URBAN WORRIES

Melbourne since Friday. Freo was relaxing and lovely, but ah the relief to be back amongst skyscrapers, neon and ambiguous graffiti.
The holiday has turned into a series of babies and meals. On Sunday to visit the lovely Anna and Laurence and their (on this trip compulsory) cute children. Had lunch and dinner with them and much catching-up time - I've only seen Anna once in the last 14 years, since she left London, so the who's who of our lives since then took care of the best part of the day.



I ended up putting the second Australian under 2-yr-old in 3 days to bed (the adorable Max), and realised I was becoming horrifyingly familiar with the routine, not to mention the Wiggles (don't ask) and Elmo.

Yesterday for lunch with Lynette, who we'd met in NY last year, then dinner with Andre et famille at his gorgeous family home in Brighton beach. Andre has a 6 month old, so my super-nanny skills are getting more impressive by the day. Baby wipes are now a permanent feature in my handbag.

Meal of the holiday (and possibly the year) award goes to the Flower Drum, where we had lunch today. I have no idea how we got in, as there's supposed to be a waiting list of at least 6 weeks and folks such as Madonna dine there. Not only did we get in but we were sat a fair way from the door, where apparently they put the celebs. I can only pesume that the TH was mistaken for Frank Bruno again. Stuff happens, and sometimes good stuff. Entirely perfect food and service.

You will gather from this that I am veritably eating and drinking my way through Australia state by state and am therefore becoming HUGE. There's only one solution as I see it - to burn the extra 4,000 calories per day that I'm consuming, I'll have to become a wet nurse and start breast feeding too......