It can sometimes require much less than absolute deep thought to arrive at a juncture that can astound, amaze and plain old make you sit back on your butt with how astonishingly simplistic it really is - yes, life is chock-full of metaphors and analogies - we use them daily to assist us in describing life's events and foibles to people who surround us, to our friends and often most profoundly and effectively of all, to ourselves.
Life is a cyclical affair, so very far from being all nice and linear, even for those of us who might pretend that we have very few downs amongst a great many up's......chance would be a fine thing there. Things can and do come along.......things happen to us, and we happen to things, and quite often, we don't have the first idea as to what they may mean, what message they are bringing to us, if any.........what we are being shown & are meant to learn from them, and so-on. New chapters can and do emerge......don't go getting all comfy, now, not unless it's very very comfy......be surprised or be prepared to be.....life sure can be a Minestrone.
Such as has been the way of things recently, and with my own best descriptions woefully inadequate to even begin to illustrate the real point, I now find myself 'in-limbo'.
As if that wasn't enough, my friend finds herself placed similarly...........being 'in-limbo'.....well, how does one describe the agonizing lack of belonging to anywhere or anything that we can feel - like a pair of shoes that don't quite fit, the wrong pair of jeans, a hairstyle that simply will not behave........the levels of discomfort, as described very badly here, do no justice at all to simply feeling 'wrong' without the ability or know-how to shake things off at all......and it goes-on giving for quite some time in it's special way.
As I have come to understand things, and as it seems right now to directly relate to me, along with my gal-pal - being 'in limbo' is not a remotely desirable place to find oneself.
It would take a very strange person to enjoy this particular nowhere-land, where comfort of any kind or form is not even at a premium, but seemingly entirely absent - it's this that makes it 'special', and to be avoided at all costs like the plague, not that we actually have the luxury of that particular option. Many do try to fast-forward and skip it - and, in their own imaginations at least, see themselves as having avoided the terrors of the limbo, but at times to their future detriment, in not fully dealing with certain issues and/or not waiting for sufficient time to pass to adequately mend and deal with what has been and what will follow.....until the 'signal' is received to emerge all shiny and new again for the next chapter, the next loop of their lives to commence.
Yes, it's much too real to be in any way purely speculative, folks.
So as today slowly unfolded here in Paradise, we wandered down through the park, to where the coconut palms meet the ocean - this was another first for me, and yet one more instance of having been here for quite some time now & not knowing of it's existence.
Not for the last time, now I know it's there, let me tell you - you'll find me there with a book or several, should anyone wonder where I am when I'm not drinking coffee.
My wonderful friend, always with the insight of a thousand visionaries, related this most unpleasant yet necessary domain to me again today........being 'in-limbo'.....one that, ironically, we now both find ourselves in, courtesy of life circumstance and events quite different to one another. We discussed its familiar and largely unpleasant nature for a while, just as we had done the day before. It hardly matters what had led-up to our own individual limbo states......we each were between aspects within our separate lives, in neither the place we had left behind or the places we were heading toward. It might have been left at that, plus or minus a little extra analysis from each of us........something we do often, via the mutual support it seems to offer us and the feelings of semi-satisfaction it can bring in that we somehow understand it all - man, sometimes, we actually do.
So here's the thing.
I'm more than happy to call it analogy of the year, perhaps even the decade, that my amazing friend......that she should have the insight to see & denote this enforced time we spend in-limbo as being 'In The Waiting Room'.
Suddenly, and without warning, what was an inner space so unnaturally filled to capacity with discomfort became so much warmer......became at least comfortable enough as the necessary place to be that it is. The Waiting Room.......It's imagery was made complete with one another being there in the room, amongst just a few other people doing what was required of them, with just the right amount and selection of magazines to read while we waited - and whilst neither of us were 'next', it was clear enough to us that we didn't have to worry that we would be there in the waiting room for too long at all.
I am not at all sure that I could better the Waiting Room...............I am not even going to try, since it feels so right, explains so perfectly and succinctly what we are going through.
I have lost count of the sheer number of times my beautiful friend has steered my spirit, my mind and my thoughts along absolutely perfect channels..........this intelligent enough man would be left floundering in the dark, lost and alone, time and again.........I have no words that could adequately express the gratitude I feel for her guidance, and that it comes so freely regardless of her own adversities and life issues is so very humbling.
So in The Waiting Room, for just a little while longer, is where we'll be.
To re-program and re-wire our spirit cannot be achieved overnight, nor should it be rushed or hurried. If we come to this incredibly simple conclusion that we must remain in life's Waiting Room until we are 'called' is perhaps one of the most profound sources of comfort we can take in our darker hours - it gives purpose and meaning to a previously abstract series of pains, aches and feelings of non-specific 'unwellness' and non-belonging awkwardness - I now have the strength to remain here in the waiting room, to wait a while, as long as it takes, to chat with my friend and read a few magazines.
Our turn will come, quite separately I suspect.......it won't be next, but then we're having such a great chat about all kinds of amazing things, and I am reading a very interesting article that I want to finish and discuss a little........there are some wonderful recipes in these magazines - all-new
ways of creating familiar favourites, ways I had never considered. - no, I think I have a little more time here yet.
Monday, 30 April 2012
Sunday, 8 April 2012
Another Day, Another Squillion Dollars....Maybe?
As another day has dawned, here in Paradise Central aka Port Douglas, I glance out of Origin Espresso's window at the most beautiful Sunday morning as it unfolds - it's practically the same as the last one I saw, which was about a week ago, and will be, I have little doubt, very similar to the next one that will come along, Big Guy/Gal Upstairs-willing, in just around a week's time.
Yes, I know, it all sounds rather dull and predictable, which is just the way we like it here, now that we're on the cusp of the finest weather here in the Tropics.
The Wonder Of Winter!
As Port prepares itself for the annual Carnivale next month, and as we enter what will be one of the several 'tourist' seasons, we are beginning to see a greater influx of people wandering the streets and beaches of this magnificent township. The many traders, restaurants and outlets are all preparing in a much more eagerly anticipated manner, the arrival of tourists, with what has been the passing of 2-3 years of a huge down-turn in tourism, affecting things up here at least as profoundly as anywhere else in our wide land.
The other thing of greater, perhaps much more significant interest, and not so far away on the horizon, is the imminent arrival of an estimated 40,000 (or quite possibly a great many more), for what will be the landmark event this coming November - yes, the next full Solar Eclipse will pass directly over Port Douglas, and at around 6:43am on the morning of November 14th, any spot on 4 Mile Beach will be at an absolute premium. (Ironically, and likely quite unbeknown to most, the Eclipse can be viewed from a great many places, any where the sun can be seen over the horizon, naturally) yet it will be the beach, of course, that will be the main draw card).
The hotels & resorts are well booked-out for the event, and now it's all about how best to market the optimal experience to view things : amongst many others, one such means will be viewing platforms, purpose-built for pre-paying customers, and built-in to their hotel's more-bloated-than-usual accommodation fees for the most part....or am I being unfair here? (Rhetorical, relax)
I am slightly left of ambivalent about these platforms, which are likely to monopolize so much of the beach. Even with a whole 4 Miles to play with, there's still a chance these obscenities will end-up leaving what may be little space for the likes of Me and my compatriots, all of whom, as residents of Paradise Inc, are extremely unprepared to pay any form of premium to sit in some very uncomfortable seating in one of many heinous mini-grandstands. I won't be paying to sit on any platform, and will be somewhat unhappy, to say the least, if said constructions mess with my own viewing experience.
I can imagine - and can do so a little too readily, (see below......you'll get there, eventually) many a scenario where the local folk, (with me not exactly at the helm, yet not too far back) tearing-down the offending obstructions, before casting them all into the sea. I will, though, pay what is the, for now, at least, estimated cost of 'very affordable' - 'just a few dollars only' as is currently being mooted & predicted - for special, genuine cardboard 'eclipse viewing glasses'.
These will, naturally, be priced most reasonably and within the reach of all........people involved in the selling of such wares are always reasonable & nice like this, I've found............Not.
I now go back in time, far back, to a prime example, amongst a great many, of what I refer to above, this at Reading Jazz, Blues & Rock Festival, in Hertfordshire, UK - this was something I never missed, a yearly music festival held each June over 3 days, and at which I saw some of the world's greatest rock bands, time and again, during some of the absolute best days of my life, but I digress.
Now, at Reading Festival, with a crowd well in excess of 50,000 souls each & every day, anyone could sell bottles of water and ice creams in abundant quantity, at what then would have been a reasonable fee - they could do so and make a boat-load of money, with so many takers. Here was something the size of an Ice Cream Van as the sales outlets, and there would be, perhaps 3 of these outside & around the main arena. I should mention, that we refer here to the era of 1972 through 1975, and at a time when one could readily buy, for just One English Pound/just under $2AU or thereabouts, around 10 small bottles of water, at least 5 Hot Dogs, 4 Hamburgers and a Doner Kebab/Elephants Leg-on-a-BBQ/spit with the lot, bathed in the finest grease and heavily dosed in Chilli Sauce (this was the very first emergence of kebabs in the UK, and the people really did take to them, big-time.......yes, you could buy all of this and get change almost anywhere........I think you know what's coming.
Yes, these Blonks were selling - for a while, quite successfully - just One small bottle of water for One Pound Sterling.
I guess they felt reasonably well-protected in the safety of the Ice Cream Vans - and for a while, they kind-of were. Well, naturally, people had few options - it was Summer-Time, and screamingly hot......if they wanted water, and they sure did, it was either queuing-up at the Porta-Loo's for the wash-your-hands tiny sink.....a nightmare even to queue to empty one's bladder, let alone fill-up any empty plastic bottle that one didn't actually possess, and risk Salmonella, Shigella, Giardia or worse......or, as was de rigeur, through sheer lack of options, give-in to the Water-Sharks.
Many simply caved-in, whilst 'the masses', as we'll call them, took alternative action.
Isn't Democracy a beautiful thing!.......the people will always decide in the end.
The vans were unceremoniously overturned, rather violently, after which, very graciously, the owners were allowed to run-away at their own pace, which was always incredibly swiftly, while 'the masses' took what was, in the end, rightfully theirs. It was all very proper, in that mob kind of way........no excessive violence was ever required, and whilst I know that overturning several Ice Cream Vans does seem, by it's very nature, a violent act, it was, in the end, the sort of mini-revolution that almost everyone (save the water-sharks) will attest to as being just, and that was precisely what happened.
What few Policemen were around could do little, and many of those had a look of resignation and, dare I say it, admiration - they, too, had no doubt, paid a premium for their own bottled water.
The vans were totally stripped of their wares, all stock was handed out gratis by the new temporary owners of the vans, to the thirsty festival folk, until it was all gone, all to the rapturous applause of hundreds of onlookers. It was divine intervention - the UN Troops could not have done it better than us part-time hippies, on that fine day.
Interestingly if not surprisingly, when the vans returned in following years, pricing was much more, umm......'acceptable'.
But what was it that I was talking about again.......the point that I'm making.....
Yes, yes.........the anti-burn-out-your-retina's cardboard glasses........somehow, I just cannot see these being sold at a fair price.....ie, a price conducive to the bit of cardboard and darkened plastic film that they are. When someone can potentially, and very fairly, make enough money, on that one day, to retire for the whole year to follow, and do so by not fleecing the public.....well, shame on me for thinking they should do the right thing.......it's somehow not enough to make hay while the sun shines - no, we have to enter the familiar rip-off territory of the Exceptionally & Very Greedy.
The Bastards!
Many will, of course, rock-up in their welding masks and goggles, many of them borrowed from Uncles in the trade - some will try to look at the Eclipse through their Bolle's/Ray-Ban's, feeling that the extortion has already been done to death back when they bought them for five times their real worth....that these Sunglasses-Exceptionalle would surely be more than enough to not burn their eyes from their sockets.
Yet more will attempt to view the thing with the naked eye - I guaran-fucking-tee it.....Accident & Emergency Departments and the Ambo's will be working overtime, flat-out, and the Fred Hollows Foundation will go gangbusters. Oh yes, there'll be entirely stupid people here too, lots & lots of them - some of them wealthy, even - but, the Eclipse will be one of the world's great levelers, at least for the couple of minutes that it will last. Afterwards, some of us will go have a few cucumber sandwiches, slam-down several coldies and play loud but great music, whilst others dine on Lobster, Coral Trout and Langoustine with a Mangosteen-Raspberry Jus & Tropical salad, whilst listening to absolute dross........it's the only way to fly, really.....the Cucumber Sandwich method, I mean, naturally.
I'll even cut the crusts-off, if you like.
I may be pleasantly surprised - we could, indeed, see $2 cardboard Eclipse-viewing glasses, but my wad is going on them being $5 or more.......I'll be putting my money on it, too.
But, for now, if you're still there, it's a beautiful day - the coffee is good, and the Ocean is getting, slowly, to the stage where it will have fewer & fewer Box Jelly-Fish and other nasty bastard stingers that can kill us stone-cold dead.....I can put-off purchasing that stinger suit for another year, and will very soon actually be able to swim again in the beautiful coral sea again.
For the moment, at least, there's no charge for doing it, but watch this space.
Yes, I know, it all sounds rather dull and predictable, which is just the way we like it here, now that we're on the cusp of the finest weather here in the Tropics.
The Wonder Of Winter!
As Port prepares itself for the annual Carnivale next month, and as we enter what will be one of the several 'tourist' seasons, we are beginning to see a greater influx of people wandering the streets and beaches of this magnificent township. The many traders, restaurants and outlets are all preparing in a much more eagerly anticipated manner, the arrival of tourists, with what has been the passing of 2-3 years of a huge down-turn in tourism, affecting things up here at least as profoundly as anywhere else in our wide land.
The other thing of greater, perhaps much more significant interest, and not so far away on the horizon, is the imminent arrival of an estimated 40,000 (or quite possibly a great many more), for what will be the landmark event this coming November - yes, the next full Solar Eclipse will pass directly over Port Douglas, and at around 6:43am on the morning of November 14th, any spot on 4 Mile Beach will be at an absolute premium. (Ironically, and likely quite unbeknown to most, the Eclipse can be viewed from a great many places, any where the sun can be seen over the horizon, naturally) yet it will be the beach, of course, that will be the main draw card).
The hotels & resorts are well booked-out for the event, and now it's all about how best to market the optimal experience to view things : amongst many others, one such means will be viewing platforms, purpose-built for pre-paying customers, and built-in to their hotel's more-bloated-than-usual accommodation fees for the most part....or am I being unfair here? (Rhetorical, relax)
I am slightly left of ambivalent about these platforms, which are likely to monopolize so much of the beach. Even with a whole 4 Miles to play with, there's still a chance these obscenities will end-up leaving what may be little space for the likes of Me and my compatriots, all of whom, as residents of Paradise Inc, are extremely unprepared to pay any form of premium to sit in some very uncomfortable seating in one of many heinous mini-grandstands. I won't be paying to sit on any platform, and will be somewhat unhappy, to say the least, if said constructions mess with my own viewing experience.
I can imagine - and can do so a little too readily, (see below......you'll get there, eventually) many a scenario where the local folk, (with me not exactly at the helm, yet not too far back) tearing-down the offending obstructions, before casting them all into the sea. I will, though, pay what is the, for now, at least, estimated cost of 'very affordable' - 'just a few dollars only' as is currently being mooted & predicted - for special, genuine cardboard 'eclipse viewing glasses'.
These will, naturally, be priced most reasonably and within the reach of all........people involved in the selling of such wares are always reasonable & nice like this, I've found............Not.
I now go back in time, far back, to a prime example, amongst a great many, of what I refer to above, this at Reading Jazz, Blues & Rock Festival, in Hertfordshire, UK - this was something I never missed, a yearly music festival held each June over 3 days, and at which I saw some of the world's greatest rock bands, time and again, during some of the absolute best days of my life, but I digress.
Now, at Reading Festival, with a crowd well in excess of 50,000 souls each & every day, anyone could sell bottles of water and ice creams in abundant quantity, at what then would have been a reasonable fee - they could do so and make a boat-load of money, with so many takers. Here was something the size of an Ice Cream Van as the sales outlets, and there would be, perhaps 3 of these outside & around the main arena. I should mention, that we refer here to the era of 1972 through 1975, and at a time when one could readily buy, for just One English Pound/just under $2AU or thereabouts, around 10 small bottles of water, at least 5 Hot Dogs, 4 Hamburgers and a Doner Kebab/Elephants Leg-on-a-BBQ/spit with the lot, bathed in the finest grease and heavily dosed in Chilli Sauce (this was the very first emergence of kebabs in the UK, and the people really did take to them, big-time.......yes, you could buy all of this and get change almost anywhere........I think you know what's coming.
Yes, these Blonks were selling - for a while, quite successfully - just One small bottle of water for One Pound Sterling.
I guess they felt reasonably well-protected in the safety of the Ice Cream Vans - and for a while, they kind-of were. Well, naturally, people had few options - it was Summer-Time, and screamingly hot......if they wanted water, and they sure did, it was either queuing-up at the Porta-Loo's for the wash-your-hands tiny sink.....a nightmare even to queue to empty one's bladder, let alone fill-up any empty plastic bottle that one didn't actually possess, and risk Salmonella, Shigella, Giardia or worse......or, as was de rigeur, through sheer lack of options, give-in to the Water-Sharks.
Many simply caved-in, whilst 'the masses', as we'll call them, took alternative action.
Isn't Democracy a beautiful thing!.......the people will always decide in the end.
The vans were unceremoniously overturned, rather violently, after which, very graciously, the owners were allowed to run-away at their own pace, which was always incredibly swiftly, while 'the masses' took what was, in the end, rightfully theirs. It was all very proper, in that mob kind of way........no excessive violence was ever required, and whilst I know that overturning several Ice Cream Vans does seem, by it's very nature, a violent act, it was, in the end, the sort of mini-revolution that almost everyone (save the water-sharks) will attest to as being just, and that was precisely what happened.
What few Policemen were around could do little, and many of those had a look of resignation and, dare I say it, admiration - they, too, had no doubt, paid a premium for their own bottled water.
The vans were totally stripped of their wares, all stock was handed out gratis by the new temporary owners of the vans, to the thirsty festival folk, until it was all gone, all to the rapturous applause of hundreds of onlookers. It was divine intervention - the UN Troops could not have done it better than us part-time hippies, on that fine day.
Interestingly if not surprisingly, when the vans returned in following years, pricing was much more, umm......'acceptable'.
But what was it that I was talking about again.......the point that I'm making.....
Yes, yes.........the anti-burn-out-your-retina's cardboard glasses........somehow, I just cannot see these being sold at a fair price.....ie, a price conducive to the bit of cardboard and darkened plastic film that they are. When someone can potentially, and very fairly, make enough money, on that one day, to retire for the whole year to follow, and do so by not fleecing the public.....well, shame on me for thinking they should do the right thing.......it's somehow not enough to make hay while the sun shines - no, we have to enter the familiar rip-off territory of the Exceptionally & Very Greedy.
The Bastards!
Many will, of course, rock-up in their welding masks and goggles, many of them borrowed from Uncles in the trade - some will try to look at the Eclipse through their Bolle's/Ray-Ban's, feeling that the extortion has already been done to death back when they bought them for five times their real worth....that these Sunglasses-Exceptionalle would surely be more than enough to not burn their eyes from their sockets.
Yet more will attempt to view the thing with the naked eye - I guaran-fucking-tee it.....Accident & Emergency Departments and the Ambo's will be working overtime, flat-out, and the Fred Hollows Foundation will go gangbusters. Oh yes, there'll be entirely stupid people here too, lots & lots of them - some of them wealthy, even - but, the Eclipse will be one of the world's great levelers, at least for the couple of minutes that it will last. Afterwards, some of us will go have a few cucumber sandwiches, slam-down several coldies and play loud but great music, whilst others dine on Lobster, Coral Trout and Langoustine with a Mangosteen-Raspberry Jus & Tropical salad, whilst listening to absolute dross........it's the only way to fly, really.....the Cucumber Sandwich method, I mean, naturally.
I'll even cut the crusts-off, if you like.
I may be pleasantly surprised - we could, indeed, see $2 cardboard Eclipse-viewing glasses, but my wad is going on them being $5 or more.......I'll be putting my money on it, too.
But, for now, if you're still there, it's a beautiful day - the coffee is good, and the Ocean is getting, slowly, to the stage where it will have fewer & fewer Box Jelly-Fish and other nasty bastard stingers that can kill us stone-cold dead.....I can put-off purchasing that stinger suit for another year, and will very soon actually be able to swim again in the beautiful coral sea again.
For the moment, at least, there's no charge for doing it, but watch this space.
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