A Guide to Love, Loss and Desperation

What do you get when you throw someone living in a third world country a ten day pass into hedonistic heaven (Sydney) which covers three festive events of significant magnitude - a wedding, a birthday and Christmas?

One very well-fed, well-liqoured, well-loved feeling little girl (yes I can still call myself this at the age of 28) is what.

The highlight of my return to Oz was definitely the wedding between Amy and Jono which I was privileged enough to be part of as bridesmaid. In true Lyrian style I dragged the very last guts out of the night and finally jumped (ok, sort of half scrambled, half crawled and was half pushed) into a taxi at 5am the next morning (and the taxi driver used his metre without me asking!!).

Other than the nuptials, I caught up with my nearest and dearest, and must give a shout out now to my family and friends – thank you very much for all the gifts, meals, hugs, food (mum and dad have yet to see how bare their pantry is), and time you gave me. Love youze all (oh gosh – I’m even cringing at that one).

Here is what I looked like when I turned 28 (with mum, dad and Kara, my sister

Ok – so that’s the love bit over.

Now for the loss and desperation bits.

Between Sydney and here I’ve realised I’ve left behind:

Half of my swimmers, my fancy shampoo, an ‘Easy Listening’ CD made for me, and two packets of fair trade plunger coffee. The bit which worries me the most is that I haven’t yet made it back to the gong to unpack properly so I think I could be just scratching the surface of things lost. So, now it’s time for me to put on my best pleading face and ask for people to please please please post any of these things to me when they get the chance. I will e mail around my home address soon.

And the desperation…

Tomorrow is Election Day in Bangladesh and there’s a ban on transport, a curfew, a jamming of the mobile phone network, and four foreigners arriving in Chittagong with bags full of food and other spoils (mmm basil, rosemary, thyme, olive oil, smarties, oregano...) who need to spend the following few days bringing in the New Year firmly inside the walls of my apartment while hoping the world outside is going on as peacefully as it was a few days before.

For those of you who want to follow the election excitement, I think your best bet would be BBC World website, or the local The Daily Star (www.thedailystar.net) newspaper (though it does make Rupert Murdoch’s approach to media look quite liberal and balanced in comparison). Fingers crossed there will be little written about it all as that would indicate everything is going along quite peachy.

And my last little bit of desperation – this is what could be my last cocktail for ten months looked like. They really do look pretty and tasty and indulgent even when empty, don’t they?

Credits: It would be remiss of me not to give some air time for a big 'cheers mate, I owe you one' to both Shaun and Chris who dealt with my cancelled flight and all the flow on arrangements which were required to get me from Sydney to Dhaka so masterfully. I'm one very grateful (and safe and sound) girl.