Travelogue Day 53

16/7/06

The last day, and the anger and depression are not abated. Last minute packing gets taken care of (the things I won't need tomorrow morning anyway) and I do final cleaning. Picking things off the carpet by hand because you don't feel like going to the front desk to rent a vacuum (which I hear was no good at all) takes a bit more time.

I woke up with gunk on my blood-shot eyes and paranoiacally thought I had pinkeye. I went to the Broadway Medical Centre where, luckily for my pocketbook, seeing a doctor became too inconvenient. I went to the pharmacy instead where a pharmacist recommended eye drops for allergic conjunctivitis. I bought them to appease my mind and set off to breakfast. Custard danishes from Little Devil are tasty. I ran into Devon and tried to convince him to go to Bondi earlier in the day so I'd have some company. He said to check back later.

We saw Mike, who was on his way to the Broadway Cafe. I joined him, and Tom, A.C., and Donna after a while. They were planning to go to Bondi around 14:30, and I was in such a mood that I agreed to go with them. While at the Broadway, I said goodbye to Shirene. She didn't yet know if she had the job. I hope she gets it. I also tried the Mars Bar hot chocolate. It was pretty good, with pieces of candy bar and all.

I went back to Little Devil for lunch. Yes, it was a meat pie as you might suspect, and it was tasty, as always. 14:30 came, and I was tired of waiting for everyone, so I set off on my own to Bondi.

I did a bit of the cliff walk. Bondi beach is an attractive beach, and I spent some time watching the surfers before moving on. Not far down the walk I found a very nice seat on the side of a cliff. It was a concave portion of sandstone with a small bulge on the back that made it comfortable for reclining. I stayed there a while watching the waves come in before moving again.

I stopped at various points to watch the waves and eventually stayed a while at one place watching more surfers. I also saw a rather large cruise ship go by on its way to other places. Some nasty looking clouds appeared, so I started heading back home.

I passed the rest of the group on my way. They were out on some rocks, and I thought, "This looks like trouble." Needless to say, I didn't stop until I had reached my seat on the cliff where I looked over to see A.C. almost get swept away by a very large wave. They started back after that. It was getting dark.

I went back to watching the waves again, and Devon spotted me as they passed by. I said hello and creeped everyone out by just appearing like that. They went to leave, but I stayed a while longer to watch the waves. As the setting sun acted like a dimmer switch, I realized why the sea can be a peaceful place. You can put all of your sorrows into it, it's large enough to contain them, and the motion of the waves will twist and pummel them until they fall apart, leaving no trace of themselves behind.

When it was dark enough, I caught a bus back to the train station and went back to Sydney. I thought I was on a later train than the others, but when I got out at Central Station, I was ahead of them on the escalator, upping my creepiness quotient again.

A large number of us had dinner at a Lebanese restaurant in Glebe. The service left a bit to be desired, and the food was alright. Smoking the hookah afterward was much better. I didn't feel the smoke at all, and apple flavoured tobacco is pretty tasty. While we were there, another group was partaking of the hookah. They let a child that could not have been more than seven years old try it. What is wrong with these people?

We adjourned to watch The Office (American version), but found it preempted by formula one racing. Instead, we watched an episode of Arrested Development on DVD and went to sleep.