17 11 / 2012
canon ae-1
caffeinated leaf
I rarely let a day go by without a sip of that glorious black nectar. With older tastebuds, appreciative of the interplay between bitter and sweet, I genuinely enjoy exploring how different beans, roasts, and brew methods can transform the taste of coffee.
But there’s more to it than that. There’s a love of coffee for the opportunity it gives me to slow down, to step away from my desk, to indulge in a moment for myself. There’s fascination with the way coffee and culture intertwine; picture all the thought leaders and history makers that have changed our world…how many have planted the seeds of their most fertile ideas at a gathering over a cup o’ joe?
And of course, there’s coffee as a reviver. On bad days, it serves to mask the worst parts of my personality that surface when I am lacking sleep and lacking perspective. On better days? Coffee revives memories. The smell of espresso is a comma, a pause, punctuating memories as phrases from the most full and fulfilling years of my life so far.
And so to the cup pictured above. Lovely texture, a delicate rosetta. Though not my usual drink of choice (I’m a doppio kind of girl), this black and white snapshot is filled with character in every bit of grain and noise. It just takes a glance and in an instant, I think of London. Yes London! Not historically the mecca of coffee, but in MY history, it is…in a way. Coffee and London means weekends, familiar accents, corner seats, shelter from the hubbub of Oxford St, sometimes new friends, sometimes solitude.
Maybe I am romanticising this too much. But now you know that coffee is more to me than just a jolt back to reality.
02 7 / 2012
“This City now doth like a garment wear.”
Since arriving in London early on Wednesday morning, I feel like I’ve been going at a million miles an hour. I’ve packed my days with so much that I haven’t had much time to sit back and reflect on how happy I am to be “back home”. But so far, it’s all been positive; seeing familiar faces from years ago, catching up on so many lives, visiting my favourite places and enjoying the nostalgia of it all.
As hard as it was to live poor in London, I have well and truly missed this place and these people. I only hope I get the chance to live the London life again someday, and live it gratefully.
06 12 / 2011
Love riding the first seat of the train. #chicago
love the L. missing chicago.
(Source: pauloctavious, via photons)
12 6 / 2011
Washington - “80 Miles”
Why did you say that to me?
Eighty miles out on the sea
When I am built
With parts of you
And you
Are built
With parts
Of me
Two things: 1) I love it when Megan is in this mode, just her lovely lovely voice and one instrument; and 2) I am reminded of London every time I hear this song, so much sometimes that I think I can conjure up my smell memory of sitting on London buses, and walking to work through W2 to W1, and wandering quietly around the perimeter of hidden, private gardens.
16 5 / 2011
I’ve sadly neglected my travel blog, primarily for the fact that I haven’t had time to do much writing for pleasure. I would write in my journal at least once a day during my trip last year, but often I would scribble a thought or quote or idea at multiple points throughout the course of a day. For 2011, I have about 10-15 entries in my diary.
I feel a bit sad about that fact. So I’m not going to be too hard on myself, or edit myself excessively in the interests of just writing.
Tomorrow, I’m off on a “business trip” of sorts - I’m flying interstate for some meetings and other business related to my PhD and will be staying two nights in Canberra. This will be my second trip to Canberra in six months (with quite a few more to come in the next 2.5 years), and my third and fourth flights since arriving back home from RTW2010.
Though I learned to hate flying (thanks TSA) and love train travel (thanks Deutsche Bahn), I will admit to feeling that familiar sense of excitement for another journey, no matter the vessel. The magically mundane tasks of checking carry-on baggage restrictions, writing up packing lists, actually packing my bags…those tasks had become so routine after ten months, and I was happy to let go of them after returning home in October 2010. Then again, I’ve dotted the months following with near-monthly roadtrips, so maybe the routine was never abandoned in the first place… Whatever the case, I’m glad to be off again. Perhaps I’m not a “traveller” this week, but I know I’ll get my chance to explore again, and sooner rather than later.
28 2 / 2011
May 2010: 3.51AM (London, England).
One night flashes before my eyes every time I see this photo. The tube. Brick Lane. A Belgian, an American, a Mexican, a Frenchman, an Australian. The night bus. The late night/early morning chill. The sunrise. A grubby window. A beautiful view.
18 2 / 2011
Josh Pyke - “Under the Milky Way” (The Church cover)
“Sometimes this place gets kind of empty
Sound of their breath fades with the light
I think about the loveless fascination
Under the milky way tonight…”
This song transports me in time and space. It is camping in the desolate outback, lying under a black sky full of the brightest stars. It is the beach on a sweltering night. It is preferring the lyrics of “We Are Australian” over the national anthem (because WTH is “girt by sea”?!). It is being home somehow, inside a melody I feel like I’ve always known.
