Thunderous Music

A day of monotonous document writing, waking up late as the alarm fails, back-of-the-mind stress of moving on from my base.

All this and more wiped clean as I walk up and over the hills of Wollstonecraft back to my apartment. The sunshine gives way to enraged storm clouds as the cityscape comes into view between the trees. Rain starts to fall. Heavy, ominous rain. Rain with the promise of far more to come. 100% humidity and the landscape darkening, thunder crashes around me beyond the avenue of trees that roll into the distance. I love being out in thunderstorms. I don't mind the rain and, for once, I feel alive. The sky darkens more, crashes follow crashes as I continue my homeward journey. Enraged, the storm surrounds me. On my music player, Placibo's Pure Morning cues up, the pent-up potential of the bass drone perfectly matching the sky's rage and promise around me. The thunderclaps and rolls augment and enhance the mood, as I arrive at the apartment, chilled and calm once more.

MonsterRail/Potatoes

Saturday mornings are generally quiet affairs. I've fallen into the habit returning to WakeUp in Central for:

• 1x Fruit Salad (sans yoghurt)
• 1x Slice of Banana Bread
• 1x Danish (of varied variety)
• 1x Long Black (cwoffee)

They know me by name there, even if they insist on re-naming me Dave*. I sit watching the world go by, reading my book and generally making this large breakfast last a couple of hours.

Today - with this ritual completed - I headed up Pitt Street for a bit of a mooch. I came across Allan's Music Store, which had an upstairs room completely chocked with pianos, Clavii, Rolands and the such. I managed to spend a good half an hour in there, abusing the equipment before I was asked if I wanted to buy anything :) It's always pleasing to see just how keen Australians are for learning to play instruments. Every reasonably sized town seems to have a music shop, and everywhere you go, you see people busking with all flavours of instrument.

I then took a trip on the MonsterRain (ok, ok, Monorail) and saw the city from a whole new angle. It reminded me of the El in Chicago, minus the precarious wooden platforms :)

In an attempt to speed up saving enough to go travelling, I decided to cut back on eating out this week and to live like a student. Jacket Potatoes all round! Alas, whilst leaving Coles supermarket, I realised that I had just played out an episode of It's Grim Up North London :/ - in my bag were:

• 2x studentesque potatoes
• 2x studentesque baked beans
• 1x Packet of "Bush Tomato" Goats Cheese

* The girl at Gloria Jean's Coffee shop in Crows** Nest calls me John :(
** Yes, there's no apostrophe, just like Earls Court*** :P
*** Unless you are referring to Earl's Court tube station, which for some reason has one.