'...the other side of the sphere'

Coming back here via California partially prepares you for a return to Australia. California has a fair smattering of eucalypts and other Australian natives. Bottlebrushes flower there at the same time as they do here. But Australian natives do not form part of the general flow in the US, and though Los Angeles, hot as it is, may have plantings of Tasmanian Blue Gums, nowhere did I see Angophora costatas (Sydney Red Gums, in the background here). Angophorae costatae (if that's the plural) and scalloped sandstone - that is definitely a Sydney look.

We met a children's book editor from New York on the plane. She was coming to Sydney for her fourth visit. We asked her what she would be doing? Visiting an old friend of course, but going to see some shows, and shopping... Shopping? A New Yorker comes to Sydney to shop? Yes, she said and when asked to elaborate said Australia has great magazines. It hadn't occurred to us.

It is nice to find the familiar made newly-familiar, nice to hear anew Australian accents (or should Oi say Austrayan?), even nice to see pests like Indian Mynahs (pests in Australia) on a fence.