TRAVEL DIARY

A weblog regularly updated by Jodi Rose.

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

2:52 PM
Posted by jodi rose

big swell washing over bronte pool

am still blurry and a little comatose in the brain, but sole is bringing me the peaches and cream weis' bar from the freezer, and promises organic hot cross buns for breakfast. today we made two sorties out into the beach subrbs looking for their new home while the gully oasis is renovated. it's fun for me, getting to play house and check out the kind of properties I could never afford, while helping my lovely friends stay positive and defuse the pre-moving displaced stress and squabbles. we started in a zhushy new apartment on the hill overlooking coogee beach (way too sterile, boxy and although new already a bit tatty) then did a drive-by or two, until we lucked on a man loading the ute for his girlfriend who was moving out of one place. Looked gorgeous, older style, homey, liveable in - until you got to the bathroom which was absolutely rank, mouldy, tiny and ugly. Drove up to Dolphin st, checked the outside of a big old house by the reserve - went back in the afternoon it was all higgeldy-piggeldy with gaffa tape on the floor and skewed doorways - 10 years ago would have been charming, but now a bit depressing. Then had a break for lunch at fideli - mmm the food in sydney is so good! - and a brief lounge in the upstairs sunroom with wireless internet and soothing surf. Afternoon spent having a serious reality check about the options, some very strange houses out there - and finally made it up to the man across the road, a friend of ben's we ran into at the cafe had suggested and turned out to have the absolutely perfect place. The same secret garden oasis feeling, big balcony, a music room, and only 200m from their current place. Vicarious thrill for me, imagining having a home, and a surprisingly fun way to hang out with friends.

The surf tonight is amazing, swell up to 15 ft, breaking over the top of the ocean baths and along the cliffs - the scale is amazing, it feels like being in a 1:5 architectural model, with the fences like matchsticks in the face of these huge waves. Turbulent, elemental forces - people mesmerised along the path beside the pool - closed for public safety - as the waves threatened to wash over us, and turned the usually calm surface of the pool into a swirling, foaming maelstrom. Earlier the surfie boys were doing their thing, hanging on to the ropes as the waves broke across them, the crowd waiting for them to be washed in and clamber out to dice with danger again.

Amazing seeing all these news reports of athletes going awol - although most of the missing from sierra leone have thrown themselves on the mercy of australian immigration procedures now, but some tanzanian and bangladeshi sportspeople are still hiding out.
Reminder of how extreme life is in some places, hearing people talk about being beaten and their brother killed, or sister dying after a botched female circumcision. It puts all those niggling worries about contracts and money and getting the next art project up in a whole other perspective.