Having spent a year living in Samoa, I'm finding it tough adjusting to life in Sydney. The problems are many...the dense traffic, the surge of people rushing through the city streets. A year of island life has damaged me - it has shifted my sense of normal. I'm used to sunny days, lazying by the beach and drinking coconut juice out of an actual coconut.
Whilst I’m not currently in love with Sydney, I know I used to love her. I’ve defended her fiercely against the café-culture, small-bar minded elite of Melbourne. I’ve pitched her beaches against the very finest of those found in WA (even though I’ve never been to WA). I have been her biggest cheerleader when jaded and cynical former Sydney-siders bring her down.
Remembering this, I’ve set myself a mission - to fall in love with Sydney again. From the reaches of my hazy memory, I have romantic images, not of the Harbour Bridge and Bondi beach, but of the bowls of pho in Cabramatta, the mosques in Auburn, the smell of Korean BBQ in Strathfield and the roar in Leichardt when Italy won the World Cup. It was the suburbs of Sydney which I love and it's there that I will start my courtship with this city.
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