I was last in Sydney back in 2019.

I was scheduled to return to Australia and New Zealand for a few weeks in February/ March of 2020. In fact, I was within a hair's breadth of getting on the plane to go. But then, the pandemic happened, and the world closed down.

Until there is someday a better vaccine to actually prevent COVID, I doubt I'll be taking any more super long flights to such distant destinations in the foreseeable future. How sad. I so long to just have life back to how it used to be and be able to freely explore the world (near and far) again.

But 2023 is not 2019.

Well, at least, I do have memories... Gag!!! I never, ever remotely imaged that I would ever have to say this at such a young age. I truly expected to still be out there.

By the way, yes, I could fully straight my leg on the bar. But we were short of time. The official from the opera house & I were merely playing around for a very quick photo before heading down to the employee cafeteria for breakfast. I wanted something personal to be able to show my husband when I got back home. This was it. The photo has been missing for the past 4 years. But I'm currently in the process of reorganizing my business photo server and very recently came across it.

This photo is a reflection of how things were before COVID changed the world for so many of us. I truly enjoyed being a temporary insider wherever I went in the world; plus, I found great joy in working with the different people (or all nationalities) that made this possible. The above photo was taken near the end of a long, tiring, multi week trip. I miss my old life.