It's time.

This has spread like wildfire and so it should. I am just doing my part in case those of you who have not seen it, can see it now. Sums it up, and filmed so beautifully in my home town of Sydney. It really IS time.

Keep still

Sometimes it feels like the key piece of advice is to physically keep still so your head doesnt move. You can't move because all your current knowledge and thoughts may fall out, just drop out of some brain cell and dribble into space and not come back. I have read and seen some really inspiring pockets of wisdom in the past few days and I am so worried it will be lost. But the funny thing is that I don't want to write them down as it may be lost somewhere just as easily.

Pretty mentally exhausted right now with the loom of my job almost at the end. And the uncertainty, can be so romantic but then there are the days when it is just plain inconvenient. "I dont know what my next job is", I can say with a grin.

Just spent the weekend in Sydney. Had a few days where at the end of them my soul felt full, like I had spoilt it. And I was with Cal for most of it. Some of the highlights were Trapeze lessons and my good school bud Bede's wedding. Amazing weather all weekend and I even swam at a real beach, not like the ripples of the bay down here in Melbourne. Sorry Melbourne.

Trapeze lesson. Cal bought us a lesson as an adventure. I was fully on board but had not really processed what was involved until 15 minutes prior where I became quiet and unnerved. We were walking to the destination in Centennial Park in the city, wheeling my suitcase (it was actually my boss's overnight bag as she couldnt handle me taking my old gym bag away) and Cal noticed I went quiet. Finally the land of Trapeze appeared in the distance and it kinda clicked I was going to go swing on a Trapeze. I still dont know what they call it, the bar? Within 10 minutes they made us do stretches, hang off a bar 2 metres from the ground and then we were climbing up the ladder one by one ready to swing off for the first time. I would say it was a surreal experience and also loved that they just threw us into the deep end. After two hours I managed to swing and jump out and be caught by one of the trainers swinging from the other bar. Oh that and a broken toe and bleeding hand.



I got to read the Bible at my mate Bede's wedding this weekend. It really was an honour, because to me it was a good old friend from Christian days who showed so much love and acceptance back then and now and simply wanted me to read at his wedding. The passage was 1 John 4:9-12 and this is about God and his love for us, and the fact we cannot see God means we must love one another to express the love that God has for us. There is a lot of truth in this whether you believe in God or not, loving and accepting one another is such a basic need. When you do this, so much is easier. I stood up there proud to be holding such a symbol from my past and still see the relevance now, and also celebrating an old friend finding a companion to share his life with.



At the reception there was a polaroid camera. And it is just so cool right now to take photos with these, or more so, use a hipstamatic function on our iPhone. These are real and we had quite the laugh doing this, reminded me of 2001/2 Physics class at SSCS.




And today is the final day of Movember. And aint my Mo just beautiful... It has been fun but also been super to support organisations such as Prostate Cancer, that has affected my own family. Raised $380, thanks for those who donated! I was very chuffed and much higher than I thought it would be.



How much does it suck when you spend too much time pushing against a door that you then glance down at and it says "push". Hello December.

The Holstee Manifesto: Lifecycle Video

I dont do this that often but this brightened my day because I am more than happy to agree with this manifesto. Well shot video too.

Enjoy your day.

Running

So, if you ever feel like going for a 14KM run, try it. You will be surprised how much further you can run if you have lots of people running with you. I ran the City2Sea with people from work, was so much fun! I could now go into some metaphorical tangent on how if you have lots of people with you on a journey the journey is easier. But will stop.... there.



Yellow, green, blue and red gumballs. What one would you be bummed at if it came out of the machine and which would you be happy about? Green is my happy gumball, yellow is my sad.

So my adventure with King Tut gets closer to the end. Really starting to get reflective of it (you cannot half tell, since I am writing about it in a blog) and I am so bloody thankful I took this role on. The people I have met, the experience I have had and to be looking after such a beautiful set of artifacts from a civilization so long ago has been simply an honour. And the dolphin mascott has been inspirational. The hunt continues for my next role.

One of my best buds Adam made an interesting observation yesterday. Compared me to the Tortoise in Tortoise and the Hare (I have never petted a Tortoise, maybe one day though). He said I am happy to run the race slow and just be patient with what comes my way. Still feel I should be more proactive! If I was to be any creature in a fable though, I would want to be the amusing penguin in that fable that I just made up in my head. Oh silly penguin, he is so funny... and you learn so much from him and his ways.

In my last blog I mentioned Cal. In a lot of ways I dont really even want to mention him in my blog too much, cause this story is one I want to keep close and just for me. But will just say, it is an adventure where I have a big grin on my face.

I was walking to work the other morning and walked under a giant fig tree. I will call it a fig tree cause it sounds better than a latin name. I dont wanna get all intellectual. That would make me sound smart and have good grammar and stuff like yeah? The path ran under this beautiful big tree and the early morning light along with the stillness of the still sleeping city made a shroud over me. Very peaceful, was almost expecting Mr Fox to appear, he didnt though. I then noticed a man, he was laying on one of the roots of the tree. His eyes were closed and he was mouthing words. He looked about 40 and dressed in casual clothes, not the kind a homeless fella would wear. He had just come to stop and be still and I couldnt have chosen a better place to do that. Well you would be fairly still in a straight jacket but yeah, another kind of still. I moved on, noone wants a random stranger walking by to stop and just watch you laying there. Well I dont.

I am also halfway through Movember today! Where you grow a Mo and donate to charity. Part of it was also running the race I mentioned. The trouble though with my Mo is it is long but so light compared to my head hair colour and looks pathetic. Example...



Though if anyone wants to support me, money is going towards Prostate Cancer and Beyond Blue, an organisation supporting Mental Health.

http://mobro.co/lloydjones

I am concerned my wallpaper on my phone is of a Jam label, but come on who doesnt like Jam. Jello for you Americans. And it is kinda healthy if you think about it. Mashed up fruit with sugar. We all need sugar and we all need jam. And especially rasberry jam. Cause you can imagine sailing across a sea of it and you could smell it in the air, fresh seabreeze than smelt of sugar and rasberries.



And one last thing, this was blaring across the tent where I was hanging out with Cal after the race on Sunday. Just made me happy, gotta like a band called Talking Heads.

Brown Paper

I opened my letterbox today and there was a brown envelope in there. And of course there was one little snail on the corner. The stupid snails have come back. I have accepted a compromise with them, where I leave junk mail in there as food, and they usually dont touch fresh letters. Deal. No Deal, this immature young snail obviously didnt get the memo from the older wiser snails, dont touch day old mail. Silly loser.
So yes, the envelope. I didn't recognise the handwriting and it had the same stamp my mum had placed on the postcard I also received today. The post card was from some tree top world where she climbed a tall tree. Good on her! NO idea where this place was but hey, my Mum sends me random postcards and that is special in itself. I brought both the items inside and dumped my backpack on the airbed that is currently in my living room. My mate Jon (the one who had been volunteering as a nudist farm in Byron Bay) is crashing at mine until he moves into his new home in a week. One of my lounges was upside down on part of the airbed, I had placed it there, it seemed a great place to dump it so I could dry my washing with it. I just reread that sentence, yeah don't ask.
BACK to the envelope, stop distracting me. I opened it up and instantly knew who it was from. Cal. I met Cal in July when I was in Sydney visiting family and it ended up being a pretty dreary visit, wet weather and a lot of cancellations with friends, on top of me getting the flu. One of the final days, I had been in touch with this fella and he asked me to meet him. My gut said I shouldn't, as he lives in Sydney and I live in Melbourne. What if I liked him, that would be bad, no? Then the other part of my gut won. What if I liked him, that would be good, yes? Caught a cab and our brunch meeting began with me standing next to a roast chicken store, watching a little girl attack her dog with her pink PVC umbrella, and him walking up the street towards me. Hello Cal.
It was a good brunch and I walked away thinking it was a sweet little chapter to have met a nice person. I also felt proud of myself, I was so mature about it, at peace and just content to recognise a connection. But to focus on what life is currently presenting to myself, back in reality in my new home of Melbourne.
So I slid the letter out and unfolded it. Double-sided and in flowing old style cursive writing. The paper was the same colour as the envelope, classic and smooth brown paper. It was him to a C (C being C for.. Cal. People usually say "it is them to a T" but C rhymes with T, clever. On same page?). I saw the back page first and saw him signing off. I grinned. Letters are amazing, they will always beat emails hands down. They are something physical that has traveled to your hands through a postal system, your eyes scanning real paper and ink. You can see the small imperfections (or if its my handwriting, my beautiful illegible doctor handwriting) of the person who wrote it, yet those imperfections become the personality of the letter. The thought flowing from mind to pen and paper, to finally flowing from paper to processing of that thought in the receiver. Ok ok, you get it. Letters=equal amazing in my eyes.
It was a beautiful letter and so well expressed, leaving me standing there just smiling. Smiling felt like such a limitation of how I felt inside.

Somehow I was convinced to dress up at work. And be the only person at work, who was dressed up for the day. Howard Carter was the fellow who discovered the tomb. It was to be 89 years tot he day that he had discovered it in 1922, so I was asked to dress up in 1920's aristocratic clothing for the day. I gotta admit though, I love wearing a suit. And wearing one with tails was bloody awesome. In the end I enjoyed it, more because of the two types of reactions from guests/staff. Either they looked at me and smiled and had curiosity about them as to what on earth I was doing. Then there were many who looked at me, didnt bat an eyelid and continued on their way. Melbourne indoctrinates people to expect crazy dressed up people.





Marissa and I went to Phillip Island. ONLY ever go to Phillip Island if you really really need to see the penguins. There is nothing else on that island that is worth seeing. I repeat, only if you want to be stuck in a tourist trap with thousands of other tourists watching little penguins come up from the beach. Marissa and I didnt even see this, but we DID get to see the Phillip Island Chocolate Factory and also Pirate Putt Putt Golf. We also saw an animal sanctuary through a cafe. One enclosure had a fake goanna in it. We sat and ate "home made pizza" while we took delight in watching tourists walk up, look at the goanna for about a minute and wondering if this goanna was just really sleepy, dead, or fake. Our day was made.

We had a day of hot weather yesterday. A day. Thanks Melbourne.

I was going to put up a video about Doctor Who I was introduced to by my friend Joseph but then thought, no, I wont.