being here.. or there

PRESENCE

when you get away from it all

with no distractions and no worries

when you leave the cold for the warmth

the busy for the quiet

when you leave the iphone, ipad and computer

the television, the telephone, the radio

when all you can hear is the ocean 

and the sound of the shells crunching under your feet

you realise in a simple way 

you connect to the fundamental 

and in that moment you are present

and you have everything you need

that is the conundrum of modern life

everything out there is just a distraction

from reality which is occurring 

to all of us all the time and we dont even 

notice

so today im going to just be.

the curious tale of a cat and a passport

So today i woke at 3am

very excited.

we had packed our bags, gathered all the relevant documents and called the cab

we were flying to FIJI for a well deserved break.

I woke the family at 5.30 cab at 6 to the airport.

we were in high spirits at 6.45 when we rocked up to the virgin counter.

"there is a problem" the virgin behind the counter said

"your daughters passport doesn't have 6 months left" 

"so" i say?

"Fiji required passports to have 6 months left on your passport to enter"

YOU CAN'T FLY

my son started crying. he never cries.

my wife looked as if she had taken a short jab in the solar plexus.

i thought i was trapped in the twilight zone.

so ten minutes after we caught the cab in, we caught another out.

we rallied our energy over breakfast. What to do?

FIJI consulate? Passport office? travel agent?

we had an hour to find a chemist andmake our daughter sit still, 

download the passport forms and fill them in 

and get a JP to notarise everything.

by ten thirty we were done at the passport office. 

they told us two working days. 

"Thats tuesday, todays friday!!!"  the voice in my head screamed

we started to cry again...

"Buuuut for you" delivered with a wink...

come back at 4pm. 

christmas in august!

we walked across the road to the travel agent. 

"we weren't told about the 6 months" I said

he made some murmurings about it being on page 4 of the annex to the documents

 in the left hand side of the blah blah blah...

anyway we would probably just have to cop a change fee. 

 $70 a ticket perhaps.

the passport office called, 

there was a problem with the form we had to go back.

Fuck!

the travel agent wandered back in .

price to fly tomorrow $2500. 

WTF?

it was at that point i seriously felt like shouting and kicking something.

we regrouped at yum-cha.

 i did some research and got some prices.

went back in and he said they were all very sorry, had pulled some strings and 

the price was now $1000

predictably i was relieved

the bait and switch successful

we all shook hands

and we went home 

(although technically i had to go back to the passport office 2 hours later)

as we unlocked the front door we heard a desperate meowing

bones 

 our cat was trapped in the upstairs apartment

and nobody would have found her for 8 days.

so for the wrong date on a passport,

a day of being screwed around,

$1000 

and a little bit of luck

we saved the life of a family member.

priceless!

the philosopher

lying in the bath with my miles

he says

"wouldn't it be cool if we could ride in the desert on bikes, there would be nothing there except a stone path that leads into the future"

far out

  lets face it every path, road, journey, walk and moment we live

is a stepping stone into the future. 

and he gets it at 7.

rainy day madness

"shit night to go anywhere"

she said as the heater blew warmth into my feet.

Jazz on the stereo and the hot bath running.

Sounds competing with the wind and rain buffeting the windows on the deck.

No we are determined to go out and have some fun. As if we couldn't do that at home.

Although with the kids picked up and the place to ourselves perhaps we could.

Busy Busy Busy. washing cleaning teaching cajoling and bargaining.

and really its just a saturday.

missed the movie

laundry door fell off

hung some paintings

argued with the kids

wondered what i was going to do with my life

just another rainy day.