Hi, everyone! I hope you’ve had a great week. This past week, I visited Neerabup National Park, had an IT movie marathon with my housemate, and went to MAAC (Marmion Angling & Aquatic Club) for a snorkel.

Neerabup National Park

Neerabup National Park was about an hour away by train. It’s a free national park, which is always nice, and a strip of bushland that stretches 28km which is about 17mi. Luckily for me, it was quite windy out which mostly kept the flies away. Now that it’s warmer out (95F on “hot” days, but lots of 80+ days on the regular), flies are a pretty consistent part of bushwalking. That said, nothing has compared to the amount of flies hanging around north of Geraldton.

The entrance to the park (or at least the one I knew about) was just off the highway. It was very discreet looking and did not appear like an entrance at all to me.

The walk itself was lovely. While it was warm out, the wind kept me cool. I was walking for hours and didn’t encounter another hiker the entire time I was there. At one point, there was a ten minute period where about three bikers passed me by, but that was it.

One thing that struck me almost immediately was that there weren’t any birds singing.

At the edge of the park, they’re doing some construction along the highway. I think the distant vibrations of the construction work bothered the wildlife. While you can never predict where/when you’ll see wildlife, I was certainly expecting to see some skinks or bobtail lizards, maybe even snakes, but to no avail. I did see smaller critters – Christmas Tree spiders, butterflies, etc. It was such a vast difference from Neil Hawkins Park – a walk that was maybe an hour in total where Liam and I saw so much wildlife.

I have mentioned before, but I don’t particularly love hiking on narrow paths. It feels too close to the bush, too close to snakes I might accidentally step on or next to. The wider, the better, although there’s a certain quality to hiking narrow trails that feels both exciting and scary. After a certain point, I was on the phone with a loved one from back home and I realized after the phone call that I had gotten a lot more confident hiking the trail. The rest of the walk was a piece of cake – although, I’m always cautious.

After hiking for a couple of hours with no particular destination in sight, I tried to find a good spot to turn around. I was telling myself “once I see some kind of wildlife, that’ll be my turning point.” Sure enough, just before reaching one of the park’s many exits, I saw a kangaroo and her joey for a brief second. I tried to click a picture, but they were already hopping away.

I began my hike back to the highway.

I would love to return to Neerabup another time, to see if that day was just a fluke or if the animals really do seem bothered by the construction and have in essence fled the area. It was also a very windy day, but I can’t imagine that has much effect on wildlife or birds singing.

It was a strange hike, and despite the lack of wildlife, it was enjoyable for sure.

IT Movie Marathon & Fairy Bread

My housemate implored me to mention this in my blog haha. Not that he even READS IT!! When we were both off work this week, Kory and I watched the Stephen King IT movies. I had initially seen the first movie in theatres years ago, but had never seen the sequel. Since Kory loves these movies (and I have been hogging the TV by binge-watching The Crown lately) we decided to watch them.

They’re great movies, just not scary. I remember having that impression when I saw the first one in theatres.

Kory also made “fairy bread,” which is where you take a piece of bread, slather it in butter, and then dip it in sprinkles. Yum! Apparently, it’s an Australian/New Zealand thing!

MAAC

The waterfront of the Marmion Angling & Aquatic Club (MAAC) is a popular snorkeling spot that I hadn’t yet been to. I’m part of a Perth snorkeling Facebook group and on one of my days off, asked where everyone was going snorkeling. Someone reached out to me and offered to snorkel with me. FINALLY, I had a snorkel buddy! Newton and I headed to MAAC and got our gear situated. I was very impressed by Newton’s setup – he is an experienced, passionate snorkeler/diver and had plenty of gear… including an extra set of fins that he told me to use since I “wouldn’t be able to keep up” otherwise.

Unsurprisingly, the visibility was not very good at all that day – but I knew that from the get-go. Once in the water, I trusted and followed Newton’s lead. He took us pretty far away from the beach, where the water is deeper. I probably would not have gone nearly as far out had I been alone, especially with the visibility. Newton would dive deep down to the bottom, looking for creatures. He spotted an octopus, but after coming back to the surface to tell me, he lost its location… which is a bummer, because I am DYING to see an octopus.

We saw some fish, but the highlight of the snorkel was seeing two different types of jellyfish. One of them was the brown jellyfish that had been in the water at Blackwall Reach the other week, but the other was actually what they refer to as a “stinger” out here… a jellyfish that stings!

There were certain pockets during the snorkel that were more clear than others, but overall it was pretty shitty visibility. At one point, the waves started to pick up – one of them taking Newton practically back to shore.

When snorkeling, I often peek my head out of the water to make sure I’m somewhat near others. With Newton back at shore, I was alone in the deep end. Before I knew it, one of those giant waves lifted my body and propelled me back to shore, next to him. It was scary, but a thrill, to be pushed by the large wave. My vision was completely obscured by the whitecap of the wave and I wasn’t sure if I would crash into coral/rock and scrape up my body, or worse. Before I could worry much longer, I was back in the shallow end, next to Newton.

Somewhere after the wave and Newton and I spotting the brown jellyfish, I realized I had lost one of my fins. Newton swam back out to the deep end but I stayed near the shallows, hoping I could recover his fin before needing to confess the fin was lost. Unfortunately, it was gone. Swept into the ocean, just like my sunglasses. WHY does the ocean always have to eat my stuff?!

Newton wasn’t visibly mad, but I think he was probably irritated. Fins are expensive. Since they are his backup pair, I’m hoping he had them for a while and it wasn’t a terrible inconvenience, but I still felt bad. That said… he’s the one that suggested I use his fins haha so I can’t be blamed that much. It did suck, though, finally having a snorkel buddy and then losing a piece of his gear immediately.

Anyway – that was about the extent of my snorkel adventure! Newton drove me back to my apartment. Hopefully, we will snorkel together again one day, but something tells me we won’t.

Art of the Week

One of my friends back home has a band called Illinois Joy and he asked if I would do a drawing for one of his singles coming out. He wanted a wine bottle, something involving the Chicago skyline, and puzzle pieces.

I’ve been doing a couple of renditions so far and will do another later today or tomorrow, but here’s the first one that I did. I think we’re almost there – with one more iteration, it will be something I’m quite happy with.

Reflections

The week has come and gone. How is it January 22nd already? In a way, I’m happy the month has gone by quickly but I know that one day, I’ll wish it felt a little slower. I am eager to be done working. That’s what it’s all about really. I know I mentioned that in retrospect, I will regale my time working here in Perth, but in the moment it can feel like A LOT at times.

To put it into perspective… On Friday, I worked from 8.30am to 4pm and then 6pm to 11pm. Yesterday, I worked 9.45am to 11pm. Two very long, back to back days. While the days are long, I usually am able to have fun with my coworkers, I don’t have to pay for food because we get leftovers from the lunch/dinner buffets, and it’s definitely good money. And it’s not always like that – I get a lot of shifts that are just 5 hours, too. BUT, in the moment, it feels like a lot. I was exhausted after my shift last night. Luckily, I have today and tomorrow off.

I guess in a way, I’ve been censoring my experience a little bit since I haven’t mentioned much about the occasional long hours and how exhausting it can be. But yeah – THAT is why I’m looking forward to being done working haha. I long for the near future, when I can just exist and adventure without being tied to a job.

With that said, my word for the year 2023 is “presence,” and I’m acutely aware that it is something I really struggle with. Always future tripping! I hope once I leave my job, I’ll be able to practice presence more often.

Another thing of note is that I’ve been contemplating quitting nicotine. After thinking about it the other day, I’ve been addicted to nicotine for the past 15 years. I thought, instead of buying disposable nicotine vapes (which they do have here, even though technically nicotine juice is illegal), maybe I would just see how I feel without nicotine. There is certainly a fear about it, though. How could I possibly get through nicotine withdrawal, etc. It feels impossible. I am massively hesitative, and don’t really want to quit. As somebody in recovery from drugs/alcohol, nicotine has always been my main crutch, but I’ve been asking myself – what does it really do for me? We’ll see what happens with that. I probably will not quit, but it is something I’ve been considering as I only have a day or two left of my nicotine.

I am off work today and tomorrow, then again on Wednesday and Sunday. I only have one long day this week and the following, so I’m looking forward to not being quite as exhausted! I’m hoping the ocean conditions are good during one of my off days so I can go snorkeling. But for now, I think I’m going to take it easy for a bit.

Until next time – sending you all my love!

P.S. I hope this post hasn’t seemed like a bummer between losing the fin, venting about working long hours, and potentially quitting nicotine. I am not bummed out or super stressed or anything like that – mostly trying to be candid with my experiences – it’s not always kangaroos and stingrays!