In a holding pattern

I am a plane, gliding through the clouds, in sight of the landing strip but forced by the tower to circle endlessly, to gaze from afar, to pine.

This is limbo, a land that no one wants to inhabit. It is not a scary place, nor is it joyful. It is the waiting lounge of life, a place for drifters.

I am in a situation where I am floating – a man caught between the land of his past and the land of the future. There is lot to love about both, so many memories inhabit the land of the past and there is potential in the future.

This is a time where the mind is constantly conflicted. Which gets the focus? The present is the easy answer – people will say to just enjoy the moment, make the most of time you have left in your current town. This is great advice and, at times, easy to take on board. But the nature of the human brain is that it drifts. Thinking occupies time, dreams of what lays ahead, dreams of what has passed.

I have decided to take this advice on board. I aim to make the most of the month I have left here, to get out and meet new people, catch up with old acquaintances, dine with lifelong friends and soak up the surroundings.

Yes, I may return one day to this fine city, but these times will never be here again. You cannot bottle a moment; it lives on in memory only.

So I am about to knock on the cockpit door, take control of the aircraft; quit the endless circling of the airport and set course back to the present. I still have time to make the most of this month, to create lasting memories and leave without regrets.

Then in a month, I can board the plane and whisk myself away towards the horizon of opportunity. What a trip it promises to be.

Beaches

I have just returned from a delicious lunch with a friend who is visiting from the UK. In the course of a chat over a Vietnamese feast fit for 10 (eaten by 2), she remarked how she was not a beach lazing holidayer, more a trekking, sightseeing, photographing, generally doing kind of traveller. The idea of spending umpteen thousand dollars to go sit on a beach, get a tan, occasionally swim and not touch even the faintest skerrick of a foreign culture does not appeal to her. Nor to me to be honest.

Is this an Aussie phenomenon? Are we so blasé about tropical getaways because a large percentage of our population lives so close to the ocean? I know plenty of people who holiday to the Whitsundays, Gold Coast, Byron Bay – you name it – but rarely are they from a city/town close to the beach. Why spend the time and money to travel to a beach when one is a short walk, drive or bus ride away?

I am soon to be relocating to the Sunshine Coast of Australia, a laid-back area 90km north of Brisbane. It is the holiday destination of thousands every year and many people go for a week and stay for years. It is exciting but not the beach part so much. Admittedly I am not the hugest beach person but I like a trip to the sand and salt water as much as the next man. It is the lifestyle I am looking forward to – the climate, the slower pace, the lack of planes, trains and anything else that emits 150+ decibel noises with unnerving regularity. Not the beach. To me it is an added extra. This is due to the fact that I have had ready access to the beach for the past 18 months and let’s be honest, so many times in life we take what we have for granted. If I was moving to Canberra or the bush I would be crying about the lack of beach – perspective is needed at all times.

People like many different things about the beach – for some it is the salt spray, others the sand littered with scantily clad bronzed beauties, some the sound of the rolling waves crashing into the shore, others the feel of the sand between their toes as they take their morning run. It is the image of the eternal summer that gives the beach its pull on our psyche.

I have come to realise lately that we need to be happy with what we have and never take it for granted. This is easy in theory but hard in practice. Too many of us crave the unknown, that which is out of reach or unattainable. Get out and enjoy the beach, lake, river, paddock, mountain, lookout, walking track – get out and make the most of what is on your doorstep for one day it may all change.

Me, I’m going to head north, embrace a new life and go to that beach. I will go there, soak up what it has to offer and enjoy it. That way if I ever find myself in an office in London, in the dark, staring out of my cubicle at a sleety, grey murk outside I can dream of that beach and the times I spent there – and avoid jumping out of the office window for one more day.