Penny for your thoughts

13 Apr

Written By Minna

I've been down at the beach for the weekend with my family. My Mum, sister, Aunty, other Aunty, two cousins and my Nanna went together for a *girl's weekend*, not one where you do like beauty stuff and go to a spa but like just one where we spend time together talking and doing relaxing stuff like playing this board game called Blokus. I headed down to meet everyone there after work on Friday, catching the VLine train to Geelong and then the VLine bus to Lorne. At first it was an unpleasant experience because the tram I caught on the way to catch my train broke down, and we weren't allowed to get off because we hadn't reached a tram stop. I had literally minutes to make my train, and I had to make that PARTICULAR train because it linked up with the last bus of the day to Lorne, so, as usual, I was a little flustered. Anyway just incase you were all really worried, I made the train with like, seconds to spare, and sat down across an immaculately presented elderly lady who proceeded to stare at me, twitching, for the entire trip. It was rather disconcerting. I love train travel, but this trip wasn't one of the best. I did have a sushi roll though so that was pretty exciting.

The bus was waiting at Geelong station to take me down the Great Ocean Road. It was getting dark, raining, and I just wanted to get there as quickly as possible. I nabbed a seat on the bus next to a window, because a window seat is absolute priority for me when traveling as it is ideal for distance staring and pretending to be in some movie about being on the road or whatever. It REALLY started raining as we pulled out, and the streets of Geelong were deserted of people. I look at each house we pass and think "I could live in that house" when I see retro era immaculately maintained home with oddly trimmed hedges out the front. And I think about which pastel colour I'd paint the exterior or how I'd have my bedroom.

The trip on the bus from Geelong to Lorne takes a bit over an hour. There are a few stops along the way, but not many. As it began to truly get dark, and after making a few of those stops in what I could make out as Torquay and Anglesea, the crowd on the eerily lit bus had thinned out to consist of me, a balding middle aged man, and a frail looking elderly lady. The bus driver was in his late 60s, and as he hurtled along the beginnings of the Great Ocean Road I began to descend into no place.

No place is like, the overwhelming feeling that you could be anywhere. It's a feeling of freedom, not disorientation, a place where your imagination could very well be reality. I love it. It was pitch dark on Friday night with only a tiny sliver of a moon. It was raining heavily and the clouds were close above our heads. Although I've driven along the Great Ocean Road to Lorne like, maybe even one hundred times before, I couldn't for the life of me make out where I was. The bus was traveling at quite a speed, and if I hadn't been sure I'd boarded a vehicle with wheels at Geelong we could have even been flying, maybe somewhere over the Pacific Ocean. I put Bob Dylan on my headphones for old time's sake and played 'Ballad of a Thin Man' which happens to remind me quite viscerally of sitting in the Starbucks on the corner of Lexington Ave and East 34th Street in New York. Time slowed down and the blackness of outside made the reflection of the buses interior very clear so I could look into my own eyes for some company.

I had a great weekend, it was really relaxing and I even had a chance to go to the hairdressers and get my hair cut. I haven't been to the hairdressers in over 3 years, because I had taken to cutting my hair myself which is rather ridiculous only when you find that it's about 2 inches longer at the back than at the front. I would never have made it to the hairdressers if I was in Melbourne, so I was so pleased to get that out of the way. I just got a trim, of course, but I'm really happy with it.

As for the rest of my week pre-beach holiday post-the last time I blogged here, nothing much has happened apart from one strange little occurrence. I woke up on Friday morning and checked my Instagram to find like, a few hundred new followers, which is odd because they appeared to have come from nowhere (maybe "no place"). Anyway after some sleuthing I realised that one particular new follower was causing this crazy amount of traffic to my profile. Instagram followed me on Instagram. Apparently they do that when they add you to their 'Suggested Users' list, of which I will be on for a week-ish. I had 6000 followers on Instagram on Thursday, and now, not even 3 days later, I have more than doubled that amount to 13000. It is overwhelming to say the least!

As usual, everything and nothing is happening at the same time. I'm sitting here alone watching Seinfeld and typing this, procrastinating replying to emails and messages - while the internet me is gaining new *friends* each second. It's an extremely odd dichotomy.