Road Trip

We set off yesterday morning from M'bah, me with my head all expansive from Michael's wonderful epic, Moobah - the Movie.  See it on Youtube now!  It is so touching to see a record of our wonderful and eventful reunion, a great joyful bubble rises in my chest every time I think of something, or remember the songs we sang (or more often, the ones we forgot to sing.  Nothing from Wait a Minim!  No Sixteen Tons!)

I get another Great Joyful Bubble when I remember the the regime change in the U.S. is under way, and I long to do something to further it.  How can I help?  I have invested $25 in kiva.org in honour of our President-Elect's mother, which feels very seemly and satisfying and I am sure he would find it appropriate, maybe even touching, and is forwarding and practical.

The third great joyful bubble comes from seeing Pinot the Movie take shape.  I have seen very little of the footage since we shot it, so it is fresh and new and wonderful to me.  I say to Stefan we are in danger of falling in love with our own farts, but I can't help it.  I am so happy and fortunate to love what I do, and my wonderful family, and to no longer have the dread of living in a country which I really believed was turned to the Dark Side.   We drive down the Pacific Highway in a soft rain, through lush countryside, past the most beautiful beaches, through solid wholesome little country town, cuttings of ancient sandstone so different from California's exuberant and young volcanic swirls.  I saw some kangaroos and more pas-de-roos (we do sometimes lapse into French for silly jokes).  We called in to see Diti for the first time in thirty years, in her beautiful century-old mountain fastness looking over the whole coast down to Byron Bay, then arrived late at night at Eric and Cathy's wonderfully crafted house in Port MacQuarie and woke to the most wonderful birds - one was saying "FruIT BAT!  FruIT BAT!", there were whip-birds and cat birds, rainbow lorikeets and so many others in the cacaphony. We all had breakfast in an 1820 pub on the bend of the river, watching dragon-boats practicing which definitely improves the bacon and egg.

We stayed with Stefan's cousin Peter and his wife Donna at their alpaca farm, and have cuddled and petted alpacas and border collies to our heart's content.  And wireless access so I can write it all down, because sadly I would forget if I didn't, my mind being more sundial than steel trap. 

I am undermining my own belief that I - one - is the product of all experience, so preservation of the specifics is unnecessary.  Memorabilia.

Friday I did so many things I wanted to do. First thing I went swimming with Paddy and Sheila, then coffee with Sheila, then morning tea at Norma's with Paddy and Mona so they could meet up again after forty years and are all currently living within blocks of each other, and all avid readers of course. Next came afternoon tea at Minty's new flat; I hadn't seen it before and was busting to. Funny thing is it looks utterly like Minty, yet totally different from the Tiverton house and Boston.

Stefan then indulged me in a walk around Double Bay, calling in to see Louise, then up to Orson & Blake, which was iconically smart but had nothing that really tempted me. Then back to Norma's, sitting chatting and sewing on the loggia while the sun set and the osso buco simmered.