Weary World Wanderers

A beautiful poem written by our dear friend Kirsti and performed at our going away picnic today...

Weary world wanderers

take these eyes

and shackle them to adventure

tackle the earths moonscape

for all of your forevers

surrender

to the sea

and please remember me

When all the sunsets are just too beautiful

when all the mountains are impossibly high

when love is too great a journey to roam

I pray, always, for your safe return

and I pray that your heart will not return home

Mold your headscape on dancers in costumes too bright

and your darkness on fireflies speeding the night

and birds of wild colours aiding you in your flight

so far from here my friends

and look in the eyes of all people, the same

know these eyes will be waiting when you come home again

but drink their forgiveness out the font of the earth

it's a kaleidoscope planet that you both deserve

And hold each others hands

when the road is to steep

when the holes in your knowing

match your sore blistered feet

when the world is not easy

when the twilights are cold

when you feel so much younger

than your ages once hold

Let your hearts be the sunset

and your passion the plane

let the quest and the end point be one and the same

let samba and rhythm wriggle down

to your pinkie toe

be shackled to adventure no matter where you might roam

Till we make our new adventures

when you one day

come home.

Everybody Dance!

That's the name of the song I'm listening to at the moment as I write this.

I finished work yesterday, and I was very saddened to say goodbye to a lot of great people. I have had a wonderful journey with them, learning something new everyday and having a great and fun filled time doing so.

Well, it is only 9 sleeps to go before our epic trip to the other side of the world, and I'm looking forward to it! I wish I was there already. It's very strange to know that I'll be so far from everyone, everything, for so long. No normal for us I'm afraid. Living out of a backpack will be exciting.

I really wish there were photos to put up now, but there will be some put up next weekend, from our going away party(ALL WELCOME).

I'll leave now, and Ill post something up new next week. Brenna might post something during the week, we'll see.

Good bye for now,

James.

Fortnight!

2 Weeks. That's all that's left before me and my wonderful wife go flying over the great blue yonder. I'm so nervous but also filled with a great excitement that I can't explain. It's like waiting for Christmas day when your a little kid. You know your getting something, but you have no idea what it's going to be. I had my last day with the 'boys' at work. My fantastic colleagues arranged for a card to be signed by all of them. I really appreciate the time I have had with all of them, because everyone has given me at least one life lesson. There is just so much you can learn from your elders. You just have to listen.

I have only three more days left to work. Then I will be off paid employment for probably a full year. This I look forward too, but I am also very weary of this, as it is a comfort to be able to go and see familiar faces that you know and trust. When I go away all of this will be turned upside down.

But I take this as a challenge. I know that I'll adjust pretty ok to a back packers, couch surfers and or hippy lifestyle. Hey, maybe I'll get dreadlocks too!...................Well, only if Brenna allows it.

Bye for now, James.

The Last Days

This time in 2 weeks we will be preparing to land in Buenos Aries, a whole world away. I would like to say all that I am feeling is excitement, but there is a lot more than that. This intense excitement isn't new, but the huge anxiety that goes with it is... The thoughts that are coming with each everyday, mundane task that I carry out put a little knot of worry somewhere in my chest, 'this may be the last time in a year that I fill a car with petrol'... 'it'll be a long time before I mow another lawn'... all make me a little more nervous than before, a little more out of my comfort zone, in over my head, but I suppose that is partly the purpose of this trip. To feel things and face challenges that I have never even comprehended before, to make my world view a little bit broader, slightly more valid.

The thought of the actual leaving fills me with jitters. Thinking of giving my parents a hug goodbye brings me to tears, while imagining handing over my boarding pass and walking onto the airplane makes my head spin with excitement.

There are so many things I will miss, things I will indulge in before we depart, things that I usually take for granted... buttery Vegemite toast, warbling magpies, mums cooking, walks in the hills, Cadbury chocolate, spotting possums at night, knowing that I'm safe.

As always, all of these feelings, even the nerves, make me look forward even more to the next little chapter in our story.

-Brenna

Not long now!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is my first entry into this blog. I am extremly excited to be going away with my wife Brenna in a few weeks. There are only 24 days left before we fly out to Buenos Aires, Argentina. I'm going to miss my family very much, I still havn't thought about it too much. I guess It'll hit home once I'm really gone. I'm really looking forward to the great adventure I'll have, seeing the Amazon rainforrest, Machu Picchu, the Andes, the Carribean, toucans and macaws, llamas, medievil buildings. It hasn't sunk in yet. I don't know any different from Australia. It's a bit scary. I'll just have to take every day as it comes. Anyway it's quite late, 03:15 am, I better be off. Ta Ta for now.................. JAMES.

Getting closer!

We have embarked upon the journey that is 2012! I would like to say that now is the future, but it isn't, it is the present and soon it will be the past. Still we are looking to the future, though the future seems unbelievably close. The future is only 43 days away (though I guess by then it will be the present.) In less than 2 months we will be on a plane heading into the future, perhaps heading into a different dimension alltogether. There is an amazing aray of emotions that go with it, excitement, nervousness and fear being right up there at the top.

I don't have a lot to say here and now, I'm just showing James how to update the blog. I'm sure I'll have a lot more to say in the future!

The lounge room floor is strewn with travel guides, Spanish phrase books, pieces of paper scrawled with details of places we might like to go. My mind is full of visions of beautiful places, interesting people and a new language and way of life. The bank account is not quite full enough, but surely it will work out. I don't doubt that in around 7 months we will be off on the adventure of a life time, starting in Santiago, Chili, then heading to many unknown and exciting destinations, perhaps for a few months, perhaps for a year. I am ridiculously excited, looking forward to it more than anything.

Though last night I felt sad that we would be leaving. I cried, in front of my school principal, when she told me I wasn't allowed to go, she wanted to keep me. I cried only a little, and I cried because of how great life is now. I cried a little bit because I imagined the last day of school, saying goodbye to my 21 little kiddies who I have grown so attached to, knowing that I won't see them again for a while, and when I do, that attachment is likely to be lost. I cried a little bit because I imagined waving goodbye at the airport, to whoever drops me off. I cried a little bit because my dad will be stuck at home and I wondered about how my friendships might change when I return. I cried a little bit because I am so comfortable in the place I am in right now, and I will be changing all of that.

We will be challenging ourselves, hopefully opening our eyes up to the world around us, a world that is not filled with Western wealth and materialism. Perhaps it will be a world that is a little slower paced, where siestas are commonplace and family is most important. I'm hoping it will be a world that is a little less complicated to live in, perhaps a few less bills to pay, a few less reasons to work so hard that you forget to live. But we won't know until we are there, experiencing what South America has to offer. Whilst now I worry about leaving, I also worry that I won't want to return. What if we prefer life in South America? What if we decided to stay there for good? Realistically it probably wont happen... But if it does? Would we have the guts to stay?