Summer in Sydney and that time I definitely didn’t meet the pope

What does Sydney mean to you?

I moved back to Sydney this year after spending a few years in the US. On the long flight home, I had a lot of time to think about everything I was returning to: family and old friends; the comfort of a familiar accent; the buzz of cicadas; getting dumped at the beach; the mozzies, and the bushfires, and the terror of getting attacked by a magpie; the birds, which are everywhere and outrageously beautiful.

Circling a sparkling Sydney Harbour on the final approach to the airport never gets old. This city really is a stunner.

Earliest memory of summer in Sydney?

I was perched up a tree near my house, hoping to catch a glimpse of the pope. Let me explain.

I was barely in primary school when I heard Pope John Paul II was coming to Sydney – to the racecourse — and he would be riding in his bullet-proof popemobile. Awesome. I wanted to see that.

Pope John Paul II in his famous popemobile. Young Megan did not see this.Credit: AP

It was on the verge of summer, and on the day of the papal visit I walked down the end of my street, climbed up a big tree and sat waiting for His Holiness to arrive. There weren’t many people there, I thought. Maybe they hadn’t heard about the popemobile.

As the pope greeted thousands at Randwick Racecourse in 1986, young Megan was up a tree on Racecourse Road, more than 60 kilometres away in Sydney’s outer suburbs, thinking the pope was about to drive a bullet-proof vehicle down her street.

I eventually climbed down from the tree and trudged home, but I did see a photo of the popemobile in the paper the next day. It was pretty cool.

When the weather gets hot I …

Get in the water. A sunrise swim across the bay at Bondi after one of those stinking hot summer nights, stopping midway to tread water and, if you’re lucky, watching the sky blaze an almighty orange, is perfection.

A sunrise swim at Bondi, before it gets busy, is a summer highlight.Credit: Brook Mitchell

First place you take visitors?

Jump on a train to Circular Quay station, which must surely have won some award for best train station view in the world, then board a ferry to anywhere. Magical.

Favourite cafe?

Bar Lucio, a little Italian coffee bar on a side street in Kensington.

Best summer food?

Eating a cold mango on a hot day. Cherries. Messina – which also qualifies as the best autumn, winter and spring food.

I know it’s summer when I smell …

The barbie being fired up in the backyard.

My favourite summer song is …

The Wide World of Sports theme song. As a kid, that song always meant a summer afternoon lazing around watching cricket with my brothers, probably fighting like hell and annoying our parents, and when the day’s play was over, heading out into the backyard to whack around a few balls.

Worst thing about summer?

Walking into the midday sun and feeling your skin sizzle. I’ll be the one in a sombrero, a skivvy and slathered in SPF 100, thanks very much.

I also recently had an encounter with a huntsman crawling around on the inside of my car. Ugh. Just no.

My closest bolthole is ….

Centennial Park, running around the trail on the park’s perimeter. You can find yourself alone in the trees and forget for a few minutes that you’re in a city of millions.

Guilty pleasure?

Messina makes a second entry.

What aspect of life in Sydney would you change and why, and what do you want to always stay the same?

More bike lanes please! I’ve lived in Melbourne, New York and London and found each of those places easier and safer to navigate on two wheels than Sydney. I realise I’ll probably get some reader feedback about this ...

See everything else on the list above for things that make Sydney a pretty great place to live.

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