After more than 20 years living, loving and writing in Canberra, I spent my final night as I did my first

This is the last night when Canberra will be my permanent home.

I’ve spent it as I did my first, back in late 1993, alone in the same modest motel in the inner south (park anywhere, dinner until 8.30, free newspapers and checkout at 10am, sharp). There was bad stuff going on from a war I’d just visited, my personal life was a shambles and the only thing keeping me in journalism was the city I’d just arrived in.