All Right Here?

Having recently moved from the UK to South East Asia, a lot of people have asked me: "So, what's it like, then?" This is my attempt to answer that question.

Sunday, January 21, 2007

The Rainbow



Jonny’s doing a grand job of documenting my holiday. It was a quite extraordinary three weeks in which we saw the stunning Blue Mountains; went wine tasting at the Hunter Valley; went to the races (and lost – it’s a mug’s game); had a top Christmas day BBQ followed by a game of cricket on the beach, rounded off with another BBQ; enjoyed H’s birthday; watched the NYE fireworks from the Opera House; went to Field Day, a dance festival; body boarded and wave jumped; walked coastal walks; celebrated Chewie’s birthday… the list goes on.

I’ll leave Jonny to carry on telling the full story, but I’m a busy man at the moment, so I’ll just talk about the sky on our last night. Having seen so many people from home, saying goodbye was pretty tough as no one really knows when we’ll all be together again. In fact, the longer I spend away from home, the harder the goodbyes seem to get.

As we were getting ready to go out on the last evening, the sky went a misty grey colour and what appeared to be a fine mist dressed the promenade like a peignoir. Looking out to sea, we noticed the faint glimmer of a rainbow, which gradually sharpened until the whole arch had fastened itself to the sky. The sky morphed, bruised and blossomed.

The rainbow seemed to reflect the bittersweet nature of parting. The sky seemed to reflect the time of uncertainty ahead, for just about all of us. The holiday was over. I’m going for promotion which is pretty much make or break in my current job. Ella’s finished her MA and is trying to work out what to do next. Jonny, H, Chewie, Stan, Steve etc might also be able to apply this slightly overwrought symbolism to their own lives too. Either that or they’d tell me to stop being so pretentious.

The rainbow was a fitting end to an unforgettable holiday. Thanks to everyone, but especially H and J for putting us up and putting up with us. Eye am the sky, as Dr Phibes and the House of Wax Equations once put it.