The rise and fall of homesickness

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Homesickness. It’s something that I infrequently have to deal with. When I was leaving Australia I knew what I was getting myself into and I only felt great anticipation rather than fear or loss of what I was leaving behind. Every now and then I guess it’s normal to just crave home comforts. To be honest, most of it is related to food. I miss vegemite on toast, charcoal chicken, dim sims, roast potatoes, tim tams and on the odd occasion twisties. Home cooked meals obviously, even though I’m having meals cooked at a four star restaurant, it really can never compare to familiar tastes. Having a shitty kitchen and shitty cooking resources doesn’t help, neither does being lazy and unmotivated to really cook anything. Well that’s not entirely true. When I first came here, I was only really cooking eggs and bacon on toast. But since then I’ve cooked a few curries and stir fry’s. Good ol’ Simon, as a result of drunken plotting, borrowed (permanently) with the help of my bag a wok from work. At the time it seemed like an awesome idea as all drunken plans do. The next day I thought to myself (as I sobered up) that it was in fact a really stupid idea, with a huge potential to go bad. In fact the next day Grace came in to check out the flat (something Simon and John assured me was incredibly unlikely to happen) and saw the wok, and at that point I thought we were completely fucked, but she had no idea. Here we are in a shitty kitchen with shitty cooking utensils and this awesomely huge wok, and she had no idea we stole it from work! But no it really isn’t just food that I miss. The obvious things I miss are family and friends. Missing my little nephew as he slowly grows into a mischievous toddler, and being a positive influence on him like teaching him how to annoy his mum. Friday night write off’s with Pete and Vaughan. Saturday footy, souvlaki and beers with Bernie. Poker and beer’s with the boys. Whiskey and NHL with Andy. Supercoach with the boss. Driving a car. They’re easy to take for granted, but I never did. Every now and then I wish I could just have one day that involved one of these things, but I know it’s because I’m slowly settling into this place. I am mostly missing the carefree attitude to travelling, and meeting new and different people as well. And that is the thing I probably crave the most. When I’m in travel mode, I pretty much find it impossible to feel homesick.

It has come to the point now where it feels like I’ve exhausted what I can do in Lochinver. I have no more motivation to go and explore the area, and I don’t really have enough time between shifts to jump on a bus to go somewhere different for a day. As it is getting pretty quiet now split shifts are a lot less frequent, but I’m still working around six days a week. I pretty much spend my time off watching movies, reading books or playing games. I’ve got less than a month left here in Lochinver and with great anticipation I can’t wait until the end. It’ll be sad to leave behind the new friends I’ve made, but it’s exciting to go out and explore a different part of the world. I’ve decided not to do the highlands road trip, basically because the whole place closes down for the winter. So I’ll be heading on to Ireland and I know that will be a blast, and I am hopeful to catch up with a few crazy Norwegian’s on a trip back to Edinburgh. I just have to keep reminding myself that there’s just too much to see and do in the small amount of time I have, and researching places to go gets me even more upbeat. I have a trip to Turkey in April for the Anzac Day memorial to look forward to, and if I have kept enough discipline, more exploration of Eastern Europe on the same ride. But for now I can’t help but wonder if settling for any type of work is just too dull for me. The weather here is slowly turning into a pile of shit and on my days off I just feel like sleeping. Work has completely slowed down, so there’s less to occupy me during the day, but at least the money is still rolling in. But there are times where work can still be fun, and there is the feel good sensation of knowing that the end of season is near, and everyone has that bit of relief and excitement as if Christmas is coming.

Whether or not I do keep in touch with you guys back home, rest assured that I do think about you all often and all the different quirks to your company. But it really isn’t slowing me down or making me want to throw what I’m doing away. I know I will see you all again, whether it be in six months or two years and beyond. There really is no place like home and to be honest, out of all the places I have travelled there is no place I’ve found I love more than Melbourne.

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