| Author | Message | ||
     Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 1336 Registered: 03-2005 |
Are any of the rest of you having this? I've been dragging myself through the worst-ever post vacation slump I'd ever experienced. When I came back I bought a new mic and a new guitar amp I'd been planning to get. I've barely switched on the amp and the microphone--intended to be used for a new vocal take on my newest song--is still in the box. I haven't been able to work up the enthusiasm to post on this board very much. I had such a fantastic time in Brisbane that I think I'm suffering some sort of bipolar reaction now that I'm back here. Catherine? David? Kevin? (you might still be in jet lag). | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 2185 Registered: 03-2006 |
There's a malady going around that's even worse - it's called the "didn't get to go to Oz blues"! | ||
| Catherine Vaughan Member Username: Catherine Post Number: 143 Registered: 05-2005 |
Randy, here's your sister! I can relate most definitely. I'm bloody miserable. I'm definitely still weirdly jetllagged almost 3 weeks later. I've been waking up at insanely early hours, no matter how late I hit the bed. And having the weirdest dreams! The other night I got the Brisbane ferry to Circular Quay in Sydney, and then had a coffee in Ric's!! And that's one of the less weird ones. I've found it impossible to motivate myself to do anything constructive. I've barely listened to the CDs I got over in OZ - it reminds me that I'm home and not still there, and that pisses me right off. | ||
| Catherine Vaughan Member Username: Catherine Post Number: 144 Registered: 05-2005 |
Sorry LK, I know its rubbing it in... Would you like us to rub salt or lemon juice in the wounds? | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 2188 Registered: 03-2006 |
Thanks, Catherine, for the choice...maybe some nice, coarse rock salt rubbed in, then finished with a light misting of lemon juice... | ||
| Catherine Vaughan Member Username: Catherine Post Number: 147 Registered: 05-2005 |
Aaaaawwww! If it's any consolation, some day you'll be on a trip like ours, and you can gloat to your heart's content, knowing we're still paying our credit-card bills, and my roof will probably still be leaking!! | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 2190 Registered: 03-2006 |
I was, of course, completely kidding (mainly trying to give Randy a little affectionate crap), I'm beyond delighted for youse guys that got to go. And, I have enough empathy and have been on enough vacays to know that, sometimes, coming back can be a bitch (you often have to), so I can relate...and that's gotta be a particularly tough one to bounce back from... Now, if Forster doesn't make it to the states, I might not be so blase'... | ||
| Catherine Vaughan Member Username: Catherine Post Number: 148 Registered: 05-2005 |
And I wasn't trying to be mean! Around the time of the gigs, Rob, posting about what a dream year I've been having, commented that next thing, I'd win the Aussie lottery. Genuinely, my first thought was that I'd buy plane tickets for all you guys who weren't there.. Don't anyone ever, for one second, think that I don't know I've been blessed these last few months. I have memories to last a lifetime, approx 1800 pictures and loads of notes. I really must Write My Adventures Down, so I can remember them all. | ||
| kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 1760 Registered: 05-2005 |
Randy, I know exactly what you mean. I have little energy or enthusiasm for much at the moment, I find myself tired at the strangest times of the day and on Sunday I actually slept for 15.5 hours. Probably to do with travelling for 36 hours starting at 2pm Friday - flying from Cairns to Brisbane, then from Brisbane to Singapore, then from Singapore to Dubai and finally Dubai to Glasgow. Over the whole trip we were on 8 different flights, just as well the food on Emirates airlines was pretty good!! I do feel myself coming out of it though, slowly but surely, and I would gladly go through it all again next year, even though thats next to impossible unless I win the lottery | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 1738 Registered: 05-2005 |
Its funny Randy brings up this point, everyone who I have EVER known who has gone to Oz for a hoiday or whatever brings back withthem the express intention of getting the f*cK outta where they live in the UK and going to live in OZ. Every single person I know has said exactly this. When my twins were born, the nurs who came on duty to look after my wife in the eves, was planning to go to OZ. She'd been planning for a couple of years. The whole family was looking forward to it. i rmember the smile on her face when she used to talk about it! It really sounds like paradise found doesn't it!? Hope your blues go away soon people! | ||
| frank bascombe Member Username: Frankb Post Number: 150 Registered: 01-2007 |
I have a friend who spent alot of time working in Oz NZ and the States, he now lives in the English Lakes and he is glad to be back in the UK,for several reasons. He lives in a nice place, he finds that there is a lot of culture generally around (music arts etc)and htere is a compassionate social service and free NHS care. I know we all complain about the UK but it made a change for someone to big it up! For me I quite fancy Canada but would like to live near or in one of the big cities, but as a Dr I'd have to work in the country areas which would be too much of a culture shock despite my love for outdoors/skiing, | ||
| Catherine Vaughan Member Username: Catherine Post Number: 155 Registered: 05-2005 |
I was literally only off the plane a half hour, home from my first visit to Oz in May, when my sister asked me if I was planning to take time out and live there for a while. I'm not going to lie and say I wouldn't be tempted. It's crossed my mind. It's even made easy for me because I can take a career break from my work, and can return at the same position and salary. I'm too old for one of those backpacker/fruitpicker visas, which has probably helped curtail any rash decision to rent out the house, foster the cat, and hightail it down under. I've tried to rationalise, and convince myself that Ireland's better. Like you said, Frank - culture, better social service free(ish) healthcare - But when "free" healthcare means that someone is terminally ill, because she didn't have private health insurance, and had to wait too long for "free" tests? Even on a frivilous level, when you watch the international weather forecast, and see that the Aussie winter is warmer than the Irish Summer? Up Here, or Down Under? Hmmmmmm... | ||
| XY765 Member Username: Judge Post Number: 307 Registered: 01-2006 |
You must be in the civil service to have those work conditions Catherine? I lived for 6 months in NZ in '99 (with 6-7 weeks in Oz) and absolutely loved it, though I did feel a little isolated there, it's as far as you can go from Ireland before you start coming back! There were certain aspects of living there that I thought were way ahead of life in Ireland and others that certainly were not..overall I'm glad I came back...I'd certainly go back for a holiday but I don't think a complete move to Oz/NZ is on for me...and if I had to choose between the two I think I'd pick NZ, no offence to any Aussies!! | ||
| Catherine Vaughan Member Username: Catherine Post Number: 156 Registered: 05-2005 |
Spot on, XY. About 15 years ago I went to a Tarot reader for the fun (she had a stall beside me in the outdoor market I worked at in Dublin) Among other stuff, she told me I'd never be rich, but I'd never be poor. After a few more NBRNBP jobs, I ended up in the Civil Service, where I'll never get rich, but I won't starve either.. I never did the usual 20-something backpacker thing, so I don't know what it's like to live anywhere else but Ireland. I do have the advantage that I could bugger off someplace for a year or so if I wanted, and still come back to a job, if it went pear-shaped. I definitely plan to return to Oz, even if its just for a holiday. Of course coming up with a reason to go back again so soon... As for living there it depends on the day. If it's been a good one, I think "It would want to something pretty damn special to make me want to live there permanently". If it's been a particularly bad one, it's more like "What time is the next flight out of this godforsakek kip of a country?!!!" (Or somewhere between those two extremes!) | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 1338 Registered: 03-2005 |
While in Brisbane I kept an interminable journal. Here's an excerpt relevant to this thread: "Somewhere around the Queensland University of Technology I took a pedestrian bridge across the river to the south bank where I find Griffith University. (How many schools does this city have?) Yet more infrastructure built for the public. There is no substitute for spending tax dollars on the domestic populace rather than international military adventures. Because of their tendency not to travel outside the country (what with its enormity), ordinary US citizens are completely unaware of the bitter price they are paying for their government's imperial impulses. Which reminds me of something I forgot from the July 27 entry: Padraig confirmed that Australia also has a national health service similar to that in the UK and most of Europe." Hopefully I didn't miscommunicate with Padraig, but that's my understanding. Oz has an NHS too. This entry came after going on a long walk on the public Riverside Walkway which floats in the water just off the river bank wherever private property interferes with its more normal route on the bank and taking a wander through the public Botanical Garden in the shadow of the office towers of the City A move to Oz would not improve the weather I normally enjoy. But the USA is like the interwars UK. We are stumbling along in the illusion of geopolitical greatness when in fact everybody already knows it's over, that our military can't accomplish anything productive or sustained, our factories are obsolete and our currency an echoing shell hollowed out by a decades-long pyramid scheme. Los Angeles has some very damning evidence for anyone who takes the trouble to look. The pre-WWII portion of the city has parks, well-laid out streets paved in concrete (now very cracked concrete but that was the way to pave a truly long-lived road surface) and sturdy high-quality buildings which have proven again and again their ability to endure earthquakes out of sheer rubustness. The newer parts of the city are shoddy and hurried with very little public space. They reflect the country's redirection of resources toward Imperial Rome. The taxes of 200 - 300 million people have been redirected to try to rule the world (and line the pockets of companies ready to assist) for 60 years now. I realize human nature doesn't stop at a national border. The Aussies have never been able to cope with the legacy of their near-genocide of their indigenous people and they spawned the limitlessly avaricious Rupert Murdoch, but at least Oz is a space-rich (and water-poor) land able to look after itself filled with optimistic seemingly unstressed people. And, Frank, if it didn't have culture we wouldn't be on this board. | ||
| Catherine Vaughan Member Username: Catherine Post Number: 162 Registered: 05-2005 |
FINALLY the Australian winter is colder than the Irish summer!! (Well the east coast is anyway!) Little bit of useless trivia - the windiest place in Aus yesterday was Double Island Point... D'you think he brought his 4WD out there? | ||
| Catherine Vaughan Member Username: Catherine Post Number: 164 Registered: 05-2005 |
I think the shade of the grass has a lot to do with it. Most of us spend our lives wanting to be anywhere else but where we are. If we get our wish, we start to pine for where we've just left. And thank God "culture" isn't bolted to the ground. There's an infinite supply, and you can take what you want from where you want and bring it with you, and it becomes part of a whole new culture. | ||
| frank bascombe Member Username: Frankb Post Number: 151 Registered: 01-2007 |
Randy I wasn't saying there was little culture in Oz just that there is a lot over here,, but we have a large population and small country. ALot of my "culture" I relate to is American and Australian" As you say posting here is a direct result of that. |