Sunday, 21st January, 2007
Temperatures are forecast to reach 40 degrees so happiness today will include taking cold showers and then standing in front of the fan, gently moaning. (Just thought of that joke, "Damn, I got a sweater for Christmas when I really wanted a moaner and groaner").
Sometimes I wish Oz had been settled (I'm being kind, I really mean "invaded and occupied") by the Greeks or Italians or Spanish instead of the Poms. The Mediterranean architecture is so much more suited to the climate here: white stone houses with cool tiled floors; courtyards shaded by olive trees; tables for outdoor eating set beneath canopies of grape vines. And instead of non-smoking, alcohol-free beaches we would have little bars with straw roofs dotted along the sand, musicians playing, people eating, drinking, dancing till dawn, then sitting at the ocean's edge watching the sun come up...
... but The Law puts a stop to all that nonsense. I've discovered that it takes very little to be a law breaker - early one morning I was sitting in a park writing in my journal, my dog asleep at my feet. I looked up through the branches of a flame tree at the cornflower blue sky and had one of those powerful sensations that Maslow called "peak experiences" where one's whole being is suffused with absolute joy for no reason at all. I nearly fainted away at the intensity of the ecstasy which held me in its grip and I closed my eyes, gasping, wanting to hold onto this rapture forever.
When I came to, there was a policeman standing in front of me who told me that I was liable to be fined $50 for not having my dog on a lead.
Temperatures are forecast to reach 40 degrees so happiness today will include taking cold showers and then standing in front of the fan, gently moaning. (Just thought of that joke, "Damn, I got a sweater for Christmas when I really wanted a moaner and groaner").
Sometimes I wish Oz had been settled (I'm being kind, I really mean "invaded and occupied") by the Greeks or Italians or Spanish instead of the Poms. The Mediterranean architecture is so much more suited to the climate here: white stone houses with cool tiled floors; courtyards shaded by olive trees; tables for outdoor eating set beneath canopies of grape vines. And instead of non-smoking, alcohol-free beaches we would have little bars with straw roofs dotted along the sand, musicians playing, people eating, drinking, dancing till dawn, then sitting at the ocean's edge watching the sun come up...
... but The Law puts a stop to all that nonsense. I've discovered that it takes very little to be a law breaker - early one morning I was sitting in a park writing in my journal, my dog asleep at my feet. I looked up through the branches of a flame tree at the cornflower blue sky and had one of those powerful sensations that Maslow called "peak experiences" where one's whole being is suffused with absolute joy for no reason at all. I nearly fainted away at the intensity of the ecstasy which held me in its grip and I closed my eyes, gasping, wanting to hold onto this rapture forever.
When I came to, there was a policeman standing in front of me who told me that I was liable to be fined $50 for not having my dog on a lead.
posted by Rosie at 3:37 PM
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