3:14pm
We didn't go to the beach after all. It was raining this morning.
I wanted to go online and talk to Shaughn, but the internet was being pissy and wouldn't let me on. I tried four times but to no avail. That and the sky outside combined to create a very crummy mood indeed. I hid in my room for much of the day and watched it rain in the swimming pool.
Good things did happen today though. I finished a song I had started yesterday. It's short and sweet and says everything it needs to. Shaughn helped me write it, but he doesn't know that yet. Since I've been here I've been writing pieces of songs that don't fit together so it was nice to finally finish one.
After I felt peopleready, Robert took me to the milk bar down the street where I bought food that was bad for me because I thought I deserved a treat. I have a giant chocolate bar in my bedside drawer now. I like small comforts.
We had fish and chips again for tea. Fish and chips is a cultural thing down here or something. When they get take away, it's not pizza, it's fish and chips.
After supper I talked to Jay on the computer. That was nice. About music and Australia mostly. I told him I was feeling homesick today. He reminded me that that was part of the journey.
The evening's plan was to make our way to the 21st birthday party of a friend of Robert's from high school named Johnny. We did so, arriving late as expected. I was introduced to many people and only remember a few names now. They were mostly people from Robert's school. It was interesting to put faces to a few names I'd heard from Robert in the past.
I liked Robert very much tonight. There was a lemon tree in the back yard. I touched a ripe one with my fingertips. I liked Robert very much as a person tonite.
The party eventually wound down to the birthday boy, his father, two friends Doug and Andy (they're brothers), Robert and I. The conversation somehow squirmed it's way into religion and, much to the partied out Johnny's dismay, a rather vocal (yet surprisingly coherent) debate ensued with Robert and Doug arguing "religion is bad" and the other two for good and me somewhere in the middle.
Finally, a cab was called and the party ended.
I had a lot better time than I expected. I'm glad I didn't refuse that experience.
(I wish Johann would write.) 3:36am
7:26
As I write this, I am sitting on a rocky coastline of the Mornington Penninsula. The dying sun is deepening the valleys of footsteps on the sand. Out on the ocean, a giant white cruise ship passes slowly.
Steven, Aileen and Alex are eating dinner at the Royal Hotel above me. I am fasting today at Shaughn's suggestion to cleanse my system. Robert thinks it's ridiculous. Good thing I'm not dating him.
Robert stayed home today. Souraya came in to Frankston this afternoon and I imagine they're spending quality time. I'm glad for that.
So the four of us, Steve, Aileen, Alex and I, went on an outing today. We drove up to Arthur's Seat. I'm still not really sure who Arthur is or why he has a seat at the top of the mountain, but I do know that two different Australian war planes crashed into that mountain on two seperate occasions. I took a photo in the seat which is apparently the thing to do. The view of the coast from the look out tower was incredible despite the overcast sky. Alex and I took the chair lift down the mountain.
There is an annyoing Australian kid, squacky as a seagull, down the beach from here who wants to take crabs home. His mother keeps telling him about the strict no removal of shellfish rule on this beach, but he doesn't seem a very good listener.
On the drive here we stopped at an even rockier coast and Alex adventured among the rocks finding jellyfish, blue crabs, and florescent green seaweed. I sat and smelled the ocean. Alex is a great kid, he's the nicest 12 year old boy I've ever known.
The seagull kid's name is James. His dad is yelling at him from the street that it's time to go. He thinks he can bargain to keep just two crabs with him. "No, they'll die," his mother says, rather ineffectually.
An amazing bunch of waves just crashed against the rocks for a couple minutes. It is otherwise quite calm from where I sit and the fading sunlight is golden over everything. The cruise ship is going the other way now.
Sitting here among rubber plants and fine warm sand, things do not seem real. For the first time on this trip so far, I am completely at peace. I think I shall come to the ocean more often. The Gray's have promised to show me how to get to the beach from their house, it's only a short walk, they say.
The seagull boy is gone. This moment is immensely perfect. And I'm not even hungry. 7:51pm
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