Nick Abroad

Well, hello.

It’s been a while.

You know the feeling when you wake up after a big night out, perhaps had a few more drinks than health authorities encourage, and a whole night seems to be compressed into a deck of cards, each with an image of something from your night.

Well, my last six months are something like that.

Joy.  Sadness.  Anticipation.  Disappointment.  Friends.  Partings.  New beginnings.  Places far, and places near.  All compressed into static images like flowers pressed between the pages of a scrapbook.

Well, I’m back, and I’ve been writing on a plane again, but not on work this time.  I’ve headed off for a holiday.  I’ve gone to Bali – not to Kuta, Dinkum Aussie Tucker and braided hair, but Seminyak and Ubud for some serious revival.  As it turns out, Seminyak is not what it once was, the Bintang singlet brigade have arrived and the beaches are, well, filthy, but Ubud is still wonderful.

I’ve joined my friend Christian for ten days break before he returns to life in Koln, after three years in Australia, and I return to life in Sydney.  At the moment I’m excited to be on holiday and for the fun of the week ahead.  Don’t want to think about how I’ll feel at the end of that time as he heads north and I head south.  Listening to 2raumwohnung on iTunes as I type, perhaps I should have chosen some music inspiring a little less melancholy.  Never mind.

So, catching up on other developments…

After life became unbearable in my room-under-the-stairs in Paddington, my friend Tristan became my flatmate Tristan and we moved out together into an apartment-with-a-view in Kings Cross.  Well, technically, it’s Darlinghurst, but only because boundaries were obviously manipulated long ago to preserve property values in the face of the seediness of The Cross.  From our balcony you can almost touch the Coke Sign, so I’d reckon it’s pretty much Kings Cross if you ask me.  Anyway, you’d think we’d lived together for years, got along famously.  All good, until he took off to Tenterfield last week to start the menial country work required for his working holiday visa.  Humph.  Guess it’s better than a detention centre in Nauru.  Jeez our government is screwed up when it comes to dealing with people from other countries who think our country is an alright place and want to stay more than a couple of weeks here.

Add in Christian’s partner Philipp, who’s already back in Koln, and we’ve had a formidable friendship group over these last months.  Dinners, parties, nights out, holidays together, lifesaving, swimming, Mardi Gras, it’s been awesome.  But that’s over now.

The only constant in life is change, I guess.  Don’t be sad it’s over, be happy it’s happened.  Seemed easier when I was saying that to other people.  When I get back from Bali it will be to an empty apartment and beginning of a Sydney winter.  Sound depressing?  You betcha.  I’ll be travelling a lot for work in April and May, that might make things a bit better.  Or not.

I sometimes wonder if I’m scared of being by myself, of spending time thinking about the life I’m in the middle of.  Don’t know.  Sometimes I like letting it all wash over me.  The happiness, and the sadness, can be blinding in their purity when there are no distractions.  I’m ok being by myself.  But I only feel joy when I’m with people, particularly with people I care deeply about.  My friends. The next few months are probably going to be a bit tough.

Anyway, reader, I’m back with you again.  I will try not to take as long a break from these pages again.

But if I do, it may because I’m with friends and life is just a bit too awesome to spend time writing about it.