Tag Archives: Happiness

Why I am migrating. 

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I was faced with two scenarios very recently. The first found me sitting on the London Underground on one of the coldest days of the year. And as I sit on the underground I can’t help but feel angry; angry at all the people around me in their worlds playing free-to-play games, being conned into the monotony of life. When I look around I see no smiles and when I smile to myself I get no smiles in return. The whole train carriage lacks empathy. Why? And then it hit me. Exhaustion. I was tired, their tired. Tired of living their lives, doing the daily grind and is this really a life we all want to lead? For what reason? To keep the world spinning? The world will continue spinning no matter what we’re doing and time will keep going and life is what will happen while we’re not looking. 

The second scenario placed me as an outcast on a plane from Helsinki to London. Myself a young girl in her twenties dressed in holiday attire surrounded by middle aged business men in thick black woollen coats. As I looked at them I see the image of my father and the man he used to be in the time he worked in London.
When I was about 13 my parents asked me if we could move away, my brother and I said no. When I was about 14 my parents asked me if we could move away, my brother and I said no. By the age of 15 we were almost  ready for the question to be asked and this time we said yes. Nobody asks the same question that many times unless they are desperate.
I understand it a lot more now, how hard it must have been and why he choose the path he is now on. When I look at these two scenarios, I just look at the people and I never want to become that way. I’m so proud of my father for having the courage to see this and be able to move away. The only thing stopping people from leaving is fear and if there’s something my parents have taught me it’s to not let fear get in the way of your dreams. I know now more than ever that this is what I want. 

Day Seventeen – Townsville to Melbourne – Crystal Creeks and City Streets

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Matt took a half day off work today so I spent the morning packing up my bag to leave and then around lunchtime Matt came back from work. We headed to GYO to pick up some Karachi chicken, the best God damn chicken you’ll ever have in your life. We then made the hour drive out to Little Crystal Creek to go creek swimming. I did a lot of this when I was in Cairns and it never ever gets old. This is probably one of my favourite things to do ever. I never get bored and could just stay there for the rest of my life. If I lived here I would just head down to the creek at the weekends with my friends and go rock jumping, rock sliding and swimming in the refreshing creek.

We did a lot of jumping and damn it was scary, probably one of the biggest rocks I’ve jumped off but there were like four other people there doing it and one thing about me is if I see others having fun I can’t miss out on it. I needed to be doing what they were doing and I needed to be doing it just as well if not better. Unfortunately we couldn’t spend a whole host of time here because we needed to get back on the road to get me back in time to catch my flight.

When I arrived back home I quickly showered and changed round before heading the the airport. We arrived at the airport forty minutes before my flight was meant to depart. Pretty nerve racking when you’re in the queue to check your bags and the flight is already boarding but oh well, I caught the flight and had maximum amount of time in the creek earlier so cutting it fine pays off.

Once on the plane I caught up on writing and just chilled for the three hours. A crazy German man sat next to me trying to tell me all about his life. It was quite an interesting life with many stories but he wouldn’t listen to anything I said in return and it started to grate on me. I’ve found that a lot of peope love talking about themselves and don’t spend enough time listening, particularly men. It becomes quite frustrating.

When the plane arrived we disembarked onto the runaway and the first thing I notice about Melbourne is ‘damn it’s cold’. It’s meant to be summer here but 12 degrees ain’t summer to me. As the flight was domestic the whole journey was pretty easy and it took me no time to be outside and boarding the skybus into the city. Once in the city I took a taxi to my hostel and checked in. The hostel was really nice and pretty quirky but everyone in my room was asleep and it was hard to see which beds were taken so I stumbled around and found a bed which seemed empty and climbed in. I spent a good few hours awake just in case there was an owner of the bed who may come back at anytime and wake me up but I soon fell asleep.

Day Thirteen – Townsville – Family Celebrations

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I felt worse this morning that I have for the whole trip probably because I let the sleep catch up with me instead of keeping on going but I think my body probably needed it. We went of for breakfast with some of Matt and Emily’s friends, Linda, Adrian, Fee and Daisy.

After breakfast we went for an ice cream on the sea front before shopping for a few different things: some Christmas decorations, Christmas presents, fancy dress. When we got back we sat by the pool, I sat in the sun for maximum 20mins without cream and nearly burned just proving how crazy the sun is here. I enjoyed a good swim, jumping in and messing around with Matt.

After the swim we cleaned up and went for a curry which was damn good but I felt so full cause I’ve just started eating a lot where in Cairns I hardly ate anything. We then went for cocktails, which were incredible espresso martinis which woke me up and got me drunk at the same time, perfect. Emily was a bit tired and needed to not have a hangover so she can study so she went home and we ended up doing a bit of s pub crawl. From my impressions of Townsville I’ve noticed that there’s a lot of young, pretty people here and the city is trying to capture hipsterisms and isn’t doing too badly. I definitely look at it and feel like it’s somewhere I could easily live.

We had a great time, Adrian joined us and we just chilled messing around before heading to the Mad Cow for a great night of dancing.

Day Twelve – Cairns to Townsville – Family Reunions

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I had yet another hangover this morning proving I’m only burning the candle at both ends. I had to be up early to make it down to the bus stop to catch my bus to Townsville. With pack on my back I walked down to the fleet terminal and waited for the 6hour bus ride.

Once on the bus I slept laying down for as long as possible until a guy had to take the seat next to me. So I spent the rest of the journey listening to music, looking out the window and thinking about the amazing times in Cairns. It’s just constant sadness here where you have to leave but you soon forget it and get over it. Then you realise that something else incredible is going to happen and you never know what to expect. It was s good journey and a good time to reflect.

I arrived in Townsville around 2pm and Emily (my sister-in-law) picked me up from the bus station. We ran a few errands before taking me back to the apartment. I waited on the sofa while she went to go collect Matt (my brother). I should probably say again that the main purpose of this trip is to come to Australia to surprise my brothers. So as I’m sat on the sofa I hear them coming in through the door. Matthew looks at me in sheer confusion not really recognising me and then runs at me and gives me a massive hug. It’s definitely a bigger reaction than I expected and it really touched me. It was so good to see family and a real familiar faces.

We got changed and went out for dinner in The City Lanes Townsville. We had some amazing Japanese food and some cocktails in quite a hipster area of town. Not a concept I thought existed in Australia but I loved it. It was damn hot and we were all tired especially me who was running a ten day hangover so we went home and I slept the best I had slept in a long time. Exhaustion mixed with contentment formed the perfect basis for sleep. Yet again I went to bed beaming from ear to ear.