Thoughts on leaving Australia (yet again!)

We’ve left Hobart and we’re now heading towards New Zealand. Managed to get the mac fixed in Sydney (to my enormous relief), so, while work on the CD is temporarily halted while I finish some arranging work, I can actually continue to work on it. As soon as I’ve finished the Regent christmas pad.

You know, I think I’m over ships. Especially as a lifestyle. Nothing to do with Regent, which has been a good company to work for. I just need a home. I’ve decided that the last song on the CD will be Somewhere over the rainbow as, really, I just want to go home. Every time I leave Australia, I miss it and the people in it a little bit more. Leaving Hobart, I was in a really bad mood. It was only tempered a little bit by Labor’s win over Howard and his conservative cronies in the federal election. Very pleased about that. Now, there is not a single conservative government across Australia at the state or federal level. It’s a hopeful time, and now more than ever, I want to be home to take part in it. Plus, Howard’s loss will be good for the arts and for academia. I hope Kevin Rudd lives up to all our hopes and dreams.

Another reason to go home is that I’ve made some useful contacts especially this contract, that will help me find some decent work when I get home. I do want to earn a decent living playing, which I’m assured I can do. We’ll see what happens when I return. But certainly, I need the CD finished, and I have a lot of work on at the moment. Both a blessing and a curse!

Myanmar

For a while there it looked like we wouldn’t get off in Myanmar. Rehearsals were a kicker, and if it hadn’t been for Justin Tundervary intervening, we wouldn’t have.

Still he managed it, and thank god he did. After an afternoon rehearsal, a group of musicians stepped off a tiny bus into downtown Yangon, looked around and wondered what to do. We found a supermarket and changed some money into an insane amount of Kyat, then wandered around until I spotted a sign saying “Beer Restaurant” (What more could musicians want?) leading off a suspiciously dark alleyway. We followed it for a ways and saw a lot of flashing lights.

Well, what a meal! Probably the best fish I’ve ever eaten, and they just kept bringing food and drink. Locals were very friendly and kind to a group of odd-looking strangers. It ended up costing us $3 each, which was just ridiculous. Sated and suppressing contented burps, we wended our way back to the bus for the very bumpy ride home.

The final day there, we managed to get on a crew tour to the Golden Pagoda. This, I am reliably informed, was built 2,500 years ago, and contains eight hairs of the Buddha himself. What I do know from personal experience is that it was one of the most mind-blowingly beautiful buildings I’ve ever seen. Hundreds of spires of chedis and gold everywhere you look (As much gold as I could eat... sorry, had a mini Python film festival the other day.) But seriously, although the photos don’t do it justice, there are some in my travel photos page.

The rest of the day just smacked of anticlimax. We went downtown and saw some incredibly overcrowded busses, and had lunch (Cade was suffering from a sugar low). We went back to the ship, did Chloë Dallimore’s show, and discussed the day