Shiny Cement

My parents are here!

I was telling Nick last week that I couldn’t wait to just smell them.

He said that was weird and sweet at the same time.

6am Their flight lands

7am After customs, we meet them at the train gates and we’re quickly on our way into Circular Quay and The Rocks (That’s where their hotel is)

8am We drop off their luggage and head to Pancakes on the Rocks (It’s becoming a bit of a tradition to bring our newly arrived guests there for a meal)

9am We start walking around the city. My goal is to keep them up until around 7 pm (That’s 4 am their body clock time!) and they seem to be eager to take on the challenge.

We walk by the Opera House, through the Botanical Gardens, and then back to the hotel to get settled into the room, freshen up etc.

12:15 pm Jeff leaves for work and after relaxing a bit more in their room we head back into the city. I take them down George Street and to the QVB (Queen Victoria Building) where we stop for a snack. Then we head to Woolworth’s (our grocery store) so that Dad can pick up some vegemite (sick) for a friend of his back home.

2 pm We make our way to Hyde Park where we sit on a bench, talk and admire the view.

Knowing that around 2 or 3 they’ll start to hit a wall, I get them moving again

3 pm We walk over to St. Mary’s Cathedral to take a look around. The Cathedral is enormous and absolutely beautiful.

After, we make our way back toward The Rocks and stop at The Observer Hotel (It was the first pub I went to in Sydney, so I thought it’d be fun to have a drink there)

My Dad tries his first pint of Toohey’s New, which he seems to enjoy and my Mom and I both have a glass of wine.

We toast to them being in Australia and the “Trip of a Lifetime”

4 pm
Me: This is where it starts to get hard to stay awake
Dad: I’m telling you, I am fine! In fact, I’m going to be staying up til at least 10!
Mom: It’s 4 pm Ben, just wait a few hours

4:30 pm A quick stop at the Visitor Centre to pick up brochures in order to figure out what they want to see, where they want to go etc.

5 pm Back in the hotel room: Dad is in bed reading, Mom is sitting on couch looking through guide books

5:30 pm I look over and Mom is sleeping. I wake her up

5:45 pm I see Dad slowly dropping his book. Before I get the chance, Mom yells out, “See, he’s falling asleep too! What happened to 10 o’clock Ben?”

6 pm I tell them that I’ve tortured them enough. I’ll leave, and they can go to sleep now

I exit the building with the knowledge that they were probably asleep by the time I reached the bottom of the first set of stairs.


They understand now
I didn’t know until yesterday how much that meant

There is a fear in showing people the life that you have built for yourself, the place you have chosen

These are the two opinions that mean the most
So the stakes are quite high

But I could see it in their eyes
I could hear it in the little things
Exhausted yes, but true admirers of this place already

I needed it
Maybe as final confirmation
This is where I belong right now


And to hear it all again...

“We don’t want you walking home in the dark”

-It’s 6 pm
-I’ve been living on another continent for 3 months
-I’m an adult who is perfectly capable of navigating this city
-I do this walk every day

I missed them so much

It feels good to be under the umbrella of irrational worry again.