Good Love Is On The Way

I went to mass this morning. It was the same as it is in Australia, and being the universal Church, one would expect that. The weird thing, though, was the accents. Obviously, I mean, the first thing anyone notices in another English speaking country is the accents, and it's not like I expected any different, but that's the thing; being so used to hearing American accents in movies and the like, then hearing Australian accents in normal life I couldn't shake the feeling during mass that everyone would let out a laugh and say, with broad Australian accents "the jokes on you" (along with a few gratuitous references to me as 'mate' and 'champ') and normality would return.

It never happened of course, for here I am, Vienna, Virginia; part of the greater DC area.

Speaking of accents, at LA Airport I thought it might be nice to have a coffee. So I went along to Starbucks. Looking at the menu, there were three coffee sizes: Tall, Grande and Liquid Heart Palpitation (I make no claims on the accuracy of the name of that last size). Who seriously wants a coffee the size of a McDonalds large coke? At least the cardboard is recyclable.

I thought I'd go with a Grande Cafe Latte, and heard the fellow in front of me order one as well with the emphasis on the e in the word Grande. The fine lady behind the counter called me sir and asked what I wanted. I, wanting to sound at least somewhat like I knew how to pronounce "Grande", in my most natural Australian accent, said something that must have sounded like "I'll have a Grundy Lattay thanks". She nodded and asked for a name, I say "Mullins", since that's my name and all and she wrote it on the side of the cup.

Quicker than a good coffee should, my hot beverage came and I looked at the side of my cup. Apparently I'd recieved the Grundy Lattay that belonged to a bloke called "Mellons".

Despite the size of the mid-range coffee, I still fell asleep in the depature lounge. Luckily, I had one of those half-awake dreams about tripping over and woke myself up with an involuntry spasm. It's amazing how acute embarrassment fast-tracks lucidity.

Right now, I'm sitting and chillaxing; watching a squirrel fart about in the backyard (I meant to write 'dart about' there, but decided that was a typo worth keeping). That seems like the plan for the rest of the day.

Until our paths cross once more, keep trucking.

Sam <>< ><> <>< <>< <><

She Packed My Bags Last Night, Pre-Flight

Or perhaps more accurately, she, whomever she is, packed nothing and I packed. Though not last night; I packed the night before. It just made for a cooler title, plus its a song lyric, which will make more sense in a moment. But i digress.

I slept last night in the lounge of my old house in Baulkham Hills, Sydney. Unfortunately, two of the four walls are floor to ceiling windows, and one of those opens out to the east. Meaning, at 5:45am, a mere 4 and a half hours after retiring for the night, i was awoken to blinding light and searing heat. I neglected to mention the air circulation in said lounge room is quite atrocious. You'd think the smart thing to do would be to close the blinds, and you'd be right, but by then the damage was done and my nourishing and refreshing slumber has been lost forever.

This second post marks the final hours of my presence in Australia. As I have said, I stayed last night in Sydney, and for those of you who are into that kind of thing, this happened:

Funeral For A Friend ->
Love Lies Bleeding
Bennie and the Jets
Philadelphia Freedom
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Believe
Tiny Dancer
I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues
Take Me To The Pilot
I Want Love
Someone Saved My Life Tonight
Postcards From Richard Nixon
Just Like Noah's Ark
The Bridge
The Captain & The Kid
Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters
Candle In The Wind
Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word
Rocketman
Daniel
Levon
Crocodile Rock
The Bitch Is Back
Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting

(Encore)
Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me
Your Song

I get a kick out of posting setlists. Elton John was a decidedly different experience to the two other concerts I've been to this month (one being John Mayer in a small theatre, blues based rock show; the other being front row at U2 with 60 000 others in Melbourne). The Entertainment Centre was filled to the brim with middle aged couples and middle aged non couples. I was sitting between two of those middle aged couples, it was kind of cool actually; they all had a knack for a bit of air piano playing.

The show itself was very much like going to a play, there was no support band, and no one really stood up except towards the very end. Rocketman was jammin' which is a word one wouldn't expect to be used in reference to an Elton John show, much less a mellow song like Rocketman but jammin' it was. This show was all about the songs, there was little fanfare, the guy is getting on I suppose, but it was really an exercise in good musicianship and songwriting. Candle In The Wind was probably the best of them.

My tea just ran out.
So I'm going to end this now. A long flight awaits me, hopefully before that breakfast does as well. Shout out to all those who left comments, you all do stuff good, especially Adam who took me to the airport.

Until our paths cross once more, keep left.

Sam <>< <>< ><> <><

The Beginning (or Why I Hope This Will Be Interesting)

Greetings all you fine people.

Here begins my blog, within which i plan to have daily, or almost daily, updates about what I happen to be doing or thinking about while in the USA for the next month. As a disclaimer, I don't believe I'll actually be doing all that much, so it will probably a lot of the latter.

This whole blog thing has been a movement i have thus far resisted purely and simply because I don't pretend for a moment to believe that anyone anywhere is actually interested in what I have to say. Thankfully, I got over that, and now i am perfectly at peace with the fact that at least my parents will find it mildly amusing, perhaps bemusing, or disturbing; the preface to all that being that they will, in fact, read it. So I hope anyway.

Presently I am still in sunny and not-quite-hot-yet Canberra, and will be departing tomorrow, so I'll keep this one relatively short. Plus, as I write this, no one knows it exists just yet, so I need to keep the interesting things for a later date. Which is, as the parenthesis suggest, the reason I hope this blog will, at some vacillating point, become interesting.

In the meantime, please enjoy the attatched picture of some Zebras. Just because.

May Your Showers Be Long and Warm.

Sam <>< <>< ><> <><