Day of beach white sand snorkeling mangroves vincas a tiny day-old puppy thrust into my arms as sport. The bikie leader sees the Che badge on Little Ted and makes a round circle on his upper arm – “Are you this?”*
Steve’s temperature was 36.9 and dropped to 36.6, then went up to 37.7. He’s now stopped shivering and is sitting on 37.**
* He means: Are you a good scout, a young pioneer, a goody two-shoes?
** From my notebook. Transcribed on 27/1/13.
Tuesday, July 10
Bedroom, 68 Cleveland St
Here I am. Thank God, I managed to jump out of bed when the alarm went off. I was very, very late yesterday morning. Almost 10am. Pat M said, “We thought you weren’t coming.” I said I’d set the alarm for 6am & switched it off because it felt like the middle of the night. John Mulcair said: “Coming to work is such an imposition!” Everyone was laughing & happy. I was in a good mood, despite the stress of being late.
A pause for 7 or 8 minutes. I just love to be a-sitting @ my desk in the morning, gathering myself, before moving. My holidays seemed to go forever. Very good holidays.
I’m very near to buying a house. Oh God, oh God.
Long pauses. Can’t keep pen moving on page. By the time I move to the mountains, it will be spring or almost spring. It will no longer be the dead of winter.
It’s hard enough getting going in the mornings to get to Hurstville on time from Redfern, the easiest little commute in the world. How do I think I”m going to manage something infinitely harder?
The sensible thing is a flat in Arncliffe. But I’m going for the magical thing. Rob Brezsny would approve. That long, cold walk to the station! That long, cold walk from the station! What about shopping? The other magical, impractical item is a VW beetle. I know of a couple of places in Sydney that sell them & have parts & look after them.
Another long pause. It’s 10 to 7. If I have $5000 left over from buying teh house, I’m going to buy an old car. Am I? What am I talking about? I might have to pour my money into the house. The other huge outlay will be my weekly ticket to Sydney, if I haven’t found a more convenient job. My mind is reeling about all this.
A leaky shower, bad gutters and an old hot water tank that could go at any time. And fix and paint the decking out the back. Also, it’s a septic tank. I can attach myself to the sewer but I’ll have to pay for it. Then there’s attachment to the natural gas line. It goes on & on & on. Mind reeling.
Last night I invited A and M up to Julia’s for dinner. I made pumpkin soup and baked apples. I bought expensive punnets of icecream. Anna baked bread in her bread maker (I want one too!) and brought it up to have with the soup.
I’m moving seamlessly into my new life. I feel totally confident re house. A little bit worried about the finance.
It’s 10.13am. In half an hour Anna is coming to get me. A and M are facilitating this shift for me. They are wonderful. Last night I walked down Cascade Street to Sherman Ave in the pitch dark thinking, “This is what it’ll be like to be out and about in Katoomba at night.” No-one else was out. It was deeply black and silent, lights on in houses, that’s where people stay.
M. served up something called laverbread featuring seaweed and oats. It was gritty. We listened to our own and other people’s teeth crunching down on black sand.
,,,
Later, in Blues Cafe, with blues music playing
I just saw the inside of my house beside the bush and I saw around the back and there on top of the Hills Hoist was a GALAH. A wooden galah wind-thing. When the wind goes, the wings spin. The air was still, and the two wings were down. But there it was, the house of my dreams, COMPLETE WITH GALAH.
The house was set up for children. There’s a wooden barrier into the kitchen. There’s a metal grate around the fire. There’s a little swing-set out the back.
Deborah, the Ray White R/E agent, is a really nice person. Anna and I were innocents. We didn’t know what questions to ask, how we should be proceeding. I made it instantly clear that I wanted this house and no other. Deborah suggested I look around, go to other R/E agents. Which was nice of her.
Anna and I did a walk to Minnihaha Falls where we’d walked once before and taken photos, stripped down to our knickers. The water came crashing down the falls. The sky a deep blue. White trunks of trees against deep blue sky.
I just thought of an ironing board. I have enough room for an ironing board. The ironing board can be permanently set up. This just makes me want to cry. And there’s a linen cupboard. Need I say more? It is too, too much.
6pm Julia’s place, Cascade Street, Katoomba. There’s a house at 40 Fifth Avenue, Katoomba, a long walk from the station, north Katoomba. It looks over the National Park [actually no, a reserve]. Bushfire risk, I guess. I spose I’d grab Prince and put him in his cat cage like Sigourney Weaver did in Alien, and run down the road. There is a back verandah looking out over the bush. I need to have it. I might put a holding deposit on it tomorrow, go into overdrive and do the whole thing. A back verandah to sit on and look out. Cold in winter but beautiful in summer.
On Julia’s fridge, stuck with a magnet, are recent LETS minutes. LETS being the barter scheme they’ve got operating here in the mountains. There, down the page, a reference to Barry and Annolies and the office equipment. So I’m sitting here in Julia’s home and have immediate access to threads from the past.
I’m leaving Newtown. I have loved Newtown from the bottom of my heart. That Neighbourhood Centre. I’ve gone through those doors for so many different reasons. Bob’s showing of The Lone Gunman Theory (in which the gunman assassinates Pauline Hanson), a forum on pornography with Beatrice Faust and Anne Delaney with me as the third speaker, organised by Green Left. On any given Wednesday night, all sorts of things going on, women’s kickboxing, Socialist ? (mental blank – state cap people). I’ve sold Green Left at the railway station opposite, smiling at homecoming city workers, selling heaps and heaps of papers because I was in such a damn good mood, the sunset dazzling me from behind The Hub erotic cinema.