Reflecting on Life
Old Stomping Ground
anemore's South African turned heads like owls. She's extremely attractive, has porn star body and dresses to show it off. She brings out the sexy side of a South African accent, loudly saying interesting and scandalously funny things. And when you sit down and talk to her, she's actually really lovely as well. She emigrated to Australia from Cape Town... she didn't know all that much about Johannesburg and Durban, the cities I'll most likely be visiting. But it was delightful talking to her anyhow. It was a fun night in general, letting my hair down with fun, fetish-dressed, sexually aberrant people, who stood out even in the Townie pub in Newtown. I relived the social aspects of my BDSMing days.
It seems Newtown has become even more queer, probably because Darlinghurst, the traditional Gay Mecca, has become less so. It's nice to be in a neighbourhood that isn't plastered with rainbow flags and pink Australia flags and still see plenty of public displays of same-sex affection, particularly women, but plenty of opposite-sex couples too. Maybe we can finally be queer in Sydney without it automatically making a political statement. And the yuppie element that moved in five years or so ago seems to have died won a bit too. Or maybe they've all just flocked to the Bank Hotel, a huge pub that was one of my favourites until it went 'upmarket', leaving all the other venues open to the kinds of crowds it had when I lived here.
Relaxation and reflection... this time for sure!
The last day or two I've finally, finally had some time to relax and reflect on life. On Friday evening, after a nice ferry trip back to my parents' place, I skipped out to go bushwalking at a local reserve (the Eric Mobbs Reserve, in case you're interested). Since it was dusking, I was the only person there, so I was able to sit on a rock and meditate, despite scores of screeching cockatoos and laughing kookaburras. I reflected on recent times, my love life, a lot of thoughts that have been churning at the back of my mind for two months, and basically checked in with myself.
As I wrote a week or two ago, life has been flat out. The accident took a lot out of me but I still managed to keep up with the medical system and paying special attention to work. Then I got sick, so some things fell by the wayside: I had to cancel dates with celerypie and laughingstone and I almost had to cancel my flight to Sydney. Travelling with hopeforyou has been wonderful and it gave us an opportunity for some much overdue talking and just fun times together, but I was on the go pretty much the whole time. And late this week there was all the drama about her being pulled off the plane in New Zealand-thankfully lots of wonderful friends, lovers and strangers reached out to help. But yeah, so far this year's been quite challenging.
Despite that, when I reflect on things, I find life is good. I was able to shed some tension in the bush the other night-there was a lot of it-and then I realised what a fantastic place I was in, even though it was just another reserve. And as much as I was grumbling about the wintery February when I arrived, March jumped straight back to brilliant late summer weather. And while I love it here, I'm really looking forward to getting back to San Francisco and seeing people there. I miss my lovers, I miss my comfortable bed and stereo, and I miss having everything in one place. Couch surfing tires me after a while.
Here and There
Normally when I arrive in Australia, I have an overwhelming feeling of things being wonderful and that I really want to move back, and then I mellow out and start missing California and I realise I can be happy in either place. I went the other way this time: this is the third time I've been here in 15 months so there wasn't that overwhelming 'good to be back' feeling-it was like coming home after a daytrip. I found that a lot of the stress removal I experience when I arrive here has more to do with time off work-the near-fulltime telecommuting I've been doing has taken away the sense of holiday freedom. And the crappy February weather, and the stuffup around Mardi Gras, and the fact that I was still sick combined to made my arrival downright depressing. I'm glad I'm over that, and again, I'm happy in either place. I sorely miss things no matter which side of the Pacific I'm on, but I can make it work, especially when I have a space that I can organise and decorate to my preference.
Still, whenever I think of having lived away from Australia for nearly all of a decade, I realise I'm overdue for coming back. Last time I moved back to Sydney I got poached by a company in Malaysia, and I certainly wasn't going to pass an opportunity like that up. But I just plain miss home, and I want to live here again for a year or two, in a year or two. After that, who knows? The fact that I'll be turning 40 around then, though, is daunting. It feels like it was only a year or two ago when I was turning 30 in a town outside Amsterdam, miserable because hopeforyou had to fly out that morning and none of my Amsterdam friends came out to celebrate with me. I made up for it with my thirty-three-and-a-third, but crikey, time's flown.
Anyhow, me-time will be a priority over the coming months, both here in Australia and back in the U.S. I'll be catching up with friends most of the time I'm here, of course, but I want to go for a wander along the coast at some point, and spend some more writing private journal entries on my parents' swinging chair in the back yard, surrounded by birds and lizards and other natural things. My massage therapist from work turns out to live right around the corner from me in San Francisco so I've been going to see her rather than trekking to hot springs lately, but hot spring retreats are a necessity for my lifestyle-I went every six weeks in the first half of last year and it did a world of good. I need to do that again.
anemore's South African turned heads like owls. She's extremely attractive, has porn star body and dresses to show it off. She brings out the sexy side of a South African accent, loudly saying interesting and scandalously funny things. And when you sit down and talk to her, she's actually really lovely as well. She emigrated to Australia from Cape Town... she didn't know all that much about Johannesburg and Durban, the cities I'll most likely be visiting. But it was delightful talking to her anyhow. It was a fun night in general, letting my hair down with fun, fetish-dressed, sexually aberrant people, who stood out even in the Townie pub in Newtown. I relived the social aspects of my BDSMing days.
It seems Newtown has become even more queer, probably because Darlinghurst, the traditional Gay Mecca, has become less so. It's nice to be in a neighbourhood that isn't plastered with rainbow flags and pink Australia flags and still see plenty of public displays of same-sex affection, particularly women, but plenty of opposite-sex couples too. Maybe we can finally be queer in Sydney without it automatically making a political statement. And the yuppie element that moved in five years or so ago seems to have died won a bit too. Or maybe they've all just flocked to the Bank Hotel, a huge pub that was one of my favourites until it went 'upmarket', leaving all the other venues open to the kinds of crowds it had when I lived here.
Relaxation and reflection... this time for sure!
The last day or two I've finally, finally had some time to relax and reflect on life. On Friday evening, after a nice ferry trip back to my parents' place, I skipped out to go bushwalking at a local reserve (the Eric Mobbs Reserve, in case you're interested). Since it was dusking, I was the only person there, so I was able to sit on a rock and meditate, despite scores of screeching cockatoos and laughing kookaburras. I reflected on recent times, my love life, a lot of thoughts that have been churning at the back of my mind for two months, and basically checked in with myself.
As I wrote a week or two ago, life has been flat out. The accident took a lot out of me but I still managed to keep up with the medical system and paying special attention to work. Then I got sick, so some things fell by the wayside: I had to cancel dates with celerypie and laughingstone and I almost had to cancel my flight to Sydney. Travelling with hopeforyou has been wonderful and it gave us an opportunity for some much overdue talking and just fun times together, but I was on the go pretty much the whole time. And late this week there was all the drama about her being pulled off the plane in New Zealand-thankfully lots of wonderful friends, lovers and strangers reached out to help. But yeah, so far this year's been quite challenging.
Despite that, when I reflect on things, I find life is good. I was able to shed some tension in the bush the other night-there was a lot of it-and then I realised what a fantastic place I was in, even though it was just another reserve. And as much as I was grumbling about the wintery February when I arrived, March jumped straight back to brilliant late summer weather. And while I love it here, I'm really looking forward to getting back to San Francisco and seeing people there. I miss my lovers, I miss my comfortable bed and stereo, and I miss having everything in one place. Couch surfing tires me after a while.
Here and There
Normally when I arrive in Australia, I have an overwhelming feeling of things being wonderful and that I really want to move back, and then I mellow out and start missing California and I realise I can be happy in either place. I went the other way this time: this is the third time I've been here in 15 months so there wasn't that overwhelming 'good to be back' feeling-it was like coming home after a daytrip. I found that a lot of the stress removal I experience when I arrive here has more to do with time off work-the near-fulltime telecommuting I've been doing has taken away the sense of holiday freedom. And the crappy February weather, and the stuffup around Mardi Gras, and the fact that I was still sick combined to made my arrival downright depressing. I'm glad I'm over that, and again, I'm happy in either place. I sorely miss things no matter which side of the Pacific I'm on, but I can make it work, especially when I have a space that I can organise and decorate to my preference.
Still, whenever I think of having lived away from Australia for nearly all of a decade, I realise I'm overdue for coming back. Last time I moved back to Sydney I got poached by a company in Malaysia, and I certainly wasn't going to pass an opportunity like that up. But I just plain miss home, and I want to live here again for a year or two, in a year or two. After that, who knows? The fact that I'll be turning 40 around then, though, is daunting. It feels like it was only a year or two ago when I was turning 30 in a town outside Amsterdam, miserable because hopeforyou had to fly out that morning and none of my Amsterdam friends came out to celebrate with me. I made up for it with my thirty-three-and-a-third, but crikey, time's flown.
Anyhow, me-time will be a priority over the coming months, both here in Australia and back in the U.S. I'll be catching up with friends most of the time I'm here, of course, but I want to go for a wander along the coast at some point, and spend some more writing private journal entries on my parents' swinging chair in the back yard, surrounded by birds and lizards and other natural things. My massage therapist from work turns out to live right around the corner from me in San Francisco so I've been going to see her rather than trekking to hot springs lately, but hot spring retreats are a necessity for my lifestyle-I went every six weeks in the first half of last year and it did a world of good. I need to do that again.