Buying time....

Pictures include: Our house, the view of Hinchenbrook Islands, me and the Nolans, Arnie in his sand chair, Lake Tineroo in the Atherton Tablelands, a kookaburra, Jo, Ruth and Amy in Sydney, Phil, Jane Milo and Rillo in Bundagen, Mitzy the van, Meeta and snake

So, for now at least, the deep sense of morbidity that pervaded my last entry has passed and I can write with a lighter heart, a slightly improved posture and a regained sense of humour...(actually I have pretty much always been funny..) The winds of change have blown through me (Brent would argue literally at times) and spring/summer in the Southern hemisphere burns its way through the dry earth of 'Brownsville'.
I am once again back in Townsville having been on a 3500km road trip from Sydney up to Cairns and then back to Town-town again. Fortunately 'Mitzy' (see below) was, this time, well up to task having had her second heart transplant and was kept nicely lubricated for the road (I hear it helps keep her young...). She and I travelled via the 'global carnival - a festival in Bellingen (NSW), some chilled out naked sunbathing with my mates Phil and Jane, a job interview in Brisbane and then some full-on driving through the mountains and long stretches of not too much up to the north of Queensland. The Grier luck finally flickered back when at the start of the post-Brisbane leg (or wheel) of the journey I met an older couple with this super flash all the mod-cons caravan extraordinaire who gave me their camper-van bible (the Older Testament) citing all the free 'rest-areas' in the whole country so I was sorted and safe in the evenings where me and Mitzy chilled out and ate baked beans at the side of the road (not on the side of the road - I have cutlery... and she was not keen on the beans either!). Indeed, it really is one road - the 1 - from Melbourne to Cairns the highway changes names but religiously follows the coast line...perhaps typically for Queensland it calls itself 'The Bruce'! Better than 'The Sheila' perhaps....

No doubt the highlight of the last six months since returning from the UK was the visit from Graham, Meeta and Arnie Nolan to the fair and far shores of Cairns, Northern Queensland. Graham had been jetted over for a conference in Perth to give a paper on yoga and deaf-blindness and Meets and Arnie then joined him. From there they went to Margaret River, surfed, whale watched, then to Alice Spring and ate vegetarian Kangaroo and then to Cairns where a socially deprived Ruthie met them with open arms and a full esky for a 5 day road trip. We drove in convoy (although their 'Wicked' camper van was not quite as wicked as Mitzy) to the Atherton Tablelands, Mission Beach, back to hang out and get very drunk at our place for a night (Brent pucked in the pool - well at the side!) and then to Magnetic Island for some beach bathing and snake hugging which some of us were much less keen than others.... Being with friends again who welcome my crazy-bossy-bombastic nature with open hearts and to be taken the piss out of and talk shit - quite literally - so consistently for 5 days was fantastic...anyone else who dares to make the trip I promise Mitzy and I will be up for some more adventures whenever you are ready.

So life for now at least, seems to have settled down(ish) - or is it the calm before the storm...my Tarot cards keep giving me mixed messages!! I have a new job for Queensland Social Services 3 days a week and, in order to stay in the country (my visa expires in 7 days!!), and because I want to and can just about afford to, I am enrolling in a Visual Arts and Crafts course at the local college (they are called TAFE's). Indeed, I have started already and for the last few months my Fridays have been spent at the ceramics studio creating 'stuff' from clay - some bloody disasters and others not so bad - and no I haven't learnt how to use the wheel, so no re-enacted Ghost scenes you will be sad to hear. My lack of patience has been given a good outing as pottery takes time and persistence..and weeks before you can put it in the oven and paint it and make it look good....but I do really enjoy it and will be making ashtrays well into next year if I have a choice. Once the full-time course starts at the end of Jan then life will no doubt welcome its usual chaos - juggling work with painting abstract depictions of tropical fruit. What a relief my social life is practically non-existent so keeping up with the cultural whirlwind (or gentle breeze) of the Townsville scene will not have to be such a great priority.

So, I sense the blog is not really the space to share the finner points of life like housemate issues such as who buys the loo roll, or other relationship stuff...so I shall, for a change, keep schtum on such delicacies and leave it to a more personal forum - such as Facebook (only joking!!).