the quiet revolution

Melbourne is trying her very best to seduce me.

A perfect blue-sky day, impossibly warm for this little Tasmaniac still shaking off the winter. Lying on green grass in the sunshine, shooting the breeze, drinking far too much coffee in funky cafes, spending time with my Melbourne peeps and the physical expression of joy that is taiko.

Today was a half-day of drumming and dance workshops with Wadaiko Rindo (and Corch & Leah). Tonight is a taiko concert. Tomorrow is catching up with more lovely friends, with nothing more pressing to do than enjoy myself.

Monday brings work in the Melbourne office, and a frantic 3 days it will be, but Monday night there is more drumming goodness with the Kodo & TaikOz concernt. Hooray! Then home again, home again on Wednesday night to my sweet little city curled around the Mountain.

Melbourne, you'd have a chance of stealing my heart if it wasn't already spoken for.

It's another of those stunningly beautiful Hobart mornings, the sunlight slanting across the Derwent making the waters sparkle like sapphires, the Mountain wearing a cape low, fluffy clouds, pockets of sunlight and shadow dappled across the slopes.

A perfect morning, warm and rich with possibilities, and yet, walking to the office from the bus, one discordant thought echoed: I need to get off the island again. It's time.

Time to reconnect with the rest of the world, to dip my toes back into the rushing tide of humanity for a few days, long enough to refresh my perspective lest I become another parochial Tasmanian, staring at the big city highrises in slack-jawed wonder.

Good thing I'm off to Melbourne next weekend. It's been almost six months: most definitely time.

xoxo

So, I am in Melbourne, having a holiday. Except I am still recovering from the 'flu, so am doing very little other than sitting around wasting time on the internet, which I could do just as well at home, so seems like a waste of my holidays. Tomorrow, however, things shall improve, as my friend Kelv and I are heading down the Morning Peninsular for a day of exploring.

This is not the holiday I was planning. Originally I was booked on a freaking awesome tour across South Australia, including a scenic flight over a flooded Lake Eyre, with a weekend in Melbourne tacked onto the end. I was ridiculously excited about that trip: Going to lots of places I'd never been before, seeing the desert, seeing Lake Eyre, meeting new people. But it was not meant to be: the tour was over-booked and 3 days after booking I discovered I wouldn't be going after all, and due to other commitments I couldn't reschedule the week off until October, when the lake will be drying and the wildlife dying. That didn't sound like so much fun, so plans were changed and here I am in Melbourne, having a nice time, but not quite the experience I was after. Perhaps it's just as well though, seeing as I'm still a little sick.



Today I'm resting up, tomorrow we're off to Mornington, and Tuesday we're heading to Daylesford with the lovely nurseysarah. Wednesday I'm taking a day to myself to wander about Melbourne city and perhaps make some camera-related purchases, then Thursday-Friday the plan is to head down to Wilson's Promontory National Park for an over-night adventure (that reminds me - must look into accommodation options). There are spare seats in the car, should anyone else fancy tagging along.

Saturday morning I have a surprise in store for my lovely hosts, but the evening is free for social things, then Sunday I fly home again, ready to start another working week and no doubt very pleased to be back in my own bed.

Next holiday though, I'm definitely doing the tour someplace I've never been thing.

...that our Melbourne trip was made entirely of awesome.

Aquarius-fest 2010 has been fantastic fun, and the boy and I are sorely tempted to make it an annual event.

I'll write more when I've recovered some more from 3 weekends of fun, friends and general hedonism. <3