Latte-ing It Up

Have you seen the sky today? No? No, neither have I... There’s one too many damned clouds in the way. But it’s not even raining. Unless leaves count as rain, in which case it’s a hurricane out there. Red and orange and gold and brown and, yes!, green, swirling around outside the window. It’s kind of pretty, but I wouldn’t want to go out in it. I mean, my cap might blow away. And then I’d have to chase it down the street and it would get caught up in one of the tornadoes of leaves and swirl up into the sky and...

I could be chasing it for weeks.

There’s no wind in here. Shut the door and the wind stays quietly outside. Well trained, and even if it does strain at the leash or bark as people walk past, beyond that it bloody well behaves itself. Knows it won’t get a biscuit if it doesn’t.

Did you know that yesterday is the same as tomorrow? No no, true story. It alternates you see. We have yesterday, then today, then tomorrow, which is the same as yesterday, so then, by default, we have to go back to today the day after tomorrow, and then yesterday the day after that. See? It’s all based on wave theory. Very legit.

A car just blew past on the street, swirling in the wind as it fell from the tree.

If I look up at the sky right now, it appears red and gold, like the breath of a dragon. And it has nothing to do with the tree I’m looking through. Sometimes the sky just is that colour. Even in the middle of the day. You wanna talk confusing?

When I’m old, I want to be able to walk quickly. None of this crossing the street only halfway before the walk signal changes to don’t walk. I’m gonna fucking skip.

Would you like to carve a pumpkin with me? I’ve got some Styrofoam, we could carve out a mold, then fill it with latex and, after a quick spray of orange paint, mass produce pre-carved pumpkins. It’s a genius idea, except it might have already been done. Prob’ly by someone with less imagination, just a quicker one. Too many things have already been done. We should go back to the time of cavemen. Man but we would flippin’ rock their world. Every seen one o’ these?! I would say as I drew a circle in the sand. And they’d grunt in astonishment, before revitalizing their entire economic structure.

Kudos to me.

This Happened Once Before

Sing me something new. And it doesn't have to involve anything that makes you feel uncomfortable. Although it would be better if it did. There's so much more tension when comfort isn't involved. But it's really as you like it. Don't let me force my own conventions on you. They're better left to me. And I'll figure out what to do with them later.

Careful. Don't look so rushed. This is a place one comes to to relax. To find a communal sense of flow, and go with it. To go with the chipped unfinished brickwork wall with the crumbling plaster. The antique mirrored dresser serving as a condiments table. The perfectly matched tables and chairs, interspersed with a wholly random assortment of sofas and coffee tables. The clientele, cut from an identical mould that still allows each to maintain some tiny expression of individuality. We're all facsimiles of each other, because we embellish our differences in the same way. Oh go soak your head. Yes, yes, good idea. But the floor's wooden and it just wouldn't do at all to get it wet. I'll soak my head later, when I'm outside. And I'll look forward to it. Nothing beats the heat like a good head soaking.

Hurry up and wait for the next song to play. Something to keep me awake. Something that will give me a feeling I've never had before. I want to feel that everything I've ever felt before was misconstrued reality, and that life really starts here. And it might. It might start here. That might be the truest thing I've said all day. That everything is a lie. I like that idea. The only truth I speak is slanderous. 'You're a liar!' I cried out to myself. But at least I have something to say. Too true, too true. And if that's the case, bring on the lies. To be entertained is ever worth more than hearing the truth.

There's a fly on the wall.

Sometimes, if you squint your eyes, and listen really carefully, you can be that fly on the wall. And catch all the faux-secrets of the myriad people passing by just beneath you. Listen in on all those secrets that can only be divulged amidst the hustle and bustle of life. Amidst the thousand concealing conversations of the uncaring masses. Listen closer. '... ..... .. ....' And I couldn't have said it better myself. Remember those words. They might one day change your life. And now let's all nod our heads and smile.

Coffee only lasts for so long. After that there's only conversation to keep us going. And whatever lingering feelings we can't keep bottled up. Emotions? Check. Emotions in check? Get back to me on that, and I'm sure I'll have an amazing story to tell you about emotional repression and the withholding of feelings. Varying degrees of life getting in the way. But did you see that? Did you see the way he looked at me? Smug little prick. But maybe that's all he has. Be smug about nothing and you've got something. We all need something. And whatever you can imagine, whatever you can dream into life, well... that's enough said. Say too much and it stops meaning anything. All the meaning gets washed away by the flood of following words.

I'll follow you down. And wouldn't we then call you the noblest of creatures? But not that far. For there is after all a difference between nobility and the foolhardy act of one who doesn't know any better. Thinking that, it's probably better if you don't follow me down at all. It's really not that far after all, and it'll be quicker to come back up if you're not blocking the return. There there. There's a good lad. Better luck next time, and luck has nothing to do with it, but as long as you believe it does, then you'll do alright.

Right. Now, let me tell you a story....

A Portrait of Time

She wears flowers in her hair.

There's a look of sadness in her eyes, behind the blue, where everything turns to grey.

She pauses, and everyone around her waits, holding their breath.

Her voice washes over you slowly, then returns, echoing more than just her words, but her feelings, her movements, her memories as well.

Yesterday she decided that tomorrow would be better.

There's a song that she sings along to, though she doesn't know the words. And it goes something like this: 'You are my sunshine...'

Every time she closes her eyes she sees it happening again, right in front of her. Sees what? Everything. All things that have been and will be, flicker behind her eyelids. It' why she doesn't often close her eyes.

Sometimes, she feels good enough to cry.

There was something she was going to say, a long time ago. But the moment passed. So she'll wait 'til it comes around again.

When she thinks about it, she wonders if she's just forever running in circles. Then she wonders if that's such a bad thing.

In a perfect world, she'd have lots of friends.

There are events she'd like to forget, but knows she never will. She never can.

I knew a girl once who hated her. Who drew a line in the sand, and stood on the opposite side, staring over at her. Made her an enemy because, after all, waiting really is the hardest part.

A Long and Winding Road 9: And a Checkmark for Tuesday

We'll start with the footnote. Because sometimes footnotes deserve more credit. As in this instance. For the footnote that isn't at the moment a footnote, but will maybe be relegated to that status later, is Guam. Not though, because I didn't like it. I think maybe I liked it too much. Only it's sort of a place where not a lot happens. It was enjoyable more in the 'hang out with a good friend, watch ice hockey, spend days lounging in a pool' kinda way. And not in an 'Oh my goodness I've just seen the most amazing something' kinda way.

Speaking of amazing somethings... I, am just back from Donsol. Which is a tiny town on the southeast coast of Luzon Island, Philippines. And the amazing somethings I saw there are called locally butanding. Or in English, whale sharks. And by 'seeing' them, I mean I swam with them. And it's now right up there on the list of most amazing things I've ever done (just in case you were about to ask). Imagine flinging yourself off a still moving boat, mask and fins on, and swimming as quickly as you can behind the guide, until you find yourself in open water, looking up and down and around and all you can see are varying shades of blue. Until you catch a sudden glimpse of a few white spots. That's all. Just a grid of white spots moving in the water, until they coalesce into a vaguely fish-like shape...

And, you remember that scene in 'Finding Nemo,' (I know, I'm referencing a Pixar movie, how sad), where Dori calls out to the little fish in the distance, which swims toward them and grows larger and larger until it's a whale? Well it was kinda like that. The whale shark would appear out of the blue and be this lovely, elegant, manageable fish swimming towards you. And then it would reach you and pass slowly underneath, and continue to pass you, and continue... Eight metres in length, moving past with lazy flicks of its tail.

But even more amazing than that, was when some of them stayed near the surface, and let us follow along. Essentially, gaping at this creature swimming sedately, with dozens of sucker fish clinging to it and swimming around and over it. And every now and then, when I got ahead of it a bit, I could dive down and turn, to see this vast mouth approaching me and then gliding past... Or, and imagine this, diving down to swim alongside this 25 foot long creature, who slowly rolls one eye to look you up and down, oh so casually, and blinks. As if to say 'Noted. Not interested.' Then turns away just as casually.

I've never felt at the same time that the world was such an amazing place, and that my place within it was so insignificant...

However, the Philippines tour hasn't just consisted of swimming with leviathans of the deep. There were other amazing somethings. Spent my first week here trekking in the rice terraces of Ifugao. Known locally as the Eighth Wonder of the Ancient World. And they are pretty damned impressive. But I sadly can't compare them directly to the Great Pyramids or Hanging Gardens of Babylon, so I won't comment on their status beside those. I'll let the locals argue the case. Essentially, and to save you the trouble of Googling them, these particular rice terraces were carved out of the slopes between 2 and 4000 years ago. And not just a few terraces. But whole mountainsides were carved, and walled in stone, with water courses laid down and through them. And today they function much as they did then. As well as serving as amazing panoramic photo-ops for the opportunistic traveler.

Funny enough though, the four days I spent trekking through the region weren't entirely intentional. I'd gone to the first mountain village, Batad, with a couple of friends met on the bus from Manila. And after hiking there, and doing some localized trekking the next day, I convinced them to join me on a longer trek to a particular village named Pula. The reason being there was an organic farm there I wanted to volunteer at. Only, after 8 hours hiking through the heat and jungle to reach Pula, I discovered that there was no farm there. It was in fact at the other Pula, 30km away. Turns out there are three remote mountain villages named Pula, all in the same district. Who knew?

I did find my organic farm, but it was another day's travel on, by jeepney, motorcycle, and foot. But hey, had I gone there first, then I never would have spent so much time trekking in the mountains. So it all works out in the end. Go with it.

Right. That is the nicely summarized nutshell version of my life.

Lastly. Any of you who are vegetarians for moral reasons, close your eyes. Or at least skip the rest of this paragraph. Maybe just skip to the 'All my love' bit at the end. The rest of you, dig this. This one's up there for the weirdest things I've eaten: a boiled egg. Not for me thank you, I'm not hungry. But my friend says, 'There's something inside it.' 'There's something inside it?... I'm getting one.' And what is inside it? Rather unsurprisingly when you think about it, but strangely unappetizingly when you think more about it, is, well... an embryonic chicken.

Veggies, if you've been reading anyway, you'll be pleased to know that I found it absolutely horrid and hope never to see one again. I like my eggs nice and unfertilized and scrambled in a breakfast burrito thank you.

Ummm... ummm... plans! I have them! Way too many of them. Had a marathon flight booking session whilst still in Guam, and thus have more of an itinerary than I want. But it includes Singapore again, Bali, briefly, and the wonderful world of Oz by the end of the month. How exciting is that? Will let you know how it goes, when it goes, and why it goes. Soon...


All my love,
Davey