Sliding Sideways Across the Globe

Goodbye.

The final hours of daylight twinkle across the river in golden ribbons. The air hangs still and quiet and heavy.

Last nite, I said goodbye to the sky. I took a final stroll out the south window into the galaxy. I waved at the Southern Cross and the Saucepan. I smiled at the long arms of the Milky as she stretched her arms across the heavens slowly pulling the clouds with her. These stars will be here when I come back, but will I?

A journey across the globe is about to begin and surely the sights, sounds and taste of far off countries will embrace me, shape me, change me.

I have said as many goodbyes as I can. Perhaps you were in luck and our paths crossed once more. Perhaps time eluded me and we will share this page and journey from afar. Perhaps, new levels and friendships will growth through messenging, email and a smile.

The journey is never over and ours is about to begin ...

Midnight brings a storm raging down on the roof. Thoughts and faces swirl around my head like a drunken dervish lost in a trance.

These last days, I have seen more faces from my past then I have in the last year. Old work collegues, new work collegues, Uni friends and lost family. I hold my breath and wonder if Im dying; a parade of the past marching before me.

Todays brings more memories as I wander through old haunts, food courts and cityscapes. My wallet empties and fills and empties. New shoes beckon to be broken in. New paper money with strange faces and solemn faces. A meat pie and coke quench a dry throat.

So this is the end and the beginning ...

Cicadas buzz outside as the road shimmers and warps in the distant from the heat.

My house of 3 1/2 years is now a distant memory. My life reduced to a suitcase, an overnight bag and 1/2 dozen plastic storage boxes with an assortment of unappetizing coloured lids. Oasises of nostalgia surface and sink through my consciousness as I finalise my packing, discarding favourite tshirts and boxers with an unease and discomfort usually reserved for country music.

And as I throw away another piece of my past, procrastination slaps me across the face, "Its coffee time", it says. I tend to agree.