Life down under. Sick and broke yet a happy rescue diver.
Last Christmas was my first one ever in summer clothes and a Santa beanie. I wasn’t feeling any of the holiday atmosphere like back in Europe, although I must say I almost prefered it that way… Just because that time of the year always made me think a lot about how crazy consumers we generally are and all those campaigns to become a better person make me sick. Too much bullshit… So I spent most of the time by the beach, where I feel at my best, and enjoyed the company of my fellow Freo peeps in house parties and some more gigs in town. Had heaps of fun.
Even if all the new year resolutions (lose weight, quit smoking, hit the gym, find a job, get a life…) make for a whole lot of hypocritical Facebook posts, I like it when a new year starts so that I can give a little thought to the personal objectives attained, the lessons learned and the exciting projects ahead. At the beginning of this year I felt I wasn’t doing so bad and had heaps of energy to keep going. Like a baby that has just started to walk, I felt my steps not so confident but yet ready to work on my personal balance and keep going with my journey, one step at a time.
With most of my farmwork done, I spent those weeks hanging out with the South Beach crew and enjoying the sunny days. As a gift to myself I decided I could afford to go to the Philippines and become a dive master, a trip that I did with Octave and that turned out to be great fun and full of unexpected happenings. For over a month we backpacked our way enjoying the beautiful weather, mostly cruising around on a scooter (attention trouuu!). Did heaps of island hopping -because actually there is no other way in a country with more than seven thousand islands- and managed to do some scuba diving although something was wrong with me and I felt really drained and exhausted… the last night in Malapascua I was in a lot of pain and we decided that the clever move was to pay a visit to the hospital. The day after, as soon as I got to see a doctor, a bunch of tests started to be sure I wasn’t having appendicitis nor peritonitis… in the end they found out it was a painful urine infection that had climbed all the way to my right kidney and I could barely walk or eat due to the pain (the meals being a handful of white rice with a piece of cold and dry deep fried fish or pork, for any meal of the day, sometimes with a banana for dessert). That week costed me a scarily high amount of dollars because my insurance had just expired ten days before and they couldn’t help me at all.
Although poor as a rat, and with a box of oral antibiotics under my arm, I managed to get out of there and the adventure continued. We shared some time with a really friendly and adorable french family that were travelling with their two young children (have a look at their website here: http://www.lespetitsvoyageurs.fr) and I even managed to do some scuba diving. I couldn’t become a dive master this time due to the unexpected changes in the budget but I’m officially a PADI rescue diver, which is pretty cool if you ask me. In the end I came back to Australia without money, humbled by the beautiful filipino people that I met, with a few crazy rum nights on my CV and a head full of dreads. Fu*k yeah.
The first night when I was back in Perth, my awesome friend Jenna picked me up and drove me straight to the hospital since the pain had come back (you know I’m forever grateful for that and for so much more, Jen ♡). A couple more nights awaited me dressed in a gown, running more tests and getting more needles in my hands for the same diagnosis… the infection was still there and apparently the oral medicine that I had to take after my stay in the hospital in Cebu City apparently wasn’t the appropriate, so my body became immune to it and needed something stronger this time. What was this all about? Wondering, wondering. Ah, that interesting and complex concept of karma... Anyway, the hot male nurses, Jen and my friend Kurt took well care of me until I got permission to leave three days after. I then moved in with my friends Rino and Simo, who opened their door to me and made me a fantastic bed in their living room temporarily until I’d figure out what to do next.
I went back to say hello in Pasta Addiction, the café in Fremantle where I used to work before leaving to Carnarvon, and they were more than happy to have me back. Not many hours but at leastvsomething, just perfect for when the winds of change would start to blow... which they would, way sooner than I thought.
Today, from the other side of Australia, I think of all the things that I could have done differently. They're so many, probably, but you know? In the end, I have no regrets of how things unfolded because it all brought me to where I am today. And believe me, my life right now is pretty amazing. Love to all!