Days... daze... playing catch-up

I have missed you.  I have sorely missed my daily creative outlet, seeing the world through the eyes of a writer & always thinking, how can I best describe this for my blog...?  I know it's my own fault, that I could write anytime, and that nothing & no one is stopping me, and I don't know why I've been so slack.  I have no excuse.  The best way of putting it is that this doesn't feel like real life and every day runs into the next in a blur of blue & green.  I'm swept up by it.

from weheartit.com

I can't account for every day that I haven't written; one of the great things about this blog was that I wrote every day before I forgot what happened the day previous, but I've royally screwed that up now. 


The days continue to be mostly sunny & always hot, though the wet season is beginning & we've had a few grey, rainy, disgustingly humid days.  I swim until my fingers & toes are pruned, I read to my little heart's content - finishing one giant book & immediately tackling another.  I am a part of the scenery here, so much so that when Nick gives his speil to new guests, he points me out & I am asked questions about Airlie Beach as though I were staff.  I am friends with everyone.  Laura & Ian (UK) are getting married here in February & have asked me to be a bridesmaid.  Friendships are fast & strong here; everyone is family, everyone stays longer than they originally intended.

not me - i'm waaaay more than than that! from weheartit.com

There have been soccer matches and water fights, destroyed pool floats and loud music, crazy nights out and tearful goodbyes.  I've gotten close to Nikki (UK) who works here; over a day of shopping & a bottle of wine I discovered she's a writer & an actor, and we like to entertain the fantasy that we'll start our own theatre company here.  She & LL (UK) & I went out to find New Year's dresses one day & had so much fun together; they hated me because I am the best bargain shopper there is - i got two lovely $10 dresses.  :)  We've gone out for girls lunches & dinners & drinks and just laughed; we've gone out dancing & guarded each other from creepy boys.  LL leaves today & I am really going to miss her.

On his day off, Nick took me to Bowen to see where the movie "Australia" was filmed.  The weather was tempermental, and we drove through rain, getting soaked in the convertible before we had time to put the top up, watching the rain pass over cane fields like a silver curtain  We went to Horseshoe Bay, where the then-clear sky met rocks met the ocean, and I dug my toes in the sand.  We cruised around with the top down, sun on our heads, sand on our feet, talking and enjoying the day.  By the time we realized we were hungry, we'd missed lunchtime in the small town and the only place serving food was a tiny fish & chips place - but it was delicious & fit the day perfectly.  On the way back, through the deep green mountains and quiet farmland, we detoured to Cedar Creek Falls, which was beautiful but quiet; there hadn't been enough rain lately for there to actually be a waterfall.  We looked for turtles & balanced on rocks in the little swimming hole at the bottom.  It was a really good day.

 From the movie "Austraila"

New Year's Eve, we all dressed up fancy and went to the Airlie Beach Hotel, where there was live music and fireworks at midnight.  Two of the guys in our group, Ricky (Irish) and a guy with dreds that I didn't know, stripped down & streaked the beach.  Nick & Chris hid their clothes; LL got a great picture of the back of a naked guy watching the fireworks.  Ben almost got into a fight.  Nikki thinks someone at the club put something in her drink (but she's fine, don't worry).  Taco hooked up with a cute girl & everyone is giving them shit - you can imagine the dirty things that can be inferred using his name...   Nick and I drank a bit too much and got into a stupid argument.  Next day, neither of us knew what had caused it & we both apologized.  It was actually a really strange night for most of our group; I'm chalking it up to the end of a really strange year, not any sort of foreboding about 2010.

New Year's day was spent on the couch, everyone needing a big hangover brekkie.  Nick & Chris & I went to the shopping center to get Nick a new phone and filled our stomachs with coffee and eggs and bacon... mmm...  Chris was dressed in the most neon, non-matching, eye-aching board shorts & tank top I've ever seen.  Hilarious.

yes, that's really Chris, in his neon outfit, with his napkin tucked into his shirt.  nerd.

Nick had to DJ on Hamilton Island that night, so he & I went over on the ferry that afternoon.  It was grey and weeping rain; the islands were shrouded in misty clouds and the grey of the water next to the grey of the islands made them look like mountains in a flooded valley.  I felt like it was the end of the world and we were a boatful of stragglers venturing into the unknown...  ah my dramatic imagination.  :)  The resort they put him up in on the island is super nice, but because some of the other DJs they hire were being jerkfaces & trashing the room, they downgraded the booking & we ended up in the staff quarters.  It wasn't bad - the view was still gorgeous - but Nick was dissappointed because he'd wanted to treat me to a nice 5 star hotel.  We had a good dinner and relaxed, watching Center Stage on TV (haha!!) until it was time to head down to the club.

unfortunately, not my gorgeous photo - from weheartit.com

It being the New Year's day, not many people were out, but his set was really good and everyone there danced their butts off.  It was really fun.  Nick's birthday is January 2 so after midnight, in the middle of the gig, he stopped the music & the entire club sang happy birthday.  :)  I'd come over by myself; Nick couldn't get free ferry passage for anyone else & it's pretty expensive, but we ran into this guy who had stayed at the hostel a week ago, so I didn't have to dance alone.  Unfortunately, he's a pretty big D-bag (as in dating at least 3 girls "exclusively" at one time) and brought his third "girlfriend" over to hang with me.  She was really drunk and pretty bogan (trashy) and I could not understand a word she said.  But I conducted a little social experiment, pretending I was as drunk as she was & that I totally got what she was saying to me.  By the end of the night, she loved me and they invited us over for a drink after.  We didn't really want to go but did, to be polite, and after half a beer and about 20 minutes of puke-inducing douchiness, I faked feeling ill & we left, giggling like naughty kids.

DJ turntable... from weheartit.com

Woke up the next morning (afternoon, actually) to a beautiful blue-sky birthday day, so we grabbed our stuff and headed down to the beach.  Had a fantastic breakfast with mimosas, overlooking the ocean - we both had fish, which is weird on it's own but even weirder because we'd just been talking about how the idea of fish for breakfast was gross.  But somehow it was really yummy.  Went tubing off the back of a speedboat, which was SO fun and SO exhausting and made me feel like a kid.  You have to hold on ridiculously tightly, but you still slide all over the place as the boat turns & you bump over waves!  We got thrown off our tube four times; I skimmed the water like a skipping stone and once my leg hit Nick in the mouth so I have teeth marks on my shin, and once my knee collided with his groin.  Oops.  It was still fun, but we were super sore afterwards.  Had drinks at the resorts swim-up bar & a bogen guy insisted on taking underwater pictures of us on Nick's new camera... weird.  They got deleted.  Had an ice cream & headed back on the ferry to the rainy mainland.  Pretty perfect day.  We went out that night & I stayed sober because everyone was buying Nick birthday shots & drinks; he had a good time.

not his real bday spread - from weheartit.com

Met Nicks's sister, brother-in-law, and nephew, visiting for New Years. Had quite an embarrassing, revealing game of "couples questions" with them, his parents, and four family friends.  Also had some really delicious lamb burgers; I've been eating a lot of lamb here.  That and beetroot.  Crazy Aussies.  There's a bug going around & I think I've caught it, I'm a bit stuffy - then again, it could just be from the dramatic difference in temperature when the air con is on to when it's off...  One bit of, well, bad-ish news: I've officially lost the day job that was being kept open for me in LA.  I shouldn't be surprised, most places won't hold a job for you while you go romp off to a tropical destination for three months, but it is a little bit scary.  I'm not sure what I'm going to go back to, money-wise; not much, for sure.  BUT the job wasn't one that I wanted to keep for much longer anyway; I'd been too afraid to quit for years now.  So, I actually think it's a blessing.  Keep bringing it, 2010!

I have been so happy & grateful for:
~ a new year with absolutely no plans, no expectations
~ fun watersports
~ girl time
~ a proper cup of english tea
~ the pool
~ facebook (and chat and skype)
~ really good teddy bear hugs

xo!  n.