Kiwi On The Loose

I haven’t been able to leave America, and in truth I don’t really want to, but leave I must. There are bills to pay and a job to keep…………..leaving is proving difficult. There isn’t a seat on the plane. As a little kiwi guy who hasn’t spent a lot of his life flying…….I am having to contemplate my first sleep at the airport, missing flight experiences. To make matters worse they have happened at LAX……an airport many people avoid in their world travels. Thankfully I have a good friend in LA with a heart of gold. So Echo Park here I come and a couch to sleep on instead of a cold hard marble floor. LAX is deliberately made inhospitiable and inaccessible I am told by locals so that the homeless wont sleep there. And of course there in the terrorist aspect. BUT I did sleep in LAX once on my first trip to USA and I turned up for my flight but on the wrong day……….that was in 2007 and it seems to have changed since then…….changed a lot. But in all things there is some good and so here I am with my rock star mate Brad outside his home in Echo Park. Better to sleep on a friends couch than the floor of LAX the good       book says……
I may be on that plane tonight…….leaving America again.

That makes a nice change from song titles like leaving Ireland……..in past times. While I am glad to be heading back to a job and our own home……….this trip has found Americans weaving their way into my being lots more. I have seen the people for a change…….all the other strangeness has faded into the background more. (I know its there tho} Driving down from visiting friends in the mountains yesterday…..I actually forgot for a while I was somewhere different…………..I could have been home. Not coz I thought it was the same……..I had just stopped making comparisons. All the time. Waiting for a flight to LAX……………. Being with Susan is like being home…….

This is my third visit to the States. To recap for some, I spent 9 months here in 2008, was here previously in 2007 when I met Susan, and here I am in 2010, now married to Susan and over here in the school holidays. As soon as I landed this 3rd time I felt a change. America is probably still the same but I have changed. This time I have found myself not having to figure it all out so much…….like why is it so different, what makes it all tick. I have partially dealt with or made huge inroads on those questions, now I have found myself just enjoying the people and seeing life beyond the politics of America. I have really really loved this trip and the people I have met.
Of course again there has not been enough time, with Susan my wife, or time to explore the vastness of America. I have found myself falling more in love with this country and its people, beyond all the madness.
We have explored Austin and both really love it here ( I am writing this at the airport in Austin waiting for a flight back to Denver or somewhere ). Texas has always attracted me since coming here in 2007, Dallas is flat, BUT Austin has hills…………..and Austin has the Saltlick………..one of the top 10 BBQ eating places in USA. Absolutely awesome awesome food…….down home cook’n……..and tasting so good it etches itself into your taste buds……….that’s even without doing the eat all you can deal. We were much more restrained. I will write more about Austin……..but heres a few images from the story.

In New Zealand it is winter. We are approaching the longest day and to be honest, while it’s dull and grey some days, it’s nothing compared to some countries in winter. New Zealand winters are tame as. Thinking in terms of emotional health, I really struggle in winter. I need the sun, and lots of blue sky. While I enjoy the rain and being inside in the warm, soup and a warm bed, winter really challenges my spirit. I am not the kind of guy who has to be doing stuff, so the still aspect of winter isn’t what effects my emotional health, its something with the light and the mood of the earth in winter.
I have moments hanging out the washing where I feel the sleepiness of the earth, that stillness in the trees as they sleep, the grass slowing down, in fact everything is slowing down, thoughts and feelings, the whole of creation is wanting to sleep.
Tis a good time for thinking and writing.