May I Have This Dance?

Sydney and I do not dance well together.  Indeed, on occasion I’m not even sure if we are at the right venue let alone dancing a rhythmical & passionate tango.  It is a place I have visited & longed to enjoy, & though I have been engaged & drawn into many adventures there,  I simply cannot hear the music, the dance floor is slippery, & even if I follow the instructions on youtube, I just can’t seem to learn the right steps, in the right order, at the right time... oh... & there’s that bit where I always stumble & fall - like the awkward girl at the high school prom in one of those teen rom-com movies ...you know, the one who can’t walk in those 6 inch heels that all the other girls (& on occasion guys) can run in (Incidentally, the latter is more likely to be a European art-house film on existentialism or something like that).  It is in Sydney more than anywhere that I have travelled in this world, that I am most aware that I do not belong, that I am an outsider with the wrong travel guide.   I do not & never could deny its beauty, the grandeur of its magnificent harbour punctuated by a stunning bridge & wonderful cobble stoned history.....but its soul is hidden from me & so, on this adventure I have taken on (with the aid of a fellow adventurer/partner in crime), a new approach.
 
I recommend beginning the day with a champagne breakfast.  Compliment the sweet bubbles of fizz with sumptuous food, exceptional company & much laughter – throw in a waiter who recognises you have no superiority complex & extend that breakfast to brunch.  Glide across the harbour & twirl your way from the ferry terminal to an accidental laze and lye around bar.  Take a selfie that includes 3 of your fingers and less than half of your head.  Be adventurous – order the cocktail you’ve never had before, sit along the water’s edge gazing at an icon amidst a crowd of “we are here but not from here” tourists ....watch them come & go ..... a second drink.
 
The afternoon drifts by & evening is soon to arrive ... a pre-adventure glass of wine followed by user friendly tequila & it’s time to laugh & leap through ‘rushing to get here and there’ crowds drinking in the texture & contrasts offered by the extraordinary light festival VIVID.      
 
Walls leap about us, ideas are thrown around us, colour fills a canvas that is air.  We breath in the light and dark, peer around the shadows, & dance amid the shades of imagination that decorate the sidewalk we gallop, slide, slink & slowly wander along.  We are tipsy, intoxicated, smiling & laughing our way back to a hotel... we are still outsiders, but tonight we are one of many & with the edge of being ‘lost’ in Sydney taken away .....
 

I do not belong in Sydney, I never will .... but I am happy I have ‘dropped by’ again – VIVID was worth it.