"Do you ever worry about what it does to you?" Hannah asked Sacha. "All this tea?"

"How do you mean?"

"I mean - to your bladder. 'Cause you have to get up and keep going to the toilet. Do you ever worry it might be doing you, like, permanent damage?"

"To my bladder?"

"Yeah."

"Well . . . it's a diuretic. Alcohol's the same. Do you ever worry about what that's gonna do to you?"

"No" Hannah replied. "Usually when I'm drinking I'm too drunk to remember to think about it."

"What about other times?"

"Other times?"

"Never mind."

Hannah poured some tea into her cup. "There was a thing in the 'paper about it on the weekend" she said. "About bladder control."

"Sounds fascinating" Sacha said.

"It was pretty interesting, actually. Had some useful advice. I can go find it if you want -"

"No, that's okay" Sacha insisted. "Hang on - since when do you reading the 'paper?"

"I do!" Hannah said defensively. "Sometimes."

Sacha poured herself a cup. She'd need to go to the toilet soon, she could feel it. "Why are we talking about bladder control?" she wondered out loud.

"We can talk about something else if you want" Hannah said. "State of the world. Politics."

"How do you like Labor's chances later this year?" Sacha asked enthusiastically.

"Oh god, I wasn't serious about that!" Hannah complained. "You don't actually want to talk about that, do you?"

"I'm from Canberra" Sacha pointed out. "It's what we talk about."

"God" Hannah grimaced. "Remind me never to go there." Sacha didn't say anything, but Hannah instantly felt the need to apologise: "Oh god, sorry Sacha, I know you don't like people bagging your home town. That's cool. I'm sorry for being such a bitch."

"Don't worry about it" replied Sacha.

"How come you vote Labor, anyway?" Hannah asked her.

"What do you mean? I'm from Canberra!" Sacha looked at Hannah's blank face. "It's one of the safest Labor towns in the country, Hannah."

"You're shitting me!"

"No, I am not shitting you."

"Huh." Hannah took this in, but then shook her head. "God, seriously. This is the most boring conversation topic ever. Can we talk about something else instead? Like the weather?"

"You reckon the drought's gonna break later in the year?"

"Okay, that's it" said Hannah, "I've gotta go to the toilet."