from water to water

I come back to this day quite often. I came back to it the day after I landed back into perth and I generally go back to it whenever I am feeling stuck and stuffy with my rigid life. This here is Uruguay, and if I kept on walking and swimming in that direction, I'd cross Rio del Plata and get to Buenos Aires. But I didn't, instead I drank beer in the sun, rode a horse along the beach, drove a motorcycle around town, and then was on the back of one on the other way around. Uruguay, to me, is quite like paradise, although I'm sure, as a tourist, I didn't push through its facade and see the real Colonia del Sacramento. Everything was safe over there, there was no theft; people left their doors wide open, drank mate` in the streets, dance and practice their drumming (alway lame in your home town, always quaint when you are somewhere else). In fact, I walked into someone's house once because I thought it was a restaurant, only to find a kind playing computer games, perdon. Everything over there was light, but I say that probably because I was; no obligations, not working but spending my savings, there with my lover, sunshine, horses and beer. Nothing could go wrong and nothing did go wrong. It really was a relief coming from Buenos Aires which, generally in the streets has a dark paranoia about it. In Uruguay, there were no dark stares or hissing in the streets. In Uruguay, I was idle but breeeeezy.

The second time I was in Colonia del Sacramento was spent drinking warm beer by myself on the jetty, feeding the kittens that crept out between the rocks, and noticing a woman give a guy a blow job at the shore. But that's another story.

Here in Perth, things are good, very good and I love being here again and working on my PhD. I am however, far from idle. I clock in my hours, revise, plan and mark my work, plan my day down to the hour to make sure I get enough sleep, eat and exercise. I'm proud to be doing what I am doing, but more than that, I am grateful to be able to do it. But every now at then, I think about galloping on the beach, with my guide telling me in spanish that he never left Uruguay because he couldn't think of a reason to go, and how in that moment, I understood.

and so, instead of thinking of a time last year, I should be creating more here and now.