Another Reunion

A 4.30am alarm can only be worth something truly exciting. Something that I think fits that definition? Seeing your sister after seven months apart.

When my alarm went off at 4.30am - a small buzz on my watch, so as not to disturb the other people in my hostel dorm - I immediately checked on Grace's flight on Flight Radar, to see if it was still on track. Sure, I was excited, but if I was to discover it was an hour delayed, I'd take the extra 60 minutes sleep. However, it was expected fifteen minutes early! So I jumped out of bed - gently off the ladder of my top bunk, trying to keep my steps light - and raced to get ready. The night before, I had gotten all the things I needed that morning ready to go. I didn't need a lot, but I'd promised to bring Grace a towel so she could shower at the airport. It was the first thing I did when I'd gotten through the border in Perth back in January, and had restored me in the slightest possible way to feeling somewhat comfortable. Of course, I also recycled the sign that I had brought when picking up my parents a month prior.

Not that Grace even saw it, because as soon as she came through the automatic doors of Brisbane's international arrivals, I threw it, along with my phone, into my bag so that I could run to meet her. We hugged, in tears. I don't think I said anything for an entire minute. I'm a writer, but sometimes there are no words.

Because Grace had landed at 4.55am, it was still nowhere near 7am when she'd showered and we were searching for the correct exit. So occupied in conversation, we went up and down escalators and elevators with no clear goal in sight. But it didn't matter, we had hours ahead of us. When we eventually located the Uber pick up area, thanks to a friendly staff member on the other side of the terminal, the sun was rising and the sky was alight with beautiful colours.

We took an Uber to the hostel we would be staying in, wanting to drop off Grace's bags, not realising the reception wouldn't open for over an hour. So we took a bus to the hostel I was checking out of and stored all our bags there together.

Our only goal for the day, was to keep Grace awake until a reasonable time. We agreed on 7pm as our target. Any later would be a bonus. So we headed into the West End.

There, we took a wander, nowhere in particular, just chatting. Of course we've kept in contact over the past 7 months, but at the same time there was too much to ever catch up on. At 9am we made our way to Morning After to have breakfast with some of my friends who were living nearby. There, Grace had her first ever coffee - a (weak) oat mocha. The first step on her way to a great Australian coffee. The food was tasty too, and it was really nice to introduce Grace to some of my new friends. After eating, we wandered a little more in some of West End's shops, before saying goodbye to the others and heading to somewhere more familiar.

Like me, Gracie remembered South Bank's iconic purple flowers, the ferris wheel, and the man-made beach as iconic childhood landmarks. It doesn't matter that to some people these are minor parts of the area, or in the case of the beach, somewhere people turn their noses up at. To us, this area is symbolic of having returned home.

We walked through these familiar sights to GOMA, where we explored some of the free art, before heading into the art gallery. There we were able to take part in the art by doing our own drawings, which was a peaceful but stimulating activity. As time wore on though, we both began to feel drowsy and hungry, so we headed out to grab a snack and soft drink that would fuel our afternoon.

After a relax on the grass, we headed back to pick up our luggage and transport it to our new hostel. There, we waited for an excruciating while as their system was 'down'. We popped out to pick up some groceries and eventually were given keys and a room number. In the ten bed dorm, we chatted with our new roommates as we got settled in. As late afternoon bled into evening, we decided to make a simple, early dinner, eat, and head to bed. Grace even made it past 7pm.