As I waited at the El Alamein Memorial Fountain in Kings Cross today I marvelled at a couple of things: first, how beautiful the fountain is; and second, how clean The Cross is looking these days. I include the fountain in that too, by the way, noting the fountain lacked some of the odour it often has.

“What’s happening with The Bourbon?”, my mate asked me as we met, noticing the legendary Kings Cross venue had newspapers on the windows, looking very closed.

Later we wandered around The Cross for a bit, noting a number of changes as the area becomes more and more gentrified. “Oh that’s right”, I reminded myself, “It’s Pott’s Point these days… Kings Cross no longer exists… for real estate purposes anyway”.

We had lunch at Fratelli Fresh. He had the meatballs. I had the lingjuini. Both were excellent. And, as with every other time we’ve been there, the service was excellent, and our neighbours on the tables on either side were friendly and chatty.

A mid-afternoon visit to another friend included a bottle of sparkingly which we all enjoyed.

It’s no wonder that when I got home later this afternoon/evening, I was feeling a little exhausted. But at least the rain has stopped and we now have some vague semblance of Spring/Summer in Sydney.