IN REAL LIFE
It’s just past 9.30 on a Monday morning and Charlotte Ree has already made two chiffon cakes, mapo tofu and a master chicken stock. The cookbook author and marketing manager has taken annual leave to prepare a multi-course dinner for an intimate party of 10 – as permitted under the just-eased restrictions – and she’s barely halfway through her mammoth to-do list. Earlier, however, Ree was tackling a conundrum of a different kind. “You all reminded me of things I had so easily forgotten, but sorely missed … Physical touch, side-splitting laughter with friends,” Ree wrote on Instagram in response to a previous post outlining her vulnerability as restrictions in Sydney – where she resides solo – began to lift. “But I’m also torn. Torn between the beautiful, nurturing bubble of solitude
