False Status
What's on your mind?
Heartbreak, breakups,
Breakdowns,
Down that drink,
I don't want to think
About you
Anymore -
These thoughts
Spluttered on a webpage
Left in lyrics,
Quick quips,
Never let it
Reveal what is actually true,
They can't understand,
How I miss you.
Too Late
Grab his keys
And say goodbye -
Watch him go,
She won't cry
Anymore
No change, too late,
Does he care?
And here I stand,
Wedged between
Different eras of perception,
Defeated, already,
Before taking sides,
Who will fight
For this love?
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
A Guide to Facebook - Your New Best Friend.
Feeling Lonely?
Join Facebook!
Half a billion opportunities to find friends!
Listen to what Facebook workers and users have to say about how their life fulfilment has quadrupled since their profile has been activated!
Feeling Left Out?
You’re living within the 21st century, the digital era, the time when technology has become a fundamental part of social communication and growth. You don’t own a computer. You refuse to purchase a computer, or to use one at the public library. You detest the idea of school’s introducing them to students from a young age.
What is wrong with you?!
Your life is mundane. No, seriously, it is.
You’re always feeling lonely. The people you know, if you could really call them friends, hardly get in contact with you. It’s your fault really. You don’t have a mobile phone. You miss out on texting, calling, chain emails that gets sent around the world. They are forgotten after they are read, but they mattered. For a second. Your phone drums against the table, the message tone kisses your ears. You are loved. Someone is reaching for you.
But not you, of course. You don’t have a phone, or a Facebook, or any logical manner of retaining friendships and lovers. You’re excluding yourself from love.
You can better yourself. You can enhance your life to the maximum potential, and live like your neighbours and colleagues. You can be as happy as them. Let yourself.
The Solution
It’s easy, really. First of all, gain access to the internet and get yourself acquainted with the World Wide Web. Think of all the possibilities. They are infinite, endless. The information era will sweep you into a search engine speed hurricane of the future. A bombardment of information. What could be better? There will be so much for you to speak about, engage within, dream about. You will be part of it all; connected. You will finally find yourself within a network, put your mark upon the world and remain forever. You’ll settle for eternity in your piece of cyberspace. Graveyards, work, art and other human mementos won’t record your existence. They are merely memories and landmarks that will dissolve over time. This is your only chance to be stored into the hard-drive of the universe. Don’t miss your chance.
Following are some instructions for how to put your life in order. We are here to help you get onto the social network bandwagon, and bring yourself into the new millennium of cultural change. Otherwise, you’ll be as useless as a temporary internet file to potential friends and loved ones.
The Wonderful World of Facebook
I work for the wonderful and life changing social networking site of Facebook. And here’s how I, along with the rest of the wonderful staff and creator of Facebook can help you.
It’s all thanks to you, Mark Zuckerberg. His creation of Facebook to bring Harvard Students into a web network has grown into the biggest social networking side on the planet. He has quite literally enabled people from every continent to coincide together. We can monitor what our friends in every timezone are doing at this very minute. Our lives have never before been so fulfilling.
Facebook is first and foremost, your best friend. Maybe you could see it as your family; it will definitely be always there for you. It is there only for you and the benefit of bringing you closer to people around the world. Facebook wants to include you in a rapidly growing international network of users that is growing at this very second. We are offering you boundless opportunities to mingle and
The way it works is based on a simple idea that friends want to be able to keep in touch, have online chats, view each other’s photos and be invited to cyber-events.
Customising Your Facebook Profile (Photo Albums and Information)
Now, your profile. This is your money maker. You want to attract friends, so don’t begin with scary photos. Something friendly for a profile pic. Win them over with your smile. Keep your status updates witty. Update often. Let your new found friends get a sense of your real personality. Your information page is extremely useful in sharing your interests, activities, political preferences, sexual preferences and religious beliefs. List your favourite bands and films. What do you like to do in your spare time? Write it down. Where do you work? Link it up. Do you study? What do you study? Add it under your educational achievements. Already your friends have got a genuine sense of the person you are.
Add some photos, or even better, albums to narrate the exciting life you’ve led. If you haven’t been on holiday recently, or been doing much, no worries! Snap a few shots of yourself in the bathroom! Get your friends to add a few comments, and you’ll be on the road to a successful Facebook page.
Friend Request
Moving onto friend requests. Request! It’s so simple. We are deleting the awkwardness of first meetings, diminishing the direness of the first impression. No longer are there stunted silences or blanks. If you want to write on someone’s wall, you can. If you’d rather retain a silent kind of friendship, don’t! They’ll appear on your Newsfeed, you’ll learn of their current occurrences, but you’ve had to make no effort to find this out personally. Think of how much time you will save! Check out your new friends profile. Do you have similar interests? Hobbies? Sign up to the same fan pages? Maybe it’s right to throw this friend a comment! You’ve made a match! And Facebook has helped.
This is a first impression we can support.
Friend Suggestions
Friend suggestions! This program has captivated Facebook users around the world. No longer do you have to physically search for potential friends, rack your brains for their names or go through the piles of profiles of people with the same name. Facebook has looked at yours and an individual’s mutual friends, and placed a suggestion to befriend each other upon your homepage. How thoughtful! Now, if either of you send a friend request, your network of people is only growing further and further, which means, more matches for even more friends will fast be appearing on your homepage!
Facebook Advertisments
Advertisements. Facebook has looked at your profile, the pages you have “liked”, and the groups you have joined and figured out what you’ll be interested in buying. How generous and kind of them. They’ve done your job for you. No more fearful hours in supermarkets with a burning hole in your pocket searching for the perfect purchase. Instead, at the corner of your eye, it is done. It is there. A range of products to suit your needs and desires. What do you desire? Has Facebook got it right? I’ll bet on it.
How lovely of them.
Places
Your new application: places! With the click of a button, nifty GPS technology will locate your very geographical spot and post it right onto your Facebook wall and newsfeed. Now your friends will always know where you are, for those times when they want to swing by and quite literally say “hi!”
Games and Applications
Sure, you could read a book, go to the cinema, watch a play or kick about a football on a field. But why would you?! When you can do all of this from the comfort of your own study. Facebook has created and supported games and applications to tailor your very desires. Fancy yourself as a hardcore gangsta? Jump onto Mafia Wars. Want to do shear some sheep? Connect to Farmville. Want to tantalise yourself with fun trivia, such as, what’s your favourite sex position? Do a quiz! These applications and games are accurate and designed for your pleasures. Your web ring of friends is growing, your success in the gaming world is celebrated on your wall. Congratulations!
Sign Up Now
What are you waiting for?! It’s time for you to make a change and connect yourself to the real world! Sign up to Facebook immediately. Send out your requests for friends. Add your interests, list your jobs and studies, play some games! Join some fan pages and go crazy with some fun quizzes. In no time you’ll have set yourself up on the everlasting lifespan of cyberspace, and your life has never before seemed more fulfilling.
You can thank us later.
Join Facebook!
Half a billion opportunities to find friends!
Listen to what Facebook workers and users have to say about how their life fulfilment has quadrupled since their profile has been activated!
Feeling Left Out?
You’re living within the 21st century, the digital era, the time when technology has become a fundamental part of social communication and growth. You don’t own a computer. You refuse to purchase a computer, or to use one at the public library. You detest the idea of school’s introducing them to students from a young age.
What is wrong with you?!
Your life is mundane. No, seriously, it is.
You’re always feeling lonely. The people you know, if you could really call them friends, hardly get in contact with you. It’s your fault really. You don’t have a mobile phone. You miss out on texting, calling, chain emails that gets sent around the world. They are forgotten after they are read, but they mattered. For a second. Your phone drums against the table, the message tone kisses your ears. You are loved. Someone is reaching for you.
But not you, of course. You don’t have a phone, or a Facebook, or any logical manner of retaining friendships and lovers. You’re excluding yourself from love.
You can better yourself. You can enhance your life to the maximum potential, and live like your neighbours and colleagues. You can be as happy as them. Let yourself.
The Solution
It’s easy, really. First of all, gain access to the internet and get yourself acquainted with the World Wide Web. Think of all the possibilities. They are infinite, endless. The information era will sweep you into a search engine speed hurricane of the future. A bombardment of information. What could be better? There will be so much for you to speak about, engage within, dream about. You will be part of it all; connected. You will finally find yourself within a network, put your mark upon the world and remain forever. You’ll settle for eternity in your piece of cyberspace. Graveyards, work, art and other human mementos won’t record your existence. They are merely memories and landmarks that will dissolve over time. This is your only chance to be stored into the hard-drive of the universe. Don’t miss your chance.
Following are some instructions for how to put your life in order. We are here to help you get onto the social network bandwagon, and bring yourself into the new millennium of cultural change. Otherwise, you’ll be as useless as a temporary internet file to potential friends and loved ones.
The Wonderful World of Facebook
I work for the wonderful and life changing social networking site of Facebook. And here’s how I, along with the rest of the wonderful staff and creator of Facebook can help you.
It’s all thanks to you, Mark Zuckerberg. His creation of Facebook to bring Harvard Students into a web network has grown into the biggest social networking side on the planet. He has quite literally enabled people from every continent to coincide together. We can monitor what our friends in every timezone are doing at this very minute. Our lives have never before been so fulfilling.
Facebook is first and foremost, your best friend. Maybe you could see it as your family; it will definitely be always there for you. It is there only for you and the benefit of bringing you closer to people around the world. Facebook wants to include you in a rapidly growing international network of users that is growing at this very second. We are offering you boundless opportunities to mingle and
The way it works is based on a simple idea that friends want to be able to keep in touch, have online chats, view each other’s photos and be invited to cyber-events.
Customising Your Facebook Profile (Photo Albums and Information)
Now, your profile. This is your money maker. You want to attract friends, so don’t begin with scary photos. Something friendly for a profile pic. Win them over with your smile. Keep your status updates witty. Update often. Let your new found friends get a sense of your real personality. Your information page is extremely useful in sharing your interests, activities, political preferences, sexual preferences and religious beliefs. List your favourite bands and films. What do you like to do in your spare time? Write it down. Where do you work? Link it up. Do you study? What do you study? Add it under your educational achievements. Already your friends have got a genuine sense of the person you are.
Add some photos, or even better, albums to narrate the exciting life you’ve led. If you haven’t been on holiday recently, or been doing much, no worries! Snap a few shots of yourself in the bathroom! Get your friends to add a few comments, and you’ll be on the road to a successful Facebook page.
Friend Request
Moving onto friend requests. Request! It’s so simple. We are deleting the awkwardness of first meetings, diminishing the direness of the first impression. No longer are there stunted silences or blanks. If you want to write on someone’s wall, you can. If you’d rather retain a silent kind of friendship, don’t! They’ll appear on your Newsfeed, you’ll learn of their current occurrences, but you’ve had to make no effort to find this out personally. Think of how much time you will save! Check out your new friends profile. Do you have similar interests? Hobbies? Sign up to the same fan pages? Maybe it’s right to throw this friend a comment! You’ve made a match! And Facebook has helped.
This is a first impression we can support.
Friend Suggestions
Friend suggestions! This program has captivated Facebook users around the world. No longer do you have to physically search for potential friends, rack your brains for their names or go through the piles of profiles of people with the same name. Facebook has looked at yours and an individual’s mutual friends, and placed a suggestion to befriend each other upon your homepage. How thoughtful! Now, if either of you send a friend request, your network of people is only growing further and further, which means, more matches for even more friends will fast be appearing on your homepage!
Facebook Advertisments
Advertisements. Facebook has looked at your profile, the pages you have “liked”, and the groups you have joined and figured out what you’ll be interested in buying. How generous and kind of them. They’ve done your job for you. No more fearful hours in supermarkets with a burning hole in your pocket searching for the perfect purchase. Instead, at the corner of your eye, it is done. It is there. A range of products to suit your needs and desires. What do you desire? Has Facebook got it right? I’ll bet on it.
How lovely of them.
Places
Your new application: places! With the click of a button, nifty GPS technology will locate your very geographical spot and post it right onto your Facebook wall and newsfeed. Now your friends will always know where you are, for those times when they want to swing by and quite literally say “hi!”
Games and Applications
Sure, you could read a book, go to the cinema, watch a play or kick about a football on a field. But why would you?! When you can do all of this from the comfort of your own study. Facebook has created and supported games and applications to tailor your very desires. Fancy yourself as a hardcore gangsta? Jump onto Mafia Wars. Want to do shear some sheep? Connect to Farmville. Want to tantalise yourself with fun trivia, such as, what’s your favourite sex position? Do a quiz! These applications and games are accurate and designed for your pleasures. Your web ring of friends is growing, your success in the gaming world is celebrated on your wall. Congratulations!
Sign Up Now
What are you waiting for?! It’s time for you to make a change and connect yourself to the real world! Sign up to Facebook immediately. Send out your requests for friends. Add your interests, list your jobs and studies, play some games! Join some fan pages and go crazy with some fun quizzes. In no time you’ll have set yourself up on the everlasting lifespan of cyberspace, and your life has never before seemed more fulfilling.
You can thank us later.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Expiry Date Girl & Work Feng Shui - Let The Games Begin.
Two weeks ago I probably wouldn’t believe you that I have a boyfriend, a new job, and have become a member of the Australian University Games. It’s been a whirlwind of a week, but exciting all the same.
I’ve transferred to a different store after nearly three years at my old one. A work “feng shui”, if you like. Without delving into deep and dirty details that would just leave me as bad as gossipers, I decided I was suited to a workplace that was without politics, high school cliques and mind games. I’m much happier for it. So far, everyone at the new store has been friendly and I’m able to do my job without becoming subject to discussion that is unnecessary.
I’ve scored a job as a Curtin Media Representative for the Australian University Games, held in Perth this year. Next week, myself, and my friends Sophie and Jen will be carting all over Perth stadiums to watch, report, interview athletes, update websites and be involved in AUG. We also get to attend the social events that are on every night, which has dress-up themes such as Retro Sports, Gender Bender and Go for Gold. I may not be the sportiest of people, let’s rephrase that; I definitely have a limited knowledge of the 28 sports my uni is competing in, but it should be a fantastic week that will give me a web of experience. Considering I now have a boyfriend that has an interest in sports it may be useful to understand the rules of footy if I’m ever forced to watch a match.
So, it’s goodbye to being a single gal and so far, it seems to be a mix of being strange and lovely, but I’m getting used to it. I’ve still got next year and my grand plans on my mind, but the potential topic of being an expiry date girl have been put on hold for now; I just want to have a fabulous summer and enjoy my graduation, 21st birthday and what I hope to be amazing times with family and friends.
This next month is going to be one of the hardest, in terms of time that I’ve ever had to face, purely because I’m nearing the end of my final uni semester and have got a literal overload of assignments due, extra jobs for AUG and a full time roster. The pay is much needed, and I’ll be smiling once payday hits, but I know week 14 will be a huge victory for my sleeping habits. Plus family are arriving from the UK, summer is slowly creeping up (and the layers are cheekily coming off), and Christmas is on its way. Bring. It. On.
I’ve transferred to a different store after nearly three years at my old one. A work “feng shui”, if you like. Without delving into deep and dirty details that would just leave me as bad as gossipers, I decided I was suited to a workplace that was without politics, high school cliques and mind games. I’m much happier for it. So far, everyone at the new store has been friendly and I’m able to do my job without becoming subject to discussion that is unnecessary.
I’ve scored a job as a Curtin Media Representative for the Australian University Games, held in Perth this year. Next week, myself, and my friends Sophie and Jen will be carting all over Perth stadiums to watch, report, interview athletes, update websites and be involved in AUG. We also get to attend the social events that are on every night, which has dress-up themes such as Retro Sports, Gender Bender and Go for Gold. I may not be the sportiest of people, let’s rephrase that; I definitely have a limited knowledge of the 28 sports my uni is competing in, but it should be a fantastic week that will give me a web of experience. Considering I now have a boyfriend that has an interest in sports it may be useful to understand the rules of footy if I’m ever forced to watch a match.
So, it’s goodbye to being a single gal and so far, it seems to be a mix of being strange and lovely, but I’m getting used to it. I’ve still got next year and my grand plans on my mind, but the potential topic of being an expiry date girl have been put on hold for now; I just want to have a fabulous summer and enjoy my graduation, 21st birthday and what I hope to be amazing times with family and friends.
This next month is going to be one of the hardest, in terms of time that I’ve ever had to face, purely because I’m nearing the end of my final uni semester and have got a literal overload of assignments due, extra jobs for AUG and a full time roster. The pay is much needed, and I’ll be smiling once payday hits, but I know week 14 will be a huge victory for my sleeping habits. Plus family are arriving from the UK, summer is slowly creeping up (and the layers are cheekily coming off), and Christmas is on its way. Bring. It. On.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
I Like Geeks
I like geeks.
Nerds, not freaks,
Boys who make me weak.
Skinny and pasty,
Thumbs hasty,
From playing COD
On the PS3.
Graphic novels, comic books,
Cheeky smiles, dorky looks,
Chests that are bare and smooth,
Too scared to make a move,
But once they do,
And then take you,
Between the sheets,
An animal's unleashed!
Sweetie pies,
Too nice guys,
Lines of wit,
So damn fit,
Vans and chucks,
Reading books,
Batman tees,
Kiss me please,
Don't be shy,
And I'll tell you my,
Perfect night,
That will excite,
Your wildest dreams
Trading favourite movie scenes,
I'll be the Wonderwoman to your geek,
Things won't ever be bleak,
With me, you see,
For I'll dig geeks for eternity.
I don't want biceps,
Or abs or triceps,
I want you - pure sex,
A cut above the rest,
So boys, come impress,
I'll settle for nothing less,
Than butterflies and jokes,
Geeky, sexy blokes,
A bit of danger, lots of fun,
Should do while I'm young,
Make me swoon, leave me weak,
'Cause gentleman, I like geeks.
Nerds, not freaks,
Boys who make me weak.
Skinny and pasty,
Thumbs hasty,
From playing COD
On the PS3.
Graphic novels, comic books,
Cheeky smiles, dorky looks,
Chests that are bare and smooth,
Too scared to make a move,
But once they do,
And then take you,
Between the sheets,
An animal's unleashed!
Sweetie pies,
Too nice guys,
Lines of wit,
So damn fit,
Vans and chucks,
Reading books,
Batman tees,
Kiss me please,
Don't be shy,
And I'll tell you my,
Perfect night,
That will excite,
Your wildest dreams
Trading favourite movie scenes,
I'll be the Wonderwoman to your geek,
Things won't ever be bleak,
With me, you see,
For I'll dig geeks for eternity.
I don't want biceps,
Or abs or triceps,
I want you - pure sex,
A cut above the rest,
So boys, come impress,
I'll settle for nothing less,
Than butterflies and jokes,
Geeky, sexy blokes,
A bit of danger, lots of fun,
Should do while I'm young,
Make me swoon, leave me weak,
'Cause gentleman, I like geeks.
Some of My Poems...
Reflective Control
Last night's makeup,
Ruffled curls
And lips that pause for thought,
Soft and intrigued.
And looking.
Compelled to reveal,
Eager to share
And to be
Only me.
When I peer at my reflection,
It's foreignly familiar,
There's a strength that has grown,
Though naivety lingers
Like a shadow in the dark.
I'll hum to myself,
Those songs of past comfort,
And remain poised,
Fierce to the dangers of the night,
And the world,
That questions my place.
Forgive me
For not knowing all that I can,
And I'll accommodate
Eagerly
Until i know what is home,
What is right.
I want to feel, and to think,
To be trapped in a company
That offers serenity,
Simplicity.
But I'm getting better at this,
I enjoy it
Though selfishly
I'm fueled by expression
And I crave to explore,
What I write about.
I'm searching for the story
That will make me what I am,
And what I idealise
It makes me as anxious
And as excited as you do,
It's beyond my control.
We don't make these decisions.
So why should we try?
Give me words and tales
Of crafted meaning,
Let me find what I need to be free
Of these thoughts
That race through my head
Like an ocean tide,
Drawing back from climax
And edging closer and closer
To another source of control.
Feel my frustration,
Find a solution to my torment
And be free.
I'll be doubtful and upset
With what I see.
But I'll appreciate
What's looking back at me.
Haiku
Feet rest in cold sand,
speckled clouds smile down on me,
where did our love go?
Collision
Time withers,
Time grows,
And as I wait,
I hear it.
I feel it,
I know
In my heart,
I have to do it.
Give up the battle
And stop fighting.
You're rolling in like a tide,
I feel the pull,
I'm the shores
Waiting eagerly for collision.
I've grown
Through this time.
I've loved, and I've lost,
But where am I now?
Last night's makeup,
Ruffled curls
And lips that pause for thought,
Soft and intrigued.
And looking.
Compelled to reveal,
Eager to share
And to be
Only me.
When I peer at my reflection,
It's foreignly familiar,
There's a strength that has grown,
Though naivety lingers
Like a shadow in the dark.
I'll hum to myself,
Those songs of past comfort,
And remain poised,
Fierce to the dangers of the night,
And the world,
That questions my place.
Forgive me
For not knowing all that I can,
And I'll accommodate
Eagerly
Until i know what is home,
What is right.
I want to feel, and to think,
To be trapped in a company
That offers serenity,
Simplicity.
But I'm getting better at this,
I enjoy it
Though selfishly
I'm fueled by expression
And I crave to explore,
What I write about.
I'm searching for the story
That will make me what I am,
And what I idealise
It makes me as anxious
And as excited as you do,
It's beyond my control.
We don't make these decisions.
So why should we try?
Give me words and tales
Of crafted meaning,
Let me find what I need to be free
Of these thoughts
That race through my head
Like an ocean tide,
Drawing back from climax
And edging closer and closer
To another source of control.
Feel my frustration,
Find a solution to my torment
And be free.
I'll be doubtful and upset
With what I see.
But I'll appreciate
What's looking back at me.
Haiku
Feet rest in cold sand,
speckled clouds smile down on me,
where did our love go?
Collision
Time withers,
Time grows,
And as I wait,
I hear it.
I feel it,
I know
In my heart,
I have to do it.
Give up the battle
And stop fighting.
You're rolling in like a tide,
I feel the pull,
I'm the shores
Waiting eagerly for collision.
I've grown
Through this time.
I've loved, and I've lost,
But where am I now?
Monday, September 6, 2010
My Closest Thing to a Near Death...
My trip to Laverton, Western Australia, hardly started on a bright note. My brother urgently needed a lift home to Perth for a funeral, and my dad (a country policeman) was a further 26 hour drive into the depths of the desert. After deliberating, my family accepted I should go.
Early the next morning, myself and my brother's friend Tyson had gotten ready for the eleven hour journey. "Bring water!" Dad had cautioned. I had rushed to the supermarket in a solemn panic and stocked my car with four 5 litre bottles of water.
"Dad, how do I get to Laverton exactly?"
"Right. Get on the Great Eastern Highway in Perth, and drive for six hours until you reach Kalgoorlie. Then when you get to Kalgoorlie, turn left. Then drive for four hours. Then you'll be in Laverton."
"That's it?"
I was going bush. To the outback - the deadliest and vastest roads of Australia lay ahead of me - and I was naive 19 year old outback-virgin with a 17 year old boy for moral support.
The journey was tedious. My car stereo broke and it took us six hours to figure out how to fix. The landscape of rural WA became blander and redder the further we drove into the country, the roads wilder and empty. Being British, my idea of countryside until then was sweeping lanes in Yorkshire and pretty paddocks in Cornwall.
"You have to beat the dusk!" My dad had warned that morning before we left. Tyson had procrastinated about coming at first, but eventually decided to come, making us a little late on our departure.
On our final leg of the drive, from Leonora to Laverton, Tyson had offered to drive through roo territory. He'd had experience with his family being country bumpkins and my idea of countryside danger was a goat on the road.
The sun was setting quick and we had 125km to go after ten hours of driving. Tyson , had me on "roo watch". I peered into the bushes for a glimpse of any peeking eyes or poking ears and could see a few staring back at me. Tyson had described to me how one handles a roo jumping infront of your car situation: "lock your elbows, slam on the breaks and do not swerve - if you swerve you will roll into a bush and possibly die."
With around 50km to go our fears were confirmed. While we hunted for roos in front of us one jumped from the back of my tiny car and plummetted onto my bonnet. I'd screamed as the bonnet had bounced onto the windscreen and the kangaroo had helted over the car. The car skidded to a halt, steam gushing out of the engine.
We jumped out to inspect the damage and it started to piss it down with rain. In the desert. The radiator and fan were caved in, and we had to hack off my crumpled bonnet with a Stanley knife Tyson had for some (almost prophetic) reason brought along.
The next hour was one of the worst of my life. As my battered car chugged along at barely 40km per hour, with her naked engine exposed in the rain, her engine was severely overheating. We still faced the chance of another attack on my precious Zip. My mobile jumped in and out of coverage to be met with frantic calls from my parents telling me I shouldn't have gone. "Let's talk about this later!" I'd shouted.
I can't describe the happiness I felt when we saw the sign: Laverton - 4km.
"Come on!" I'd cooed to my whimpering car. "Almost there!"
We made it. The police paddywaggon awaited us to drop us off at dad's house as I didn't know my way around the town. My car was then parked besides the town's sole (and therefore, gold digger) mechanic, but I didn't want to think about how we'd get back to Perth, just yet. I wanted a bath. I wanted a hug. I wanted my bed.
Welcome to Laverton.
Early the next morning, myself and my brother's friend Tyson had gotten ready for the eleven hour journey. "Bring water!" Dad had cautioned. I had rushed to the supermarket in a solemn panic and stocked my car with four 5 litre bottles of water.
"Dad, how do I get to Laverton exactly?"
"Right. Get on the Great Eastern Highway in Perth, and drive for six hours until you reach Kalgoorlie. Then when you get to Kalgoorlie, turn left. Then drive for four hours. Then you'll be in Laverton."
"That's it?"
I was going bush. To the outback - the deadliest and vastest roads of Australia lay ahead of me - and I was naive 19 year old outback-virgin with a 17 year old boy for moral support.
The journey was tedious. My car stereo broke and it took us six hours to figure out how to fix. The landscape of rural WA became blander and redder the further we drove into the country, the roads wilder and empty. Being British, my idea of countryside until then was sweeping lanes in Yorkshire and pretty paddocks in Cornwall.
"You have to beat the dusk!" My dad had warned that morning before we left. Tyson had procrastinated about coming at first, but eventually decided to come, making us a little late on our departure.
On our final leg of the drive, from Leonora to Laverton, Tyson had offered to drive through roo territory. He'd had experience with his family being country bumpkins and my idea of countryside danger was a goat on the road.
The sun was setting quick and we had 125km to go after ten hours of driving. Tyson , had me on "roo watch". I peered into the bushes for a glimpse of any peeking eyes or poking ears and could see a few staring back at me. Tyson had described to me how one handles a roo jumping infront of your car situation: "lock your elbows, slam on the breaks and do not swerve - if you swerve you will roll into a bush and possibly die."
With around 50km to go our fears were confirmed. While we hunted for roos in front of us one jumped from the back of my tiny car and plummetted onto my bonnet. I'd screamed as the bonnet had bounced onto the windscreen and the kangaroo had helted over the car. The car skidded to a halt, steam gushing out of the engine.
We jumped out to inspect the damage and it started to piss it down with rain. In the desert. The radiator and fan were caved in, and we had to hack off my crumpled bonnet with a Stanley knife Tyson had for some (almost prophetic) reason brought along.
The next hour was one of the worst of my life. As my battered car chugged along at barely 40km per hour, with her naked engine exposed in the rain, her engine was severely overheating. We still faced the chance of another attack on my precious Zip. My mobile jumped in and out of coverage to be met with frantic calls from my parents telling me I shouldn't have gone. "Let's talk about this later!" I'd shouted.
I can't describe the happiness I felt when we saw the sign: Laverton - 4km.
"Come on!" I'd cooed to my whimpering car. "Almost there!"
We made it. The police paddywaggon awaited us to drop us off at dad's house as I didn't know my way around the town. My car was then parked besides the town's sole (and therefore, gold digger) mechanic, but I didn't want to think about how we'd get back to Perth, just yet. I wanted a bath. I wanted a hug. I wanted my bed.
Welcome to Laverton.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
"Let's Take A Leap of Faith."
Perhaps my subconscious is letting Inception cause an effect (as I’ve finally seen the film), but lately I’m having trouble distinguishing between my dreams and my reality. I can’t seem to grasp what has been said to me, what I’ve dreamt, or what I’ve hoped for. Perhaps I’ll just chose to believe the sweetest options, and keep quiet of the rest.
Yesterday marked the 7 year anniversary of my family’s departure from England, to begin our new life in Australia. Looking back, I left England as a child and have grown up while I’ve been in Australia, but I think my adult life will lead me astray. I recently made a pact with a “friend” that we’ll hold each other to our grand ideals and plans of big adventures. For a time, there was nothing worse than disappointing him. For once I desire that consequence, if it will give me guts.
I’ve mentioned I want to make the most of my time left in Australia, but it doesn’t mean that I know how or who I will spend my time with. My problem is that I over-analyse, so I’m going to take a seat back and let life take its course for once. I feel like I’m standing in the aeroplane waiting to jump out. The giddiness of my future seems uncontrollable; the fear is there not from authenticity but from standards. Perhaps we fear because we expect to be scared. Perhaps we’re scared because we let fear tangle within our minds.
In saying that, I am going skydiving on Sunday. And I just know that the plummet, the whoosh, the feeling we’re forever striving to feel, will grab my fear and say: “fuck you.”
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