Reunion!

OK, this is a bit embarrassing. I went to Sydney for my 20 year school reunion and have come back with photos of what I ate. Embarrassing but not really surprising I suppose. I changed handbags for the reunion and forgot my camera! I'm hoping photos will turn up on Facebook at some stage but there didn't seem to be a lot of photo taking, which is a shame.

I may have had reservations about going, and many people told me stories of unpleasant reunion experiences, but I am so pleased that I went. I did have a couple of odd conversations with people I didn't know and certainly didn't like while at school (which doesn't narrow it down very much I must admit!) and the speeches were entirely directed at a different group and were not representative of my time at school but I was able to see and catch up with a lot of people I did like at school, some very good friends, whom I haven't seen for many years and for that it was completely worth it. It was nice to remember that I have grown up and am not the irritating, irrational and prickly teenager I was at school. We had to wear name tags, which was very handy, and they had the photos from our yearbook on them. This is mine.

Sad to say, it isn't just a bad photo. I think it was a fair representation of me whilst at school. Jossie and Bethany think it is very funny. It is hard to tell if I look the same as you can't really see my face. Lots of people looked almost exactly the same, my friends and I, for example, haven't aged at all ;), some people had really improved and there were a few people who have passed their peak (Sue said that, not I!). I was very disappointed not to see some people who didn't come but I think I'll make an effort to catch up another time and am definitely planning to see some people before another 20 years goes by.

So, that's the reunion. Now, back to the food. Janice very kindly picked me up from what I like to call the plane station and we drove to Newtown where we stayed with friends of hers. King Street offers all options for dining but we chose, typically, Japanese. Janice's usual choice of Asakusa was closed so we went over the road to Hikaru and it was an excellent substitute. Thankfully Janice likes to share! We had mixed sushi,

gyoza and soft shell crab don. Oh, so very good.

Here is the one photo I took with a person in it. Janice, holding our yearbook which we were studying in the hope of knowing more people. It didn't really help. Nathan drew the cover picture - what talent!

The theory was that we probably wouldn't get much food at the reunion so I thought we should splurge on afternoon tea (what we generally call high tea). Having dithered over the idea I didn't research properly and thought you could just show up at the QVB unannounced. Not so. They had a private function on and told us that Saturdays are booked out four weeks in advance. Janice asked if he could recommend somewhere else and he said "Nowhere does what we do". Very helpful man. So we went to the Lindt Café - not new for me as I go there every time I go to the State Library, but I usually only have coffee and maybe a macaron (I'm totally over them now), so we had cake. We shared the St Moritz, dark, milk and white chocolate mousse with almond cake, and the Wimbledon, mascarpone and vanilla cream, vanilla almond cake and strawberry purée. Both were delicious but we especially like the mascarpone - I must make something with mascarpone soon.

We got home from the reunion just before 1am and were up and ready to go out for breakfast by 8.30. We went to the end of the street to Urban Bites where Janice had eggs benedict with bacon.

I had corn fritters with tomato, spinach and bacon.

Seeing as I had been considering pancakes, I thought we were up for breakfast dessert and we shared this strawberry, rose and watermelon cake at Black Star Pastry.

When you catch the plane from Wagga you need to be at the airport half an hour before the plane leaves. At Sydney they close the baggage check in half an hour before the plane leaves, something I completely forgot about, so I was told off for having only just made it. The flight was pleasant as I am reading I Have a Bed Made of Buttermilk Pancakes by Jaclyn Moriarty. Such whimsy! At Wagga airport a wonderful surprise was waiting, Mim and Bill were driving through Wagga and came to say hello! It was so lovely to see them.

It will be hard to do my 10 hour day at work after such a weekend. I had so much fun hanging out with Janice. I really wish I had bought some chocolate though - I was right near Haighs!