Arc Tangent

The photos below were taken yesterday, as I drove South from Canberra to Melbourne. It’s about a 680km drive – only trance music and caffeine kept me going!

The first is The Dog on the Tuckerbox. Story goes something like: old drover orders his dog to guard his tuckerbox as he goes into town to wet his whistle at the local pub. Being the kind of man he is, he gets into a bit of a biff, and loses his life over something silly. The dog, ever loyal, guards the tuckerbox – howling and pining for her master – until she finally expires.

Gets me all misty eyed every time.

The second is a bloody great submarine in the ground. It’s HMAS Holbrook – which I guess is named after the town – and it’s a weird sight as you drive down the arid NSW stretch of the Hume Highway. The town styles itself ‘the submarine town’ and has a top-notch bakery in it!

So. My story. I’m now working for sitepoint.com, and just to make it clear, my opinions and expressions on this blog are wholly my own and do not reflect upon my employer, etc etc!

I’m in Melbourne. To live. Looking for a place to call home, camped out in some friends’ largely empty flat. It’s weird and exciting to think I’m living here now – not going home at the end of the week like usual.

In about 2 months’ time, I’m planning to be in Europe for at least a month. I’ll pack up, leave Canberra, and spend 4 weeks kicking back overseas.

I may not come back.

Well, not to Canberra, anyway. I’m feeling a strong urge to relocate, to be somewhere else. There are people that I dearly love in Canberra, but I do not care for it as a city. People tend to be closed off; there’s a prevailing attitude of snobbery and affected elitism that I can’t abide. In short, there’s a lot of pretentious wankers here.

Plus, it’s bitterly bloody cold.

I’m considering a shift to Melbourne, where I have a lot of friends and family. It’s all very up-in-the-air. Assuming Europe goes ahead, I may simply give up my current place in a share house and make some decisions when I get back.

Time to hit the road.