What lies beneath…
What lies above…Well all cameras lie. Sydney Opera House is not white at all. Slightly cream tiles reflect the sun and cameras somehow translate that as white. Whatever colour it is the effect is both jaw dropping and magnificent.
What lies beneath, very much beneath is gorgeously, gloriously rusty and we all know how much I love rust so here it is. Not so jaw dropping but all great architecture requires firm underpinnings.
There is nothing quite like a road trip in a new country to promote pondering to the extreme. But just as in normal life,regular swimming in the sea quietens and distills loud and chaotic pondering. Swimming in foreign parts galvanises some very simple thoughts of how privileged/lucky/fortunate I am to be in this place at this moment, loving the ones I am with.
I am hopeless at remembering the correct lyrics in any song and often hopeless at decoding the sentiments expressed by lyrics.
13 year old me thought this was about making the best of any situation. My more hedonistic school friends thought it was all about a future giddiness that was opening up for infidelity and wild living.
I do rather like to make the best of any situation. It is not always a virtue and definitely annoys people, but my misunderstanding of these lyrics has kept my glass half full for a long while now. I would say it is half full for about 95%. The 5% of half empty keeps things real
Anyway the sea pools of Australia are fabulous and I am immune to the slight chill of Spring because my last swim at home was 10 degrees.
Googling Love the One you are With created an excellent AI precis.
Now as any well tuned woman knows AI is about as accurate as mansplaining . However as my earliest interpretation is highlighted in blue I will take this as a rare moment of AI accuracy.
For certain these are the good times, thank you for the earworm Stephen Stills.
An earworm that accompanied me on an early morning naked swim or bob.
With an unusual companion. Meet Fay…
Tidal pool gold at Bermagui tonight after two pilgrimages to pools that were under refurbishment. A man-made wall and a shark net creates the enclosure but fish are happy to swim with us while we bobbed.
The word we might have used for this swimming spot would be sublime. But we had already had a sublime morning experience at Sublime Point lookout.
Two superlatives in one day seems a little greedy, but that is the way of our days currently. One superlative after another.
So far a trip of many superlatives. I will have to backtrack quite a bit in future blogs because each little moment of surprise and awe needs pondering on. And quite honestly pondering and reflecting on this trip might take forever.
Pondering being on the other side of the world and taking some time out to bob about in an altogether warmer sea pool than normal.
As it turns out other bobbers have bobbed in this same pool before me .
As is so often the case photography cannot quite catch the vivid colours completely accurately.
But my pre prepared colour charts. Random as they may have seemed in a grey and dismal English November, can be used to accurately pick out the colours I will need to recreate the vivid blues and greens of the sea and the gorgeous cappuccino creamy flush as sand and breaking waves mingle in the liminal space of the shore line.
Now the burning question is to sketch or swim?
An unusual choice for 6 am. Maybe both if I am quick!
Today was all about two cocktail bars, some shape shifting and 20,000 sweaty steps.
First stop the Art Science Museum where we shape-shifted in mirrored galleries with lights and projections.
Shape-shifting was exhausting so R and R was required in the tranquil spaces of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel.
In Festive Spirit we had a Figgy Pudding.
Before heading to Ce la Vi, a popular roof top bar and venue where a family member used to regularly DJ.
We marked the moment and the surroundings with a Singapore Sling.
Then off later to another Bar, where Hannah’s Dad had visited, many years ago. The Long Bar at Raffles Hotel.
Although on this occasion we drank a less feminine cocktail, a Straits Cup.
We may well have been at a favourite tourist location but not going with the herd was a great choice.
A day well spent, two cocktails made 20,000 steps seem a little easier on the feet until we stopped. And then it didn’t.
What are your two favorite things to wear?
Sandals are my favourite things to wear and as they come in pairs, that neatly spares me from thinking of a second item. Which would be a hard task.
My feet are free spirits who dislike full enclosure at any time of the year. This year in particular my feet have prolonged sandal wearing until exactly this point when a very late summer holiday has taken us to Asia.
A dark November switched overnight to something warm and exotic. Sunbeams on my toes. They are somewhat tired toes, slightly puffy from a long period of travel but very excited to see sunshine.
My toes particularly enjoyed my evening bob in a rooftop pool. No anaesthetising chill forcing them into socks and boots, just a quick dab and they were ready to see the night.
The end of PHEaAT. Pre-Holiday -Ess ntial and Accidental Tasks.
The run up to a holiday has several essential tasks and chores. Known to all the world over. Packing, passports and visas. Dog or pet holiday care ( they took 7 bags) are all fairly standard. As are at least two loads of last minute laundry. I would also add as standard, but the little talked about talent of preparing meals using up the fresh ingredients from a fridge. My tour de force this week was Merguez sausages wrapped in bacon served with organic curly Kale, mashed potatoes and Yorkshire puddings. All pushed to the last supper because of their use-by dates apart from the Organic Curly Kale which had slipped from his organic best only two days after purchase. Visually he was in his prime long after his date of despair. Firm of shaft and as curly as a 70’s film star. He struggled to assimilate with any of my PHEaAT creations earlier in the week. I cannot guess if last night’s concoction was too his Organic credentials but his fate was sealed. A green vegetable accompanying the unusual foods last standing in the fridge.
If you didn’t need sleep, what would you do with all the extra time?
What a perfect prompt for this morning. My head has had a very busy night whilst I slept on.
I have a fair bit of experiencing no sleep. Night shifts, 24 hour shifts and a head that gifts me insomnia when times are tricky. Hence the swan images. I am pretty good at appearing to float calmly while life throws me curve balls and incendiary devices. Under the surface though I am paddling furiously and not always in the right direction.
My head is a bit busy right now but I am sleeping well. But my dream world is very creative. Writing an in depth blog overnight that in dream world was rather good, in my opinion, but that I have no recollection of the details. In another remembered dream loads of paintings in shades of orange.
This more or less accurately answers the question. In a world where I didn’t need sleep I would be more creative.
But we all need sleep and a lack of sleep absolutely affects how creative I can be. However if the streets at night were safe for women I would walk more. Night walks in central London gave me some of the best experiences of walking through famous and architecturally beautiful streets without crowds. I felt safe in a way I could never feel in a provincial city or in the countryside.
So that just leaves me reading and nibbling. Great for knowledge, not so good for the waistline.
We are on the countdown to a big adventure. We have two more days of pre-trip-prep. Meanwhile in the last hour or so, on the other side of the world our friends have set off on a road trip to collect us next week. Suddenly it all feels very real.
A friendship that has its roots under an Oak tree. The school bus stop in a small Essex village. Goodness knows where it will take us this December. Sea pools for sure, beaches and coffee shops.
So far the only thing packed is my pencil case and two sketch books. There is a pile of clothes to be sorted through and gifts to be wrapped. Passports have been found…
Bobbers do inspire some random pondering. Anne Bobber took a walk this evening to see the new moon . Some intrepid swimmers and divers were still in the water one of whom said he chased a huge squid.
These are waters that we swim in very regularly, with no idea that we might have close encounters with much sea life especially something squid-like and huge.
Some delving into Squid Fishing websites does suggest that squid are attracted to the piercing clear light of a cloudless New Moon. So the swimmer may not have been mistaken. But that does also make me ponder that squid of all sizes must be there while the bobbers bob, which is not something we have ever given much thought to. And maybe we shouldn’t.
Says one squid to another.
“I was in Firestone Bay for the new moon, and I saw a huge bobber”
theoldmortuary.design 