Materialism, Epiphanies, Moving, Growin' the hell up!

There's a certain bittersweet taste to packing up one's belongings into a series of boxes (always too many) and saying goodbye to a place you've spent enough time to have unpacked them in the first place. You'd think you'd get used to it after having lived an entire life based on the uprooting of a family unit every four years; maybe some people do get used to it, I'll admit there's a certain appeal to allowing yourself to acclimatise to it, but I can say with surety, if I ever felt good about it, that part is long gone. I don't hate many things, but I do hate moving.

I don't actually dislike the packing, or the unpacking, that's doable, and often even entertaining - and a really god time to go through belongings and say 'that's really got to go'. I figure I've done my part for charity this year, to say the least.

I've re-made an astounding discovery: I have a lot of things. What can I say? I'm a material girl, and I like it that way.

Sometimes 'materialism' develops a bad connotation, certainly the drift in my nuclear family. Sure, you could want it, but why would you need it? That seemed to have been the general feeling of my growing up. Don't get me wrong, I think it's saved me from growing up into a spoiled rich brat, but I've also realised that I like shiny things, I like gadgets and technology, I like fancy cars and expensive jewelry, I like Diesel jumpers and shirts and jeans, I like my shiny new boots that I didn't really need but I really wanted. I've also come to the late-life discovery that it's okay to like these things, even if I can't get them all at once, it's alright to aspire to own that shiny plasma TV or that blu-ray player, or want to drive an expensive car after I've got a liscence.

It's weird, having these epiphanies all at once. It's probably because I'm doing this 'on my own' for the first time, with a little help from friends, but not with my parents - bar the financial aspect of course. I guess I've realised that I'm really allowed to be my own person, with my own opinions, grown up in my own right. I don't have to hold to the person people expect me to be.

Huh. It's weird, and probably a long time in the coming, but you know what? I feel damn good about it.

Little scared about the move, little intimidated by other circumstances, but excited too, really excited to be doing this and to be moving forward. I've picked what I wanted, I can work out how to get there, and then...the world is my oyster.

=^.^=

Clear Skies~V

Random Pretty

This is 'De Waag', a "weigh house". It's really quite pretty, 

Dad nearly slipped down the stairs right after I took this picture.

Snow!

Obviously, I've made it in one piece out of the great beyond (aka. Australia) into the old world (aka Europe). Looks like Christmas stands a good chance at being white. Go figure.

ClearSkies~V

Doop doop doop

So I think it would be alright to call this week 'insane'. It has been. I should elaborate I suppose since most of you are not capable of hacking into my brainwaves and reading what's going on in there - and fewer still can navigate the levels of caffeinated crazy that's drifting around in there at the moment.

SO!

L left Canberra on Wednesday morning, which meant that Monday and Tuesday were rife with moving bits and pieces, sending last bits and pieces by post, and donating unwanted clothes to Salvo's and selling books to Canty's. Fruitful, if hectic. I might even go so far as to say that it was fulfilling, but I wouldn't want to stretch my sense of charity too far, that would be slightly hypocritcal.

I'm writing this entry from Sydney Airport's hectic and busy International Terminal, having travelling by taxi, plane, and bus to get to this stage, the first leg of my journey complete. I'm going 'home', to the Netherlands to visit family and friends for the Christmas season - not that Christmas is the primary reason for my going, mind you, it just happens to be that time of year is all.

It's strikingly odd, for someone such as myself who has been travelling in planes and across great distances since I was a year old, to have been this nervous about flying. Alright, let's be honest, it wasn't the flying - although I must say I will never fly the baby planes Qantas uses between cities. Either way, that's all done...now I'm waiting to check in for Singapore air to begin stage 2, which will happen in around 5 hours, at which stage I'll hop onto a plane for 9 hours or so, hit Singapore, then hop onto another plane and find myself, many hours down the line, getting off in Schiphol.

Anyways...I suppose it will be up to me - mostly - to keep you semi entertained until L regains her connection to the greater world of teh interwebs.

ClearSkies~V

Big City Drifts

Family visitations, a five hour drive to Sydney. Oh boy! Oh boy!

I always forget how much I dislike large cities; I mean, they're noisy, they're crowded, they smell, there's too many people, you can barely see the sky because of the high-rises, and yet, if you look, you can get whatever you can think of. Nope, I'm not a big city girl, at the moment at any rate. They fascinate me, thrill me, even interest me: so many people packed into a location. I know they do it, but it still strikes me as odd...when you think about it, and I mean really think about it.

Clear Skies~V