Another good day
Day 4/4 of my days off this week and I'm kinda ready to go back to work. With the last week of family time/time to reflect on the blessings etc I've enjoyed slowing down and just cruising and being. Having my housemate's parents up from the south coast and eating things from lamb roast to hot cross buns to Lindt bunnies and productively using my days off by riding my bike with my friend Dom who roller skated alongside me (or zoomed off ahead.... or towed behind me by grabbing my pannier....) along the foreshore and up to the end of Nobby's Breakwall; getting coffee with friends; venturing through our little city to the beach all on my own and seeing late night screenings of the most recent Wes Anderson film with Simon and Jake in an empty theatre - this has made my last week quite fulfilling.
That said, I bask in quiet time to myself - when the house is empty for a couple of days and I can wander around in my knickers, play my favourite beachy tunes (or Amy Winehouse on full volume), cook up a nice little Aloo Baingan and some sugar free Anzac biscuits in a late afternoon trance of being at one with myself, and be free to think entirely autonomously without a care for what might be on anyone else's mind at that moment.
Today was a good example of one of those me days. I woke up at a time where the sun began to cast shadows of the fig trees outside, and the outside air was still cool. The house was silent, but the town hall clock bellowed "9 O'Clock" charmingly. I got some housework down and found two giggling girls outside the side gate who were coming to check out the house that they, too, will soon be calling their own. The weather was warm but that kind of fresh warm - typical of the first days of Spring. I closed the side gate behind me and in the slowest and unobtrusive to my senses kind of way meandered up to Darby Street and along to Bar Beach. This just kinda kept going until I was suddenly perched at the end of Merewether with a coffee in hand and a book that I sat for an hour writing in. It was just one of those moments where time is nothing. Aimee rocked up with the promise of a sneaky catch up, and we wandered aimlessly around an organic grocery store finding our favourites that we'd only seen from trips away (Byron Bay sauerkraut for Aimee; German Yogi Tea from memories of tea dates with Kristiana in Paris for me; and some delicious Carob coconut rough! Hey mum !).
After finding ourselves at The Edwards, we propelled mindlessly towards the comfy arm chairs in the warmth aside the winter-sun facing windows and stayed there curled up with our feet under our bums rattling off our hopes, dreams, confusions, worries, and happiness. I was happy to share my ideas for a new project I want to start with someone who was going through the same adventure of starting something non-profit and important to them. Aimee makes my thoughts and desires seem valid in the way that no other friend truly has, and I always leave our conversations with a sense of empowerment that I'm yet to get with anyone else.
I got home and whipped up some Anzac biscuits to take over to Dom's place later in the evening, and rode over to find her perched on the porch with a smoke and a drink in each hand. We talked shit and watched her progressively get more and more drunk till we were making it rain with Kraft cheese singles and cooking her double patty burgers and impersonating every person under the sun till our cheeks were red raw with laughter. Deciding it was time to put the little one to bed, I jumped back on my bike at 11:30 pm and rode through the empty streets of my little city feeling accomplished and perfectly tired. Isn't that the way you should go to bed feeling?
