Sydney, you were a dream of warmth and ease. When I returned to wintry Melbourne, time collapsed – and the city was still romantic

‘Sydney – particularly in 2001 in its post-Olympics glow – was easy to fall in love with,’ Brigid Delaney writes. Photograph: Mark Evans/Getty Images

I went to a wedding in Sydney when I was 12, arriving from the gloomy and windswept south-west coast of Victoria, and even though it was only two days I never forgot it. First time on a plane, first time eating poached salmon, first time realising people could actually live like this, drenched in sunlight, homes right on the cliffs, goldilocks weather where you could be in the ocean before work and on weekends go sailing.

2001