So my wonderful husband, The Runner, gave me the best surprise for my birthday that I could ask for—The Mom came to visit with her best friend.  I think it’s safe to say that all three of us had a blast and there were many tears at the airport this morning (I cried like a two year old and nearly wrapped myself around my mom’s leg so she couldn’t leave).  I loved having her here and I think she enjoyed being here.

For me, the best part of having her here was seeing her interact with my friends and with The Runner- it’s really great to have all of my favorite people getting along and on the same continent.

For The Runner, I think he liked having her here because our house has NEVER been cleaner.  It’s like she bought stock in Mr. Clean on the way over- she cleaned our fridge until it sparkled, cleaned up our garden (and discarded all the ghosts of garden projects past), and organised nearly every plastic bag, Ziploc bag and bit of saran wrap that she could find in the kitchen drawers.  I’m sure she would have cleaned out our kitchen cabinets and alphabetise our spices as well but I did force her to go sightseeing.

For The Mom, it is clear what she loved the most about being here…. The Food.  I think she had calamari for at least 11 of the 16 days she was here.  She could probably give you a definitive ranking of calamari in Sydney if you asked her.

I made sure that she sampled as much of Sydney’s wonderful cuisine including Gelato Messina, Mr. Wong’s, Chin Chin and Huxtaburger in Melbourne, Temporada and Monster in Canberra, and Jazz City in Sydney—twice.

In the two weeks she was here, we ate at Jazz City BBQ twice—nearly the same number of times that I made dinner for her at home.  She absolutely LOVED it- both times.  She probably would have gone back a third time but we ran out of time.   She ate ribs, she had burgers, she had pecan pie.  She loved the BBQ sauce, and the potato salad, and especially the cornbread. Never mind the Opera House and Harbour Bridge.  I think Jazz City BBQ was her favourite place in Australia.  She’s already looking forward to her next visit back to Sydney- not to see me, but for more ribs.

I’m not surprised, since Jazz City is one of my favourite places to eat in Sydney and the older I get, the more I’m becoming my mother.  This isn’t a bad thing, because she’s getting much cooler the older she gets.  Well, she’s always been cool but I didn’t quite see it the same way when she was telling me to eat broccoli and clean my room growing up.   The older I get, the more I realise how similar we have become—or maybe we always were similar but I notice it more now.   It’s sort of like watching and listening to a smarter, more accomplished, and wiser version of myself…  I loved having her here!  I guess it only goes to show that the Apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree!