The Monday Muse

The Australia Files Part 1

Hello from Australia!

I arrived on Friday morning after a 17 hour flight. Luckily I slept on the flight because it was 6am when I got here. My best friend from college, Zivy, met me at the airport and we headed toward Bondi where she lives with her wife. After I dropped off my stuff, we headed out to see Bondi beach.

The waves that morning were crazy. Normally, this is a huge surf spot but no one was in the water because the waves were so rough. We walked a little along the beach and hit some shops. Then we headed to Tamarama Beach for a picnic of tuna sandwiches from the cute little beach cafe there.

After that we headed to the city center to see the famed Sydney Opera House. The harbor area is gorgeous and the weather made it look like a movie set. We walked around a bit and then hopped on a ferry for the trip back to Bondi.

By the afternoon, I was dragging. In order to adjust to the time change it was important to stay awake until night time, but I managed to do a 30 minute yoga nidra meditation to refresh. Yoga nidra is like a nap for your mind—they say 20 minutes of it is like an hourlong nap. Here’s an article on its benefits. I use it a lot when I need to rest but can’t afford a real nap. If you want to try it, there are plenty of recordings on Youtube and Spotify.

That evening we headed to a local burger place for dinner and sat outside. It feels a lot like southern California here—everyone is out and active. There are tons of coffee shops and smoothie and juice places.

On Saturday it was Zivy’s birthday that day so we woke and showered her with presents. Then we headed to the Carriageworks Farmer’s Market in Eveleigh. We wandered around with coffee and pastries. The market is near the Newtown area of Sydney, which is adorable. The houses are super cute and the streets are filled with muraled walls. We spent a lot of time checking out the boutiques on King Street, which naturally included ducking into several book stores. I bought a stone paper journal and a new pen because I’m a writer on vacation and these things tend to happen.

That night we had a very special dinner at Catherine Smyth’s Oncore restaurant at the Crown. Smyth is a Michelin-star chef from Ireland and her Sydney restaurant is incredible. The dinner took four hours and it involved five desserts. The food was delicious and creative. I had the best bite of potato of my life in this place. Seriously.

On Easter Sunday, we decided to tackle the ocean walk that stretches along for miles. I was not aware of how long the walk would be when we set out. It’s very hilly with lots of stairs. Along the way we passed Tamarama beach and a graveyard set on a cliff overlooking the ocean. It reminded me of Glasgow’s Necropolis but the ocean view sort of edged it out in terms of beauty.

I soldiered on as long as I could but then cried uncle when they told me it was only a few more miles to our destination. We hopped in a car and rode the rest of the way to Coogee and Wylie’s Baths, which is a saltwater pool set up against the sea. There’s a sea wall separating the pool from the sea, but the waves crash over the wall bringing fish over.

The water was so cold, y’all, but it was refreshing after sweating on our death march. I saw a blue grouper and tiptoed around on the reef for a while before taking a spot on the seawall to hang out. Zivy and I were sitting there when a wave crashed over that was so strong that it knocked both of us off into the pool. It was a funny moment, but we later learned that the surf was so strong over the weekend that five people had been swept away and there had been something like 50 rescues along the coast.

After our swim, we hit the cafe for sandwiches and sat up on the balcony overlooking the pool and the ocean. It was nostalgic to sit wrapped in a towel eating lunch while my skin dried from the ocean. Coogee has a more diverse population in terms of age, and there were several senior citizen who were hanging at the pool. They looked like they came there every day, and I had to wonder if the sea is the true fountain of youth. It’s hard not to romanticize this lifestyle with a focus on being active and eating healthy. It’s especially eye opening since I live in the middle of an alcohol-drenched party quarter in one of the most fried-foods-centric food cultures around.

After our swim, we headed home for showers and naps. We ordered take away and watched a hilarious dating show in Australia where older singles date with coaching from their young adult kids, called My Mum, Your Dad. Australia does great reality tv.

Now it’s Monday morning and I’m writing this from a cafe around the corner from the apartment. It’s 8am on a holiday day and people are out and about, instead of sleeping in. Bob Marley is playing on the speakers and I’m enjoying an excellent cappuccino. Once I finish this post, I’m going to work on my book for a while.

Tomorrow, we’re headed south to Jervis Bay for a couple of days followed by a night in Kangaroo Valley. Stay tuned for more adventures!

Note: I’m having some trouble importing videos and images to my laptop, so be sure to follow me on Instagram if you want to see more pics!

Tarot Prompt:

Today’s card is the 10 of Swords from the Tarot of the Velvet Moon deck (sorry I don’t have a pic to share because I pulled this through the Labyrinthos app).

Key words: Failure, collapse, defeat.

There’s no getting around the fact that the 10 of Swords carries a message of tragedy. It’s the final card in the story of the swords, which is a metaphor for someone who misuses the power of the swords and ends up with a defeat of the spirit. They see themselves as a victim because they don’t understand that the swords are not an external force bent on causing suffering but an internal power that has been misused.

The good news is this card is also the end of a cycle. A new cycle is beginning and it is incumbent upon you to accept the ending and to release yourself from its power and to carry the lessons you learned forward into the new cycle. Sometimes the biggest lesson of the swords is to break free from the habit of self-sabotage.

Question for the day: In what ways have your self betrayal led to your recent failures? How can you show up for yourself more? Nothing will change until you own these patterns and change them.

That’s all for today, friends. I hope that you’re week is great and that you’ll do some thinking about ways you can show up for your creativity.

In comments, let’s chat about the most inspiring trip you’ve ever taken. I’d love to hear how travel has inspired your muse!