Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known

Alright, I’m getting better at being back at home. I no longer feel the desperate urge to nod off at 7pm, I am learning not to wake up after 7 hours sleep, regardless of what time I fell asleep (waking up at 3am on Wednesday morning was particularly enjoyable). I’m remembering how to deal with the constant heat and humidity. I’m remembering what living with the Olds is like. Remembering that there are no vending machines every 2 steps. Remembering that obsessively sorting garbage is not required here.

I’ve also had my hair cut and dyed, given myself a couple coats of fake tan and have had my first dose of Aussie customer service**.

I’ve seen a few friends, eaten some Aussie food and had a number of BBQs. My toes hurt from wearing thongs again, which just breaks my heart, but I am sure that will go away shortly.

My current dilemma is what to do with this year. Obviously, my Masters is pretty set in stone so I know I will be doing that, but I mean together with the Masters. I thought about my plan of teaching full time and doing my Masters full time and came to the conclusion that there is no doubt I will cock something up if I attempt it. I don’t want to make my Masters longer by fucking up subjects and having to redo them, and I don’t want to start my teaching career in Oz by doing a half assed job of it because I have so much other shit to do for uni. It’s only one year, so I may as well do things properly (for a change).

I do want to start sewing again, I really, really enjoy doing that and I will have time to actually do a market this year and not just bang on about it. I’d also like to try and do some English teaching or tutoring because I do sincerley enjoy doing that sort of stuff. I suppose the beauty of living with D’Olds is that I have the luxury of trying a few things to se what works best, seeing as I don’t have to worry about paying rent and feeding myself and shit. They may annoy the shit out of me at times, but the perks of living at home far outweigh the bad bits.

The other thing I’ve decided to do is work on what I put in my mouth. I don’t eat a massive amount of shit, and being vege means a bunch of fast food and stuff is not something I can eat anyways, but I do my fair share of contributing to the yearly profits of Cadbury and Nestle. On the plane on the way home I had cottage cheese and pineapple and it reminded me how much I love cottage cheese. I’d never eaten it until I tried the Body for Life thing a few years ago and it was a core component of the eating plan and I became quite fond of it. Now that I am back in a place where the food I can eat (and want to eat) is plentiful, a place where I have a huge kitchen and oven and any cooking implement I desire, it seems a bit stupid to continue to eat poorly. It’s not about weight loss or anything else, it’s simply about putting good things inside me. I figure once I have myself properly fuelled again and have stopped being such a carb and sugar addict then I’ll work on regaining some degree of fitness, but baby steps for now.

** This story is too good not to retell. On Wednesday (i.e. my first full day back in Oz) D’Mummy and I went to Officeworks so I could have a color picture printed to show the stylist what I wanted for my hair. The picture was printed and the lady who served us was doing the checkout type stuff when the other Officeworks Tool (OT) wandered over to where we were standing and looked at the picture I’d just had printed. Here is what went down:

OT: Why would anyone want to do that to their head, I just don’t understand it. Eeeuch.

D’M: (realizing I would potentially jump the counter and beat up OT, she jumped in to try and defuse) Oh, I don’t know, it’s just something a bit different. It’s only hair, afterall.

OT: It would be different to cut off my hand too, but I wouldn’t do that.

D’M: Umm, hair grows back. I think it’s cool hair, anyways.

D’J: *biting her tongue in half to prevent a tirade related how how much of a dickhead OT was proving himself to be by commenting on someone else’s choice of personal style from spilling out*

Seriously though, really, who the fuck does that? If I wanted to shave my head and tattoo my face it’s absolutely my choice and the dickhead at Officeworks should be polite enough to keep his opinion to himself. I though he looked like a total nerd who has $12 haircut and has not, and will probably never, encounter a real boobin his entire life but I would hardly comment on that, particularly to his face. I presume he did not realise it was the picture of my future haircut, but even so, he should have kept his mouth shut. Maybe I was a stylist and that was a cut I had done, maybe it was a picture of my best friend who had died of something horrible, in any case by commenting on my print job he just made himself look like a total ass.

So, I’m back in Oz, blogging from the same possie on the couch that I was so familiar with.

Inital observations about being back home:

• It’s hot here, like always. I woke up last night sweating. It was great.
• People here are noisy and they do everything pretty slow.
• There isn’t many people anywhere.
• There are lots of insects.
• Things are cheap.
• It’s really, really green here.
• I got super pale.
• I love cats and am not a big allergic to them here.
• It’s incredibly exhausting to hear English all the time, I have to make an effort to tune out to every conversation I overhear because I am so used to constantly listening to any bit of English I hear, just for the comfortable familiarity of it all but now when it’s all over, it’s hard.
• My bed is fantastic.

I made it to 8pm last night and just crashed, I fell asleep in front of the TV and didn’t so much as turn over until I woke up at 1am. I watched a little bit of an infomercial for an 80s CD package with Belinda Carlisle in the ad, and then fell back asleep until 6am. I am incredibly tired again now, not really sure why – I guess the combination of the heat and the fact I got 45 mins sleep on my flight home – that would probably help me to feel a bit out of sorts.

I got a tops haircut today and have dyed it kind of dark, flaming red. I’ve also bought a few new items of clothing and had several showers in my lovely, big, Western shower and I’m feeling a lot like myself again. I love wearing short sleeves and thongs. I bought some fake tan today so with any luck tomorrow morning I will look less like a giant, white snowflake and more like the color of the average Aussie.

I’m gonna go and crash again, because I am lame. I promise to be more entertaining next time!

Let’s look at some facts:

Nights left in Tokyo: 5

Nights left in my apartment: 1

Kilos of crap already posted home: 6.5

Kilos of crap I am yet to post back, seeing my suitcase is now as good as full: 2865 (approx)

Actual weight of the things to post back: 10kg (approx)

Items to go by sea to save money because I am stingy: 1 blanket (clearly not so stingy that I would just throw it away and not send it home. An interlude of a couple of months is bearable, a lifetime without it is not)

Total floor space of my apartment: 25 square meters

Total floor space of my apartment currently covered in random shit and dust bunnies: 23 square meters

Things to do tomorrow before I move out: 19,287

On a scale of 1 – 10, how glad I am to be going to stay my Twin’s house tomorrow night to live out my last days in Tokyo: 15

Percentage of time I am squealing with joy (inwardly) about seeing D’Mummy: 146%

Parties I have already been invited to back in Oz: 2

Hours spent worrying that my luggage will be overweight and I’ll be forced to pay thousands of yen to take it with me: 22.5/24

Days until I am back online: 5

Days it will *feel* like until I am day online: 194

Likelihood I am addicted to the internet: 100%

People who still read my blog and thus care about when I’ll next update: 4.2

Assuming they let me on the plane with my suitcase packed with candy colored trinkets and Hello Kitty shit, I’ll see you all again on Tuesday when I am back in the land of Oz….after I have eaten my body weight in vegetarian sausages, Cadbury chocolate and french onion dip and had a deep and meaningful reunion with my gorgeous bed, of course.

…in ten days time, I will be sitting on a couch. Or asleep in a big bed, off the ground and with many pillows (none of which will be filled with this buckwheat bullshit). I will have a tummy full of food which is familiar to me and comes from Aussie soil or is contained within a wrapper/packet that features information I can read in my first language. I will flick on the TV and understand what they are saying and I will be able to talk to D’Mummy whenever I like, face to face.

I’ve been stupidly busy since Best and BP arrived. I’ve been trying to be a decent tour guide so they have a somewhat reasonable idea of Tokyo and what my life has been like for the last few months. I’ve also been trying to pack up all my shit, sell my worldly possessions here, deal with real estate inspections, enroll in my Masters (I got accepted, ya-fucking-hoo!!!), half look for jobs for when I get back home and otherwise maintain other necessary aspects of life – like personal hygiene and eating and sleeping and junk.

I quit work, in person. It was shit as I expected but now I am free. I’ll give you all the gory details about all the important stuff once I am back but for now, I am way too busy and way too tired to get into it.

I sold my futon today so I’m now back to sleeping on the floor for a couple of nights until Best and BP leave Tokyo for the next bit of their journey. I’m not sure how much different sleeping on the floor really is to sleeping on a futon anyways, both are fairly uncomfortable.

14 more days until I hop on a plane and return to Oz for my next adventure.

How is it that 14 days seems a blink of an eye and impossibily long, all at the same time? Because I am a big lameo, I quietly squeal with excitement everytime I think of seeing D’Mummy at the airport, waiting to collect me. I think I’m ready to go, I’ve made peace with leaving Tokyo and everything and everyone I’ll miss here, I am really looking forward to never having to wear a jacket again, sunshine, beaches, vegetarian food, English TV and, of course, my peeps.

Best and BP are here, which means everything is just that little bit more “right”. Tomorrow is my last day of school, I didn’t go today because I am still sick with this gross cold I’ve had for weeks now and the strong winds yesterday whipped up all the dust and shit into the air making me a total booger factory with all my sneezing and coughing and carrying on. Tomorrow is also pay day and the day after is a public holiday. Noice.I’ve been progressively selling my furniture over the last few weeks and I’m slowly whittling away my worldly possessions once more.

My spectacularly awesome Twin has offered for me to stay at her new place rather than a hotel for the few days before my flight. I am so thrilled by her very kind gesture and I’m certain staying with such a cool person will be a far better way to wrap up the Tokyo experience than in a dorm room at a hotel. For now though, I am gonna have to keep it short and sweet.

Expect light blogging over the next couple of weeks as I struggle to get my shit together while still making the most of living it up overseas. Obviously being online will be on the back burner while all this goes on, but I assure you I will be back – with a vengance – once my toes hit Aussie soil (and I settle into the familiar, warm embrace unemployment)