Post-Christmas

Plymouth, England Dec 27 I spent the Christmas long weekend in Plymouth, which is a few hours by train from London and right on the coast of Southern England. This was my first Christmas away from Australia, and I was quite homesick, in an inwardly morose kind of way. I was welcomed by Mark’s family and fed like a king, but of course even the warmest embraces of a stranger are cold comfort when all you want is to be sitting in the back yard by the barbeque at the end of a warm day watching your friends get drunk after spending the day watching your family get drunk. The folks at Plymouth were wonderful hosts, in any case, and the whiskey went down very well. I remain thankful to Shane and Mark for having me along. Taken from the train on the way there At the Moors – beautiful, dank, atmospheric place. Would have been amazing at sunset, when all the goblins and elves come out to play. During the hour before the sun rested on Christmas Day, we went for a walk through places which reminded me of the Adelaide Hills…. Such a close resemblance in character and atmosphere. I love the hills, and I’d still live there. Dec 28 Back in London Next week I head to Edinburgh. I’ll be looking for a job, something to fill the thus-far yawning gap between my arrival there and the (desperately hoped for) completion of my registration as a Social Worker in Scotland. I am longing for complete independence – my own place, a job. I don’t like imposing myself upon friends and I fucking hate having to watch every penny (as I don’t have an income yet). With a bit of luck and some charm I will be able to bow and scrape my way into a job at a pub, or even a nice book shop or – gods forbid – an arthouse cinema as a projectionist. I feel like I’ve been floating on a little cloud of whimsy since leaving Calgary, and I can finally see the ground below getting closer and closer. I need a job. I need to know if I can start practicing in my field any time soon, and I need a firm base from which I can explore my new surroundings and to which I can return in relative comfort. My feelings about being away, staying away and returning home are often in flux. Most of the time I feel determined and inspired to commit to a relatively long stay (at least until mid-late next year), in order to earn enough money to travel and return home with (if I am going home for any great length of time or indefinitely). From here I have ready access to Europe and I want to fully exploit that convenience. Sometimes I feel like I’m missing valuable time with my friends back home, where I would definitely get a decent job and be making music with my musical partner(s) in crime. There are moments in which I consider how I am really starting again here by thinking about staying, and the thought of establishing meaningful new relationships – let alone meeting a girl – is always faded and blurred. These jarringly distinct lines of thought are tempered by caffeine and good turns in the weather - yet I remain hopeful and positive on the whole that once I have established a new place to call home – be it temporary or otherwise – things will fall into place.