So when I finally confirmed my enrolment and placement in Brisbane, a few other things came along with it - one of which was my aunt's car. It promised something I had to date hadn't been able to enjoy, and that was the total freedom of movement.
Of course, the police had something to say about me doing 79 on a 60kph road. Liked me enough to take a nice photo of me.
Anyhow, that being reasonably certain, I filled my mind with intentions to travel as far as the petrol tank would allow (or gas stations to fill up at). In other words, get lost, and have fun while doing it. At some point of time, however, you want to find your way home, so I reckoned a GPS was the way to go.
For a product that's been around for at least the past 10 years, its still a relative curiousity among my friends, though I do notice more and more cars on the road packing one hanging off the front windscreen. In a country as large as Australia its fast becoming a necessity.
While my aunt's car has come and gone, reasons for which I won't go into here, and replaced by my trusty red rocket, the formula remains the same - car, driver, street directory or map, and the trusty GPS. We've been on adventures, this intrepid quartet: driven to Australia's easternmost point, crossed four states, did 1000kms in a single day, had a clogged air conditioner pipe create pools of water in the footwells, and simultaneously blowing two tires at the same time. I could go on, but perhaps you get the idea.
We had adventures together. The GPS pointed the way, I steered the car, and the car brought all of us there (and had the pictures to prove it).
And you know, its the best time of my life. Its was something I've always wanted to do, and, damn the petrol prices, if I wanted to go somewhere, this ragged bunch of misfits would probably get me there. Along the way, I rigged up the GPS so it would run off the car's cigarette lighter, and (dodgy but true) I learned how to read a map while still driving the car. I think that's a little bit more dangerous than talking on a mobile, but the cops haven't gotten wise to that. Yet.
But after a while, it gets lonely travelling alone. Recently I made an impromptu last minute trip to Sydney (booked an 8pm flight at 3pm) and then practically gatecrashed the place. While I enjoyed the freedom to walk as I pleased, I couldn't help but to wish there was someone to talk to.
Perhaps Sydney's too big a city, too metropolitan, too fast, too impersonal. It wasn't till evening that my friend got off his cycling coach course, and I could get some long-awaited human contact. I'd never really expressed it, but I did look forward to having someone to have dinner or a beer, or even to just stand at a club and watch a bunch of people calling themselves The Beatels perform a series of songs commemorating the original Beatles.
Every time I set off from Gatton, I'd set the GPS for home. But home is where the heart is, and for sentimental reasons, home is still back in Singapore. But on a different level, I've gotten over my wanderlust, really.
All the places I've discovered, I now want to have someone to share it with.
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