Daily Life

Homecoming

When it came to leaving Bali, I didn’t want to leave. I cried when the car pulled through Amed for the last time, going over those mountains, looking over the rice fields. I think somewhere in Asia is my soul home. I’ve written about it before. I feel like I am home when I get there and I cry when I leave. I’ve had this feeling from the first time I travelled to Thailand when I was 22. How can you explain to people back here what your journey was when you were gone? (Even weirder when it was spending a month figuring out how to relax and hold your breath under the ocean). I describe it to people who have not tried freediving is that it is like underwater meditation. Anyway, it was a journey of sorts but not a time-to-figure-out-my-life type journey. I dived 24 out of 30 days and was so exhausted every night I didn’t even read a book or hardly blog. Excuse the weird format of my blog by the way, I will get to it now I have better wifi and time. Plus all my delayed travel posts that are in my head!

So now I am back in the cold, with my cats and my love, and my new job. I missed some things about home. My bed. My exercise routine, normal food, a shower with water pressure and having something to get my brain ticking. If I lived there for longer I would need a business or to ramp up the writing. My new job is great as far as jobs go. I was saying to The Ginger Hunk that my goal is to have a job when I feel like I am making a difference, but that I don’t get so burnt out that I need 6 weeks out to recover from either the environment or the subject matter (which seems to be the pattern of previous jobs). Anyway, I’m working as an Advisor at the NSW Mental Health Commission, advising and writing about reform and innovation in the mental health system in NSW. Nice humans, flexible workplace, (3 days in office and one day at home) as I want to be around The Ginger Hunk who is still recovering, and save some time on travel. More importantly, projects with creative licence. It’s so important to feel listened to in a workplace. So I am excited about the opportunity, and can get some creative things happening on the side. My writing has been much ignored for the last few months so watch this space.