All the Roadrunning

After spending two hours playing basketball this afternoon, I have become as useful as a toe nail clipping. I am exhausted and in pain. Sure, it felt wonderful to be back on the court, despite requiring a personal ‘timeout’ every 9 minutes to avoid collapsing to the floor (where I most likely would have stayed in order to take a nap). Being out of shape is not enjoyable at all, and so I now plan to start playing basketball 3-4 times a week. Within a month I should at least be able to shoot the ball without feeling as if I am trying to toss a refrigerator into a chimney from 2 miles away.

By the way, I am in Melbourne at the moment. All the way down here in the Southern Hemisphere, quite a distance from quite a lot of the world. It’s been some time since my last entry and as usual, the weeks have been filled with meanderings along my random path. At the end of the latest installment, I suddenly found myself here, in Australia, having arrived exactly two weeks ago.

The decision to relocate to Australia for the time being was actually made while I was on the Caribbean island of St. Thomas. Back in early October, I somehow found myself there, helping a friend start a tour operation for a few weeks. (It’s an entirely different story that I might come back to at a later date.)

On one particular, and typically balmy, Caribbean evening, I returned home from a day at Emerald Beach. The sun was about to set over Charlotte Amalie harbor. I had a perfect view of this grand display from the large wraparound balcony of the resort apartment my friend had arranged for me. As I sat there, breathing in that warm, humid air, my mind began wandering as usual. The most popular of my brain’s forays into contemplation involve the simple concept of where I should go and what I should do next. On this particular evening, it therefore came as no surprise when I returned to that very same topic yet again.

However, only five minutes into my brainstorming (which had produced such results as moving to San Diego, walking across Mongolia and volunteering in Gabon), my cell phone rang. It was my friend Amelia, calling from Melbourne.

For years, I had always toyed with the idea of returning to Australia, a country that is one of my favorites due to the unique quality of happiness that seems to permeate the culture. As usual, this idea was also one of the thousands that quickly flashed through my head as I sat there on the balcony, but, as just like every other time, it failed to really stand out among its hundreds of competitors.

The telephone conversation I had with Amelia was actually nothing out of the ordinary, as we spent 30 minutes catching up since our last conversation a few months back. But as soon as I hung up the phone, everything changed. Within minutes, not only did the idea of heading back to Melbourne move to the forefront of my possibilities, it became solidified as an actual plan that was definitely about to be followed.

For a long time I have been looking for a place that offers me an energetic and diverse atmosphere, somewhat consistent warmth, a favorable cost of living and where I already know a good amount of people. With summer only a few weeks away, friends excited at the possibility of my return and an incredibly favorable exchange rate, Melbourne suddenly seemed like the only option.

“Why not?” was all I could mumble to myself as the sun flickered its last beam of light across the island, as if signaling to me that time was up for me to make a decision. I had spent exactly 7 minutes thinking about this new plan, however, it was clearer and more inspiring than any other I had had in months, and perhaps even years. Walking across Mongolia would have to be put on hold.

Maintaining the usual pace of my changes in direction, I left St. Thomas five days later, spent a few days re-organizing (at which I have become particularly skillful) in Florida and flew out to Melbourne. I traveled for 30 hours to get here, yet not even once during that long haul did I question the decision.

So far, everything has worked out perfectly. I found a house to live in only minutes from the city center, I have been re-connecting with old friends almost every single day and I have been more focused than ever on the book I want to write. I am attending festivals each weekend, enjoying the live music scene and eating Indian food every two or three days! And I am even playing basketball again, or at least attempting to.

Regular updates will now return, as I am settled into the comfortable, energetic and rewarding world that is Melbourne.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 26th, 2008 at 6:34 pm and is filed under Australia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.