Tag Archives: australia

Welcome home away from home

Posted on February 16, 2024 | 3 comments

(Note: I wrote this in late October 2023 and didn’t get around to posting it until now …)

Homecoming

“So how does it feel to be home?”

I’ve come home to Melbourne. A city that I grew up in then left behind. I’ve left my London home. A city that I settled in but wasn’t somewhere that I wanted to settle down in.

It’s warm and sunny outside, and on a slow Sunday morning I’m catching up on some writing and reading. Some Taylor Swift is playing. (She has a ‘new’ album out. I’ve been told that I need to learn the lyrics by the time of the concert so that I can blend in with proper fans …)

Moment of pause

I’ve been hurtling through the last few months, cutting a swathe through physical and emotional to-do lists. I’m lying on a sleek sled flying feet-first down an Olympic luge track with mobile phone in hand, ticking things off, filling in forms, delegating, chasing, waiting on hold, and following up.

June/July – kids in exam season in London. I’m at the end of a big project. Trying to sell a house. Various last and goodbye events, including trip with best mate to Paris. Last work trip to Manchester.
August – finish work in London office. The next day, my parents arrive from Melbourne. Continuing assortment of farewell events. Took parents to Edinburgh. Removalists come to pack up the house.
September – family travelling (Italy and Spain). Send kids to Melbourne. Trip to Turkey. We also arrive in Melbourne.
October – doing extreme amounts of life administration. Various hello and welcome events. Restart and start finishing work in Melbourne office.

I’m very lucky to have the resources to cram an unnatural volume of travel and food, friends and family, and gigs and galleries in to such a short time. However, this is neither a sustainable nor sensible way to live.

TBH my brain and my heart are a bit tired.

Getting ready for this relocation, my default mode has been action/delivery/achieve, so I’m not sure how I really feel about ‘home’ yet. But I’ve rolled off the luge track and am walking at a measured pace to get a nice coffee.

A funeral from afar

Posted on March 2, 2015 | 2 comments

A couple of weeks ago we went to a funeral service in our pyjamas. Thanks to the power of the internet, at 2:30 in the morning (UK) we sat in our dark bedroom, and tuned in to a webcast of an early afternoon funeral service (Australia).

I normally associate webinars and webcasts with work-related learning. “27 reasons why you should horizontally integrate your on-boarding data with your digital marketing ROI leverage opportunities”.

In contrast, this webcast was a fond remembrance of a loved uncle. We listened to the gently amusing, achingly sad and warm-hearted tributes to the unfamiliar other facets of this man – father, brother, friend. All from the comfort of our suburban bedroom, cradling mugs of tea, with a light scattering of pretzels over the duvet.

Technical issues

There were some technical issues. At first, although we could hear the service, the video was mostly an old-fashioned test pattern of bold coloured stripes. The experience of listening to the voices pausing and wobbling with emotion, in the silent dark made the eulogies even more moving.

Later on, as the service began drawing to a close, we lost the audio, but gained video. We saw the people rising and falling and shifting and singing.

I don’t work for you

As interesting as this was, we thought that we would enquire about the simultaneous transmission of audio AND video. We called the funeral home and then it got a bit weird.

INT. BEDROOM. NIGHT.

The funeral home reception person has put us through to the ‘technical people’. A very efficient man listens as we describe the issues – what we previously could or couldn’t see or hear. He performs some technical jiggling at his end, asks us some brisk questions, and we duly report back on what we can or cannot see or hear.

IT MAN: (businesslike) Right. OK. Seems to be some kind of issue with the cabling at (‘name of funeral home location’). I need you to get on to that straight away before the afternoon service.

US: (Baffled silence)

HUSBAND: (quietly) We don’t work for you…

(Pretzel packet rustles slightly. Mugs of tea are silent. )

ME: (confused) We’re calling from London, trying to watch a webcast of a service …

(Uncomfortable micro-pause.)

IT MAN: (mortified) I am SO SORRY. I thought you were calling from the venue. I didn’t realise … etc etc

US: (Speechless with laughter.)

FADE TO BLACK.

I’m not sure if the tears in my eyes were from the strangeness of this last conversation, or the moving stories of a great man.

[– In memory of PJ –]

Here’s one I wrote earlier

Love is not dead, it’s just resting. How often do you tell your loved ones that they are loved? On a sliding scale, I think the most romantic medium are (with 1 being most lovely) …

2 Comments

Posted in About me

Tagged audio, australia, family, funeral, London, video, webcast

Gluten-induced homesickness

Posted on April 13, 2014 | 3 comments

Fresh sourdough toast with jam and ricotta has made me ponder moving back to Sydney. A fig Danish pastry has triggered layers of crispy homesickness. A pork and fennel sausage roll has almost brought me to tears.

Love is a fig danish

I have been overloading on gluten and memories at Bourke Street Bakery. I am remembering the loss of these sights and smells and sounds, at the very same time that I am soaking them up. Equal parts happiness (I’m back!) and sadness (I have to leave.)

Daily London life is so solidly full and interesting that I rarely pine for Australia. So after nearly 3 years away, this visit has been surprisingly interrupted by ‘in situ’ homesickness.

I am missing the thing as I experience it. That doesn’t make sense. But a dark chocolate and sour cherry cookie as big as my hand does. In gluten we trust.

Here’s one I wrote earlier

Where do you go when you press Home? Does your life have a ‘Home’ button? I’m back home (Sydney) after a brief visit to London (new home). My old house is empty and my new house is waiting for me.

Welcome home away from home “So how does it feel to be home?” I’ve come home to Melbourne. A city that I grew up in and left behind. I’ve left my London home. A city that I settled in but, in the end, wasn’t somewhere that I wanted to settle down.

3 Comments

Tagged australia, bakery, Bourke Street, family, home, homesick, London, pastry, Sydney, Travel

Happy Chinese Australian New Day

Posted on February 1, 2012 | 6 comments

Chinese New Year and Australia Day completely passed me by this year. Instead, we surrounded ourselves with cheese, mountains and snow in France. The most Chinese thing I did was make everyone take their shoes off when they came in to the apartment.

I hardly tweeted or updated FB at all whilst away. The more fun I’m having, the less likely I am to post about it. My online life looks quite dull, even though I’m doing lots.

Stupid gloves beat my smartphone

The colder it gets, I’m also less likely to be updating anything. Several months in to London winter, I still keep stabbing at my phone with my useless gloved fingers.

Useful : MUJI sell touchscreen conductive gloves. I have tried several times to buy these, but the staff tell me there is a waiting list!?

Useless : I found a fingerless gloves website that includes terrible ‘fingerless fiction’. Since it’s 2012, why not read their Olympic Gold story?

Charming : Pictures of lonely gloves at our park.

Happy Australia Day

As I missed celebrating Australia Day, here are some Oz-themed pictures…

A sensible Australian street name. I love the way it's written in the footpath concrete..

Amusing sun hats. This was one of my favourites.

My friend recently made me a pizza. OMG - it's in the shape of Australia!

Some of my vintage 1970s Australian stickers.

I took all that lightly charred meat for granted ...

6 Comments

Posted in About me

Tagged australia, australia day, bbq, chinese, chinese new year, gloves, muji, pizza, stickers, sun hat