Sydney has a frilly, seaweed-shaped coastline with the edge of the land dipping in and out around its many little coves. On a map I lost count at 28 beaches within a 30k radius of the city centre, and I was being lazy and not zooming in. It is very easy, as a result, to spend the days mooching on the sand and drinking coffee. Luckily we know a lot of people who live in Sydney and so we spend a lot of time drinking coffee around kitchen tables as well as on the sand. It’s a tough life.

It’s been busier here than on the other side. Western Australia was a chilled, peaceful and intimate time for us three, with two small stop-offs to see people and nothing else on the menu, but the East coast has had a different pace. There’s the friend who is local and who I met in London through work. Another set of friends is just visiting, like us, and they are mutual friends of the local one and we always visit her at the same time, for some reason.

Then there’s B, my family school friend who gave us a lovely Christmas Day, and who’s smallest is my god-daughter. Being with her is like being at home. Then there’s another friend from Singapore who is visiting as well so we’ve seen her a few times. Then there are two cousins, one from each side of the family, and we’ve had lunch and dinner with them too. Of course the local friends all have other friends who we meet up with when we’re in town. It’s a bit Singaporean like that. Or London. Home-ish, anyway. The confusing map of who is where and when got so tangled today that we ended up sitting at one end of exactly the same beach as our friends without managing to meet up. I only know where they were sitting because I saw the pic on FB.

Our first trip here was ten years ago, then six years ago, and each time we collect more connections. We’ve had all sorts of times here: road trips with friends, weddings and birthdays, memorials and, if I unscrew the lid on one of our most private memory stores, a loss for us right here in this town that re-opened when we landed and will close over when we go, turning to sepia again and returning to the back of my mind, where it is probably best kept. It has been nice to take it out and examine it again, though a little sad. The pull and the connection of all these things is always here, and maybe that’s what makes this place so very special to me and Mr PC.

We are on the other side of the world from home but it’s all very familiar, and it’s reminded me a bit of what it’s like being back in the UK. I like to think I don’t need home comforts in Singapore but the truth is that if you are going to stock the supermarkets with familiar stuff then I will probably cash in. As a result I am going out tomorrow to get stupid things like tea bags and conditioner and I’m also having a cut and colour just because I can. It’s not that, though, is it? It’s having familiar people around me with whom I have a history, to whom I don’t need to explain myself and who I simply just miss. Our two-day extension that will allow us to stay here for New Year’s Eve is exciting but I fear may just be prolonging the reconnection with reality.

I’m making it all sound stressed and busy but it’s anything but, it is relaxed and happy. We are chilled, chubby, slightly unfit, but peaceful. I’ve ditched the coursework and found my brain again – my one, not the museum’s, mine. Mr PC has discovered ocean swimming and a passion for cliffside houses, thanks to the amazing one we have been allowed to stay in (a house-swap with a family who’s home is so lovely that it’s really made the trip).

I’m getting better at goodbyes these days and if anything these trips of ours teach me that the world is small. I want to go to Melbourne next. I might persuade some of these lovelies to come south with me; B already sounds keen. I’ve checked flights, though, and they are expensive so perhaps my new year resolution needs to be: Get A Job.