Sitting by the side of the road in the middle of nowhere...
I’m at Renee’s lying in my bed after spending a lovely weekend with her. I didn’t get here until about 5ish Saturday afternoon because the temperature in my car crept way up on my drive here. I was only about half an hour out of Buderim on the highway south when I watched as the temperature crept up and up, my car seemed to be revving abnormally high as well and I couldn’t figure out why.
Before the car overheated and blew its top, I pulled to the side of the road to let it cool down and send a text to Renee to let her know I’d be late.
Well, this is fun.
Hmmm.... What now? I had been having a few issues with the temperature of my car in Tassie and last time dad came to visit he figured out the fan for the air-conditioner wasn’t working and that I needed to keep an eye on the temperature (Well, he told me I needed to get it fixed, but who had the time?) So all the way from Tassie, I had one eye on the temperature, but didn’t have any real issues. However, now I try to drive the 100 -150kms to Renee’s and whoosh-ka – up she goes.
I sat in the car for a bit before I got out to check under the bonnet (hood) because I knew it would be too hot to touch, and I needed to wait for a break in the traffic because there was not much room for me between my car and the cars on the road driving at 110km/h.
Once I did get out of the car and establish it was still too hot for me to touch, I hopped back in the car and sat on the passenger’s side so I didn’t need to play chicken with the cars and trucks racing by.
I didn’t want to call roadside assistance yet because of the trouble I had previously had and thought I’d wait so see how I went. So to fill in time waiting for my car to cool down I pulled out my journal and wrote...
“Somewhere on the side of the road between Buderim and Brisbane.”
“Don’t you just love this? My car has overheated.
(sitting having thoughts on why things happen, and why they always happen at the most inconvenient time)
“The temperature is coming down, we’re on the ‘o’ of NORMAL. It got up past the ‘n’ and that’s when I pulled over. Next thing would have been “BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!””
“I was researching on the internet this morning and looking at finding work in Brazil. I really like the idea of living there. I found a blog about an American girl living there and it sounds like a fantastic place to live.”
“I just checked the temp again; we’re on the ‘m’. It’s coming down, but still really hot under the hood.”
“I’m sitting on the passenger side trying to keep out of the sun, but as the sun sinks towards the horizon it comes further into the car.” (It was extremely hot)
“I think I’ve been here about 40 mins now.”
(Having some private thoughts I won’t share here)
“I can see the Glass House Mountain (just one of them – the biggest) ahead. When I was little I always thought it looked like a giant gorilla from certain angles, not this angle though.”
(Stop to take some photos)
(Some more private thoughts)
“Thinking about moving to Brazil, I think the school year will start at the beginning of the year as it does here in Oz. If I find a job starting there in 2011...” (more private thoughts)
“That would give me a year and a half in China, plenty of time to get the hang of teaching, I would have that time to start my degree, do some more TESOL electives and learn some Portuguese. How wonderful! I’d have two month off next year where I could travel to Europe and maybe even Brazil to look for work. I could pop up to the States for a couple of weeks to visit...”
“How would this work?”
Now picture some dates and destinations drawn all over my page. (The destinations include LON, HAM, AMS, PAR, LED, NYC, Vegas, YVR and BRAZIL. Sometimes I write the airport code and other times the city name (or nick name) or country. When I write Brazil, I am actually thinking of Porto Alegre; all the research I have done says this is the place to be and it is the only city in Brazil where I have someone I call my friend – Hi Leo). Now imagine the joy if feel as all my thoughts seem to fall into place and I realise I can do it all.
Well there you go, that’s all I wrote while sitting by the side of the road in the middle of nowhere, I kept my personal and private thoughts to myself for various reasons.
I still need to work out the finer details of the trip, which direction I will head first, east or west and where I would like to spend my birthday in August. Any suggestions?
So on with the story; after my little hissy fit the other day, Renee and I had a great time together. We went to dinner at friends who live in a house with views over the city of Brisbane and the massive fireworks show on that night, so we stood in their backyard ooh-ing and ah-ing for half an hour, then sat down to a delicious feast and a few hours of laughs and wonderful conversation.
Then yesterday Renee and I went into the Queensland Art Gallery to see an exhibition on ‘Eastern Pearson’, a couple of Australian fashion designers, where we spent some more time ooh-ing and ah-ing over their gorgeous creations. I acted like such a girl, “Oh, this is my favourite, - no, this is my favourite, now this is my new favourite.” I loved them all – well, ok maybe not all, there were a few that didn’t take my fancy. Then, once we had looked through the magnificent display of outfits, we got to make our own.
Yes! Well... not out of real material, but we cut out outfits from cards of paper with pictures of their stunning materials on them for little paper dollies. We took photos of our dollies because we wanted to leave them there for others to admire. :)
After our little creative burst – Renee kept hurrying me along because she was getting hungry, but I would not be rushed. One should never rush creative genius. LOL So as I was saying, after our little creative burst we replenished with a delicious lunch in the gallery cafe. We wandered through some more of the gallery, then walked across to the other side of the river to the city where I bought some new bathers for my surfing lesson I will take this week if my letter doesn’t arrive. You wait though, now that I have made plans to fill in my time, my letter will be there waiting for me when I get back.
Renee has gone to work and I will be leaving soon to try to catch up with my friend that I wanted to see on Saturday. Then I’ll head back to the coast this afternoon.
Oh, I forgot to finish the story about the car. After an hour or so sitting by the side of the road, rocking back and forth each time a car drove by, I checked the water level in the car, topped it up and drove on my way. The temperature was fine.
Ok, all done now? Yes, I feel silly, but I drove off with the biggest smile on my face, because I have just come up with the basic plan for the next 16 months of my life, something I hadn’t been able to get clear in my mind until now.
So on that note, I’m outta here. I imagine I’ll be back at the coffee shop sometime this week to let you know how my surfing lesson went, or to let you know when my flights to China are booked. Until then, have a wonderful week and stay happy.
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