Jade Down Under

Last Tuesday we got 10 cm of snow; not bad, easy to manage. Then Friday came. It all begun around 9 in the morning and by 10 it was hard to see out of our work windows. By 11 I was asking to leave early; I was told 2pm would be fine. It took me an hour to get home when usually (in traffic) it takes a mere 30 minutes. The greatest part was at every street light drivers would emerge from their cars to bang off their windshield wipers, as not only was it snow but it was wet snow that kept the wipers clogged up enough to be useless. At each red light we looked like synchronized wiper cleaners... quite humourous for me who didn't have a care in the world; it was Friday and I was almost home. I made it home, safe and sound, shoveled the driveway, threw my mom, dad and sister in some snow banks and went to bed. The family is fine although my mom had to dig my sister out of the snow pile I got her in!

Anyhow, we all knew this was not the end of it. It is only December and we are Canadian, but another 20cm, by Sunday! Devastating. I am now looking out my window at the mass of snow falling on our once shoveled driveway.
Once again I am not delusional, we are supposed to get more on Tuesday.

I have 10 working days left, with lots of Christmas in between. I'm ready to leave and am counting down the days.
I've started packing. I'm allowed 100lbs with Japan Airlines but only 50lbs with Virgin. Ain't that great? I don't know exactly what I'm going to do. I figure I'll pack as lightly as possible and pay the overweight fees when I get to Australia. It should be about $200.00. I've looked at other options but either they are the same price as Virgin overweight fees, or much, much more. Canada Post was about the same price but why would I mail my stuff when I can have it with me? Hopefully I'm making the right choice.

PS - Melissa re-booked her flight. She will be staying with me for the duration of her trip and all is well.

Already a blip in our planning and we haven’t even left yet.
Melissa emailed me yesterday in a bit of a pickle. It turns out the friend she was supposed to be staying with in Brisbane (after a week with me) decided to come home to Canada, and is no longer going to be in Brisbane when Melissa will be there. The rotten part of it was we’ve already purchased all of our flights, including Melissa’s from Townsville into Brisbane.
Of course Bella’s looking into changing the flight but Virgin Blue, who we booked with, does not have a convenient flight into Brisbane with enough time to catch her Japan Airlines flight back to Canada. It looks like Melissa will be sleeping in the Brisbane airport on her way home. Although the situation is not ideal it simply means Melissa and I get more time to explore Townsville before she leaves!

Hopefully this is the last ‘complication’ before or during our travels.

Only 44 days to go!!

I work all day, and get half-drunk at night.
Waking at four to soundless dark, I stare.
In time the curtain-edges will grow light.
Till then I see what's really always there:
Unresting death, a whole day nearer now,
Making all thought impossible but how
And where and when I shall myself die.
Arid interrogation: yet the dread
Of dying, and being dead,
Flashes afresh to hold and horrify.
The mind blanks at the glare. Not in remorse
- The good not done, the love not given, time
Torn off unused - nor wretchedly because
An only life can take so long to climb
Clear of its wrong beginnings, and may never;
But at the total emptiness for ever,
The sure extinction that we travel to
And shall be lost in always. Not to be here,
Not to be anywhere,
And soon; nothing more terrible, nothing more true.

This is a special way of being afraid
No trick dispels. Religion used to try,
That vast, moth-eaten musical brocade
Created to pretend we never die,
And specious stuff that says No rational being
Can fear a thing it will not feel, not seeing
That this is what we fear - no sight, no sound,
No touch or taste or smell, nothing to think with,
Nothing to love or link with,
The anasthetic from which none come round.

And so it stays just on the edge of vision,
A small, unfocused blur, a standing chill
That slows each impulse down to indecision.
Most things may never happen: this one will,
And realisation of it rages out
In furnace-fear when we are caught without
People or drink. Courage is no good:
It means not scaring others. Being brave
Lets no one off the grave.
Death is no different whined at than withstood.

Slowly light strengthens, and the room takes shape.
It stands plain as a wardrobe, what we know,
Have always known, know that we can't escape,
Yet can't accept. One side will have to go.
Meanwhile telephones crouch, getting ready to ring
In locked-up offices, and all the uncaring
Intricate rented world begins to rouse.
The sky is white as clay, with no sun.
Work has to be done.
Postmen like doctors go from house to house.