Tourists

Our babysitter is back from London armed with a collection of digital photos she can’t explain.

“That’s erm…”

“St Paul’s Cathedral” I suggested

“Yeah, and that one…I don’t have a clue, I took it from one of those open-topped buses”

“It’s the Houses of Parliament” I said, lingering for a minute on the picture to admire the grand stately buildings in our capital city.

I’d forgotten how impressive London is, how austere. I’ve got so used to the architecture in Sydney that it doesn’t register any more, but when I stand back and think about it, at least half of the buildings here look like something from a film-set façade, some sort of wild-west movie meets Crocodile Dundee and I can think of only three or four that could even begin to rival any of these grand old ladies of London. The Opera House doesn’t count.

“Probably. Look I don’t know what half of these buildings are but I had the best time ever. I want to go and live there for a year; the people are so friendly and laid-back compared to here in Australia”.

Her last comment was unexpected; I thought it was supposed to be the other way round? I thought the Aussies were famed for their laid-back no worries attitude to life, I thought we were all buttoned up and stiff and foppy like Hugh Grant?

“And Scotland was awesome” she continued, tapping away at her laptop to reveal a whole new folder of photos taken from some sort of boat on some sort of loch, though this time neither of us had any idea where it was she’d been because these lochs all look the same and every single shot looked like something from Take the High Road. All I could think was how she must have driven up the M6 and come within a whisker of our house and been closer to my washing machine than I’ve been in almost eight months.

“And you went to Ireland?”

“Yeah, I think so” she replied.

“And what did your parents make of these places? What did they think of London?”

“They didn’t see it, they went to Sidmouth instead” she said.

I don’t know who’s responsible for promoting Sidmouth to the Australians, but they’ve done an incredible job.