The last couple of days and weeks can be condensed into one endless buzz. Dinners, cocktails, dances, walks, hikes, outings, movies. I haven’t had the chance to contemplate 2008 and feel the rush for 2009.
2008 was, for the lack of a more interesting analogy, a bit like making a new friend. Awkward, slightly uncomfortable but exciting. It was my first year out of school. My first move to another city, Sydney, to work. My first full-time job. My first real pay check. My first rented property. Buying my first furniture. Furnishing my first home. Meeting new people, and making some amazing friends. And yet reaching back out to old friends who have moved to Sydney. It was the first time I searched for my goals and questioned my purpose. I spent most of 2008 confused, vulnerable, jaded and slightly contemptuous. But in it all, I also found deeper relations with God and others, and found something which sparked a flint light on my future career. I didn’t make the most of 2008, and that is a lesson on its own.
2009. The year I get married. The year I quit my first job to launch into a journey that I am hopefully more passionate about. The year I move back to Melbourne to build my future home and rekindle old friendships. 2009 is still a fuzzy button on my radar. I’m still whirling from the festivities of the new year and 2009 can’t be firmed up until I move back to Melbourne on the 1st of February and start reassessing my situation. But 2009 will definitely be an adventure. Three weddings. Six weeks of honeymoon through New Zealand and Malaysia. Perhaps a masters in public health? Perhaps a new job? Who knows what 2009 might bring?
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
My last month in Sydney.
It struck me, as I was sitting on a reversing ferry, from Circular Quay to Manly, how absolutely resplendent Sydney is.
Light rays were bouncing off the foamy teal habour water. Salty sea spray mists prisms of colours into the late afternoon air. The skyline was absolutely radiating festive energy.
And then I realised, I have 40 more days left in Sydney.
I absolutely panicked. My mind raced through all the possibilities and places I have yet to explore. Mudgee, Palm Beach, North Head, Royal National Park, the inside of the Sydney Opera House, deep into the woods of Ku-Ring-Gai Chase National Park. Instantly I regretted ever whinging in the last 11 months about anything to do with Sydney.
I started drawing up to-do lists. Palm Beach next next weekend, North Heads on New Year's Day, inside of the Opera House when I watch Madam Butterfly (if I can still get tickets that is), Bradley Heads when I go to watch the Sydney to Hobart Yacht race....and then of course I haven't completed visiting all the quaint boutiques in Glenmore Road, the cafes in Balmain, the galleries off Surry Hills. And let's not forget that we are nowhere near eating off the SMH Good Food Guide, nor have we dipped our toes into the countless cocktail bars in Sydney.
Oh why did I ever spend any weekends holed up at home just reading or surfing the net!
At this point the closet traveller in me was having an anxiety attack scouring my mental map of Sydney, putting red dots over all the places I have visited and the places that I absolutely have to visit before leaving.
And then I stop dead in my tracks, my mental map of this glorious city splattered with mental highlighter marks and post-it notes.
I think I have fallen in love with Sydney.
Light rays were bouncing off the foamy teal habour water. Salty sea spray mists prisms of colours into the late afternoon air. The skyline was absolutely radiating festive energy.
And then I realised, I have 40 more days left in Sydney.
I absolutely panicked. My mind raced through all the possibilities and places I have yet to explore. Mudgee, Palm Beach, North Head, Royal National Park, the inside of the Sydney Opera House, deep into the woods of Ku-Ring-Gai Chase National Park. Instantly I regretted ever whinging in the last 11 months about anything to do with Sydney.
I started drawing up to-do lists. Palm Beach next next weekend, North Heads on New Year's Day, inside of the Opera House when I watch Madam Butterfly (if I can still get tickets that is), Bradley Heads when I go to watch the Sydney to Hobart Yacht race....and then of course I haven't completed visiting all the quaint boutiques in Glenmore Road, the cafes in Balmain, the galleries off Surry Hills. And let's not forget that we are nowhere near eating off the SMH Good Food Guide, nor have we dipped our toes into the countless cocktail bars in Sydney.
Oh why did I ever spend any weekends holed up at home just reading or surfing the net!
At this point the closet traveller in me was having an anxiety attack scouring my mental map of Sydney, putting red dots over all the places I have visited and the places that I absolutely have to visit before leaving.
And then I stop dead in my tracks, my mental map of this glorious city splattered with mental highlighter marks and post-it notes.
I think I have fallen in love with Sydney.
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