so much water so close to home

My uncle very generously offered to fly me over for free using his frequent flyer miles so I could spend the Christmas holidays with my extended family. Visiting Ireland and reconnecting with my family is something I have always, always wanted to do. It has been 18 years since I last visited as a seven-year old. So the opportunity to visit Ireland six months earlier than I had planned, see where my parents grew up, and meet up with everyone in my extended family was an unexpected surprise and the best way to finish off what has been a year of substantial personal growth for me. 

2017 has been a pretty life changing year. My laid-back solitary life in my log cabin in Denmark and my two and a half years living and working in rural Western Australia came to an end.

I took my first real holiday in four years, visiting my brother and sister-in-law in Melbourne, and going on a road trip around Tasmania with Eric. 

I cut off my long hair after growing it for four years, and have felt the most confident with my body and my appearance I have in a long, long time. 

After pooh-poohing a friend who said she wanted to ~set me up~ with someone she knew, a coffee date with a handsome bald man wearing a kippah developed into what was essentially my first relationship. Unfortunately it was another case of wrong place/wrong time (a recurring trend for me) and it had to end prematurely as I had already booked a working holiday to Canada. While very painful to part ways (it still sucks), I have absolutely no regrets. It was exciting to feel so passionately about someone for the first time, get to know someone so intimately, and feel myself change for the better as a result.

In August I made the big decision to put my career on hiatus for a year and do some independent travel for the first time in my life. So far I have visited 12 cities/towns across Canada and the USA by myself. I have met up with friends from home, Tumblr friends, reconnected with my uncle, aunt and cousins in New Jersey; and of course met new people along the journey (and had sex with a few of them too - thanks, Montreal). I have made Vancouver my temporary home, and hiked, camped and skied across British Columbia with my beautiful beautiful friends Lauren and Spencer who I have missed dearly. Spending so much time with them over the last four months has been the best part of going on this trip. They’re family to me now. 

I have three more months in Canada before I had back to Australia and Bali for my brother’s wedding. Then I hope to go back to Ireland for a month or so to drive around the island, and visit the Faroe Islands and Iceland. 

And then, who knows. Back to Perth, or maybe to Melbourne. 

Ilia Efimovich Repin Vsevolod Mikhailovich Garshin (1855–1888), 1884