Fradam

I’ve completely moved into the new place, and it is still quite startling how close everything is:

- Coles and Woolies about a block away

- 3 Asian grocery stores within walking distance

- An Indian grocery store that is as far as the Woolies!

… and work is about a 20-25 minute walk away. That’s right, I now walk to work! It’s quite a pleasant experience. The first morning was spent adjusting to the veritable cacophony of traffic all around me. It has been a while since I’ve been walking in the midst of that. Since then, I’ve got my MP3 player working, listened to my Beatles collection, discovered some quiet routes that make awesome avenues for prayer, had my MP3 player die, solved some maths puzzles, attempted to gain eye contact and smile at random strangers that I go by, been reading Velvet Elvis and found a new time of the day to call my parents. Best of all, I’ve found a great time of the day to do absolutely nothing; just clear my thoughts and attempt to walk. Walking.. I’ve really missed it.

I used to think of myself as quite the pedestrian.. Woody and I once walked to uni. It was for the purpose of collecting our student cards as I recall; so we walked 3 hours, and spent about 10 minutes on the grounds. Another day, I walked across a reasonable portion of the Northern Beaches - Sammie estimated it was about 30km after looking at the route on the map. There used to be a lot of walking. As life became busier however, the walking seemed to vanish.. which in hindsight seems quite sad, as it is only when experiencing it again, do I realise just how much I needed it. A little bit of space to just step away from the world and be calm. What perhaps is most surprising, is to be discovering this when I am closer to the city than ever before, literally thrust into the heart of a busy busy suburb full of busy busy people, and surrounded by an environment that compels activity. Yet, there is peace.

Today’s walk home felt like I was in Malaysia during the rainy season. The air is warm and sticks to your skin; slightly overweight droplets of rain scatter themselves inconsistently around the place. The sky is tinged by metallic overtones; scarring of industrialisation peeking out between the hazyness of a smog-like substance that causes the horizon to become blurry and indistinct. After a day of missing my home country, the only thing to do when experiencing this, was to laugh. And sing one of those songs made for singing in the rain.

The intoxicating aroma of young rain had wafted into the apartment by the time I arrived home.. an errant window no doubt had been welcoming it in. I loooove that smell. So much so, I decided to simply sit outside and enjoy it for a while.. let it soak in. Mmmm.

After witnessing two cars bump heads, I came back inside and watched an old favourite - Singing in the rain - come on, after a day like today, why not? I’m laughing at clouds!