You're not a pirate, Steve

You know what I hate the most about seeing people for the first time in a year? Neither of us know what to say. The question I'm most frequently asked is, "So, how was your trip?" "Good," I reply. How am I supposed to sum up an entire year in another country in one or two words? Then there's this awkward silence, and the other person says, "Well it's good to have you back," and I make some throwaway comment about how I enjoy seeing familiar faces. Rinse and repeat. I hate it.

I had lunch with Miriam at the City Cafe Bakery yesterday, and the pizza was as good as I expected. I've never had a chance to have one of their crazy pizza lunches before, so I ordered the chicken, pesto and roasted pepper which was mad tasty. Miriam spent September to November of last year travelling around Europe with her family (Europe, Italy, France, the usual), and went to France again during the summer. She's the first person my age that I've come across who can relate to my year away in Australia. Whenever either of us mentions "When I was diving in Fiji" or "Ripe Egyptian mangoes are soooo juicy," we aren't name-dropping. It's just us relating a story, but it sounds like we're lording it over everyone else. It was a fun conversation, because we were actually interested in each others' stories.