Thinking about the days without a car
Tonight I went to potentially my last yoga class for 3 months, but managed to line up alternative transport (yay, hurrah) and can return. For my car licence gets suspended this Friday and I have to learn to live the life of a non-car person again.
From January 1998 to April/May 2003 I didn't have a car. My uni car got damaged in Robe the same week that I didn't see a good gig (can't remember the gig, but can remember explaining to a long suffering listener the sorry saga and we both agreed that if I'd gone to the gig, instead of Robe, I'd have a car and a good memory).
Anyhow, someone drove into me and did so much damage that the insurance check was better and I used that money to move to Sydney and launch my post university career. Which I think was a good investment-imagine staying in Adelaide all confused, when I could be in Sydney and learning there was a whole big world out there? The only thing is that I think possibly I could have got to know Sydney a little bit better with access to mobile transport: just for long enough to get a perspective on the big bad city and where I wanted to live, before I set roots.
It seems so weird to think about that time, ten years ago now, getting a grip on my bearings and sense of Sydney and letting go of my 'tude about knowing stuff, because what I'd known in Adelaide didn't at first translate to the big smoke. And I'd meet up with my friends classmates from Sydney Uni and envy them, their postgrad lives of certainty and thrift and sharehousee whilst I had to navigate full time work and the first-year-out-paying-back-HECS-poverty. Felt so boring, when I wanted to still be sitting around drinking coffee (as I'd do on my days off). Sometimes I'd use my days off wisely and catch a bus and cross the bridge, or rummage for records at a second hand record sale (a guy talked me into the Betty Blue soundtrack, good recommendation). But I was always yearning for a bigger crowd, an extended crowd, some new friends to replace my left behind friends, and I never met them on my days off. Days off were largely spent alone or spent envying people with incompatible and unattainable (and quite possibly unworthwhile) lives or fitting in but envying the uni kids. I cringe to think of my neediness, when I just wanted to find people who wanted the same things as me: to drink in the cool pubs and walk the big streets.
And eventually I found them... it took time, some tears, some very lonely moments and a lot of courage to keep trying new things and keep asking until I found out how you find the right stuff.
It's funny to think how nowadays I so rely on looking at flyers on healthfood shops to find a yoga teacher, or asking someone, or looking for a place to live at the family run real estate agent, or walking up an entire street to work out which will be my new local cafe. It takes foot leather and looking around and trusting your instincts and talking to people and perseverance to finally find the neighbourhood that meets your needs. And also realisation that most people aren't that much different; but also that people who grew up in Sydney their entire lives wouldn't have the same conceptual understanding that a newbie would.
It always stunned me how many ex-Adelaide folk were around, who could have given me tips> But instead 1 of the ex-Adelaide people who did keep an eye on me for a few months (before his wife made him bail on the city) led me quite astray and used the time when I was s'd out of my mind to get me to muse on my favourite comics.
I nominated Charlie Brown and the Peanuts (Schulz is a legend) and we talked about favourite characters and analysis. I suspect I shared my thoughts about Linus (loveable to Lucy's jealousy) and Sally (narrates the anxieties no-one else can voice) and Lucy (torturer but vulnerable, has soft spot for Charlie Brown that she covers up with torture; true self portrayed in her 5 cent advice booth; most vulnerable whilst trying to woo Schroeder) and Peppermint Patty (unaware that Marcy is in love with her).
Anyway, can't be bothered to add more about the Sydney thing, there is so much there, but it will come out with time. THe sights, the sounds, the contrast to visits nowadays when I have a certain protective attitude that helps me enjoy it and feel confident in it.
And then I went overseas and returned to Adelaide and bought a flat and bought a car and felt suprised about how much my financial circumstances had changed. And I also learnt how much fun a bicycle can be, and how to shop for groceries and visit friends in the evening and travel across the suburbs and speed through the streets and get to know the city like the back of your hand by being on a bicycle. It was good and I miss that, as much as the car was handy. I lost something...
Yesterday I had a taste of the fun of riding with friends, when the 4 of us cycled up to the Butterfly House for Plant a Tree day. Mark pointed out that I'd enjoy cycling 100% more once I pumped up my back tyre, meanwhile I creaked up the hill. We had fun looking at butterflies, solving the maze, putting away cynicism about piss weak parks and concluded with origami: a nice Japanese girl taught me and Steph and some 7 year olds how to fold butterflies, which we then tied to our handlebars on the way home. We cycled up hills and cut through reserves on a muddy bike tracks that ran behind houses, it felt like being 11 again except for when Mark yelled out "We should go through the drive thru bottle shop" (though I guess some 11 year olds would find that normal).
From January 1998 to April/May 2003 I didn't have a car. My uni car got damaged in Robe the same week that I didn't see a good gig (can't remember the gig, but can remember explaining to a long suffering listener the sorry saga and we both agreed that if I'd gone to the gig, instead of Robe, I'd have a car and a good memory).
Anyhow, someone drove into me and did so much damage that the insurance check was better and I used that money to move to Sydney and launch my post university career. Which I think was a good investment-imagine staying in Adelaide all confused, when I could be in Sydney and learning there was a whole big world out there? The only thing is that I think possibly I could have got to know Sydney a little bit better with access to mobile transport: just for long enough to get a perspective on the big bad city and where I wanted to live, before I set roots.
It seems so weird to think about that time, ten years ago now, getting a grip on my bearings and sense of Sydney and letting go of my 'tude about knowing stuff, because what I'd known in Adelaide didn't at first translate to the big smoke. And I'd meet up with my friends classmates from Sydney Uni and envy them, their postgrad lives of certainty and thrift and sharehousee whilst I had to navigate full time work and the first-year-out-paying-back-HECS-poverty. Felt so boring, when I wanted to still be sitting around drinking coffee (as I'd do on my days off). Sometimes I'd use my days off wisely and catch a bus and cross the bridge, or rummage for records at a second hand record sale (a guy talked me into the Betty Blue soundtrack, good recommendation). But I was always yearning for a bigger crowd, an extended crowd, some new friends to replace my left behind friends, and I never met them on my days off. Days off were largely spent alone or spent envying people with incompatible and unattainable (and quite possibly unworthwhile) lives or fitting in but envying the uni kids. I cringe to think of my neediness, when I just wanted to find people who wanted the same things as me: to drink in the cool pubs and walk the big streets.
And eventually I found them... it took time, some tears, some very lonely moments and a lot of courage to keep trying new things and keep asking until I found out how you find the right stuff.
It's funny to think how nowadays I so rely on looking at flyers on healthfood shops to find a yoga teacher, or asking someone, or looking for a place to live at the family run real estate agent, or walking up an entire street to work out which will be my new local cafe. It takes foot leather and looking around and trusting your instincts and talking to people and perseverance to finally find the neighbourhood that meets your needs. And also realisation that most people aren't that much different; but also that people who grew up in Sydney their entire lives wouldn't have the same conceptual understanding that a newbie would.
It always stunned me how many ex-Adelaide folk were around, who could have given me tips> But instead 1 of the ex-Adelaide people who did keep an eye on me for a few months (before his wife made him bail on the city) led me quite astray and used the time when I was s'd out of my mind to get me to muse on my favourite comics.
I nominated Charlie Brown and the Peanuts (Schulz is a legend) and we talked about favourite characters and analysis. I suspect I shared my thoughts about Linus (loveable to Lucy's jealousy) and Sally (narrates the anxieties no-one else can voice) and Lucy (torturer but vulnerable, has soft spot for Charlie Brown that she covers up with torture; true self portrayed in her 5 cent advice booth; most vulnerable whilst trying to woo Schroeder) and Peppermint Patty (unaware that Marcy is in love with her).
Anyway, can't be bothered to add more about the Sydney thing, there is so much there, but it will come out with time. THe sights, the sounds, the contrast to visits nowadays when I have a certain protective attitude that helps me enjoy it and feel confident in it.
And then I went overseas and returned to Adelaide and bought a flat and bought a car and felt suprised about how much my financial circumstances had changed. And I also learnt how much fun a bicycle can be, and how to shop for groceries and visit friends in the evening and travel across the suburbs and speed through the streets and get to know the city like the back of your hand by being on a bicycle. It was good and I miss that, as much as the car was handy. I lost something...
Yesterday I had a taste of the fun of riding with friends, when the 4 of us cycled up to the Butterfly House for Plant a Tree day. Mark pointed out that I'd enjoy cycling 100% more once I pumped up my back tyre, meanwhile I creaked up the hill. We had fun looking at butterflies, solving the maze, putting away cynicism about piss weak parks and concluded with origami: a nice Japanese girl taught me and Steph and some 7 year olds how to fold butterflies, which we then tied to our handlebars on the way home. We cycled up hills and cut through reserves on a muddy bike tracks that ran behind houses, it felt like being 11 again except for when Mark yelled out "We should go through the drive thru bottle shop" (though I guess some 11 year olds would find that normal).
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