Long Distance Romance

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My throat is burning deliciously after each Bundaberg Ginger Beer sip I swallow. The lovely non-alcoholic sparkling liquid warms my heart as I reflect upon my last three weeks in Manly. Gosh it's good! No artificial crap, just cane sugar and lots, lots of ginger... I visited where they make it, so I feel very privileged when I drink it, very "Aussie" so to speak...

I think I have been feeling very "Aussie" lately... Coming back where it all started makes you realize how much you love a country and its people, whether real "blokes and sheilas" or "expats" who have chosen Australia as their home. Last Saturday, we were out picnicking by the ocean with our friend Marjan (we lived with her in Agnes Water) and we managed to randomly meet 5 other friends. We totally felt like one of the first days of spring on Wellington Street when you bump into all your best friends without planning it... I will always be amazed at humans' power to make good friends quickly and to make a new place feel like home.

I reckon this is the addictive substance of travelling; this feeling of being lost and found at once.

Leaving loved ones is always a very difficult task, but the excitement of the trip to come combined with knowing how delicious it will be to return to them always ease the wounds. We have fallen in love with amazing friends all over the 2.8% of the huge continent we visited, and every parting moment was way weirder than what I have always known. I have always said: "we'll catch up on the road" or "I'll come and visit". This time, none came up because I did not want to say something I did not believe. So we have left heaps of great people knowing we might never ever see them again, or that at least we are not planning to for the moment. Let me tell you it is a bit heartbreaking. Monday night, we visited Julie (friend from Magog I met for real Down Under) and her lovely love Martin. We had a great dinner, as usual, great laughs, as usual and we just felt our hearts surfing on the smoothest of friendship's waves. Then we said goodbye, after all that time spent together in the last three weeks, and it was a real goodbye, although we did not cry. Weird isn't it? It makes you ponder on how people driven away from their families can do it...

Do not get me wrong here; I am actually in the gayest of moods! We are leaving tomorrow morning for new adventures in a wild land of huge mountains...I can't wait! It is also a land of progressive social politics, which I intend to investigate a bit. New-Zealand gave the right to vote to women in 1893...wow! Quebec waited until 1940, it's scandalous! The Maoris have always had a say in governmental stuff, which makes New-Zealand a lead in dealing with Indigenous Rights...Before I get too "politicized" here, I should wait to double check a couple of facts! Till then, Bonne St-Jean and get warm while we get cold!

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