Right…… Laos…… no actually, I’m gonna keep up to date with Australia and fill in the Laos missing link another time..…. Ok…. Aaauuuussssstttrrraaaaalllliiiiiaaa…………..
Mate….. as soon as I got here I loved it!!! You couldn’t take the smile off my face. I’ve travelled so much that I’d thought I’d lost the buzz you feel when you get to a new place or country…. but this had a different dimension to even that….. I had/have the sensation that I’ve returned home….. I know, bizarre hey, but real all the same. There’s a vibe here which I’ve never felt anywhere before…. a real positive energy….. it feels like a place where YOU CAN DO STUFF!!!!! England’s a wonderful country, but its full of people telling you “YOU CANT DO THAT” for whatever reason they have or whatever agenda they wish to pursue. Feels different here and I’m loving it!!!!!!
As soon as I’d checked into my hostel, I got hold of a map and found my way down to the Royal Botanical Gardens. As I walked through the gardens I began to notice the wildlife and nature etc. The colours looked so vibrant, I’ve never seen anything like them before, not even in the Amazon. Anyway, I went and sat on the rocks, by the water, overlooking the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge. I felt so happy, the sensation of being at home was overwhelming, you could not take the smile off my boat race!!!!….. and then a boat named the Captain Cook sailed by and that smile got even bigger…. he was my hero when I was a kid!!!! 🙂 I just sat there, for hours, taking in the scene and watching the world go by while intermediately popping over to a vendor to keep myself topped up with cups of rosey!!!! I couldn’t bring myself to leave the place…. it felt so amazing!!!!… I felt like Zebedee and Tigger all rolled into one…. I was simply bouncing!!! 🙂
Anyway, later, after I’d returned to the hostel and had a kip, I decided to go back to the harbour and see it by night. I walked around and it was beautiful. I came to an area where there were street performers and was taken aback when I heard the voice of this girl who was singing with just a guitar. Beautiful. I sat there, with a cup of tea and listened to her whole set, getting up to put donations in her case after each song and making cheeky little comments. She was cool as…. is cool as. Cos it was a cold night, there weren’t many people about. People came and went (everyone taken aback by her), but a lot of the time it was me and this middle aged guy enjoying the tunes. I started talking to the guy and it turned out to be her dad!!! After she finished, her dad started packing up and I started having a bit of a giggle with her….. ok ….. I was coming onto her a little bit…. but you wont believe how hard it is to be cheeky with someone when their dads within ears shot!!!! I said as much to her and she said I was doing well……. well its all good then!!!
Melissa said that she was gonna be back there tomorrow afternoon if I was around…… definitely was the word that came to mind!!! So I said goodbye to her and John and went on my way, and ended up having a pukka night in a pub with live music. Oh…… and you know I’ve always said that the thing I miss the most about England when I travel was the freedom to walk into a pub and buy a pint……..well…. in Australia….. I can walk into a pub and….. BUY A PINT!!!!! Fantastic!!!!! 🙂
So Saturday afternoon I wander down to the harbour, saw Melissa and carried on where I left off. And as I sat there overlooking the opera house, drinking gallons of tea and listening to Melissa doing her thing……. I can honestly say that there was nowhere in the world I would have rather have been. She’s bloody amazing. She’s going to London in three weeks, for six weeks, to try her fortune there. I was talking to John and he said “While she’s there she’s gonna meet with “some guy” called Jools Holland” and he didn’t know who that was!!!!……. I was like “WHAT?….Jools Holland!…. I tell ya….. if she gets to meet him then as opportunities go, she’s pretty well sorted!!!!!”.
Anyway, I got her cd and its special. Look out for her if you’re in London. She’s called Melissa Maylin and Melissa, if you’re reading this and you do meet Mr.Holland…. then sing him Mother Dear, with all your heart and soul, and blow the geezer away!!!! You can do it….. you’re beautiful. Good luck!!! 🙂
On a different note (excuse the punn!!!), walking round Sydney at night is an experience in itself! All this shit people talk about British town centres being out of control at night because of drunken yobs….well you should see it here! And the thing is, violence may have been the main currency on the streets I grew up in, but at least there was usually a reason for it!!!…. It may not have been a good reason…. But there was a reason all the same!!! You would’ve at least had to look at someone the wrong way or piss them off somehow… but here it just feels random!!!!
Two Scottish guys in the hostel were slashed up by a bunch of Aborigines who picked a fight with them, and an English guy in my dorm was walking along when some Aussie guy just came up to pick a fight, then this other guy run from nowhere and smashed a bottle over his head. It’s just random…. you can feel it.
The first night I was here, I was walking through Kings Cross and I saw two Aussie geezers squaring up to each other. They then proceeded to have a real girls fight…. you know…. like the one Hugh Grant and Colin Firth had in Bridget Jones Diary!!!! 🙂 They were swinging all these punches at each other and nothing was connecting….. so they just resorted to pulling at each others clothes and falling over!!!! Would have been funny if it wasn’t so sad!!!! Then the police turn up and I couldn’t believe it…. in England, with anything like that, you’re immediately banged up for the night…. but here its like the last thing the police want to do is arrest you. They seem to just want to make excuses for you and let you off!!! I swear…. ok this is a bit of an over-simplified exaggeration… but they were like with those guys after they broke up the fight…. “Right, now calm down…. now you didn’t really mean to do that did you?…. Well shake hands and move on”…. and the two geezers shook hands and moved on!!! It was unbelievable!!!!
I’m resolute that its far more dignified to just walk away from any bother in this environment, especially after seeing that farce of a fight!!!! And to be honest… I dont want to hurt anyone, I got nothing to prove to anyone…… and I dont particularly want to be hurt by anyone!!! So if bother comes my way, I think I’m gonna take a leaf out of Monty Pythons “The Holy Grail” and just…….. Runaway, Runaway!!!!!!!! 🙂 It’s definitely the only way forward here!!!
Love and Light,
Miller
The Adventures of Miller 