Relief

of sorts. Last night, after a mammothly (word?) draining day of 'conflict resolution' training I got stuck watching An Education on my laptop. I say got stuck because I only intended to watch a bit, but then I found I couldn't stop. And that's where the relief comes.
Carey Mulligan in this film is delightful, deep and innocent and girlish and worn all at the same time. She was also amazing in Shame. So I am relieved at having seen her, and full of hope that she will do Gatsby justice when she plays Daisy. God I can't wait for that film...

Yesterday during the conflict training, our trainer, referred to Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird when he tells Scout that the only way to really understand someone else is to walk around in his skin. Well, we did it with shoes, and somewhat symbolically. However, it still involved us removing our shoes and I cursed myself for wearing my psychedelic colourful purple-loveheart adorned socks that day. Today I'm wearing sandals. Just in case.

The last couple of weeks have gone by in a blur of activity at work and my enthusiasm goes up and down a lot - I suspect this will continue to be the case until some semblance of certainty enters my life.
Until the end of October it looks like there will be no major change but I'm hoping that by Christmas (god why is it so terrifyingly close already??) I can live a little more like a normal person. But sometimes I have to remind myself that I'm 32 and I'm not in a hurry. I don't need to be. Speaking of 32, at training yesterday my partner at the table who was introducing me asked if this was my first job out of Uni and was I fresh graduate just like him? Bless, he obviously needs glasses but I must have been wearing my youthful good looks yesterday :-)

Dezso was here for a week and it was nice and oddly gratifying to see how much he loved Perth and the aspects of it that I love and the reasons I live here. We had a trip out to the pinnacles on Sunday and the first leg out to Gingin was so full of memories for me. Dark night, random driveway, stars.

Food was, unsurprisingly a big feature of Dezso's stay. We ate dinner at Clancy's on City Beach one night, and found a wonderful little Mexican place (i think called 'that little mexican place) in North Perth. I did not, however, force him to try Vegemite, and the strange man didn't take to Tim Tams, so I'm not actually sure if he would be allowed back in the country. But he said he had a great time, and that's the main thing. 

The weekend just past was a long weekend, for labour day or some monarch's fake birthday. Whatever it was, Jay Smokey and I drove down to Herron Point - in the vicinity of Preston Beach, south of Mandurah for a spot of blissful camping. I was in punishment on Saturday for the vodka I had consumed on Friday night but luckily Jay who suffers not from hangovers did everything on Saturday. And the trend kind of continued through the weekend.
He made breakfast each day, all I had to do was sit and blink into the morning, sipping my mug of Paul and remembering to pinch myself every now and then.

Days were long and clear and we spent a lot of time walking on the beach, in the lagoon, as Smokey galloped up and down the beach, the embodiment of excitement. There was prosecco at sunset, and an incredible roast on Sunday night, there was reading in the sun and watching a bandicoot fiddle-nibble my excitedly proferred bits of apple. There were cheeky (and scary) magpies, squealing swallow chicks in the ladies loos and a beautiful beautiful full moon. And then there was us, just kind of happy and perfect and very lucky feeling. I love the Paddo.

Another day of training today, but I'm up early so thought I'd write a little here as the black cockatoos wake up the neighbourhood and the city twinkles in the morning splendid light.