To Meredith I Go…
On Thursday I am heading out into the country for the three-day Meredith music festival, where bands I have never heard of will perform on a stage at the bottom of a hill in the middle of whoop whoop. Apparently, several thousand people will be in attendance and everyone just camps right there on the hill. As lovely as that may sound, the forecast is most unfortunate – an 80% chance of thunderstorms all day, every day and temperatures hovering between 40 – 60 degrees. There sure is nothing like a summer festival! It’s a good thing I brought my winter hat and Himalayan mountain blanket with me to Australia.
Over the course of the past few weeks, I have been going through a list of ‘Comfort Challenges’ that I have decided to complete each week. The aim is, according to the book I read, to put a person in the proper state of mind that will allow them to turn any crazy business ideas they have into actual successes.
The first two exercises were easy and involved staring at everybody I passed in the street for 3 straight days as well as being the person to make the decisions any time a decision needed to be made when around other people. Even the challenge that involves saying ‘no’ to everything for 2 days, which happens to begin today, is not terribly daunting. But it is the following exercise that worries me.
I will be required to go to a crowded place (i.e. busy downtown street, coffee shop or department store) and just lie down on the ground for 10 seconds. That’s it. And then when people ask if I am ok or what on earth I am doing, I am simply to reply, ‘I just felt like lying down.’ This is supposed to eliminate all fear and boost confidence to unfathomable levels. Or it might just scar me for life. Or possibly it will become addictive. I just might end up spending a portion of every day lying down in random places and moving from city to city and town to town doing so.
Anyway, apart from having to wear my winter hat during summer, all continues to be well here in Melbourne. I have yet to have a large spider crawl across my face in the middle of the night (which usually happens at some point) and I have yet to get caught up in a neighborhood game of cricket. Those two points alone have made my first month quite a success.
I also managed to steal from the Australian Post Office, accidentally of course. It’s a long story that ends up with me receiving $20 of free Overnight Delivery Postage. All I did was walk out of the Post Office without paying for the envelopes I had picked up and which I planned to send the next day. When I went to send the package at a different Post Office, I tried to explain to the lady behind the counter that I had not paid anything. She did not believe me and kept telling me that I must have paid when I had originally taken the envelopes. But I never bought the envelopes; I just walked out of the Post Office with them. Anyway, she was so confused by my confusion that she just gave me a “Whatever sir” and sent off my package without taking any money. Turns out you have to pay for the envelopes before you leave the Post Office, not when you send them. What a strange place.
Today involves, apart from saying ‘no’ to everything, some more work on the book I am writing and some final preparations for the music festival. And then this evening there is the Wednesday night music and food festival at the Victoria Market. Every Wednesday night hundreds of ethnic food stalls set up in an open-air market while odd bands ranging from family ensembles to the local Victorian police band make their best attempt at creating bearable music. However, the atmosphere is excellent and the food is as tasty as it gets. So tonight, the plan is to once again enjoy the festivities.
If all goes well, upon finishing our burritos and paella, my friends and I just might even walk into the most crowded section of the festival, drop to the ground and lie down for 10 seconds. In the end, today is as good a day as any to conquer all fear.
I need a lemonade.
Tags: Australia
dbaron
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