I lived in London for four years back in, oh, the early 1800s, and I’d been back a few times since I moved home but not for about five years. I was pretty excited to head there on a work trip to LFW last month for a few days.

But this time I had a real ‘you know you’re old’ moment when instead of checking into my hotel and bailing straight for Topshop, or even Selfridges or Liberty, all I wanted to do was go to Graham & Greene, a homewares store in Ladbroke Grove whose stuff I’ve always lusted after in Brit house mags, and who - so annoyingly - don’t ship to Australia.

I wasn’t disappointed: it was all of my housey dreams come true. Except I realised once there that of course I still couldn’t bring much home. But it was totes inspiring and at least I got some good (cheap!) gypsy cushions to mix it up on a bit on the sofa.

Along with the holy trinity mentioned above - Topshop, Selfridges and especially Liberty (my happy place) - I remembered why London actually kills NY when it comes to shopping. And Sydney? Ptth. We’re just the Aldi of the shopping world.