Money laundering and other non-events

A certainly wouldn’t have anticipated I’d end up involved in money laundering on this trip, or any other time.  Life can take surprising twists.  But I’ll get to that later.

It has been a slow couple of days. I used to cheekily say I had an ambition “to be bored one day”.  Well I think I can strike that off my bucket list, and officially report that it wasn’t really ambition-worthy after all.

I haven’t been back to Dinah Beach since Monday, and mostly just kicked around at the house-sit yesterday and today.  I’m still reading “The Long Hitch Home” – very poetical and engaging writing.  But even though the travel subject and route specifics are so relevant to my trip, it hasn’t really grabbed me, and I’m finding it kinda hard going.  And the “Long Hitch” also happens to be a “long read”.  Oh well.  Maybe it is due to the hard-left political undercurrent that irritates like a pebble in my motorcycle boot.  Maybe it is just reminding me of my own travel that isn’t happening right now.  Who knows.  Double oh well.  I’ll finish it, and will stay on the lookout for any tips relevant to where I’m headed.

I dropped by a cafe this morning for a solo flat white and a few chapters of the book of Matthew – arriving just as a downpour forced a veritable horde of noisy, dripping locals inside so that there was standing-room only for a bit.  On my way back for lunch at the house sit I happened past Casurina Shopping Centre and stopped to see if JB HiFi had extra batteries for the drone.  They didn’t.  But the newsagent beckoned and I answered the call.  Over the last couple of weeks I had pondered getting some art paper and pastels in which to lose myself for a bit while I’ve little else to do, and earlier this week even found an art supplies shop that found itself into my itinerary for next time I dropped by at the Yacht Club.  But the newsagent had art paper and pastels, so I’ve invested.  We’ll see what comes of it.  Probably not much.  Who knows whether I’ll even be brave enough to share, but I’ve put it out there now that it’s on my radar to put some creative energy into some of those gaping, empty hours of nothing.

It’s probably good timing to turn to more sedentary activity for a moment.  My legs are killing me!  I went for a 5km run yesterday before breakkie (hmmm… can I still call it “a 5km run” when I was beat and stopped at 4km? 🧐).  Most weeks in Melbourne over the last couple of years I was running 5kms twice or even 3 times a week, and as often as not 10km on a Saturday morning.  But it’s been too much going on and too hot anyway to run since I’ve left Melbourne.  So yesterday was a rude discovery of how quickly muscles can atrophy when not used.  D’oh.  I suppose it means I should run more often, but that’ll mean getting up at (before) dawn so the temps are “only” 30 degrees.  Sooooooo hot.

I’ve had half a thought to unpack, check, refine and repack my panniers over those few weeks as well.  One of those thoughts that sits there quietly nagging, but – despite overabundance of opportunity – doesn’t turn to action.  Am I the only one that has those?  Probably not.  Just as I got home now I needed something from that pannier though; and opened it to find the contents drenched.  There was an abundance of tropical rain in the bottom of one of the three “waterproof” boxes.  Hmmm.  So I’ve escalated pronto from idea to action and am repacking the contents after drying them out.  I suspect I’ve really only just caught them before a serious case of mould took root.  Eesh.  That’ll require some thought and corresponding maintenance to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

Which takes me back to where I began.  Money laundering.  Who would have thought?  A small quantity of US and Indian currency from previous trips was bagged in the bottom of said pannier, and somehow the protective zip-lock was a bit zip-unlocked – leaving the currency quite soaked.  Washed, let’s call it.  Laundered, perhaps.  Ok ok, that’s all a bit of a stretch.  But 4 kids in I’ve definitely got my dad-joke license, and I had to have some way to keep you reading when there’s really nothing at all going on!!

Meantime Allan has been pottering around on the boat a little bit, but still mostly waiting on Peter to provide a bit more welding on the mast.  I’ve found a way to get the bolts we need to finish the roller furling, so I expect I’ll pop back over tomorrow to see if we can being the last of our work on the mast before the crane is called to hoist it.

A good mate kindly wished me joy for Christmas on Sunday.  That’s still a bit beyond me right now, but if I can find peace that’ll suffice.  The rhythm of the road was Plan A to cultivate that, and now I’m working on Plan B for a bit to find peace stuck with no sense of progress towards the adventure ride.  Maybe some pastel on paper will promote some of that elusive peace?