On the 3rd Day of Christmas, VISA Gave To Me

One of the most wonderful things about liberation from the tyranny of Outlook, and it's nightmarish insistence on on-the-hour activities (with all the insistent charm and relaxed air of storm troopers raiding small defenceless villages in the middle of the night), is that days just take care of themselves. Amazing as it seems, you can actually go through an entire day without anyuthing being scripted, plotted or massively pre-planned! Get out you say! I am perfectly happy indoors, I retort, before realising you have used a cliched piece of pop culture speak, and moving on to assure you that yes indeed, a day can begin, crest over the middle and crash into the sleep arms of Morpheus without so much as an alarm sounding.....

That was the sort of day today was (yesterday too really when we thought briefly about going to Victoria Park but decided to sleep and sort of watch "The Italian Job" instead before heading out to a yummy Thai dinner at Mi Thai in Lennox Head) - a vague idea that we'd go to the Bangalow Markets, then maybe eat lunch, walk and go swimming at Byron Bay. We did all that but in no particular rush, and with the sort of unhurried gait that would make cows seems like commuters desperate to get home in time for the start of "The Bold and The Beautiful" (of course, there may be other reasons why people rush home but surely watching a trashy prime time soap must rank high on the list!) .... I bought a fabulous new painting (thankfully being shipped back to Sydney since it would have been a bitch on steroids to get into carry-on!), some funky glass ware and a great new T-shirt (to add to the Imelda Marcos-like quantities currently inhabting my wardrobes)....

The Markets were a ball too.... lots of gay boys in town for Tropical Fruits so much guy candy, stalls selling wonderfully authentic jewelry, arts and crafts and organic food, and the odd torrential downpour to remind you why the Far North Coast virtually never suffers drought.... and the people were all so friendly.... possibly all high on something but it beats the ambiguous nothingness of a lot of Sydneysiders (much as I love the place and it's people, it's not as warm and fuzzy as the hippie-fied locals of Bangalow etc)... we even sheltered in one of the stalls while the skies opened up, and the couple there were just delightful... I even bought some of their glass ware so clearly having a captive audience works!

With the Markets done and dusted (or mud-ded really given all the rain), we de-camped ( so true in my case!) to Byron Bay for more shopping, a delicious lunch with the smoothie to end all smoothies (large enough to end all world hunger I am fairly sure!), and lots more walking....before hitting the beach just as a strom hit.... and more rain! Yes our (my brother Steve, cousin Ngaire and me) timing was impeccable..... so the swimming has to wait till Tuesday since while I love swimming at the beach, I am not so much a fan of being BBQ'd in the water while I do it..... yes weird that I don't want to be electrocuted on holidays but there you go... colour me wildly eccentric....

.... and so on this day that Outlook was banished to the nether regions of Microsoft's evil domain, I am now ready to finish my book, eaten a yummy home cooked green Thai curry and slide into a stupified state, content in the knowledge that tomorrow will be just as unpredictably all over the shop..... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz........ good night!