It was back to work for the young married couple, but another surprise was in store: a birthday lunch with family and dear people, Samia and Dave, Johann, Pam and my oldest friend, Sue, before we oldies took off for Melbourne hugging the coast all the way with two overnight stays before landing in slightly cooler climes for the Easter weekend. We took in Wilson’s Promontory, a wine estate on the Peninsula, Mount Dandenong and the super Claypots seafood restaurant in St Kilda.
And there was a bookend: drinks chilling in a small secret bar catching up with Paddy O’Reilly. I’d brought my copy of her latest novel, The Wonders, for her to sign and just after we left Melbourne I heard that it had won the 2015 Norma K Hemming Award!
Then back to Sydney via Canberra with the first rain on our trip. We walked to the new Parliament and I was struck by the size of the government buildings, so huge and imposing for a population of just under 25 million. I guess they were planned for population growth, but it had me reflecting. Back in Sydney we toured favourite haunts: Palm Beach, Watson’s Bay and The Gap, and Katoomba. 
And there was a bit of time travel in Mount Victoria where I saw the old garage my family had lived in on arriving in Australia in the early fifties.
Our trip was coming to a close but on our last evening I was thrilled to hear my story “Just Lunch” read by the young Australian actor Eleni Schumacher at Little Fictions at the Knox Street Bar in Chippendale. 
This was an event hosted by Spineless Wonders, and it was great seeing Bronwyn and Linda again who had both been to the Vienna conference. Selina also popped by and “entrepreneuse extraordinaire”, Suzanne Kiraly, had come up from Canberra for the event and we had a lovely time hatching some plans over freshly shucked oysters.
And then we were off for a few days of rest in Abu Dhabi before returning to my Schubis in Vienna who greeted me with an upbeat Udo Jurgens song and a late bird day party.
Spring is here in Vienna with projects aplenty in store – early May a wine workshop with Ernst Molden, late May a flash fiction workshop in the Gascogne, France. And there’s been some writing news with my flash, “Uncle Henri” being picked up for issue 3 of KYSO Flash! And the garden needs tending …
So how did it feel coming “home”? Or is the word “home” just a fiction? I’ll talk about that in my next blogpost. Until then, and as always, onwards!
