0Melbourne, Australia
17th September 2007
A search for the intangible
There's nothing more likely to motivate me to write, and by that I mean plunging headlong into my fiction writing rather than my journal, than a sudden crush of job interviews. As I sit at the airport and wait for my flight back to Canberra, I am watching a giant orange sun sink beneath the horizon. I've found myself thinking about the past several days and what I've done in that time, I find myself facing two inescapable truths: I am not doing all with my life that I could or should; and I am experiencing something of a disconnect from my profession.
0Warrnambool, Australia
16th September 2007
...and the word was Preparation
I am back at my parents’ place for the weekend for a final catch up with family before I head off overseas again. In two weeks I fly out of the country, bound for Peru. I spent several years in Melbourne and then in Canberra, researching the places in Latin America that sounded interesting enough for my planned three year sojourn and plotting a course of travels and activities to the nearest day. It’s been over a year since I looked at any of that information, and as my departure for at least part of that journey becomes imminent, I am feeling totally unprepared for the trip.
0Canberra, Australia
6th September 2007
A year to forget
In a few hours, it will be exactly twelve months since I flew in across the dry plains of Spain to land in Madrid. As this date has approached, I've become increasingly aware that my memories of the place are fading, even though I revisit somewhere from my trip on an almost daily basis. As my Spanish experience fades into the background, and a new Peruvian one draws closer, I still have the same burning desire to return to Spain as I did on the day I left.
0Canberra, Australia
1st September 2007
Spring has sprung
When I lived in Melbourne, I was never especially conscious of the shifts in season. There was a marked difference between Summer (hot and windy) and Winter (Wet, cloudy and windy), but Spring and Autumn were largely forgotten seasons. I'm not sure if it was because I'd been there for so long I'd become immune, or if the changes were not so dramatic as in Canberra. I think probably the latter.
1Canberra, Australia
19th July 2007
Ignition sequence started
After 18 months of tinkering with Symphony and never having enough time to fully apply myself to learning the details of the technologies behind it, I came to the conclusion it would be best to hire someone to do that heavy lifting for me. Today, after almost another year of back and forth, I’ve been able to flick the switch.
0Canberra, Australia
22nd June 2007
The rule for making a wish
In the years when I used to have birthday cakes, or more to the point, birthday cakes with candles, I was always told to make a wish before blowing out the candles, but to never tell anyone what the wish was. Indeed in every case where we were granted an opportunity to make a wish, the standard rule of thumb was to never tell anyone about it, or it won't come true.
0Canberra, Australia
5th June 2007
On the move again
On returning to Canberra, I held out some hope of being able to stand still for a while, catch my breath, and finish all the nagging little unfinished jobs I’ve had hanging over me for the past twelve months. Alas, yet another house move has been forced upon me, and I am once again caught in the whirlwind of relocation.
0Canberra, Australia
27th May 2007
A conga line of arseholes
There’s something about this return trip to Canberra that is souring the taste of the second bight, in that I seem to be meeting a disproportionate number of smug, self-serving people who think it’s ok to screw others around and treat them as inferior or somehow undeserving of respect.
0Canberra, Australia
10th May 2007
Rewind
It’s fast approaching a year since I left Canberra, and as this anniversary approaches I am finding myself increasingly feeling as though I am reliving the past twelve months, just from a slightly skewed perspective. Once again I am applying for jobs halfway around the world, wondering if any of them will even give me a nibble, let alone reel me in.
0Canberra, Australia
20th April 2007
Back to reality
There’s nothing like a dose of reality intruding on one’s life to stop the navel gazing that can sometimes distract from what’s truly important. When I went to Spain, a number of people warned me I shouldn’t keep my wallet in my back pocket, as it was likely to get pinched. The wallet lasted the distance there, however its days were numbered nonetheless, although Canberra would not have been a place I’d have described as one to be careful with your valuables.