The Last One
It has been a while since I last wrote, not as long as Lija’s last post, but still I haven’t written since the end of August.
It’s now November, only just. When I last spoke I was heading down to the gorgeous Prussia Cove in Cornwall, for my fourth time volunteering with the International Musicians Seminar.
I spent 10 days working in the kitchen, basking in the sunlight and having some good times with my mates. Back up in London for four days I had decided it was time to go home. After the mixed experiences I had in Berlin, and London heading into a cold winter, I was prepared to go home in a mental sense. Or so I thought.
Lija and I went down to Newquay for a weekend of surfing, which was heaps of fun. We got to head over to the famous Fistral Beach, which had huge waves that we ended up kind of surfing – we could stand up on the boards anyway! There were a few too many tumbles on the last day, because of a huge sandbank that sat right where we were trying to catch waves, and I think I ended up with a minor concussion. I had to catch a bus across Cornwall to get to the train station and back down to Penzance, while Lija flew back to London. Sundays are terrible for public transport out of Newquay on the supposed already ‘winter’ timetable.
I spent another 10 days in Prussia Cove, doing some work in the office, but mostly organising all the kitchen shifts. A select few of us then had the fantastic task of clean up. I had been the first person there, and although I missed the second week, I ended up being the last person there too. Annie and I left on a windy day, having closed up the last of our goods away for the winter. Another year over for Prussia Cove. But still one more reunion back in London for the final concert at Wigmore Hall.
I was only in London for another few days before Lija and I headed over to Jersey. Lija for the long weekend, and I stayed for two weeks with Gran and Pops. We did a bit of shopping, and went out to La Corbiere, La Roche, the 5-Mile Road, and all the favourites. Gran and I went to see the Marilyn Monroe exhibition, owned by a collector on the island. It was just gorgeous, all her dresses and costumes.
I think it was my last day in Jersey that I came to the realisation that in a few days I had made the choice to leave London and fly back to Melbourne, leaving Lija in London, and my life of the past few years behind. Although I wanted to take both with me, staying was not an option, and so I had no choice. Lija had to stay because she had found her career in Logistics and Health and Safety. She’s really enjoying it, and staying will help secure her future when she comes home, as the company has a base in Oz too. I need to come home. Freelancing is tough, and I don’t mind that, but I miss working in a team. I’d like to have a strong working environment with a great team, and a lot of creative opportunity to hunt down my own stories with a definite audience to write for. Although I enjoy working independently, my strength comes from the people around me who know what I’m talking about and can interject their own ideas and values to compliment or contradict mine, and thus make me think more about what I’m doing. Although I could do this abroad, it would mean properly setting up a new life and that’s not what I wanted. My purpose for being in London was the ease in which I could travel and see new places, explore new cultures, try new foods. I never wanted to stop there the first time around. As for the future who knows? I could end up anywhere.
I wasn’t letting my head think about a lot of this, but my sub-conscious must have been going over it pretty heavily. I felt sick my last day in Jersey. I thought it was just a 24-hour stomach bug, but I realised it was all my feelings spilling out the only way they could, and my eating habits over my last days in London consisted of anything greasy and fattening, and not much of it. Lija and I filled my last four days up with visits to our favourite places, farewell drinks with my best friends, and maybe a hangover or two for good measure. Lija and I had lunch with Jen in a pub in Hammersmith, dinner with Trev in Soho followed by Vodka Revolutions for the night. We went up to Cambridge on the Sunday, because, well you should know by now that’s just what we do, and we caught up with my mate Michael up there for lunch, then Lija and I had dinner with Sarah in Covent Garden. On Monday I caught up with Gary at the pub, and sorted out the last of my mail, and then saw Alessia. Lija and I went to the movies that evening and saw Up in Disney 3D, which was quite a sad story. We then sat in bed on our laptops eating ice cream and drinking the wine Kathy had brought back for us from France the week before.
Lija and I heaved my bags down to Hammersmith for breakfast, and sat in Starbucks having a good old chat about everything except for the fact that I was about to catch a plane to the other side of the world.
I’m back in Melbourne now; I have been for two weeks. I’ve set everything up, told everyone I’m back in the country, and de-cluttered my room. I tell you, after living out of a backpack for so long, coming home to my bedroom freaked me out. So I’ll be having a car-boot sale soon. Dad and I repainted my room, and I have sorted out everything. My journalism books, my paperwork, my treasured bits and pieces. Things are orderly and ready to go.
My next step is applying for every journalism job that fits the description of what I want to do, and get in touch with the people who can help make that happen. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about travelling, although I’ve learnt a lot, it’s about getting involved. It’s having those friendships and relationships that support you, keeping in touch with what’s happening in the parts of the world that matter most. It would be ridiculous to think you could know everything everywhere, so you need to have focus, goals, as well as hobbies to keep you sane.
And so this is my last post as a young graduate travelling the globe and experiencing the world, but it won’t be the last time I travel the globe and experience the world. I’ll be back on another bandwidth, sometime soon, but for now Lija and I will start planning Asia…
Tags: Travel
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