Thursday, September 22, 2011

Melbourne

After 36 hours of continuous travel I arrived jet lagged and wondering how the first symptoms of deep vein thrombosis manifest themselves in middle aged men.
After immigration I was directed to wait in the queue of returning Aussie back packers at customs.
My insane itinerary neatly typed up in plastic folders along with envelopes of local currency matching my itinerary left the officer unmoved. 
"Reason for your visit?"
"Business"
"Souvenirs or gifts from your travel?"
"What?"
"You heard me. Are you importing any wood carvings or reed beach mats into Australia? They often have pests hidden inside them which devastate our island habitat."
"That would be a no"
"Place your bag on the table please sir......." 
Two hours later I arrived at my hotel emerging from a cold and stormy night, panda eyed, slump shouldered.
Dropping my bags in the middle of the floor I fell backwards onto the bed fully clothed and immediately  went off to sleep.
Can you picture that?
I remember some sort of fantasy that my arm outstretched descent onto the duvet was somehow being captured in slow motion, soothing music tickling the background.
A reenactment of some TV commercial I'd seen and stored in the back of my exhausted brain.
Played out at 1 am on the other side of the planet..
Why did I do that?
Why do I remember doing that?
Its beyond me as I sit here.
Regardless, the relief was fleeting.
I woke up a couple of hours later in a harshly lit, CNN blaring room, overheated and dehydrated.
Jet lag being what it is, I was awake at 5 am shivering on my balcony to escape the stuffy air, trying to empty the cobwebs in my head. The rain had stopped an hour or so earlier and the sun was coming up.
The first picture above gives you a hint of the rainbow to come.
The next couple show you how bright it flared before dying away as the sun took proper control of the sky.
Its brief glory spent, it dissolved away.
This post isn't particularly about anything.
I took the pictures because it was the brightest rainbow I'd ever seen.
If I was to wax philosophical I'd say the rainbow was the silver flip side to the cold wet weather all harsh and negative, and that this might have some sort of parallel to coming off a crappy two day journey.
Or that all tough times give way to a bright new beginning.
But that would be a bit silly.
Sometimes a rainbow is just a nice rainbow.
Given that its down under, is there something equivalent to toilet water swirling counterclockwise versus clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere?
Are the colors reversed?
Or am I just ludicrously tired?
Fade to grey........
I'm in Bangkok where its also pissing down with rain.
This is a bit warmer though.
Stay well everyone
T

3 comments:

Sister Sara said...

Oh my I m tired and reading that just makes me want to now go and flop down on my diver ! Nice rainbow thanks for sharing that ! Xo

Anonymous said...

Loved the rainbow pictures Terry...I love to see that a rainbow seems to be enough soften the hardness of your routine sometimes, brings color to your days and is part of things that will to ensure that your blood flows normally.

LadyHutch13 said...

Been awhile since I checked out ur blog. The rainbow pics are hands-down my favorite! All the best to you.