It is strange being a visitor in your home country.
For the first time I was visiting friends and family with no where to go home to at the end of the day. As a result I made a poor tourist in my home town. Having made no itinerary, just assuming that places would be seen and friends visited during the course of the month. December is a bad month to have that assumption, as people were either heading off somewhere for Christmas or engaged in the round of Christmas parties hosted by work or family. My plan for next time is to let everyone know ahead of time and see as many people at once as I can. Next time Rusty will be with me also so there will be introductions as well as catch up.
One thing he is looking forward to is Bendigo. We would Skype each morning and night while we were apart, one of us getting up and the other going to bed, exchanging the daylight in opposite hemispheres. I would sit on the front porch in Long Gully and extoll him with the bustling activities in Truscott St. For example, “Ooohh, there's a truck, its a white truck, its slowing down. It might stop, nup there it goes, its gone round the corner now. Wait look, there's a car now. Its pulled in across the road and now someone has gotten out. Its a man, he's got a box. A big box. A fisher price something. He's taking it in the house. (Ten minutes later) He's out again, must have left the box”
The most exciting day was bin day, the garbage man would come and I would give Rusty a detailed commentary on his ability to collect the bins from the side of the road, empty them and then put them down again with the bins remaining upright. The garbage man was 0 for 20 in terms of keeping them upright. It was not his finest hour. Sometimes this is all you have to amuse yourself in the bright lights of Bendigo. This was affirmed when one morning, while out surveying the scene I came to know that I myself was being surveyed. A neighbour, also engaged in the sport of curtain twitching had caught me in the act. Awkward indeed.
Our next visit will be in April during the Easter festivities so he'll get to see Bendigo at its best, with the concerts, parades and when Sun Long comes out. Its the largest Chinese dragon in the southern hemisphere don't you know, and guess where it lives, that's right, Bendigo!
In my jaunts down to Melbourne I somehow expected more to have changed, a year is long enough to see some change and yet it felt as though I'd never left. I'd meant to get to the Queen Vic Market but never got the chance. I did get to have coffee in Carlton one day when Yvette and I wandered down there with Miki and that was definitely a bonus. I also got to the Gisborne Market on a Sunday and bought Rusty some lambs wool moccasins. I have indoctrinated him into the world of moccies which is handy considering we live in a climate where they actually make sense.
Time slipped away while I was in oz, punctuated by spider encounters and catch ups with friends and relatives, the former, something I never look forward too as much as the later.
Before I knew it, the time to return had arrived. And while I missed Rusty and was looking forward to seeing him it was hard leaving everyone behind again. This is the thing about having moved to the other side of the world, no matter where I'm going I'm always leaving someone. The flight back was decidedly easier than the flight there though and I put it down to two things, one, the squishy neck pillow that I bought at a newsagents near the boarding gate after repeatedly seeing other people walk past with them. I can be easily gotten at through repetition. My neck pillow is green and I call him Kermit. And two, a couple of doses of Valerian, a herbal sleep aid. Its probably the first time I've ever been able to sleep on the plane. I slept off and on during my flight to Abu Dhabi, with another two hours in transit I made an important discovery, they have showers at Abu Dhabi airport right near the departure gates. Douglas Adams was right about bringing a towel. Next time I definitely will. They also have these glass cubes to contain the smokers who cant get outside while they're in transit but need to indulge there addiction. Never have so many miserable people been displayed in such a fashion.
I wont sicken you with the details of Rusty and my reunion at the airport, save to say that he had grown a Grisly Adams beard and there was lots of smiling and hugging.
By the time we got back to my place I was nearly delirious and was falling asleep mid sentence.
I had one day off and then was back to work but there were really only a couple of days to work before new years anyway. New years was freezing, we hung out with friends at Russ' and I made a chocolate swirl cheesecake. Over night it snowed a tiny bit which for me is still novel enough to be exciting. We got a fair amount of snow in January. By about the 5th, while I was walking home from Tesco, little snow flakes kissed my cheeks. By about 10pm it was coming down in massive clumps and the next morning I had a satisfyingly crunchy walk to Kew Gardens station. Its lovely when its all fresh and clean like that. By the evening the return journey was not so delightful. This went on for a few months off and on and lead me to plan our next trip to somewhere warmer.
In our next installation: Mega Rome, the blog that keeps on blogging.
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