed to ‘cookie’, a bar that never fails to please. After sitting at ‘cookie’ for a little while, we decided just to head back to Alfred’s place and have a few drinks. Unfortunately I couldn’t stay long, as I had to drive to Canberra the next day, so I said goodbye and left.

Sherly was kind enough to walk with me back to my car and when we got there, I drove her back to the party again and walked her to the door. We said our goodbyes and then she slipped through, caught the lift and was gone. I stood watching her, waving helplessly. A wave though, a simple flapping of the hand, does not and cannot adequately describe all things felt or needed to be said. Goodbye, Take Care, I’ll miss you, Look after yourself, It really was nice seeing you again, Thanks for making my life brighter, I hope to see you again soon. *Flap flap flap*

The next morning I said goodbye to my family. *Flap flap flap*