Missed opportunity

I could have posed for a selfie with five amazing drag queens at Sydney Airport yesterday, but I didn’t think to ask.

I’ve been kicking myself about it ever since. How often do you get an opportunity like this …

I was at Sydney Airport in a professional capacity, erecting banners for a Destination NSW press conference.

It was being held to celebrate the arrival of international travelers, following the reopening of the Australian border. Can you believe it was shut for 704 days?

I was supposed to catch a train to the airport, but strike action put an end to that idea. Instead, I paid $63 for airport parking. Well, my boss did because I fortuitously gave her a lift to the office afterwards.

It was lovely to finally meet her after working together virtually since before Christmas. People look so different in real life, it took me a moment to recognize her when she rushed over and greeted me with a hug.

Around 5000 passengers across 27 flights passed through Sydney International Airport yesterday, arriving from the US, Japan, Singapore, Canada, New Zealand and Fiji.

The first visitors were greeted with gifts of Vegemite and toy koalas and kangaroos, an iconic Surf Life Saving crew, a DJ spinning Australia’s favourite tunes, the aforementioned drag queens and a brass quartet playing “Feeling Good”, which is the evocative theme song for the Feel NSW advertising campaign.

The US air crews went nuts over the stuffed koalas.

I spent a lot of time observing the press conference action from behind the TV crews when I should have been getting selfies with more colorful characters. Dammit.

Ah well, it was still a surreal day, even if I don’t have a picture of me there to prove it.

In other regrets, DD sent me photos of yesterday’s sunrise and it was a corker …