Getting Old: the 10 year reunion

While I may bemoan the bad weather and high cost of living associated with life in London, it did mean I didn't have to wrestle with the dilemma of whether or not to attend the 10 year reunion of my high school class.

Realising that it has been a full decade since the halcyon days of high school was still a rude shock, and I haven't achieved anything (I still maintain that arts degree was the best 6 years of my life!), at least I didn't have to be subjected to witnessing first hand the literally mind-boggling success stories of those I used to watch throwing food at each other, in truly sub-simian lunch time displays.

While I wasn't there in person, I did have my spies on the ground, and thought it would be worth noting some of the reactions and comments that made me chuckle, and made me wonder if perhaps it wouldn't have been such a bad idea to go along and catch up with some of them... I'm sure most people have similar reactions to such events and seeing people for the first time after a long break. The sources of the quotes, and persons named in them, have been suppressed to prevent reprisals.

On how people have changed, or not

Some of the gronks have actually developed normal personalities. Check out thephotos on Facebook. Based on the photos, you will have to tell me who the two people are you think won my "Who ate all the pies" Awards

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...the funniest thing was that 95% of people looked exactly the same as at highschool (even if you couldn't remember their names), 2.5% are just stupidly fatter / balder, and 2.5% I couldn't recognise at all.

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Ahh, reunion - that must have been.... revealing. I still prefer to think that those who were c-nts at school are still, and will always be, c-nts. Except that obviously X is now a fat c-nt.

On not recognising people

Also, what was pudding's real name? I forgot, but overheard everyone else calling him pudding so called him pudding also.

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I don't know how to describe him. weedyish looking guy, I think I sat next to him in year 11 science or something

On funny ways to report a class-mates death

(this actually happened*)

[Interior. Lounge room. T, J and P variously seated on the couch or floor]

P: T, tell him about Person X

J: Person X... man, I'd forgotten that guy even existed

T: Well he doesn't any more!

[General laughter, followed by a brief sense of guilt, followed by even more laughter]

*It's ok, we didn't like him anyway.

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If anyone else attended the event and has something to share, or has similar anecdotes about their own reunions, get in touch.

Fun for the whole family

June saw my mother finally give up on her decades-long, one-woman embargo on the UK when she came to visit me in London for a week. Amazingly, I think London was trying to make up for the treatment she received on her last visit (being described as 'bristling with prejudice' if you must know - I don't know what she's complaining about)... the sun shone all week, there were no major tube disasters to speak of, and most impressively their accommodation turned out to be a top floor apartment complete with balcony so close to the dome of St Paul's you could almost touch it.


Being forced to play tour guide in my new 'home town' made me realise how little I'd actually done or seen in London. Thankfully I could fall back on the tourist classics: a cruise along the Thames to Greenwich, a 'flight' on the London eye, a trip to the theatre, and packing them off to Oxford when I'd run out of things to do. The highlight for everyone was definitely the musical "Dickens: Unplugged" - a Shakespeare abridged take on the works of London's greatest novelist, fistula and all. Unfortunately it closed a few nights after we saw it so I wasn't able to force anyone else to enjoy it.



Being my family, a lot of time was spent in the Bacchanalian pursuits of eating and drinking. Unfortunately taking them out to my favourite restaurant-cum-foreign-correspondents' club The Frontline Club for my Dad's birthday proved a disappointing evening since the menu and atmosphere had changed since my last visit. Thankfully various Indian restaurants made up for it. Of course, not everything went entirely smoothly, but I managed to get to the end of the week without being berated for wasting my life, so perhaps it's true - absence does make the heart grow fonder...

Home, Bitter-Sweet Home

April saw me back in Australia for one whole week! I don't recommend spending over 2 days in transit for less than 10 days at the destination... the cost-benefit just isn't worth it. But when Nath tells you, er I mean, invites you to be best man at his wedding, you can't really say no.

The week back home was one of the most hectic of my life: I managed to squeeze in a road trip to Canberra to get my shiny new HSMP visa (haha! take that British Immigration Authority!), a visit to Mackeral to discover some new form of middle class low life had stolen the rigging from the hobie (lousy yachting bum! or hobie hobo, if you will), a horror visit to the RTA where I finally got my full licence (look out road users!), an ANZAC day pub crawl (hello sailor!) and long enough with my family to have a huge falling out. Oh, and a I think there was a wedding in there somewhere.

Apart from the bad bits, it was great being back in Sydney. I didn't really suffer the reverse culture shock that people had warned me about, I didn't pay enough attention to my receipts to notice if things were much more expensive than I remembered them, and I didn't get ridiculed for having a pommie accent (okay, once). There was actually a part of me wishing I'd been refused the visa so that I could stay... On the other hand, it was good getting back to London where I have a bed and can just veg out.

Anyway I just want to say a huge thanks to Nath and Dyalan for helping me out during the week, an even huger congratulations to Nath and Emma, and a massive thanks to everyone who came out at such short notice to drinks on the Sunday - I'm sorry I didn't get to sit and chat with everyone in full, but it was great to drink some good beer in good company. I'll be around longer next time, I promise.