Lack of context means that most of the following will be unintelligible. Still, what's the point of a blog if you can't post unintelligible rants?
Alby’s band was the latest darling of the local music scene and once inside there was barely any room in which to move. The four scientists stood around a in the centre of the room clutching their beers to their chests as Eyes Quittin’ strode through the black velvet curtains and onto the stage.
It was frenetic and you had to concentrate on breathing or else you would just stop.
Once most had staggered out the doors were thrown open to those unfortunate souls outside (they could never understand what they missed) with the drugs or the sheer willpower to dance their way to sunrise.
We swiftly learned the benefits of sun protection. While the weather on the coast had been tempered by stiff southerlies, the conditions away from the shore resembled more of a furnace. The sun beat down and the air clung heavily around you. At first we laughed at our local guides who sported the peculiar summer fashions of full-sleeved shirts, long trousers and broad hats. Barely an inch of their skin was left directly exposed to the sun. The dense clothing must have resulted in unbearable heat and buckets of sweat, but they kept doggedly on in this vein. Instead of suffer the intensifying effects of extra layers of clothing we preferred to roll our sleeves and cuffs up above our elbows and knees. A couple of the teens even opened their shirts and lay on the wagons sunning their pasty white chests. The sun was out, but a constant breeze tempered the raw heat. It was ideal weather for a smile and a nap. The Aussies tried to warn us against this practise, but their advice fell on deaf ears.
We knew it would get worse before it got better, so we would just have to ride this one out with stiff upper lips.
The entire company slept soundly in their beds oblivious to the clamour and madness transpiring downstairs. After a fortnight on the road it was a welcome relief to again sleep in a proper bed rather than the thin, loosely slung cots we had to contend with throughout the migration.
And, they cynically figured, as we could already speak English we would only add to the pre-existing traditional white values of the region. In this way they could Anglicise Australia, ensuring the propagation of white culture to the detriment of all others.
The sun was able to scramble through the break in the canopy forged by the river and beat down upon our faces and Dad’s shivering body. From the angle of the rays we reckoned it to be about two o’clock. The guides announced that we weren’t too far from our destination and that we would arrive with enough time to unload and get everything under cover before nightfall. The leaders were to spend the night with us in the bush and help us settle, before heading back to town the next morning.
Each was approximately the same size, with similar vegetation and comparable soil and drainage.
They were forced onto the back foot from the outset. The best they could do was to plead ignorance and offer their sympathy, and to offer their own personal assistance. What more could they do? They assured us that they would complain to those in charge on our behalf, and campaign for a rapid improvement in conditions and service.
The ramshackle nature of the property would always seem to spark the most hedonistic of tendencies in the young artisans.
You had to immerse yourself completely in the moment.
They were a shambling rabble standing around disjointedly and without logic, like tealeaves in the bottom of a cup.
It is the commonly accepted rule of Perth that everyone you meet will know somebody you know.
Debauchery perfumed the air.
They wandered back inside and Karl excused himself to join the line growing away from the toilet. Marshall retreated back to his spot slouched against the wall watching those left on the dancefloor. When Karl returned they back meandered out into the crisp autumnal night air. Yoshi lit another cigarette and distractedly offered the packet to Piers and Marshall, both of whom declined with lazy waves of their hands. Recognising a face Piers casually slipped an unremembered observation into the neighbouring group’s conversation and drew laughs of acceptance from those in its midst. Room was made for the four and they settled in to a long discussion of beer, music, theatre and popular culture, each making contributions when the timing was right, establishing their roles in the group dynamic and forming friendships to last through the euphoria of the night and into the haze of the morning.
Intermittent shouts and thumps resonated down the hall and into the night.
He philosophised about what motive one could have to motion to a perfect stranger, much less even when he was the stranger. And he would put his head down and shuffle through to the laundry room.
giving due reward for contributing to his own feeling of acceptance amongst such unfamiliar humour and hedonism.
Marshall too was guilty of this. Like the others he genuinely believed in changing the world through the pooling of responsibility and the general acceptance of all peoples and cultures, and the inherent goodness of human kind. But just like the others he knew that these ideals were merely a pipe dream, a nirvana dreamed of by like-minded idealists, but never actually achieved through any amount of discourse and debate.
He though all these things, but most of all his thoughts were directed towards what it would have been like to be dragged into the bathroom by the girls, and have his body coated by theirs
The Foremen decided that they would tag along to see what was happening rather than facing the prospect of packing up and heading back to town and their own mundane lives.
The bush wasn’t nearly as impenetrable as the Karri forest they had passed through to get there, but was still thick enough to cause them to duck and weave their way through and catch their clothing on the Banksia and zamia palms. Indeed the spiky leaves of the scrub had burrowed their way into their clothing, causing them to itch and scratch at their skin to the point of bleeding.
We all gathered in our hall over lunch to conduct our very first town meeting. No mayor or president or chairman was elected to direct the flow of verbal traffic.
As there were only 5 families at this stage, only the 5 properties at the downstream end of the selection closest to where the creek spat its contents into the river were placed into the ballot.
Once the business was out of the way, one of the Foremen spoke up to advise that when it comes to building our houses it would be most advisable to build towards the back of the property, or at least not on the plain. His brother murmured his agreement, adding that while the ground may presently be hard packed and dusty, it was also the back half of the dry season. When the rains returned in a couple of months, he said the creek would swell from its current trickle, break its banks and spread out over the Paperbark flats and in the process transform the soil into slush.
Each of the families now possessed a house pad, with only the bachelor Matthew Elliott yet to have a completed site. He had decided to wait until last so that the families could have functioning houses first. The way he figured, he could stand to rough it out in the hall a while longer if it meant that those with wives and children could have a private space of their own. The other adults however told him he was talking nonsense, and with their heads filled with solidarity and community spirit delayed construction of their own castles until Mr Elliott’s property too was ready for a house to be built on. The Kelly’s also pitched in their strength and experience to speed up the campaign and get things moving on to the construction phase.
With the help of the Kelly’s, and with everyone else showing off their strength and work ethic, Mr Elliott’s block was finished by the middle of the afternoon.
What had occurred was now behind them, there was no point in, and avoiding the cult of ego transpiring not three meters away. For these there was no ritual better in the world than the aural fellatio afforded to their comrades, to the disparagement of themselves, once a performance had concluded. The absurd aggrandising afforded others and the passive aggressive pleas for positive affirmation. ose particularly well versed in this dark art could successfully gain the praise of all others through a few carefully chosen insults directed towards their own performance. Alby and Zach purposefully avoided this ritual, choosing instead to
They were transported from being intimidated by the charisma of the artists to being the intimidator, a thing of wonder.
They were both in the midst of their postgraduate studies; two years into the ritual of failed experiments, crushed hypotheses, broken equipment and sub-poverty wages. It would be another 2 years or so before they would be formally unleashed onto an unsuspecting scientific community as Doctors.
Their work would be considered as Pure Basic Research- not looking directly at the clinical implications of how to cure something, but rather poking around to see how it works in the first place. It was their belief that a prerequisite to treating a disease was to first understand the ways it develops and exerts its effects. In other words, they wanted to know their enemy.
And so they had to explain their choice of vocation from the bigger picture, which for them was so often obscured by the tiny details.
His mischievous smile beckoned the girls over much as the sirens lured sailors to their doom. His magnetism drew people towards him, but unlike the sirens his intentions always remained pure.
In the course of speaking he had slipped his left arm down the back of the couch.
She was a dry wit, presenting this as a front to the world to protect the real Pilar.
I figure that if you can’t change your mind about what you want to do with your life when you’re in your teens or early twenties, when can you?
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