Thursday 11^th October

When Pete and I were in Sydney a year or so ago we spent a very happy evening sitting in the front window of a big hotel along Manly Beach.  We had actually been out to dinner with some friends, who took us to the latest food sensation – a tiny booth of a restaurant in the city centre.  The food was indeed sensational, some sort of Asian Fusion, and it was extremely cheap.  But…we ate perched on little stools and were fed and hustled out the doors within fifteen minutes.  Trendy, cheap, delicious but…not very social.  We found ourselves back at our hotel in Manly on a Saturday night at 8.30 – our hosts are not night owls, obviously.

So what were we to do?  We wandered around a bit, had a very delicious icecream, then returned to the hotel where the big front window beckoned.  Comfy chairs, a glass or two of red wine, and a most fascinating parade of people Out And About.  There were several wedding parties in the hotel and the guest arrived in full glamour mode. 

Now if there had just been a swiftly revolving door the fun quotient would have escalated! There wasn’t a revolving door but…there were high heels.  VERY high heels.  The hot chickybabes wearing them looked just smashing…when they stood elegantly upright in their cocktail frocks and bridesmaids outfits.  However, when they walked, it was another matter altogether.  The poor darlings tottered along the street, bent at an uncomfortable angle, looking for all the world like a parade of young giraffes tentatively setting out on the veldt, keeping a nervous eye out for lurking lions.

Last night I snugged up in bed with my new Marian Keyes books (Mystery of Mercy Close.)  Helen, the protagonist, is a very imaginative girl, prone to deep depression and hallucinations.  She can tell when another debilitating bout of depression is about to hit because she will come home and tell her mother, with a sigh, that she has seen vultures flying low over the rooftops of Dublin…A sure sign that all is not well in Helen Walsh World.  I was very taken with the following paragraph:

When I saw two young girls lurching home in high heels I half expected them to chase after my car, snarling and cannibal-like.  But they didn’t even look at me, they were concentrating too hard on staying upright.

I laughed happily into my pillow; such a good description.  It took me back to that night at the Manly hotel where we spent such a pleasant few hours.  Good thing neither Pete nor I are prone to depression or hallucinations or maybe we would have had to flee from the hot chickybabes in fear of our lives…