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Category Archives: Travel

Mirror World…

Someone, probably William Gibson speaking through Cayce Pollard, wrote about the Mirror World of travel. The notion that it is not the big differences that lend to a sense of unease, but the myriad small and barely noticeable differences. Like the shape of electrical outlets. An odd one for us, that we’re still getting used […]

Boxing On

Today’s goals are to cart boxes up to the storage unit, inventory the storage unit (a task which will be made difficult by it being full of boxes), and cart things in boxes off to Lifeline. Oh, and a lot of washing, vacuuming, dusting, vacuuming and washing. The infuriating thing about boxes is how difficult […]

Now I’m counting

There’s less than a week left now, and I would like to feel more excited and enthralled, rather than inanimate and slightly broiled. I’m blessing the air conditioning that has been repaired, and hideous expense, just in time for me to leave, as every opportunity sees me sitting in shorts and shirt in a room […]

Not Counting Down

Still not counting down. It’s been a productive week, helped along by having set myself a calendar of tasks for the week, and having met all the goals so far. Today’s effort is a good example of the sort of day I”ve been having for a long time, but particularly this week as we get […]

Three Weird Things

I am still desperately trying to not count down days, although we’re getting very close to leaving. Packing and preparation is going ok since we stopped work on Friday, and it looks like we are on track to being essentially finished packing at the end of this week, with an avowed intention to do very […]

Something I’ll miss

I will probably miss good coffee, at least in the short term. The coffee culture of Brisbane is no match for that found in the center of Melbourne, but far outstrips that of pretty well anywhere I’ve been in Sydney. Sorry Sydney, but you make lousy coffee. It shouldn’t be hard to make good coffee […]

On My Shoulders

I seem to spend an inordinate amount of time looking at and for bags. Something drives me toward a Shangri-La where the perfect bag for all occasions rests in a temple, waiting for me to pack it with all I need, forever simplifying and organising my life. Of course the reality is that I asymptocically […]

Every Little Damned Thing

I wasn’t going to count down, and I’m trying desperately to not close down, but today is the 1st of November. And every damned little thing that can go wrong, does go wrong. I have to replace the electric stove, and am replacing the electric stove, since the old one is old and not working […]

And another thing.

The unrelenting, constant, overwhelming, repeated negativity. Is it a Brisbane thing, an Australian thing, a human thing, or just the habit of those I know? I’m on a very short count down to the evening where I go through customs and onto a plane, and fly away into a new life. I know that I […]

This is how it is.

Recent weeks, and recent days, suggest strongly to me that most folk just really don’t grasp what I’m doing. This business of me folding my tents and vanishing into the night is not simple, or trivial, and particularly not temporary. Let’s talk about the effort involved, to start with. It’s not about packing, and buying […]