Back in Sydney for a few days and a chance to catch up with friends, family and Oscar (my Turkish personal trainer who’s more than happy to put me through it in the building’s fitness centre).

Saturday evening dinner with good friends David & Margaret at Double Bay’s trendiest restaurant, Margaret. At the 6:30 seating, every one of the many tables both inside and outside is occupied by Eastern Suburbs worthies. By bizarre coincidence, the occupant of the table adjacent to ours is a wealthy client of David & Margaret’s and who they’d just the day before frantically finished a project for, the end of a very harried and stressful four weeks or so. Much hugging and introducing. The client and his wife’s companions, another prominent Sydneysider and his wife (?). Margaret’s service is great - haven’t been to a restaurant with this many wait staff since before the pandemic. The creative menu is enormous, but the open kitchen with as many if not more hands than front of house and overseen by Margaret’s owner, famous Sydney celebrity chef Neil Perry, seems to have no problem coping. 8:25 we’re told that our “seating” is coming to an end but that we just have enough time for dessert. Sure enough, the waitstaff are frantically clearing and re-setting tables for tjhe 8:30 seating already lined up outside the door!

Apparently very difficult to get a reservation at Margaret at anytime but particularly on a Saturday evening. I’d never heard of Margaret but had picked it out of a list online of interesting looking restaurants in the right part of town. And it just happens to share a name with our good friend Margaret, so I’d thought it was an appropriate choice (the restaurant Margaret, is named for Chef Perry’s mother)

So that’s twice in less than two weeks (the first time being at the Sydney Institute annual dinner) we’re mingling with everybody who’s anybody in the Harbour City…..