Blast from the past

An old high school friend has been visiting from the United States and we’ve caught up a couple of times over the past two weeks.

We met in the early 80s and came from vastly different backgrounds, but our minds clicked together like two pieces of a jigsaw puzzle and we became fast friends.

It has been a bit freaky to hang out together after decades apart. I haven’t seen her since we had a weekend together in Vegas … as you do … pre-kids.

The pressure has been on for me to show her the nightlife in Sydney. Well, I’ve been the only one putting the pressure on, she’s been very easygoing about it.

Despite having a drinks website, I’ve struggled to decide where to go. There’s a sense of deja vu about it. It reminds me of writing my profile for RSVP, in which I confessed I had no idea what to say, despite being a journalist since I was 17.

My friend and I reunited at Opera Bar at Sydney Opera House for a spritz with a view, then I took her to a bar called Old Mate’s Place, which I love because you get there via a scuzzy old lift, open a nondescript door and suddenly find yourself in Diagon Alley.

We finished our first night out at Barangaroo House, which is such a cool-looking building (especially during Vivid Sydney, which is the pic I’ve stolen above). The rooftop has fabulous views of Darling Harbour.

There was no food involved the first night we caught up, which was a bit of a mistake when drinking four cocktails. So I was intent on including cocktails and food the second time around.

I also wanted to cut down on the walking as I gave my friend blisters last time as we crisscrossed the city. Ooops!

I added an extra degree of difficulty by choosing a Monday night. so we met at a bar at Dean & Nancy’s, where we listened to Frank Sinatra and got the bartender to whip up some of his favourite whiskey cocktails.

Dean & Nancy’s is on the 22nd floor of the Adina hotel and has floor-to-ceiling windows that look out at the city’s skyscrapers, which gives it a Manhattan feel.

Then we went to China Lane, where DD had a 60th birthday dinner. We dined on delicious beef massaman and balmain bugs in Singapore chilli sauce, caught up on each other’s lives and I filled her in on how the old high school gang is going.

Handily I had a pic of us all together from a brunch catch-up late last year.

Now my friend is heading back to the US.

I wonder if it will be another few decades before we meet again? We will be VERY old then! I am still coming to terms with us being in our 50s.

How. Did. That. Happen?

Being out on the town together reminded me of this windscreen protector I saw on my way to work the other day …